Sketchbook® Reviews

I have used lots of art apps but this one is my ultimate favorite :>. I really like Sketchbook and I use it a lot for my art. I’m not really sure the reason I like Sketchbook so much, it might be because it has a nice loose/free feel like the way I draw. All I know is that different artists have different styles and like different art apps (if they use art apps), so look around and find an app that works for you! Just keep trying and you’ll find what works best for you :>.

Just some suggestions for things to add to Sketchbook are an option to have a grid on the canvas to help you line things up (if this is already a feature and I just can’t find it then sorry, I'm being dumb). I don’t know why, but when I draw on paper with grids or lines my art looks better than on paper without a grid. I think it helps me line up my art and see where I should put parts of my art :>. Another thing that would be a great addition to this wonderful app is the “fill” option filling in lines that are on a separate layer. I like to keep my layers really separate (like, REALLY really) so it would be great if this was a feature :>. It doesn’t need to be, though, just a suggestion.

Thank you to the fantastic developers and the company who made Sketchbook, I really enjoy it and hope you keep up the good work!! :D

Great app! I’ve had Sketchbook maybe for a month but I already love it. The features are a lovely mix of creative and technical that I can really appreciate. I also love that you can purchase the extra tools without having to commit to some yearly payment plan.

I’ve only found one bug so far that keeps this review from being five stars. When I first started using Sketchbook , I noticed that using the hold-touch-eyedropper function, even by accident, would cause Sketchbook to effectively crash. I could still access all of my projects, but none of the tools would make any mark whatsoever until I went out of Sketchbook , closed it out, and restarted it. After I turned the long-hold-touch shortcut off, the bug didn’t pop up as often, but every once in a while, it still does act like I’ve activated the eyedropper and Sketchbook will ‘crash’ again. The bug never happens when I manually go into the color wheel and click the eye dropper button, so I think the bug is linked to the gesture shortcut that I can’t seem to turn off.

The bug isn’t a super big deal, but it is a little annoying, especially if you do like to use that shortcut and keep it switched on, and it is irritating to have my work interrupted because I have to restart Sketchbook . It would be great if the developers could fix it in the next update. Otherwise, Sketchbook is great for drawing and sketching and I would definitely recommend it.

I absolutely love Sketchbook! It’s by far the best free drawing app out there... it has so many tools and features, and preset colors are really handy. It’s also really easy to edit with, surprisingly. So it does more than just draw with a little help of copy and pasting of layers. My phone has a pretty small screen, (iPhone 5s) but with a stylus, it’s actually pretty easy to draw real art. And it has so many brushes. And Sketchbook runs super smoothly on my phone. And a bonus, no annoying ads. No in-app purchases. I absolutely love that, and is yet another reason why I love Sketchbook. I also really love the design of Sketchbook , once you get the hang of what it can do it’s so easy. And the clean minimalist appearance is really nice. My recommendation for future updates, there isn’t really a way to just blend colors. Sure there are brushes with that affect, but it would be so helpful if there was a blender that just blurred the colors together instead of smearing them; a brush that isn’t supposed to resemble any real-life brush. If you could add that it would be so helpful! Also when I save a drawing to my camera roll, the quality is reduced from what it was in Sketchbook , So normally I just screenshot my art instead. But if you could fix this issue I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for this amazing app. I definitely recommend.

It’s a great app for all kinds of art, it’s very user friendly and is simple enough on a surface level for those without art experience to be able to understand it, but it’s deep enough for people to master is and make some stunning artwork. It has many features that can help you make the best art you can, for example, you can lock transparency, which makes it so that only parts that have already been drawn on in that layer can be drawn on again, so you don’t draw outside the line. Best of all, it’s free! It has no adds, no subscriptions, and has no limits to how much you can draw. Highly recommend Sketchbook. Side note, there are some downsides (though I can overlook them.) When using the eye drop function, the color wheel won’t always disappear and I need to close the color wheel, open it up again, and re select the eyedropper, also, the lines get blurry when moving them. This last bug was the worst one I found. One of my drawing got corrupted or something, and I couldn’t access it anymore. When I view it through the slideshow, the bottom half of the drawing was al bugged. This needs fixing because that could ruin a drawing that someone might have spent a lot of time on. Otherwise, it is excellent.

