Popular drawing apps on Android - 2023 survey results

[Sephira]

I use clip studio paint on the tab S6 lite as my main coloring and rendering program for artworks. I actually use concepts to do the sketches (i like the infinite canvas and how clean the UI is) and then import them in CSP to work on the coloring process. I find that the price is quite cheap and you get all the bells and whistles.

[radicalarful]

Infinite painter! Because its a one time purchase, has great brushes, it recognizes pressure and tilt, and has gestures

[Kogami]

InfinitePainter is good, and I can see why it's so well-liked, but for the "simpler UI" drawing app kinda options, I preferred Hipaint more. CSP will always be my daily drive, though, since it's the most feature-packed (imo) and also what I use on PC. Obviously, Procreate is never coming to Android, but I still hope Adobe Fresco will at some point. It's nice to see Android having better app options for most artists now compared to years ago.

[AdamWEST-yuos]

Concepts is the best for line art and technical drawings. It works most smoothly with limited hardware.

[ZahidKalissik]

More tutorials on infinite painter would be awesome

[wolfdiosa]

Artflow is very beginner friendly but infinite painter is my go to

[sugoish]

Oh, I missed the survey! But Infinite Painter and Clip Studio Paint are my 2 programs, too! Infinite Painter has my favorite brush engine out of ALL art applications i have ever tried, on PC or android (i have tried a lot!). It can be prone to crashing though, sadly, but I have made many full illustrations and commissions in it!
And then CSP is the "stable" program. I prefer to sketch and doodle in Infinite Painter, and sometime take my painting back there to use my brushes there again. But the stability to CSP, and the fact that I also use it on my PC, makes it nice to work with, too. Mostly, I prefer CSP when I have my keyboard connected, as it lets me use keyboard shortcuts just like on PC, which is familiar and efficient.

I have wanted to give Krita a try, for so, so long. But its learning curve is serious.... *_Every_* time I try to learn it, i accidentally press some key and it changes something and I dont know what it was that changed! And the default brush organization is really unwieldy to me, and I somehow can never get myself to do more than simple doodles, because I just can never find brushes im comfortable working with. This all sounds so harsh, but the truth is I so badly want to be able to use it! It's free, has amazing capabilities, including animation, and I would love to feel comfortable working in it! But this is why in my 7 years of digital art I still havent gotten into it :(

[polygons]

I missed this one... Mine is Krita. Second would be Sketchbook and then Art Rage.
Clip Studio would be first, but it is subscription based (cheap, but I don't like the concept of subscriptions, neither with Adobe, etc)
The thing is.. I only use my Samsung Galaxy 7 FE occasionally. So, it'd be bad data for the survey, as I paint a huge lot, but mostly on desktop. And in desktop, my main apps are Affinity Photo for painting (it is not the very best for that, but it is convenient for other reasons) and everything (BTW, it is also for iPad), but for "enjoying" painting, and a lot of projects (like 50%) I use Clip Paint Studio XE (now 2.0). I love PaintStorm Studio, it has very useful features for everyday work (smart auto snapping guides to layers, etc), besides being excellent for painting. And my favorite for traditional media (watercolors specially, but also oils, etc) is Rebelle 6.0 (I just got the update), but I yet to test Art rage "Vitae" on desktop (not sure if on Android is anything even close to the desktop version: I suspect it's not....). I have Corel Painter latest (I got it through Humble Bundle and then updated to latest, so, dirty cheap) but I don't feel right with it...

On Android, and of that list...Apart from Krita (best for me for the fast color picking), Sketchbook (fluid) and Art Rage Vitae (good traditional media), and due to - sadly- discarding CSP for the subscription-only on tablets, I would definitely agree on Infinite Painter being somewhere around the top (I just didn't find a fast workflow for super quick color picking, essential for my glazing/build-up technique while painting), having many Photoshop-like features that in reality most illustrators need in everyday work (reason why Affinity Photo is so convenient). And equivalent of that, at another level, would be ArtStudio on the iPad (opposed to the more "painterly" and intuitive ProCreate, but with fewer of those features).

Indeed, it is quite a conclusion from experience, as I have tested most of the apps of that list. I am curious about HeavyPaint, as it clearly is mimicking traditional media, and I am very nostalgic with that as I learned with traditional (oils, pastels, etc). Right now I don't remember if I tested it...

