Artstudio Pro Reviews

by Blue Max Snake Driver

Years ago, when I found “Art Studio,” I was ecstatic. It was easy to use and met all my needs. Then along came “Pro.” I was all in until I found myself getting frustrated and constantly asking myself, “Do I really want to spend the next half an hour trying to find a feature that used to take me only seconds to find in the legacy app.” More times that not, I head back to “Art Studio.” Some might say, “you just might not be tech savvy enough.” My counter to that is that is two fold. For me, art is way for me to relax and to have fun while being creative. Secondly, throughout my over fifty year career of military and civilian flying, I have flown and taught others to fly some very sophisticated aircraft. One constant theme in evaluating “new technology “ is how user friendly is it? Can I quickly and easily select a particularly function or do I have to dig through a ten step process to get to it? The simple way can sometimes be more powerful and infinitely more enjoyable than digging through one hundred pounds of “high tech” features crammed into a one pound bag hidden in six foot deep hole.

by Vexisss

To start off, let me say that I LOVE ArtStudio and Luckyclan. The original ArtStudio has allowed me to create my best visual art since I was in eighth grade, up until now— I’m in 11th grade.
This is a very sleek app, and clearly a lot of thought has gone into its development as well as time and energy. However, it is very tiring and almost frustrating to use it from what I have seen so far, with a lot of features it doesn’t need and a lot of unnecessary steps to do things a single command would do. It seems TOO responsive and very sensitive at times, especially to rotation and zooming, and the transform option is not very responsive. The UI and the way the brushes functioned in the old app, as well as the delay/lack thereof on certain things in the old app was what made it attractive to me as a learning artist, and it still is! The complication of the new app is what makes it so hard to use, as for a person like me, a user-friendly setup is COMPLETELY required. Its interface is nice, however it is NOT user friendly. Too complicated with too many hidden features, and it’s so... I don’t know, flat? Like. It’s not fun to use due to the look of it.
I however am staying positive and looking forward to future updates and will continue to try to learn ArtstudioPro . I’m not giving up just yet! But my main art app for now— as art is how I make money— will have to be ArtStudio for iPad. Thank you!

by SmugglingMilk

TLDR I need glow dodge.. everything is great, truly, I’ve been using ArtstudioPro for a while and i can work with it, but I NEED glow dodge.
I came here from CSP because i was sick of how they double standard their software, as long as you are PC you are free to buy it in one payment, but the price for ipad usage was going up and up from 60 to 70 to 80$ a year. I had ArtstudioPro ever since launch, but at that time there was still a lot of features to be added and glitches to be fixed to I held off on using it until it was better. But after coming for CSP, and having something that instantly brightens my art the way glow dodge does, i cannot survive. My art is alright currently, im not “amazing” by any means, but I truly do use these kinds of tools a lot because of my habits to make the image dull to emphasize the focal point after. Glow Dodge was the tool I used most to achieve this. Color dodge was meh.. and unfortunately thats the thing we sorta have right now is color dodge, there really isnt a tool that makes colors more vibrant, just ones that put hazy color filters, and a LOT of the filters have the same effect.

by Moukeefe

I could go on and on giving positive lip service to ArtstudioPro. I’ve been using art studio since inception and and now use art studio pro almost daily. That said, there is one thing that has been bothering since I got ArtstudioPro and I actually assume there is probably an option I could click to clear it up but I just haven’t seen one in my absent minded rummaging through options. The problem I’m having is that the gallery is stored in “the cloud” . The iPad itself has thumbnail representations which you click on and then wait for the file to download, which can take a while depending on your project size. The real problem for me is that the thumbnails all have question marks on them and no picture to represent the artwork. I’m not in the habit of naming every piece and even if I was I wouldn’t remember what name represents what picture. Is there something I’m missing here? Some way to enable the thumbnails to have picture representations of the artwork? Thank you.

by MoodyGurl68

So...I’m a digital artist, and have been at this for a very long time. I was very used to photoshop and was good with their software until they added their subscription based model, which I whole heartedly do not support. When I got an iPad, I enjoyed procreate, but it was missing a lot of features I felt were essential for what I do, which is draw and write comics (having no text tool was NOT an option). A good friend recommended Art Studio Pro to me, and for the past year and a half, this is virtually the only software I have used to create my comic pages and other art. It has nearly every feature one could need, and has compatibility to add resources from photoshop like brushes, textures, and more. The one thing that I wish it had was a pen-tool or path-tool equivalent, and that’s the only thing that keeps me holding onto my old copy of PS CS5. Overall, I highly recommend ArtstudioPro to anyone drawing on an iPad. The price and the experience cannot be beat. There is also a desktop version that works pretty well. Don’t waste your money on the subscription based photoshop app for iPad. Invest in this instead.

