Getting your art out there has never been easier than it is today. Just a few decades ago, people needed sophisticated tools and other expensive methods to show others their creative talent. Digital platforms have revolutionized this landscape and a lot of artists are getting recognized every day. However, if you’re looking for drawing apps for Mac, you can find a ton of options and it can be a little overwhelming.
In this article, we are going to streamline that list so that you can choose the best drawing app for you. Let’s jump into it.
If you're looking for drawing apps for Mac, there are options that are great and some are even free. Check out 19 Best Macbook Drawing Software Here. Tech-savvy creatives have many drawing apps and art apps available, even for free. Let's take a look at some examples of the best (free and paid) apps out there to get your ideas down on iOS.
Contents
- 1 10 Best Drawing Apps for Mac
- 2 19 Free Drawing Software For Macbook 2021
10 Best Drawing Apps for Mac
We have compiled a list of 8 best drawing apps for Mac that you can get today. The list is ranked based on which app we think is the best, but you can choose whichever app suits your art style.
1. Adobe Photoshop
What can I say about Adobe Photoshop that hasn’t been said already? Photoshop has been around for a long time and it gets new updates every year. It’s one of the most sophisticated drawing apps for Mac and will be a lot of help for a creator. You can create your own image and also edit other images to your liking. This software has a lot of love and support all over the world and it’s easy to understand why. There are a lot of videos online that’s going to help you learn Photoshop and there’s a large online community who’d be happy to help you. The newest version, Photoshop 2020, has an AI called Adobe Sensei that will help you get better selections.
Photoshop is great, but it is expensive. You will have to pay a subscription fee of $20.99/month if billed annually and you can do so here. So if you’re new to the creator scene, then I’d recommend checking out other entries.
2. Autodesk Sketchbook
If you want a professional drawing app with a lot of bells and whistles and if you want it for free, then Autodesk Sketchbook is for you. This app is so versatile and feature-rich that it will appeal to a lot of people. It has a minimalistic design and is preferred by a lot of content creators. There are over 140 brushes and you can even import brushes created by other artists. You can also get custom perspective guides among other things.
What App Can I Use To Draw On Mac
You can check out more features and download the app by clicking on this link.
3. Corel Painter
Corel Painter is an app that’s designed by creators for creators. It has a wide variety of tools you can use to propel your art to the next level. With over 900 brushes, this app is loved by many artists. Corel Painter also supports GPU acceleration so that you can get your work done much faster. Their website has hundreds of videos that will help you perform better.
Corel Painter costs $339.99 and there’s no subscription. You can download the app here.
4. Rebelle 3
If you are into realistic painting, then you will find Rebelle 3 appealing. It’s a unique app that uses realistic watercolor, acrylic paint simulations. The resulting image will look like it was made on paper with real colors and if this suits your art style, then you should definitely go for it. It makes the colors seem extremely realistic and you can even get simulated watercolor drops. This app was supposed to be an experimental software designed by Peter Blaškovič and it is popular among watercolor painters and CG artists.
You can check out Rebelle 3 and its features on its website. You can get Rebelle 3 for $89.99.
5. FireAlpaca
If you are new to digital drawing or if you have older Macs, then FireAlpaca should be a nice fit for you. It doesn’t have as many features as the earlier entries on the list, but that’s why it’s recommended to beginners. You won’t find the options overwhelming and you can worry about getting a more powerful Mac later on. It’s a small app that’s simple, easy and free to use.
You can check out the feature list of FireAlpaca on their website.
6. Preview
Preview comes pre-installed on a Mac and it can do much more than sign PDFs. If you want a simple drawing app for random doodles, the Preview should be good enough. You can open up any image on Preview and click on the Markup icon (pictured above) to access a lot more menus. It can help you doodle, make notes and even select shapes with the lasso tool. Since this is an in-built app, you don’t have to download anything.
