The Amazing iPad a Drawing Tool for artists

Drawing on the iPad Software

The ipad application for drawing that I have and enjoy using is ArtStudio. I also have Ideas Sketch and PS Express, although I have not actually done much with those two. With ArtStudio there a number of icons at the bottom of the iPad , Tools, Colour picker, layers, shape tools, filters, equivalent of a file menu, for choosing a new image, save, load and so on. preferences, and a tutorials button. The lessons are aimed squarely at beginners.

With the lessons you you tap a play button and then copy the action that was replayed. At the end of you completing all the actions you have your own version of the object of the lesson. One of the lessons is to draw a humane eye. Very basic lessons but could be useful for learning how the application works.

Amazing what you can do with finger painting on the iPad

In the tools section there are a plethora of tools. pencils, crayons, brushes airbrushes, paint squeezed from the tube, eraser, smudger, text, clone fill, blur, sharpen. When you choose a tool that requires some settings you get sliders at the top of the screen. So you can adjust the size and opacity of a brush for example.

A nice thing with drawing on an iPad or any computer if it comes to it, is that you can zoom in to an area and adjust the tools to draw very fine detail that looks great when you zoom back out again. I like the speed with which you can lay down colours and move the drawing on quickly. Being able to hide or show layers is very useful and you can give a layer a different filter or opacity level.

A way of working might be to se a layer to do the outline of a drawing. really rough and ready basic shapes and design. Leave it there and put another layer on top to start putting in some tones and colours. Then put another layer on top to start working in some detail.

You have the option of merging layers later or deleting a layer that you no longer require. If you want to try something out then you could save off a version of the drawing and go off in that artistic direction safe in the knowledge that you can go back to the point of saving and work the art magic in a different way. Even using the undo button at the top of the screen is incredibly useful.

You can save images which will be uploaded to your computer next time you dock. export out to png or to psd with email or send to a gallery. You may also copy to clipboard to paste in another app on the iPad or export out to the Camera Roll. Images can be resizes as can the canvas although the max in either direction is 1024.

Drawing in the iPad Stylus

Overall I say that ArtSudio is an impressive application and well worth getting in the app store. if you don’t want to draw with it you can always use the filters and tools to do touch up or fully creative things with photographs. Next thing I will try is to get a stylus to draw with, which I think should be a very useful addition. it would be good to do drawing on the iPad with a pen.