Jake Harfield · April 27, 2023 · 6 min read These days, it’s possible to create amazing digital art directly from your Android device. Whether you’re a beginner or a professional artist, there are dozens of drawing and painting apps available on the Google Play Store that can help you make art. But with so many to choose from, it can be hard to know which will suit your needs the best.
In this article, we’ll cover the 10 best drawing apps for Android. Let’s take a look!
1. Infinite Painter
Infinite Painter is designed for painters. The app provides a decent selection of brushes, tools and textures that are designed to mimic real-life artistic tools.
Pros: Gradient maps and color palettes, PSD support, advanced brush engine for creating customizable brushes, and a lasso fill tool.
Cons: No text tools and a relatively steep learning curve.
Available on: Android and iPhone.
Price: $10 one-time payment. Has a 7-day free trial with full features.
2. Ibis Paint X
Ibis Paint X is the free version of Ibis Paint, with fewer features. It’s incredibly easy to use and offers several art tutorials which can help you learn how to use the app to generate high-quality digital art. If you need additional features, you can always upgrade to the paid version.
Pros: It’s free to use, has layer support, offers tutorials, and is easy to learn.
Cons: Fewer features than some of the paid options. It also presents ads which can be frustrating while you’re drawing.
Available on: Android devices and iOS devices.
Price: Free with a $4.99 paid version as an in-app purchase.
3. Artflow: Paint Draw Sketchbook
Artflow is a fully featured artwork app that can help you produce highly detailed work. It’s also highly customizable, letting users generate what they need to create great art. Because it’s so easy to use, it’s perfect for quickly creating material to post on social media.
Pros: Over 80 brushes and other drawing tools, layer support (and blending modes), and exports to multiple formats including JPEG, PNG, or PSD for import into Adobe Photoshop.
Cons: Free version only includes 20 brushes and support for more than 16 layers is only available on some tablets.
Available on: Android and iPhone.
Price: Free drawing app with a $6 pro version. Also available as part of the Google Play Pass.
4. Clip Studio Paint
Clip Studio Paint is a near-professional-grade art app with over 40,000 brushes and hundreds of features to give you the edge when creating art. The app also supports raster and vector graphics and a wide range of 3D formats.
Pros: Android, iPhone and tablet apps act as companions to the desktop app, syncing your pieces so that you can work on them from anywhere. Has pressure and tilt recognition, blend modes, cloud storage, perspective tools, and more.
Cons: Only has a tiny 1 hour a day free trial and the monthly subscription payment can get expensive compared to similar apps. Also has a busy user interface with a steep learning curve.
Available on: Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows, Apple Mac, and more.
Price: $0.99 per month as a subscription. $49.99 one-time payment for Windows and MacOS.
5. Autodesk Sketchbook
Developed by Autodesk, Sketchbook is a popular digital drawing app for both desktops and smartphones. With a clean and uncluttered interface, it’s very easy to use. It also includes many features for professional and casual artists alike, bundled together in one of the best free drawing apps on the market.
Pros: Massive number of brushes, pressure responsiveness, color indicator, time-lapse feature, perspective tools, and layer support up to 10 layers.
Cons: The app doesn’t include many touch gestures and export resolution is limited to 72 dots per inch (DPI).
Available on: iOS devices, Android, MacOS, and Windows.
Price: Free with a premium bundle on iOS.
6. Artrage Vitae Mobile Painting
Artrage is one of the top Android drawing apps, providing a realistic painting experience with textures and paintbrushes that mimic real paint (including watercolors). This app is best used on Samsung and other Android tablets where the experience is amplified by a larger screen — especially if you use a stylus.
Pros: Layer support, Photoshop blending functionality, and 16 professional painting tool options.
Cons: Exports only to PNG and JPG formats.
Available on: Android and iOS.
Price: $4.99 one-time payment.
7. Krita
Krita is a free, open-source digital painting and sketching app that was designed originally as a desktop app. It’s since been redesigned for Android tablets and provides users with dozens of features, tools, and brushes.
Pros: S Pen gesture support, animation tools, supports most file formats.
Cons: Works best with a connected keyboard that lets you make use of shortcuts. Designed for tablets and can be cramped when using an ordinary Android phone.
Available on: Android and desktop.
Price: Free.
8. MediBang Paint
Another free drawing app, MediBang Paint is a great choice, especially if you’re looking for a solution with cross-platform and cloud support.
Pros: Cloud-saving lets you work from multiple devices at once. Plenty of tools, brushes, and other features for drawing all kinds of art. Especially good for comic and manga artists.
Cons: No keyboard support. In-app adverts often interrupt your workflow and cause the app to glitch, meaning you might lose progress if you don’t save often.
Available on: Windows, Mac, Android, and iPhone.
Price: Free with ads. Offers MediBang Premium for $2.50 per month (20GB cloud storage), $4.50 per month (100GB cloud storage), or $9 per month (300GB cloud storage).
9. Concepts
Concepts offers a unique drawing experience because it has an infinite canvas. This means that you can experiment, generate ideas, or just doodle without worrying about running out of space. It’s also incredibly user-friendly and offers many preset brushes, tools, and effects.
With text tools including multiple fonts, custom brushes, and different erasers, you have everything you need to create your next vision board.
Pros: Great for brainstorming — add images, draw around them, and make notes. Includes a full Copic Color Wheel. Feels like it was designed for graphic designers.
Cons: Limited layers in the free version, no layer blending, and no customizable brushes.
Available on: Android and iPhone.
Price: Free. $5 per month for access to the full feature set (or $15 one-off to get the Essentials Pack, which offers some, but not all, of the available features).
10. dotpict
For our final pick, we’ve gone with something a bit more unique. dotpict specializes in pixel art. It provides a grid, letting you zoom in and fill in pixel boxes to create your own simple designs. This is awesome for designers working on indie games, or artists who just love pixel art.
Pros: Includes an auto-save feature, is easy to use, and is very simple and enjoyable to use.
Cons: It’s solely focused on pixel art — there’s no ability to create non-pixel-based artwork.
Available on: Android and iPhone.
Price: Free with a $4.49 paid version.
Create Your Best Artwork
The invention of smartphones has made it far easier to hone your skills as a digital artist. Whether you use an Android phone, iPhone, or drawing tablet, it’s now possible to create high-quality art from anywhere. Open your app, choose a background paper color, and get started!