7. Clip Studio Paint
If your dream is to become the best mangaka on Za Warudo!(means “the world” for all of my readers who are not JoJo fans), then you deserve a great manga illustrator. Clip Studio Paint is highly recommended if you draw a lot of manga panels. You can decide panel layouts and customize the tools for your art style pretty quickly. This drawing app for Mac also works great if you want to draw comics.
Clip Studio Paint is available for the free trial and you can get the standard version for $49.99. You can get the full-featured version for $219.99.
8. MediBang Paint
MediBang Paint, just like Clip Studio Paint is aimed at anime and comic-book artists. It has over 50 brushes and a large number of backgrounds that you can choose from. They have tons of tutorials for you on their website and you can snap grids and arrange the panels easily. This app is also available on iPhones and iPads. Medibang Paint is available for free and you can download it here.
9. Inkscape
Inkscape is an app that will appeal to a wide variety of creative people. It can help you create anything from sketches to website designs. It’s a versatile app that’s open-source and free to use. Inkscape also has a very helpful community that will help you use the app.
You can download Inkscape for free by clicking on this link.
10. Patina
Patina is another simple app that lets you create sketches to your heart’s content and simply moves everything else out of the way. It has a simple layout and it’s extremely simple to use. you can use it to make a lot of sketches and doodles on other images too. Patina has a lot of essential features but misses out on stuff like multiple layers. This app is, however, perfect for beginner artists.
Patina is a free app available on the App Store and you can download here.
19 Free Drawing Software For Macbook 2021
Here is the total list of top Drawing tools and Apps for your Macbook.
- Adobe Photoshop
- Autodesk Sketchbook
- Corel Painter
- Rebelle 3
- FireAlpaca
- Preview
- Clip Studio Paint
- MediBang Paint
- Inkscape
- Patina
- Adobe Illustrator
- Leonardo
- Affinity Designer
- Krita
- Tayasui Sketches
- Paintbrush
- Tayasui Sketches
- Sketch
- Sip
Final Take
These are some of the best drawing apps for Mac. I hope that this article was helpful to you. If you have any doubts or if we missed your favorite app, then please let us know in the comments section down below and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
iOS has always been friendly for creative people. There are a variety of drawing apps, video editing tools, and various other artistic apps. In this list, we’ll round up the best drawing apps for iPhone and iPad. If you also rock an Android device, we also have a list of the best drawing apps for Android on our sister site, Android Authority. All drawing apps on this list are for iPhone and iPad unless otherwise specified.
Adobe Illustrator Draw
Price: Free / Optional subscription (Up to $53.99 per month for the maximum package)
Adobe Illustrator Draw is easily one of the best drawing apps for iPhone and iPad. It has most of the desirable features, including layers, advanced drawing tools, 64x zoom for detail, and support for Adonit, Wacom, Pencil by 53 and Apple Pencil devices. Most of the features are completely free. However, you do get a few extra perks with an Adobe Creative Cloud account. It also has support with other Adobe apps, like Adobe Capture CC.
Adobe Photoshop Sketch
Price: Free / Optional subscription (Up to $53.99 per month for the maximum package)
Adobe Photoshop Sketch is a slightly less intense version of Adobe Illustrator Draw. It includes many of the same features, including zoom support for fine detail, support for various drawing hardware, layers, advanced tools, and more. It also comes with support for Adobe’s desktop apps, although again you do need a Creative Cloud subscription to take full advantage of everything. It’s extremely good for what it is and what it does.
Best Mac App For Drawing On Photos
Procreate
Price: $9.99
Procreate is another intensely popular, very highly-rated drawing app with an amazing amount of features. It features the ability to use a 4K canvas with over 120 brushes available. On top of that, there are 25 customizable settings for every brush resulting in a nearly unlimited number of combinations. On top of that, there are an absurd list of other features you can use including various import/export settings, 250 levels of undo/redo, optimizations for 64-bit processors, and plenty of deeper functions such as exporting HEX values for color. It’s very powerful. It’s also only on iPad, and the $9.99 price hasn’t changed in a long time. It’s made in Australia from a little studio that works on the app regularly.