This is a fantastic drawing app, and I am continually astounded by the things it can do. It doesn’t lag even when I have an admittedly absurd number of layers hanging about, and the line correction tool is extremely well-done. However, there are a couple of things I think Sketchbook would benefit from. As a webcomic artist, I would personally really like the ability to import new fonts- until then, I’m stuck doing my formatting in photoshop, which works, but using two different applications (On two different systems, notably) is not ideal. Additionally, I would love to be able to ‘favorite’ tools from various classes and have a personalized toolbar where they are- this would save me a lot of time scrolling through the options and remembering which brush I really liked that one time. I would also really like an easy way to copy/paste selected areas on the mobile version (I do all my work on an iPad Pro and it works fantastically), and maybe an easier way to make straight lines symmetrical to the edges of the frame- the only way I’ve found to work consistently is the rectangle tool, which isn’t always the best option. In any case, I adore Sketchbook, and I’m really happy that the full version is now completely free. I can’t wait to see the new features you implement in the future.

So I keep on seeing negative reviews, but for one, there’s a line stabilizer AND a shape making tool, so you’re be able to draw cleanly. Also, even though it took me a while to get a hang of Sketchbook, but you can edit and personalize each brush(tool) and get your strokes to go from thick to thin, along with other things that other expensive softwares have. Those other things include being adding patterns, being making your own tool sets, being able to use the lasso to move parts of the art piece that you’re making, and having a lot of specific tools such as say Japanese brushes. You can find those. And pattern tools, to prevent recoloring of your art. And If you didn’t know, there used to be an Autodesk this app Pro, but the creators decided to improve the user experience and added all of those ‘pro’ features to the free version. I’ve seen art that I would’ve definitely thought was done in another software, and popular artists that use Sketchbook to this day. Even Sketchbook Store app has a tutorial that uses Autodesk professionally. The type of software doesn’t make the art, it’s the artist that makes the art. So I definitely recommend it, to all artists. Really, this can even be sort of used as a graphic software.

I recently purchased and iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil to use for sketching ideas for painting and to display reference photos while painting. I purchased the top 5 this app apps and have given them a try, Autodesk is my favorite so far and here's why:
The interface when you are sketching is very intuitive, especially if you've ever used a Wacom tablet before. It's easy and simple to adjust your brush settings mid-sketch. I was happy with my first sketch experience before purchasing the Pro version but I will say after purchasing it, you do get quite a lot of neat tools. Overall, creating in Sketchbook is a breeze and so much fun, I love it!
The BUT:
The "Gallery" interface where the sketches are stored needs to be improved, the menus and navigations don't make sense and I find myself getting frustrated.
My only other gripe is that you cannot use the multiple app feature while in this program. In most of the other this app apps you can pull up a reference picture in Safari or your a Photos and draw while viewing it, but not in this one. If they could allow fully functioning multiple app use I wouldn't have a need or want for any of the other this app apps.

As a hobby artist, Sketchbook is great for my doodling and sketching needs. It’s fairly intuitive and I love the variety of brushes with the option of customization for endless types of brushes. I also really appreciate the Copic brushes and colors because I’ve always loved the color selection of copies but have never been able to afford them. I do have some suggestions and bugs though. I seem to be unable to rotate my phone and get the canvas to rotate, which is rather annoying. I checked that my rotation lock was off, but it wouldn’t flip. Another issue I have is with the brush library. I tried multiple times to move my favorite brushes from different sets into “basics”, which is quickest to access, but sometimes, it randomly deletes brushes and I don’t know why. It’s really quite frustrating because I have to go into preferences and reset my brush library every time it happens. I’d like to be able to create my own custom library sections to store my favorite brushes, or simply add a “favorite” button and copy any brushes that I tag as my favorite to a section that resides at the top of the library. All in all, it’s a good app and I’ll definitely keep using it, but I could be made more intuitive and easy to use. Also, huge thanks and kudos for making Sketchbook free, I really appreciate it when good tech is available for free.