by I Want Art Studio Pro Better

Describe the problem / suggestion:
I love art studio pro
Dear lucky clan I have ideas to make art studio pro even better can you please add more options under the curves and add a option to go up to 100 mirrors in the symmetry and please add a option to change the shape of the color picker for example a triangle and a circle a hexagon there is no HSV sliders in the color picker please add it and please add a lot of more filters and please add a warp option in the transform and please add an option to customize the slider bars and the interface for example you can change the color of it please make the brush engine more powerful and please add an option for you can draw with 2 or more fingers and please add the edge option and crystals option and more options under the elastify filter and please add a online gallery and please add options for 3 finger swipe up 3 fingers swipe down 3 fingers swipe left 3 fingers swipe right and 3 fingers tap and 2 fingers tap in performance and please add define hot keys buttons please make art studio pro the most powerful drawing app in the word make it a lot closer to desk top photo shop please add a lot of more stuff that I did not think of
From tommy ❤️😘💕🙏😂🎉😍🥰😘😍🥰😚😝🤞🤞🤟🏼👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨👨‍❤️‍👨👩‍❤️‍👩👩‍❤️‍👨👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩❤️🧡💛💙🤎🤍🖤💜❣️💕🤍💔☮️💟💝💘💖✝️💟♥️

by AvartCreative

I am a beta tester for Procreate. I have been since their second year in business. I have been a loyal user of Adobe software since 1997. I have also used over two dozen mobile art apps and I’ve watched ArtStudio evolve into something extraordinary. With each iteration, the team at Lucky Clan outdo themselves and now it’s to a point where I simply haven’t touched my Cintiq and desktop Mac in a few years. It’s a great time to be a work from home digital illustrator and thanks to this iPad Pro there’s no turning back. If you have spent years using Photoshop to illustrate bitmap images, you can transition almost seamlessly to ArtStudio Pro. It handles far more layers than Procreate and has many of the bells and whistles you are used to at Adobe. Hats off to you guys over there. Glad I stuck around because I can say that your app is top notch and the performance takes a back seat to no one. ArtstudioPro is a 10 out of 10 for me.

by MJS Art

Art Studio was the first art app I tried out on my old 3rd gen iPad, and it’s amazing to see how much it has grown in that time and how well it suits doing professional work on the iPad Pro.

A familiar interface layout makes it simple for desktop users to transition over to working in Art Studio, while smartly-implemented tablet features make it easy to stay!

Brush creation is as nuanced and advanced as Clip Studio and Photoshop on the desktop! I was able to perfectly recreate my favorite custom brushes using the same brush tips and patterns.

Performance is amazing on the 2020 iPad Pro and absolutely demolishes my PC at the same canvas resolutions (4K - 7K). My PC is "better" on paper with an expensive GPU, CPU, and tons of RAM, but iOS and Art Studio’s optimizations make that basically irrelevant. In short, I don’t miss my PC when I’m using ArtstudioPro.

My only cons are a couple features I wish could be implemented:

1. The ability for the magic wand to select from reference layers — this would be especially useful for me as a comic artist and digital painter for making quick selections from my flat colors layer.

2. The ability to have multiple presets for the Quick Menu that you can swap through when you bring it up. Without a keyboard for shortcuts, this ability would be absolutely invaluable for me.

Art Studio is easily the best $12 I’ve ever spent on software! Fantastic job, devs!

by Spacedevil13

Im really enjoying ArtstudioPro...comming from years of csp/manga studio...im super picky about art apps this one has grown on me...

Though i do have a few suggestions...i use a fair amount of masking in my art and would like to see layers and folders have their own masks rather than each mask showing up as a new layer type this makes masking a chore when scrolling through a bunch of layers to find what mask goes to what...it would be much easier to see a small thumbnail next to the thumbnail of a particular a particular layer to select to make non destructive changes...and adding this to a folder layer would be great to make masking for multiple layers at once easy im sure it can be done but with working with lots of layers the approach is anything but simple...

