Art + Design On-The-Go (Top Apps for the Creative Nomad)

Howdy, folks! Today, I'm sharing my TOP 4 art/design mobile apps.

These apps have proven the most useful for what I do. I continue to find myself returning to them for various reasons at different times for specific aspects of a project.

Now, don't get me wrong. I've got a TON of different apps on my trusty mobile devices. Some for composition/layouts, some for photo touch-up or manipulation, others for reference or media or prototyping or a million other reasons.

But there are certain ones that just keep rising to the top as the most utilized...providing the most value in a practical sense. Or maybe they're just the most fun. There's that too.

Before we get started, be aware that most of these apps are best utilized with a stylus. Since I use an iPad, for me that means an Apple Pencil. Some of these apps may also require an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Also, this is NOT an in-depth look at the functionality for each app. In future articles, I'll attempt to get into specifics, features, and work-flow for specific apps.

For now, I'm just giving a very general overview of which apps I pull out of my toolbox the most often and why.

---

So let's start off with the easiest and most user-friendly of the bunch: Paper.

Paper is an app that is extremely easy to use right away. There's very little learning curve, and (as the name implies) it mimics the natural feel and flow of drawing with regular pen/paper more than the other apps. Perhaps even to a fault.

Unlike the other apps we'll soon be discussing, there's no layers functionality. Meaning that everything you scribble, mark, paint, and jot down is all on the same layer. No way to separate it all.

However, it's sooooo easy to use.

Example: This is a quick sketch I did of a little gremlin character.

This is the app I'm most likely going to use for sketching out concepts and ideas. This could be rough variations for a logo or rapid notes during a collaborative meeting.

If you need rapid artwork as fast as possible, Paper would act as a rough-and-dirty solution.

---

Next on my list is Adobe Draw.

Adobe Draw is for vector art. Unlike Paper, it is not pixel (or raster) based. Rather, all the artwork is constructed mathematically. What that means for the designer is that whatever you create in Adobe Draw can be re-sized to be really tiny or absurdly gigantic. It doesn't matter. Since the lines are created with math, the artwork never loses its perfect and precise clarity.

Example: Here's some line art of a Groot illustration I did.

As you can see, you'll get less "character" to your "media" than you will with Paper. However, the benefit of working within a vector format is highly desirable for many projects.

Using Adobe Draw, I can create artwork with a tablet, then export it into Adobe Illustrator if I need more advanced tools to finish it up. For the final polish, I'll often times bounce it from Illustrator into Photoshop for another pass with shadows, highlights, and special effects.

---

The last illustration type app I'll be talking about is Procreate.

Procreate is absolutely amazing. If you're an illustrator who wants every bell and whistle in a beautifully designed interface, then you'll find what you're looking for in Procreate.

This app is what you use when you want to get serious about some crazy hyper-realistic digital art. Or maybe you just want to pull off some effects that the other apps simply can't do.

Example: Concept for a tree creature that I started working on.

Procreate represents a much steeper learning curve than all the other apps. Yet, once you get comfortable with it, you'll have a hard time using anything else.

I generally use Procreate if I need to create polished artwork (such as for a book cover) or highly-detailed graphics that need to be drawn or "painted". Just keep in mind that the end result will NOT be vector. However, the app will let you export to Photoshop.

---

Finally, let's talk about an app that is not directly related to illustration. Rather it's an extremely useful tool for any designer who always has an eye open for something they can use in their next project. The app I'm talking about is Adobe Capture.

Adobe Capture is like the designer's Swiss army knife. It's capable of doing so many cool and interesting things, all of them in support of something you might be doing in another Adobe product.

It'll help you create Type, Brushes, Color palettes, and so much more.

Since it's not as straightforward as a "drawing" app, I'll give a couple of real world examples to help you understand the power of this little application.

For one thing, it'll make creating unique patterns really easy. To demonstrate, I grabbed some sunglasses and used the app to create a pattern out of them. It took me like 30 seconds to put the app into camera mode, fiddle with the settings until it looked how I wanted, then saved the new pattern to a shared Creative Cloud library.

Bam! Pattern created. Super easy.

Here's another cool feature. I took the same app and used the "Shapes" function. A shape can be anything you see. To demonstrate, I'll use my dog, Dobby (yes, he was named after that weird-looking goblin elf creature in the Harry Potter movies).

I snapped a pic of Dobby, and the app converted him into a VECTOR SHAPE! It will let you erase things you don't want and also refine the contrast and lines of the artwork.

Hey, let's go ahead and turn these things into an actual graphic image.

What's awesome about this app is that it integrates so well with the desktop suite, such as Illustrator and Photoshop. Once I'm in one of those programs, I can access the Dobby vector art straight from inside the program. All I've gotta do is drag-and-drop.

Okay, let's add that weird pattern into the mix.

After we've played around with the vector art and pattern in Photoshop, we end up with something adequately cute and maybe a little funky.

The whole impromptu project took very little time, and now we've got an interesting graphic that could possibly be used on a greeting card, some packaging, or a tote bag.

Haha, I dunno. There's gotta be a dog-lover out there somewhere who would find the image useful for something.

Well, those are my Top Four "go to" mobile apps for the creatively inclined.

What do you think? Have you guys used any of these? Do you design with other apps that aren't listed? What do you like about them? What do you dislike about them? I'd love to hear your feedback, particularly if you guys want me to check out a different app!

See ya next time.