Okay, if your more experienced at drawing digitally, then this isn’t for you. But if your like me and your new to it,I really suggest Sketchbook. It lets you import photos and you can outline your photos, you can make speed paints, and it lets you use copics for free. If you don’t know what copics are they are alcohol based markers, great for mixing and blending. Their usually used for graphic art and other very intense art (and I mean like more than a sketch.) I’ve been using it for a few days and I just broke my cheek bone. It lets you zoom in so if your like me and you just broke your cheekbone and your half blind (which is very unlikely) then you can still make art and it doesn’t look sloppy. It never really messes up and glitches like ibis paint. You don’t need a apple pen to use this, although you could use one if you like to. The only reason I’m giving this 4 stars is because it is a little glitchy when your sizing the photo to the size you want when you import it. I’d also like a little more copic colors, but other than that this is the best app for digital art starters.

(AFTER NOTE) I’m not changing my mind on Sketchbook that’s it’s not great, but I’d love a few more presets for pages. Thank you for reading, I may make more notes so don’t think this is the last (Unless if I forget)!

Due to being a former CAD tech, I can tell anyone that the only features this needs, are a sizable grid, ortho type lock (straight lines), and the ability to use a basic coordinate center 0,0.. with built in scale reference object that can be turned on like the ruler, but, possibly two of them, meaning updating the ruler so a straight 90° degree angle for example can easily be made, with a basic scaling ability... and Sketchbook fills the gap for CAD techs like myself who worked on planning stage as well as the actual engineering plans (land desktop with civil), for your architect type drawings, to compliment or replace Illustrator/Photoshop.. But, yes, for architect type drawings, the lines producing a shadow if you cut and paste a layer makes Sketchbook not easily usable for production drawings unless you dont mind taking a lot longer and redrawing everything when you need to adjust/move something.

Asides from these basic additions, and adjustment to how shadows/shading/blending is done automatically on line work, Sketchbook is wonderful. I need a razor sharp line, and spend a lot of eraser time if I use the tools built in to say draw a square because zoom in, you will see two/three colors of blended shading. So, now, the paint bucket does not work correctly in those areas.

Sketchbook is amazing and it is so nice, not much bugs or anything! Surprisingly this was the first drawing app I had, and I’m really pleased with how simple yet easy it is. But I have a few suggestions.

It would be super easy if you could be on another layer, but fill in the shape on a separate layer, without filling I the background. Let me explain it more, if you could like select a shape to color in without being on that layer it would be very useful. Of course I realize that I could take the time and do it right along my line art, but that takes forever, then I have to erase some of the things that went outside the line, and then end up lining up my color again! Then I might want some tabby markings on a cat, and I have to rinse and repeat the process! Even though this is a minor detail that I bumped into, this doesn’t take away the fact that Sketchbook is awesome.

I hope you see my point in the whole “ color” thing, and I thank you for reading this long thing. Once again Sketchbook is truly amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone no matter the skill! And I would like to say thanks to the developers!

Dear Autodesk this app developers,
I used Sketchbook a few months ago, and I had a few nice sketches and drawings that were in my gallery. I really enjoyed it and all the features were easily accessible, making drawing a great experience. The thing is, I never saved the drawings, exported them, shared, etc. They were all on my phone and vulnerable. So, I hadn’t touched Sketchbook until recently, when I realized there was a new update. But I had a problem with my Apple ID ( I have an iPhone), and I could not access Sketchbook without updating ( which was something I couldn’t do!). In the end, my only choice was to delete and reinstall using a different ID, but all my drawings were gone, sadly. I never had the chance to save them. So is there anything you can do to help me retrieve my sketches, like a backup software or something else. I honestly thought that my drawings would be linked to my account and saved, but it was not. Is this a lost cause, or is there anyway you can help me?
Thank you for reading, and I really hope you can help me find a solution to my problem.
Sincerely,
Concerned user