Like most apps pen stabilization needs more focus to really get them inking line brushes to feel buttery smooth and flow nicely...i was never a fan of the lazy nezumi approach to line smoothing csp and medibang seem to have really good and simple pen stabilization...and that gives them the edge on line work...but over all this definately a gem of an art program...

by LWallrus

This is the only app I have found to offer anything like a photoshop experience without sacrificing on painting speed. The ability to import brushes that just work is fantastic and seamless, this program handles photoshop brushes better than photoshop!

The one thing that keeps me going back to programs like clip studio or Procreate is the quick access features they offer. You can truly work with just the tablet with those programs. You can in artstudio but it involves browsing through the menus or manually selecting each tool or feature when you need it. This seems like a smaller limitation at first but it really prevents the user from ever getting into a quick workflow and I find myself switching back to those other programs when I want to get an idea out quickly.

All in all this is a fantastic program that offers a lot of powerful functionality. It is just hindered by the users ability to quickly access that functionality. If and when ArtstudioPro receives some sort of customizable onscreen shortcuts or quick access menu, it will truly be the best available art app on iOS.

by Net2cn

tl;dr, if you’re more familiar with the traditional drawing software on PC, this is ArtstudioPro you wanna pick.
I’ve been doing some digital sketches in my free time for quite some time and I brought myself an iPad last year. I mostly use Krita on my PC with a pen display before I got the iPad. I’ve told that Procreate is one of the top notch drawing app on iPad and I spent 10 bucks on it and after first few attempts, I immediately noticed that ArtstudioPro is so far away from the traditional drawing software like Krita and Photoshop. Looking around the internet communities I got ArtstudioPro recommended by lots of posts claiming that this is ArtstudioPro for those who has more experience in digital drawing, hence I spent 15 bucks on it to give it a shot after hesitation. At the first glance I can tell that this looks a lot like the UI I’m familiar with, and working with ArtstudioPro for some time I can tell this is the way I recognized in the past. It has no layer limitations like Procreate, so I can work a lot comfortable with no worries, and the brush feels so much better. I will definitely recommend you get ArtstudioPro, with only 5 bucks more expensive you’ll get something more polished and better. I am not regretting purchasing ArtstudioPro.

by H11709

I love the traditional feel of ArtstudioPro! Canvas texture overlays are something many programs don’t have out of the box if you really want to get that cool concept art look. Trust me, I’ve tried them all in my 12 years of art professional art experience. It’s like everything you could ever want in Photoshop, Procreate, and Clip Studio Paint. It’s packed with features without the subscription hassle. (Yes you can pay 9.99 a year which is cheaper than others, but you can also buy permanently for 40$. Which is still cheaper than Adobe and Clip Studio. Goodness so much cheaper!) I also love that you can import .abr brush formats! It’s very easy to keep brush collections between multiple programs. Some things I really, really want is multiple references in the reference window and reference window opacity adjustment! I’m the type of artist who likes to scroll through my many reference photos in one window when working on something. Yes, you can compile a mood board in VizRef for one big collage or just have photos app open on the side, but multiple reference loading would be nice like in Clip Studio and Ibis Paint. Overall, ArtstudioPro is very much worth it and I look forward to future updates! 💖💋❤️💕✨

by Corycoors

Amazing app, still 5 stars. HOWEVER, I just started experiencing a pretty serious glitch with the gradient layer effects since the latest update. When the gradient overlay effect is enabled, ArtstudioPro is suddenly not allowing a different gradient (other than the default white-black) to be selected. The menus and view controllers are still behaving as expected; they still allow a user to select a different gradient. However, once that menu is closed and the view controller comes back to the primary gradient overlay menu (opacity, blend mode, etc), the gradient you thought you selected has not applied. I tried selecting several different ones; including the spectrums, and the basic ones as well. None appear to be working. In addition, when attempt to select the gradient itself to make manual changes to the hues or adjust scale, it’s not showing the different hue containers, midpoints, or opacity adjustments.

I have tried troubleshooting it in every possible way, but it’s apparently something I can’t fix.

