News: Making Art on Your iOS Device, Part 1: Drawing

From the onset of the popularization of apps for the iDevice, users have experimented with creating original artwork on their iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch. And when famed British artist David Hockney christened the iDevice with his painterly digital drawings, the trend exploded even more.

We've come a long way since then—Hockney will exhibit his extensive iPhone and iPad drawings at the Royal Ontario Museum this fall, and for the rest of us, there are now endless apps available in the categories of drawing, painting, 3D modeling, photography, and fun effects—plus useful guides for learning about and finding/viewing art. This week, we present a lengthy 6-part feature covering apps in all of these areas.

Today, a roundup of incredibly useful drawing apps—as a RISD alum, graduating just before the onslaught of apps like these, I find this section perhaps the most useful. If I had had free models at my disposal, I might have skipped a figure drawing night session every now and again. ;)

Anyone who draws knows practice makes perfect, so download your app of choice and get some work done on-the-go—on the plane, train, in the waiting room—whenever you have down time and an iDevice handy.

1. Random Pose Viewer

Available in Japanese and English, Random Pose Viewer has 19,000+ free reference poses for figure drawing geared toward illustrators/manga. All poses can also be viewed for free on posemaniacs.com, where users can upload poses and donate money to the project.

Cost: Free
Compatible: iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

2. Art Model

The Art Model series by EnsoMobile offers 3 apps in the categories of Classic Poses, Action Poses, and Hands. Each pose is viewable in full 360-degree rotation, with 20 photos per pose. Simply zoom and rotate the images to view additional details.

Cost: $0.99 each—Art Model 1; Art Model 2; Art Model 3
Compatible: iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

3. Cast Drawing

Also by EnsoMobile, the Cast Drawings series offers 4 apps in the categories of Basic Forms, Complex Forms, The Head, and Sculpture. "Cast Drawing" is a traditional method of drawing instruction, commonly taught in art ateliers. The artist draws directly from a cast, which allows for a perfectly still model so students can focus on capturing the different grayscale tones of shadows.

Each app contains a series of 7 forms; each viewable in full 360-degree rotation, with 20 photos per form. Zoom and rotate to view details.

Cost: $0.99 each—Cast Drawing 1; Cast Drawing 2; Cast Drawing 3; Cast Drawing 4
Compatible: iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

4. Improve Your Figure Drawing

Improve Your Figure Drawing has nice, casual drawings with useful and interesting anatomical notes, as well as technicial tips scattered here and there. Zoom control available; organized/divided by body part.

Cost: Free
Compatible: iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

5. Anatomy for Artists

Anatomy for Artists is a must have for any art student interested in mastering proportion/anatomical accuracy. The anatomical reference guide provides hand-drawn diagrams in the stye of Da Vinci with scalable diagrams of the following:

• full body (including 3 views that compare the surface anatomy to the skeleton)
  
• head in front view (including 3 views that compare the surface anatomy to the skull)
• head in side view (including 3 views that compare the surface anatomy to the skull)
  
• additional body parts

Cost: $0.99
Compatible: iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

6. Art Grid

Art Grid is a great aid for beginners, particularly those who aren't interested in learning to draw from life. The app provides a grid line overlay to any picture you upload or snap with your iOS camera, giving a frame of reference for rendering proportion/details in their accurate placement. The app is more useful for iPad users, due to size. For more details on the basics of grid drawing, here's a rudimentary explanatory video. 

The app provides 4 sizes of grid lines for varying levels of detailing, and the choice of black or white grid lines, depending on the color/value of your image.

Cost: $3.99
Compatible: iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

7. Sketchbook MobileX

SketchBook MobileX is geared toward digital illustrators. The app is a hybrid drawing/painting tool, and offers professional-grade features. It uses the same paint engine as SketchBook Pro software, which means the same level of brushes/fluid pencils are available. Here are the specs:

• Full Screen work space with UI-on-demand
• Multi-touch navigation with a 2500% zoom
• Canvas size: 320x480 (960x640 on iPhone 4)
• Up to 3 layers you can merge and toggle visibility
• 10 levels of undo and redo
• Flood fill / Synthetic pressure sensitivity (brush fade-off) / Smooth brush stroking
• Dynamic symmetric drawing
• Color Wheel and Customizable Color Swatches

Check out work samples at the SketchBook Mobil Flickr group. Available for Android as well.

Cost: Free

**Tune in tomorrow for Part 2, Painting.

Did we leave out a drawing app you recommend? Please list in the comment section below.