The estimated reading time for this post is 4 minutes
The iPad is a natural palette for artists, whether you’re just getting started or have already discovered your talents. The iPad has artistic apps aplenty to bring out your creativity.
These apps range from extremely easy to more sophisticated but each of them can be a the platform for creating stunning drawings.
AutoPainter HD
This app is similar to the free software FotoSketcher that I reviewed earlier this year. AutoPainter HD takes a photo and turns it into a painting. Choose an image from your Photo Library or take a new picture. You can choose from four different effects, including Aquarell, Benson, Cezanne and Van Gogh.
What’s especially fun about this app is how it shows you the three step process and explains each step as it’s happening. The app actually re-creates the photo as a painting in the style you choose. You can stop the process at any time should you find the effect you want while the app is working.
This app is somewhat limited in its controls. Unlike FotoSketcher, there aren’t customization features for each effect. But both the process and the results can inspire and amaze you.
AutoPainter HD is from the developers of one of my favorite apps, Dynamic Light, and is available for $0.99 in the iTunes App Store.
Kids! Learn to Draw
Kids! Learn to Draw Is a MEDL Mobile app that provides you with an outline of a drawing and guides you through each step so you can create a work of art. If you’re someone who never thought you could draw, this app will prove you wrong.
In spite of the title of this app, it’s not just for kids. Anyone who wants to learn can follow the guidance and create realistic drawings. This app is especially great for children and can even be used by pre-readers as the instructions are spoken in addition to being printed.
The app has a pencil and a marker with a slider to control the thickness of the lines. The app lets you trace the shapes and comes with a palette of 10 colors for you to shade your drawings.
The app is free in the iTunes App Store, and gives you lessons for drawing a dog and a cat. In-app purchases are available for other lessons, such as Garfield; NASCAR race cars; Planes, Choppers and Watercraft; and Horses and Ponies.
Art Bellies Pocket
The developers who brought you Mad Lips have another awesome app for you. Art Bellies Pocket lets you paint over a photo from your Photo Library, allowing you to transform a photo into a painting. Unlike AutoPainter HD, which does the work for you, Art Bellies lets you add the artistic effects.
You can choose from two different brushes and lots of different canvases. The app gives you 29 different colors in your palette.
After you have finished you can flip back and forth between the photo and your drawing to see the difference between the two. You can share your artistic creation with others using email or Facebook.
The coolest feature, and this is very, very cool, is that the app stores a video of your work in progress. You can have the app create the video and save it to your Photo Library and share it with others.
Art Bellies is available for free in the iTunes App Store. Art Bellies also works with the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Paper 53
After you have honed your artistic skills with the other apps, Paper 53 can test your skills. While the other apps give you a head start with your drawings, Paper 53 gives you a bare canvas. This app won the 2012 Apple Design Award.
Paper 53 is a drawing app that allows you to create drawings in notebooks just like a sketch artist. You can flip through the pages of your drawings as if they were actual paper. The app lets you customize the covers of these drawings, adding to the artistic appeal.
Paper 53 is free and starts you off with an instructional video and one brush. You can buy other brushes individually for $1.99 or as a set of Essentials (all of the upgrades) for $6.99.
Paint 53 only gives you nine colors to use, including black and white, but by shading and using effects you can create other colors.
Examples of artistic works using this app can be found at Paper 53’s website. The samples are impressive and inspirational. This amazing video by artist Ryan Boyle gives you an idea of the potential of this app.
Paper 53 is available in the iTunes App Store for free.
Bottom Line
The iPad may reveal your hidden artistic talents. Use these apps to get inspired, experiment and play. The “undo” feature of these apps means there are no permanent mistakes. Let your imagination run free and see what you can create!
Have you used the iPad as a canvas? Have you tried any of these apps? Do you have artistic talents? Let us know in the Comments section below!
* Paper 53 Frog image by smognus
My daughter has been asking me for an iPad. These apps may be an excuse to say yes to her (although I told she has to wait until winter – big prizes come to those who have patience). I’m guessing I would enjoy these apps, too.
Hi Leora, Yes, there are a lot of great apps for kids (and adults) on the iPad. My kids loved helping me test these apps. It was difficult to convince them to give me my iPad back, which is the sign of a great app.
You and your daughter would both enjoy these apps. Most of them are free, so you can check them out to see if you like them without making a major investment. Except for investing in the iPad, that is!
You may want to wait to buy an iPad. Reports are rampant that Apple will be launching a 7″ iPad very soon with a much lower price tag than the current iPad. Stay tuned to The Wonder of Tech for breaking news! 🙂
My nephew and niece have the Kids! learn to draw app on their ipad. My niece is particularly interested in drawing and art and my sister got it for her, but yes, my sister admits to being much more addicted to it!