Just a heads up, please fix soon. Thanks guys!!!

by Char198d2

Trying to figure out what the difference is between Art Studio and Art Studio Pro besides the hefty price tag for Pro and the other one being completely free! So far both apps seem to be exactly the same for the most part. I actually like the way plain old Art Studio operates a lot better, it feels a bit more user friendly and is a lot less confusing for me then this one I just paid for. Still kinda trying to figure out why I paid 12 bucks for something I was already using for free! Am I missing something... and if so what is it!? It’s a great app don’t get me wrong. I just don’t understand why one is free and one isn’t. I am still hopeful that some feature that I am unaware of will find its way to me while using ArtstudioPro sometime in the near future and all will become clear, and I’ll have a huge aha moment and I’ll know then just what these new and exciting features are. But till then I would have to recommend that anybody that is interested in the Art Studio Pro app just stick with plain old Art Studio.

by Chacko2

Though a powerful tool, the absence of documentation regarding how to use it is notable. Art StudioPro is similar to early versions of Microsoft software where one had to “turn over every stone” to find essential tools and functions. Instead of simplifying the steps and reducing the number of key clicks needed to achieve routine functions, this app requires that you memorize chains of seemingly unrelated key clicks under various menus to achieve these functions. None of the steps are intuitive in sequence or in grouping under menus. Worse, there is no place to go, where the steps for any given function is documented in a clear and useful manner.
I understand that if you are an experienced photoshop user then this software will seem familiar. However, if you do not have a photoshop background, then look elsewhere (eg Procreate) as this is a most counterintuitive experience that will result in frustration and lost time.

by Ejido And

I have NEVER left a review on an app before (and I’ve been an IOS user since the first ever iPod came out), but ArtStudio is just too good not to leave a review for. I’ve been using Photoshop on my PC for drawing, photo editing, and professional work for the past six years and when I finally got an iPad with Apple Pencil support I was really hoping Procreate or one of the numerous other drawing/editing apps would be able to replace the feel of PS. Unfortunately, even though Procreate is indeed an amazing drawing program, it still doesn’t really satisfy my need for the familiar feel of photoshop and drawing with photoshop brushes. ArtStudio Pro solved all my problems. It’s got everything you could need and MORE (I especially love their amazing smoothing/line weight algorithm and pressure customization). It’s basically Photoshop, but without having to pay the ridiculous Adobe subscription every month. The price for ArtstudioPro is perfect, in my opinion (and honestly it’s even a bit low, for all it’s able to accomplish) and I really want to give a huge thank you to everyone who worked on/is working on ArtstudioPro and updating it. You’ve saved me so much money and frustration. Hats of to you!

by The Meh

So, before i bought this, i was on the fence to buy ArtstudioPro or not because i already bought procreate, and tried other drawing apps (such as medibang, csp and a couple more) and I liked procreate best. HOWEVER— I found out ArtstudioPro through a twitter post a weekish ago. Art Studio Pro supports kyle webster + your custom photoshop brushes, elastify/liquify, CROPS, has screen recording (duh), unlimited layers, the ability to change the image + canvas size AFTER you created the file, and it has CLIPPING MASKS. These are only some of the features I mentioned, but Art Studio Pro is far, far ahead of procreate in terms of customizing and editing... It is a smaller version of photoshop, and it is freaking AMAZING. Procreate? Well, let’s just say procreate is “dead” to me now... All I use is Art Studio Pro, and it’s really all you need...and it’s only a couple more $$?! Like dang....... I’ve also been telling/yelling everyone to try out ArtstudioPro on instagram, (If you want to see some of my work done on ASP, i’m soyeyoh on insta) because although it’s not advertised as well as procreate, its functions, I think are superior than procreate...again, IMO.
Anyways, thank you art studio pro... you’re doing god’s work 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

