Your smartphone is probably the best drawing device that you can easily carry wherever you go. Instead of wasting paper and taking extra items with you on the go, you can simply use your Android device to draw a sketch or practice your favorite form of art every day.
Although Android has no built-in drawing application, but there are a lot of third-party drawing applications available for Android phones and tablets. Whether you’re looking for a simple drawing or painting app for your kids, or you’re keen on a professional sketching app for your business or hobby, here are the few best Android apps to get you started.
5 Best Free Android Apps for Drawing, Sketching & Painting
Sketchbook is a very popular painting and sketching Android app. It provides a complete surface for working. It has 13 brushes and colored pencils of different sizes. It allows you to zoom up to 2500% allowing you to control the finer details of your drawings.
The app also has a full Layer Editor with up to 3 layers and 16 blending modes to make your drawing more realistic.
This app also offers the pro version with some additional features. These include unlimited layers, color library, blend modes, and access to over 100 different brushes.
Tabby Award winner in the Creative, Design and Editing category, and winner of the Choice Award from PlayStore Editor
Create vector illustrations with image and drawing layers, then send them to Adobe Illustrator CC or Photoshop CC.
Are you an illustrator, graphic designer or artist? Here’s all you can do: • Zoom in up to 64 times for fine-tuning • Create sketches using five different pen leads, with adjustable opacity, size and color • Work with multiple layers of image and drawing. • Rename, duplicate, merge and adjust each layer. • Insert basic shape stencils or new vector shapes from Capture CC. • Send editable native file to Illustrator or a PSD to Photoshop, which is automatically opens on your computer.
Users can also draw using layers to create fairly complex illustrations even on a small screen. The app supports stylus input, which is useful if you are working on a phablet. You are going to need an Adobe account to use the app.
This is the official Sony Drawing app.
Create beautiful designs and have fun adding stickers to your photos. Post your designs and invite your friends to participate. You will be amazed at the result when they all add their creative touch. The Drawing app is simple, connected and funny.
The app is designed to work on all Android 4.2 or later smartphones and tablets. However, some manufacturers may have set compatibility limits resulting in reduced functionality.
Features– Make a drawing with our pencils, brushes, markers and magic brushes on the medium of your choice – Import images and embellish them with stickers – Find and download various funny sticker packs, be notified when new packs are available – Share your designs and invite others to have fun with you – Create stunning effects with layering support – Use the color picker to get exactly the shade you want – Add and format text – Pan and zoom or edit details of your designs – Access premium content through in-app purchases – Create your own public gallery – Explore other users’ designs
ArtFlow is another powerful drawing app that offers different brushes, color palettes, pencils, line style and more. It has two pop-out menus that disappear when you start painting. The menu on the top screen contains over 70 brushes, an adjustable stain tool, eraser, paint bucket, color picker, line style, and gallery. The menu on the right contains your layers and various layer functions like merge, double, rotate, etc.
The app gives you the option to export files in Photoshop format.
With the support of pressure sensitive pens (like Samsung’s S Pen) your device will be turned into a real canvas.
ArtFlow is a great tool for children aged (8+ years) to stimulate their creativity. The app can be used by kids for casual doodling and for adults for more advanced creations.
Sketch Master is an easy to use drawing application that offers several types of sketching tools with a simple user interface. The app allows users to create an unlimited number of layers with the ability to toggle the visibility and opacity of those layers and even rearrange them. It also allows users a choice of 7 brushes, and the ability to save and share images. While the app is quite new, it is not lacking in functionality, and could be very useful for children.
Update 21/10/2017
MediBang Paint is a FREE and popular lightweight digital painting and comic / manga creation program that comes with brushes, fonts, backgrounds, and more. MediBang Paint is available on Windows, Mac OS X, Android, and iOS. The app uses cloud recording so you can easily transfer your work between different platforms
ArtRage: Draw, Paint, Create and the drawing app that includes all of the most useful tools in our desktop edition. With a full range of awesome, easy to use, drawing tools like oil brush, inking pen and glitter, it includes a full range of the most important digital art features, like layers, fill Tool, layer blend modes, the ability to add reference and tracing images as you draw, and of course our amazingly fun color mixing. All tools act like real paint, pencil or chalk, and interact in different ways with each other and the texture of the canvas.
Artboard is a powerful, easy-to-use drawing app that has everything you need to create amazing for-digital illustrations for free! With a comprehensive brush library with advanced settings, the ability to draw on up to 15 layers at a time, and an intuitive design with Artboard, you have a powerful palette at your fingertips!