ArtStudio Pro
Price: $11.99
ArtStudio Pro is the major update to a great little drawing app on iPhone and iPad called Artstudio (now known as Artstudio Lite). It’s now been given a solid round of refreshes works on both iPhone and iPad, featuring 450 brushes, layer support (along with tons of layer controls), filters, tools, and much more. It’s capable of producing some fairly quality stuff. The UI has been the real winner of the update, and the new app is generally very well received. It has jumped up in price, though.
Astropad Standard / Astropad Pro
Price: $29.99 / Optional subscription
Astropad Standard is one of the older drawing apps for iPad, and it’s iPad only, no iPhone here. But it’s interesting because this app lets you use your iPad as a Wacom device, while connecting to drawing apps on desktop (Mac or PC). Yup: this app connects to your Mac or PC just like a drawing device normally would. It also supports a range of stylus devices along with pressure sensitivity. It doesn’t draw anything on its own, though; you need a Mac and a drawing app on it to use this one. It’s quite different in its approach but $30 spent on this is cheaper than a Wacom if you own an Apple Pencil or Pencil 2! But that’s not quite the full story.
While reviews are generally positive, it’s $30 or so to get the Astropad Standard app, but the Pro version adds all the necessary bells and whistles for $11.99 monthly or $79.99 annually, but there is a free trial period. Most professionals will likely want the Pro version, so keep all that in mind.
Inspire Pro
Price: $7.99 with in-app purchases
Inspire Pro is another older drawing app. This one is only for iPad and, strangely, iMessage. In any case, Inspire Pro is above average. It features 80 brushes. You can get 70 more through in-app purchases. You also get 1,000 levels of undo and redo and various other tools. The app also video records your progress for playback. That should be enough for most intermediates and some advanced users as well. There are better options for professionals, but hobbyists should be happy with this one.
MediBang Paint
Price: $29.99 / Optional in-app purchases
Best Drawing Software Mac
MediBang Paint is probably the best free drawing app for iPhone and iPad. It features over 100 brush types, tons of assets, various fonts, support for layers, and support for 3D Touch on newer iOS devices. The UI is a tad cramped on the smaller displays of the iPhones as opposed to the iPads. Otherwise, the app held up excellently during our testing. It doesn’t compete with the biggest of the big in this space. However, it’s still excellent for artists on a budget.
Paper by WeTransfer
Best App For Drawing On Microsoft Surface
Price: Free / Optional subscription
Paper by WeTransfer has a long history behind it, but it’s among the better drawing apps for iPhone and iPad. It’s also one of the more versatile apps. It supports sketches, notes, drawings, journals, and other types of personal and productivity stuff. That makes it a great app for both artists and business use. The app is free to download and most features are also free. There is an optional $5.99 subscription that renews every six months. That’s a little off-putting, but the app is still pretty good. FiftyThree originally made this app, before WeTransfer bought the studio, along with Paper and another app, Paste. It’s still going strong.
SketchBook by Autodesk
Price: Free
SketchBook by Autodesk is one of the most powerful and popular drawing apps for iPhone and iPad. It has all of the basics, including a variety of brushes, layers, effects, iCloud support, and other tools. The UI is fairly outstanding and easy to use. Additionally, Autodesk made SketchBook entirely free. That makes it arguably the best free drawing app on the iPad and iPhone, with no ads or payments required. There isn’t much else to say. We highly recommend this one, and most people will try it at some point. The only real set of limits are that it doesn’t go quite as deep as other apps, but it’s a great app to test out. Free!
Sketch Club
Price: $2.99
Many of the apps in this list include the same basic functionality, but Sketch Club takes drawing apps for iPad to a social level by introducing a community of artists. Sure, you have a large selection of tools and can use layers and 4K canvases to create masterpieces, but the social aspect is what lands this app on the list. Within the community, users can share custom brushes, collaborate on projects and follow each other to see new work. This is also a great outlet for feedback from other artists to perfect your masterpiece.”
If we missed any great drawing apps for iPad, tell us about it in the comments! You can catch more of our app lists here!
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