I love this app! From the wide variety of colors to the amazing set of brushes, this app is one of the best free drawing apps for mobile. However, I do have some concerns. For starters, I find that Sketchbook freezes unexpectedly whenever I’m drawing. Usually, when this happens, I leave Sketchbook and go back in. Unfortunately, whenever this happens I lose all of my progress. This bug is getting extremely annoying. The second problem I find is the fact that you can’t (or at least I can’t) select specific parts of my drawing and move them, stretch them or delete them. This gets really annoying when I have a piece of line work that I love, but is at the wrong angle and since I can’t select it and move it, I have to start over on the line. My final beef with Sketchbook is coloring. I find that the fill took is super annoying and freezes on me or ignore me when I touch it 😂. I wish there was a way that you could be able to freely color your drawing by hand, without it going out of the lines. Shading is quite difficult, since there’s no real tool for it, but I’ve learned to live without a shading tool. Thanks for reading! Happy drawing

I love love LOVE Sketchbook!!! It is far much easier to use than most other drawing apps and you get some very impressive tools for free. It’s the nearly perfect, especially for people new to drawing digital. Free and easy to use; basically perfect - but there’s just one issue... I like to utilize the Time Lapse feature quite a bit, as it’s fun to both watch my process and upload it for others to see. However, I’ve been experiencing an issue where Sketchbook doesn’t save my time lapse video, sometimes with a screen blatantly confirming the save has been uploaded to my photo library but not leaving a single trace anywhere on my iPad. This has been happening for quite a while now and is quite frustrating, to say the least. I’ve lost hours upon hours worth of recordings and I have no idea why. Is there any explanation? Are there any ways to recover the lost videos? Help is very needed, please and thank you. It’s quite depressing to spend over three hours on a piece, excitedly expecting to watch the process video only to have it disappear entirely.

this app is a really good app but I’ve been introduced to some glitches. While I was trying to get everything set up I always put the main layer all the way on top of coloring and stuff like that from a scanned sketch. While I was doing that I wanted to change the background layer to a color, and once I inserted the color it didn’t show up it was just an original color (white), I didn’t mind it but then I started putting color into the sketch (from a different layer below the main sketch)but then the colors weren’t showing up and when I looked at the layers they were there(I wanted to see the layers). At first I thought I did something that made it glitch so I restarted Sketchbook but the same things happened but then I did some experimenting and went to main layer and colored it, even thought I don’t do it I wanted to see what was wrong or try to fix it to see if anything was wrong, the weird is that the colors didn’t go on top of the sketch but instead the were below the main sketch I was so confused so I wanted to write these glitches. (SHORT NOTICE: I checked everything in the layers but there nothing that proved that it was my fault)

So I’ve been using Sketchbook for like 5 months, I just draw mindless doodles and add stuff onto pictures of my pets. I loves Sketchbook so much, but today there is a bug and I’m sad. For some reason the color making thingy isn’t working (sorry if I don’t use correct words as I am only a child and do not know what it’s called), I can’t create colors for some reason. I don’t know why, I may just accidentally have turned something off. I don’t know, I can’t use half the features in this thing! I’m actually very sad because I wanted to create a little cute animated picture, but just can’t seem to be able to create colors. I’ve tried EVERYTHING that I know! I’ve closed out Sketchbook , I’ve created a new sketch, I’ve clicked about every button! I don’t know if I’m being stupid or if there is a bug, but I think I may just be being stupid. If you are the developer reading this (you probably aren’t), then please reply if you know a way to fix this, or if I’m being stupid!

-EDIT
Never mind I found out, I was just being stupid.🤣🤣🤣

I love Sketchbook! I know I haven't used it for long, but I haven't had any problems with it so far. I don't have much experience with drawing, especially with digital art, but I'm still really happy with the results that came out of Sketchbook.
I first downloaded Sketchbook to test a stylus pen. It didn't work, but I honestly don't care. I'm still glad I downloaded Sketchbook. I first tried Sketchbook and thought, "Eh. It's not that special." Later on I tried again with a different tool and realized, "Oh hey, this is pretty cool." I began drawing sunsets with only the basic tool set. I thought the only tools were.. the basic tool set. And then I discovered the whole world of brushes and art tools Sketchbook had. I immediately thought, "This is gonna be fun."
I would definitely recommend Sketchbook to beginners like me. It's perfect to practice your digital art skills, and really easy to use. And of course, it won't always turn out the way you want it to. But with Sketchbook, you can make drawing extremely fun and easy!