There is an VR app extremely interesting, it can be used on the PC without any VR device as well, if I am not wrong, for oil painting over a canvas simulation, a quite interesting experience... Not sure if it is available on Android (it is on Steam). It is called "Vermillion". I mean, it is mostly a toy, but quite a nice one. Similar to "Realisticpaint" from the author of PaintSotrm studio, but in 3D, and maybe Vermillion has fewer limitations. Apparently, you now can even paint inside other games with it (like, embedded)... it's crazy...Not personally interested in painting in games, but hey.

Lastly... for Windows tablets (and desktop), specially for oriental style of watercolor painting, specialized on that, you have Expresii Paint. Quite good in its specialty, IMO. And unlike other apps like Corel Paint, it is very well performing even in low hardware, despite all that heavy simulation of traditional media.

[alphahotel]

infinte painter an hipaint. i used to use procreate on apple i pad. the two mentioned provide a similar experince to procreate for android

[sloppynyuszi]

Surprised Artflow is so low. It’s always my default app for drawing when I use android. It’s the only app that makes me forget about Procreate. Infinite painter is nice, but something is missing. That Je ne sais qua 😅

Right now I don’t use an android tablet anymore. Just two iPads, a Fujitsu QUADERNO and my Surface Pro 8. Last time I did was a chrome book duet, and used Artflow on it. Sold it when a chrome update dropped pressure sensitivity on the stylus and they never fixed it

[azaeum]

I use CSP because I already had it on PC, so if I wanted to take a drawing on the go, I could just continue on my tablet (basically, it's convenient and what I'm used to). It's also packed with features, and the subscription isn't expensive (at least, not to me personally). I did recently change my PC to a tablet PC though... so I might just cancel my tablet subscription after this year. I used to draw a lot more, but I've been in a slump lately, so these days, I barely draw at all tbh. Anyway, CSP will always be my main art beau hahaha

[silentleo]

I remember choosing medibang Paint 😅. My other 2 options is the least used but at the time of answering this server they were the options I used so I forgot the names I chose but now I use Ibis Paint X with Medibang Paint app. I also spend 30 minutes or 1hour in Medibang Paint at minimum but when I'm well it depends on the day but I keep it to 1 hour to minimum at best

[reginavaqueroart]

For me, infinite painter, I have concepts too. The only drawback I found with concepts is if I export artwork it becomes pixelated, which I don't like. To be honest I am doing everything on an android phone. Thinking of a tablet soon.

[dumplingduppy]

I would love to see the android apps people animate in

[blackcatrose]

I have a android phone. Wondering if krita or IbisPaint X art can be posted to youtube and tiktok as well as other social media and for creating comic books

[eiceys]

Very soon going baack to school ! Do thé same video with note taking app on Android

[keziagrace]

Which one should I go for ipad or samsung if I want to just paint, my hobby is painting and drawing cute portraits please answer my question

[kameya]

I use clip studio paint because I originally bought it for PC years ago. I've always used samsungs note phones and note the z fold 3 with pen support and have the tab s8 so I like to continue to use the app between devices. I used to use Sketchbook. Pretty simple. Don't mind it but I prefer using one app. I even copied the layout between my desktop and tab s8. I have the huion 22 plus as well thanks to your reviews.

[shyhrk]

Honestly I like Krita very much, but I'd probably choose other apps with touch-screen no-keyboard friendly UI/controls unless I've got a good keyboard with me (which is not always the case).
I really like using Krita on PC (linux), very much so, for how flexible, feature-rich, and cheap (free) it is, but it's very difficult to find the functions you want without keyboard shortcuts on Android tablets (I'm used to using keyboard shortcuts, looking through the menu bar is so distracting, causing me repeatedly losing my steam/flow when drawing).;
Though it does perform surprisingly extremely well on Android (I use Xiaomi Pad 6), similar feel to the PC (via linux, i7-8750h). Only Windows version of Krita felt less smooth/snappy imho (never tried Mac or other versions except linux, windows, android, and android via chromeOS).

[SkywalkFPV]

How about the one and only Mischief infinite canvas?