It is wonderful that such apps are available. They offer a good balance between technology and art!
Hi Hajra, Yes, that’s a great illustration of how these apps can be fun for kids and adults! (Pun intended)
If your sister and her kids like the Kids! Learn to Draw app, they may enjoy these other apps as well. They would have a lot of fun with Art Bellies, which is free. My kids had a great time with that one, especially watching the videos of their artwork being created.
Actually, my kids had a lot of fun with all of these apps and I did too!
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your family’s experience with Kids! Learn to Draw, Hajra!
Although i’m not much of an artist, I’ve suggest this list to my cousin who is a budding artist. Cool tips to improve artistic skills
Thanks for yet another great post
Hi Gautham, I’m glad you liked this post. Yes, I think your cousin will really enjoy these apps. Most of them are free so he can try them out to see if he likes them!
Wonderful apps indeed!
I guess this calls for action and if my kids see these awesome apps they are going to get after me for getting an iPad for them 🙂
More so my elder daughter is very fond of paintings and these are surely something that are going to interest her a great deal. I wonder if you can use these without an iPad too, or similar apps? Yes, I did read your earlier post about FotoSketcher and that was nice too.
Thanks for sharing about these wonderful apps for budding artists. 🙂
Hi Harleena, These apps are only available on the iPad, except for Art Bellies which is available on the iPhone and iPod Touch as well.
Apple should be soon be announcing the launch of a smaller iPad with a much lower price. Perhaps that could be a nice palette for your daughter?
Hi Carolyn,
These are quite cool! Are they only for iPads or can you use these on iMacs as well? I’ve got to re-learn Macs again as I have been a Windows person for the past 8 years or so.
Thanks for sharing these treasures!
Ilka
Hi Ilka, These are only iPad apps. I know not everyone has an iPad but for those who do, these are great apps!
Best of luck getting back to Macs. Perhaps it will be like riding a bicycle? It may all come back to you. 🙂
Haha, no, not really like getting back on a bicycle. I seem to have forgotten everything. And I used to be a Mac addict. Have stacks of MacAddict magazines to prove it, lol.
I believe you, Ilka. Why did you give up on the Mac? And what brought you back? I’m thinking switching back to a Mac will feel somewhat familiar and it will be better than starting from scratch! 🙂
I lost 3 of them to power surges and decided PCs were cheaper to replace. That was before I knew about UPS surge protectors. (Uninterrupted Power Supply.)
My husband bought me a 27-inch iMac for my birthday last year, but I haven’t really taken the time to learn and get familiar with the basics again. I know once I do I will LOVE it again. I may sign up for Lynda.com when I’m ready. Too busy keeping up right now.
Hi Ilka, Wow, that’s certainly bad luck. We had a similar experience with our Mac. We bought it when we lived in England and it died a little over a year after we got it. I remembered that British plugs have fuses so I replaced the fuse and it has worked fine ever since. I brought extra fuses back with me when I moved to the US but I haven’t needed them yet.
Enjoy your new Mac! A 27″ screen should be fabulous to work on.
Hi Carolyn,
Cool and interesting apps.There are a lot of great apps for kids (and adults) on the iPad. It is easiest way to make a sketch.
Thanks again for this information carolyn hope you provide much more information about other stuffs too. :-/
Hi Bhusan, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you like these apps. They are about the easiest way I know of to create art. But you can also spend time and make amazing art, as the Paper 53 video shows.
Yes, I will try to keep giving you the best tech I can find, Bhusahn! :-bd
Nice List Carolyn, Are those apps available on Android Platform, I would like to gift my sister with a Galaxy Tab this weekend, so i’ve been wondering if such drawing apps are available for Android, Thanks
Hi Gautham, No, these apps are only available on the iPad, with the exception of Art Bellies, which is also available on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Sorry about that, but I hope she enjoys her Galaxy Tab! 🙂
Now that’s fun Carolyn. I’ve seen quite a number of photos that have been turned into painting and it just gives them a different look and feel. I love that they are coming out with so many new apps that will do all of this for us.
Love this share, thank you so much.
Enjoy your day!
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, You’re right, what I love about these apps is that they range from the basic, teaching kids to draw, to the most complex, giving a fresh canvas to experienced artists. There really is something for everyone here, and almost all of these apps are free, except for AutoPainter HD which is only $0.99.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts, Adrienne!
