Art is one of the best creative outlets that a person can experience. While artwork on canvas will never go away, it’s the digital world where so many people now express their artistic abilities. Art software started slowly with awful tools like Microsoft Paint. However, modern art apps are full of features that allow people to create almost anything they can imagine.
The downside is there are now so many art apps on the market that it can be difficult to tell which are actually good and which may be difficult to use or lack features. This article will focus on a small portion of some of the better art apps available. Some can be had for free. Some will require one time payment. Still others adhere to a subscription model. Regardless of which is chosen, every app offers an opportunity to express artistic ability and creativity.
Users of Photoshop will have an instant familiarity with the user interface of Photoshop Sketch. The interface is clean, minimalistic and laid out in a similar way to almost all the other adobe software on the market. Unsurprisingly, since it’s part of the Adobe family, you can integrate into other Adobe products like Photoshop or Illustrator easily. If there’s a downside, it’s that for people who haven’t used some sort of photo editor in the past, you may take some time learning the program and all of the tools it features.
Using vectors for digital art allows for unique and striking art styles. Assembly is a vector assembly app that allows for beautiful design work. The basic version of Assembly is free, however the Pro version requires a yearly subscription for $30. Assembly is very easy to learn and is excellent for beginners. As a consequence, it doesn’t really have the features of expert level apps and software.
It may sound odd to have multiple adobe products on the same list, however, they do very different things. Fresco is all about using digital brushes which will blend and bleed like actual paint brushes do. This gives a very different digital art experience. Fresco free version only has a paltry 2 GB of storage. That being said, if you love the program, you can pay through Adobe. In most cases, their digital art programs are bundled together and allows for trying out different things.
Affinity designer is a very in depth app with access to a huge variety of features. While this can be difficult to learn, it also features a large number of tutorials for any of the features, allowing for quick learning. The app actually works as an extension for the desktop software and you can work in both vector and pixel graphics to create your artwork. As a benefit, it’s available for both iOS and android.
This app is only available for Android devices, but is very user friendly and easy to use. This art app features over 80 different brush types, meaning that you’ll always be able to find the exact style that you are looking for. The interface is well laid out and avoids extra clutter that no one wants to deal with. It can also render 3D, giving more tools to create your art.
Many people have chosen comics as the ideal outlet for their artistic prowess. Comic Draw is a fantastic app for those who have chosen this medium. The app itself is best at single panel comics. Pair it with the desktop app and you’ll gain extra ability and features. Once you’ve completed sufficient panels, you can put them together into a full comic spread.
