Autodesk SketchBook, a long-time favorite among artists, has evolved into Sketchbook. Users trust it for a wide range of applications, including doodling, illustration, calligraphy, lettering, 3D model painting, basic animation, and digital scrapbooking. As the company states, Sketchbook goes where your creativity takes you.
Availability
Sketchbook’s desktop software for Windows and Mac, Sketchbook Pro, is available as a one-time purchase from Microsoft Store and Mac App Store.
Fortunately for Android and iOS users, Sketchbook’s completely free on mobile and tablet devices! You can get a Premium Bundle for extra features, which is a one-time in-app purchase and not a subscription. The free app’s already impressive, but the Premium Bundle’s completely worth investing in to enhance its performance. It includes advanced features for brush creation and tools to manage brushes, canvas, colors and layers. With it, you’ll be able to import, export and create custom brushes, organize brush sets, resize your canvas or set its size and resolution, extract color palettes from images, get additional color harmonies and custom gradients, and more!
System requirements
Sketchbook can be downloaded from the Google Play Store for Android devices and from the Apple App Store for iOS devices. Check out whether your device meets the specific requirements:
- Sketchbook for Android is optimized for phones and tablets. To get the most out of it, use Android 9 or higher. Only a couple of styluses are supported for pressure-sensitive input: Samsung S Pen, and Wacom Stylus for Cintiq Companion Hybrid. Bear in mind that peripheral drawing tablets are not supported, and that if you use an external monitor or device to mirror the app, some functionalities may not be available.
- Sketchbook for iOS needs iOS 13.0 or later for the best experience. Apple Pencil’s only supported on enabled iPad and iPad Pro models, while Hover’s supported on 4th gen iPad Pro with Apple Pencil 2.
The app’s interface
The default user interface shows the canvas, the toolbars, the Double Puck, the marking menu and the corner tools. Let’s break them down:
- Left-side bar: it shows the brushes and erasers. When you tap on any of those tools, you can see a panel with a full library of brushes and options for customizing them.
- Top-bar: it shows the quick actions: undo, redo, crop, preferences, text, fill, symmetry tools and more.
- Right-side bar: shows the layers and the color options
- Double Puck: it’s the app's shortcut to customize the size or opacity of the brush you're using (top portion of the Double Puck), or change its saturation and brightness (bottom part).
- Marking menu: it’s at the bottom of the canvas as a floating, moving-panel. Its tools allow you to customize the brush size, opacity, and color or the brush itself, but you can customize which tools appear in this menu in Preferences.
- Corner tools: these are quick-access actions, by default: Clear Layer, Fit to View, Undo and Redo. These are also customizable in Preferences.
Hiding the UI
Once you learn how to use the tools and bars, you may find it annoying or distracting to work with so many things around. Besides, these take up working space from your canvas. With Auto Hide UI, one of the tools in the top-bar, you can temporarily turn off the interface during drawing (you can adjust how much time it’d take for the UI to restore).
Final thoughts
Whether you’re new to digital art or already immersed in it, the Sketchbook app offers a straight-forward, user-friendly experience, for free! The intuitive UI and its professional features make it a perfect choice for artists at any skill level. Yes, it could be tricky at first for newbies, but it really becomes easy to use. My final verdict: five stars!