Apps for artist, I little bit interested in art and do it sometimes. All the apps are looking very nice but haven’t used it still. I will give them a try.
Thanks for sharing it………….
Hi Prakash, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! As an artist you would probably have the best results with Paper 53, which could be a great app to showcase your talents. But the other apps that are free could be worth trying as well.
If you post your work anywhere, feel free to link to it here, we would love to see what you create! (*)
Hi Carolyn, yes I will give all of them a try. And if I am right you are talking about to link the painting by me :-). I will try, but don’t have such potential to create amazing stuffs what I can share with you people ;-).
Amazing blog, love to visit your blog and leaving comments here.
Hi Prakash, Yes, I meant that if you create a work of art using these apps that you want to share here, feel free to link to it. But if you want to keep your works to yourself, that’s okay too!
I’m so glad you’re enjoying the blog. Thanks so much for your kind words. 🙂
Hello Carolyn,
These are great apps for everybody. I specifically love the ‘Art Bellies Pocket’ and the Paper 53 – I love the shading of this one. I’m a drawing artist and I love shading a lot. It just makes things look realistic.
-Bill Orton
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been proven the fact that I can do almost everything I set my eyes on, except for drawing. I’m THAT bad! So much so that learning to draw and paint even features on my bucket list. I don’t really enjoy drawing and painting, but it feels disappointing when you learn all the tougher things in life but never quite manage to learn drawing. I recently bought myself an iPad and am constantly foraging for apps that teach me something new as well as are fun to use. I’ve installed Art Bellies and might I say, I am hooked. It’s hard to explain that feeling of pride and happiness watching that video of yourself doing such a decent job! There’s just no end to me and painting now. I actually enjoy it and am on my way to become better painter now! I’m most looking forward to download Paper 53. iPad is just amazing in the ways it can teach you things. And these apps are such a perfect way to get people (kids and adults, alike) to learn to draw and have fun at the same time. Who would’ve thought drawing would be such fun?!
Hi Wayne, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Wow a wonderful comment! Thanks so very much for letting us know that these apps are helpful to you. Art Bellies is an amazing app and is a great way to get you started drawing.
I hope you continue to have fun learning to draw with these apps. :-bd
These apps are great! Unfortunately I haven’t got an iPad, but I have iPhone. I downloaded Art Belly Pocket, but I would like to use Paper 53. Could you help me? Is it available for iPone, too? With this app drawing seems to be so easy and relaxing!
Hi Sandy, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Unfortunately, Paper 53 is just an iPad app. It’s not available for the iPhone nor Android devices.
Hi Carolyn,
This could be one of the better Ipad applications. I’m planning to visit art galleries to see if I can get something exhibited… I think the rain is coming to an end on Sunday; finally… 🙂
Hi Mike, I
I’m so glad you stopped by to take a look at these apps. As you’re the one who let me know about FotoSketcher, I thought you might enjoy them.
Good luck with your gallery visits, Mike. They would be lucky to have your work in their galleries! (*)
Hi Carolyn,
These apps will surely help kids and its fun to draw and learn how to paint easily.When i was in school i love to paint things and now with these apps i m having nostalgic feelings.
One can show creativity using these apps.
Hi Aditya, Yes, kids can easily become discouraged in trying to be creative with their drawings. These apps can encourage their creativity and yours too! Some of these apps, such as Kids! Learn to Draw can improve their drawing skills while others, such as Paper 53 can inspire them to create to their hearts’ content.
I love that it’s so easy to Undo with all of these apps. No one needs to worry about making mistakes with these apps or wasting paper.
I-pad shows us a complete world of high end technology. An entire range of apps in the I-pad makes it more fun to learn so many things. The wide screen is a pleasure to work on, same way the apps which help the budding artist within us are to be praised for. The samsung galaxy note also is one of my favourites.
Hi Alex, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, the Galaxy Note is a great device, but unfortunately these apps are for the iPad. As you point out, the iPad has amazing capabilities, including helping us be better artists!
People even have real exhibitions for iPad art. I was there. It’s really crazy. They have the devices hanging on the walls instead of real painted pictures. I’m too old fashioned for those kinda things, I guess. 🙂
Hi Skip, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I haven’t been to art shows that were entirely on iPads, but I have attended art shows where a few artists displayed some of their work on an iPad. By using an iPad, they were able to show a lot more pieces than they could show by bringing them to the gallery. Though it’s not the same as seeing the works in person, perhaps it’s better than not seeing the works at all?
Thank you for this great applications. I prefer the art bellies pocket.
Hi Bradley, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you like Art Bellies Pocket. That app is fantastic, it’s hard to believe it’s free!