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6 Of The Best iPad Apps For Drawing, Painting, & Illustrations

Think the iPad's 9.7″ multi-touch display seems like the perfect platform for drawing or painting your next masterpiece? This is possible using one of the iPad apps below which are designed for drawing, sketching, and illustrating. To ensure the best results, it is important to make sure you have an adequate stylus for the job!

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Paper By FiftyThree

Paper is a popular writing and drawing app to capture your illustrations, sketches, diagrams, etc. The app is free to download although it features limited functionality with optional in-app purchases to obtain additional brushes, colors, and tools. The interface is clean and easy to use so there isn't any steep learning curve that needs to be tackled. Free – Download Paper

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Adobe Photoshop Touch

Photoshop is one of the most notorious photo editing programs you can get for the Mac or PC and their mobile application is also quite popular. While it doesn't offer the same  feature-set as its desktop sibling, you still get all the core features such as layers, selection tools, adjustments, and filters. It is important to note that Photoshop Touch requires a 2nd generation iPad or later so it does not support the original iPad. $9.99 – Download Adobe Photoshop Touch

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Brushes 3

Brushes 3 is a painting app that was designed specifically for iOS and uses an OpenGL-based painting engine to ensure a smooth and responsive experience. Within the app, you can use layers, tons of adjustable elements, multi-touch gestures, and it has native Dropbox support. A neat feature to Brushes 3 is the ability to replay your painting process in a video form. Free – Download Brushes 3

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Procreate

Procreate is one of the most advanced drawing apps for the iPad as it features over 120 brushes, 64-bit optimization, multi-touch gestures, up to 128 dynamic layers, 1080P video capture, and much more. If you happened to see the lifelike Morgan Freeman iPad drawing video that went viral a few months ago then you should know that was made using the Procreate app. $5.99 – Download Procreate

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AutoDesk SketchBook Pro

Similar to Adobe, AutoDesk is known for their excellent PC and Mac software. Their SketchBook Pro app offers a professional-grade paint and drawing application which utilizes the same engine as its desktop counterpart. The interface is streamlined for iPad use and there are many advanced features including full multi-touch support, a comprehensive brush library, dynamic symmetry, iCloud integration, and support for any device orientation. $4.99 – Download AutoDesk SketchBook Pro

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ArtRage for iPad

ArtRage is a painting app that offers a unique approach since you can use oils and watercolors to form color blends and textures like you would on a real canvas. It also keeps track of how much paint you have used and how wet it is to make it as realistic as possible. Ambient Design has worked hard to create a live simulation of real paint properties. $4.99 – Download ArtRage For iPad

Photo Credit: Elmastudio