by Mikey12mikey

Edit:
Wow, the dev team is truly amazing. It’s only been a couple days since the issue I was running into about the pixelation when using the undo and redo buttons, as well as the selection issues, but they already came out with an update and everything is fixed! I never write reviews but ArtstudioPro and its team is absolutely wonderful, thank you for being so on top of everything!

~~~

I have been a long time user of ASP, love ArtstudioPro and it’s even replaced Photoshop for me because of how powerful it is. The new update 4.0 has been amazing and love all the new features and UI. The most recent update/version, though, has done something weird whenever I use the undo or redo options. About 70% of the time after pressing undo or redo, my canvas blurs and I have to pan around for it to unblur again. It’s obviously not a huge deal, but it’s annoying enough when I’m constantly using the undo button while drawing and my drawing is constantly blurring. Wanted to bring this to the devs attention in case they haven’t seen it yet from other users. Other than that, this is my favorite application to use! Edit: I also have noticed that when making selections with the lasso tools in the new version, if you pan around or zoom in and out to go make another selection, the marching ants around the previous selections disappear. I have to pan around aimlessly before the selections appear again

by DavidH1881

Wow, I remember using the original Artstudio on the first gen ipad. Back then it was a cool, functional app. But this version is something else entirely. TLDR; I’ve used just about every drawing and painting app out there for the ipad, stretching all the way back to first gen ipad and big rubber conductive stylus with the Brushes app. ArtstudioPro has quickly taken the throne and is now the first and only app i open for drawing and painting. ArtStudio offers a full fledged image editing environment to rival the likes of photoshop, GIMP and affinity photo. The brush engine is just something that needs to be experienced to really appreciate. These brushes FEEL SOOO GOOD and they are completely customizable, importable and exportable. Performance is top notch with buttery smooth brush strokes, 120hz zooming an panning and a snappy, responsive UI. I can’t recommend ArtstudioPro enough. For whatever reason, everyone seems to be on the “Procreate” train when it comes to painting apps on the ipad. IMHO, ArtstudioPro beats procreate by a HUGE margin in absolutely every category.

by Jrokmofo

I used the old version of this daily for 5 years. Mainly for hobby (tabletop rpgs), sometimes for my job. I don’t own a pc, so I used it on my phone as a poor man’s photoshop. I was able to get some impressive results doing things that required fine details. I was surprised with what I could accomplish using only my phone and finger. I tried the other popular apps, Artstudio was clearly more powerful and more serious.

Now it’s got a new, even more powerful engine with unlimited layers, cloud storage (allowing me to switch back and forth from my phone to my new iPad), and plenty of other new features. I would have given 4 stars, since there’s no user manual and some of the settings/preferences don’t allow me to do what I used to on the old app, but I took some of my problems to their forum and discovered that the developer is very responsive and LISTENS to what their users are saying.
I feel my money was well spent, and I’m having fun playing with this new thing whenever I get a chance.

by Slumberprince123

Ive been a hobby artist all my life and with in the last few years trying to elevate my craft. I started my art practices with vector in adobe with mouse in illustrator circa 2017 and found myself with an iPad in 2020. I’ve tried all manor of apps from procreate to heavy paint to infinite painter & affinity design AND clip studio paint. While all of them have their strengths and I typically have to go between the apps to get desired results out of each app. Sometimes pulling a single idea from app to app. On iPad it feels almost impossible to get something that feels as complete, responsive and crisp as photoshop. And even then photoshop is very sluggish. Now with adobe being adobe I think its time more then ever to support other creative softwares in the field. So, then I decided I was going to really look at ArtstudioPro and what it had to offer. Its truly a hybrid app that allows you to Taylor your experience, tweek things and get an accurate stroke no matter brush or pen (really supposed by lasso). If you’re looking for a forum and manual heavy app with a learning curve as intimidating as the big players this one is for you. Advanced users rejoice. Out of the box the fresh app is quite easy to follow. But you can muddy it up all you want and it’s honestly a good time!

by Rpee47

First of all, I’m kind of a hack. I’ve never had art-related schooling and mostly I just like to putz around for my own amusement.

I loved the original ArtStudio and thru it I was able to have as much fun as I wanted. But somewhere along the line, lots of people I ran across on Instagram were talking up Procreate and so I switched. Procreate is a fine program, but I kind of liked the way “my old shoe fit” and was never able to feel as comfortable as I was with ArtStudio.

When ArtStudio finally came out with an update, I choked on the price a bit ... remember, I’m a hacker that’s short on skills. Anyway, I finally got over it and through down the cash. Boy, it’s like I put back on my favorite shoes again. I can kind of get by with the fact there are far less tutorials related to ArtStudio than Procreate because ArtStudio just kind of makes sense to me, and the rest is up to my imagination.

by UnDterred

This has become my go-to digital painting app. Though Procreate’s painting engine is amazing, it doesn’t allow me to create 24X36” canvases at 300dpi. Artstudio does. Also, Procreate clips any part of a layer that is moved outside of frame. I often slide my layers around and move them in and out of view. Artstudio allows me to do this without clipping them. Another thing I like about Artstudio is that I can create folders and subfolders while on the home screen. The Affinity apps and Procreate don’t allow me to do this. Sounds trivial but subfolders are vital to my workflow. Artstudio has a great painting/drawing engine and plenty of tools to utilize. I find the interface to be easy to navigate. If you’re familiar with Photoshop then Artstudio won’t be difficult to pick up. Finally, no subscription! I don’t do subscription apps. I like to own my software. Artstudio is a one-time fee and not expensive at all. Great job Lucky Clan!