Digital artists are among the main people responsible for developing websites, product labels or even masterpieces created with the help of specific software. Some of them have even gained great notoriety in recent years: the art of drawing and editing is increasingly valued around the world!

Mike Winkelmann, known on the internet as Beeple, is one of these great examples: his work Everydays: The First 5000 Days consists of an image worked on for 5,000 consecutive days. It sold for US$1,400,000 at a Christie's auction in 2021.

Other authors, such as Takashi Murakami, known for his pop-surrealist style, or even Damien Hirst, a British digital artist known for his controversial approach, have also captured the spotlight – but there is still room for many others!

Want to know some of the best apps for drawing or painting on your smartphone or tablet? Check out the following list and turn your art into (virtual) reality:

1 – Adobe Capture

Image: Adobe

It's safe to say that when it comes to graphic design, Adobe needs no introduction. The app turns your mobile device into a complete tool for drawing whatever you want and making advanced edits.

Adobe Capture offers a wide variety of brushes to help you create the perfect look for your artwork. In addition, different layers can be created and worked on individually for easy development and editing, just like in Photoshop.

To use the app, you need to have (or create) an Adobe Creative Cloud account. Download it for free for any mobile platform!

2 – AirBrush

Image: TechTudo

It is an image editing and creation application, but with an interesting difference: it uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide advanced retouching tools.

AirBrush also allows you to easily remove unwanted objects from photos, such as people who have not authorized the use of their images or objects. The automatic background removal mechanism is also quite effective and saves a lot of time throughout the editing process.

Your mobile app is very well optimized and should please most designers! 

3 – PicsArt

Image: Canaltech

Adobe has long needed to face some serious competition – and now it has. PicsArt allows you to not only create drawings, but also make beautiful and quick edits through a vast library of layouts.

The company behind the software recently launched an AI-powered image optimization engine – something you’ll probably see in most graphic design apps. Although it’s still in its early stages of development, it’s already capable of delivering great results. 

Its interface is quite user-friendly and does not require technical knowledge about graphic editing software: in addition, the tutorials are very helpful and there is a lot of content on the internet about how to use PicsArt quickly and intelligently.

4 – Snapseed

Image: eMania Blog

One of the main attractions of this app is that it is completely free and is quite lightweight: it takes up around 22MB of the device's internal storage and consumes few system resources to function. 

Snapseed has 29 different tools and filters to help you deliver professional-quality images, making it a very viable option for career photographers or even enthusiasts.

It's not as robust as the other options on this list (especially compared to the paid versions of its respective competitors), but for many cases, it will be more than enough.

5 – Canva

Image: Google Play/Canva

It's impossible to talk about graphic design without mentioning Canva, one of Adobe's main competitors. It offers a bit of everything: ready-made layouts for social media, tools for manual drawing, AI-powered image creation, and a variety of filters that make images even more vivid.

It has a very interesting free version, as it offers a reasonable range of opportunities at no additional cost. However, if you want to venture deeper and explore all the features the app has to offer, there is the option to subscribe to Canva Pro.

Its interface is one of the easiest to use and the paid version is quite affordable, making it one of the most solid options on the market.

6 – Adobe Photoshop Express

Image: Photofocus

Just need to touch up your images? Adobe Photoshop Express brings together some basic tools for this task. 

Retouch, remove the background from images, create collages and add makeup to selfies quickly and easily. This app is clearly aimed at a large audience, given its simplicity.

Want to make your Instagram photos perfect? Adobe Photoshop Express might be the perfect solution for you!

7 – Ibis Paint X

Image: MEmu

This free software is specially designed for drawing: it offers a wide variety of features that will make your creations even more special. 

There are more than 15,000 ink brushes, pencils, markers and special brushes, as well as adjustment tools, inclusion of special effects or even animations.

You don't need to be a drawing expert: even beginners can start drawing with Ibis Paint X!

Valuable tips for drawing and editing

Now that you have all the best software on the market at your disposal, how about putting certain attitudes into practice before you start designing and editing your images?

Think outside the box: Avoid the obvious. Try to imagine what the world would like to see: to do this, get to know and analyze various works and artistic styles to create your own;

Choose your brushes carefully: Each drawing style requires the use of specific brushes. If you don't have much experience in the subject, look for tutorials on the internet or take courses on how to get the most out of digital tools;

Don't be afraid to make mistakes: The greatest artists in the world made big mistakes before achieving excellence! If the end result is not to your liking, don't worry: learn from your mistakes and, if necessary, redo everything from scratch with complete ease; 

Practice regularly: Even experienced graphic designers need to adapt to new software updates. In some cases, they have to learn everything from scratch, as they have changed applications for a variety of reasons. However, every artist is, above all, an adaptable being!

Let us know in the comments what you think of the apps mentioned above! Are there any others you would like to suggest? Feel free to express yourself – that’s what art is all about!