Honestly I really love Sketchbook because it is just the best. I mean like you can record it too it’s like the best thing ever and I just want to thank the makers of Sketchbook so very much for making it because it is amazing I love it so much I can Make Recording‘s of it to that is just the best thing ever and I just really love Sketchbook I mean it’s not like everything I want let me just get my words together like normally speed draw things are on computers but this is so easy to use and the things are so clear and it’s really easy to use like I mean I love it and I just really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really love it and I don’t know if I’ve said this yet but I love it and thank you so much for making Sketchbook anyways I think I should end this book novels saying I’m making of a review here because I mean honestly I don’t want to make you waste your time on reading my review even though there’s other reviews but this is get a five star because it is amazing the end this was written by a YouTuber named koalations

I’ve used this app on and off for years- it has my favorite sketch brushes and it’s really easy to doodle things in, the drawing itself feels really organic, I can draw like I’m drawing it on actual paper when I’m actually on a screen. That feeling is difficult for any other app I use to capture, and what keeps me coming back to this app again and again.
But the thing that drives me off of this app and onto other apps in the first place is that coloring is a bit difficult without clipping masks on mobile. I’ve read that there are clipping masks available on the desktop version of Sketchbook , and I would really love for it to be added on the mobile version as well!! That’s pretty much all it would take for me to move to drawing on autodesk full time. The locking feature is an okay stand in, but I prefer separating my colors over multiple layers rather than keeping it all on one, because it’s easier to fix if I mess up. It’s frustrating that an app this nice is missing something a lot of other drawing apps have, especially when it makes the drawing process much smoother. Please add clipping masks to the mobile app!

I am not an artist. I sketch to capture mechanical ideas and concepts. I use drawings to visualize ideas before committing them to physical materials. Sketchbook has many features that I will probably not use, it is like to much horsepower, nice to know it’s there just in case. As I do more drawings I will gradual use more of the tools. With a dozen sketches completed I am comfortable finding the basic drawing tools and can get myself out of trouble with few surprises. I also like that when I wake up at 2:00 am with a new idea I can pick up the iPad and draw my idea without turning on the lights and waking my partner.

I bought the iPad to draw and store ideas and drawings. With half a room full of three ring binders and notebooks of drawings I need to conserve space. I plan to photograph my notebook sketches for organized storage in the iPad and recycle a lot of paper. Capturing new ideas using Autodesk this app will save a bunch of space while making researching and finding previous ideas much easier. Thanks for a useful app.
J. Heil

About a year ago, I downloaded the this app Xpress app a couple of days after I got my very own iPad Pro, it worked just like the one I have on my Mac computer, but as the months passed, the SBX app told me to ask the developer of Sketchbook to update it or just continue with it’s current version, I went to Sketchbook Store and this one had no new updates, so I was cool with drawing my digital art in that current version anyway, but a year later after I got my own iPad Pro, I updated my iPad Pro to iOS 11, and when that this app Xpress does not work with iOS 11 updates, it put me back to my home page, and then I started looking around to see if I could find my old drawing app’s name and see if I could update it from there, it was not on Sketchbook Store anymore, so I came across Sketchbook, watched three of it’s demonstration videos, and so I deleted my this app Xpress app good bye, and gave this new app a try, and... it actually works better than the ol’ SBX app did once, and I’m already getting the hang of using this new drawing app, I feel like I have much better control on the Autodesk this app app than I did the this app Xpress app, so I like this one now, I’m still learning how to use it, but I know I’m to love this new drawing app from this day forward.

I have been looking for a good artistic app for a very long time, one that has a great selection of brushes and tools, and one that will let you use more than one layer, because most of the art apps I’ve gotten have only let you use up to three layers, and that gets pretty annoying. Sketchbook is exactly what I have been looking for. The detail is really good for being digital, and finally being able to have more than one section of tools really excites me. It is also a lot easier to use than most other art apps I’ve gotten.
One thing I don’t understand is why you have to sign up. I’ve signed up to Sketchbook before because it gave me a free trial for a couple of days, and I loved it. Now I have been using Sketchbook for over a year and it is wanting me to sign up again. I’m a little wary of this, because I don’t know if it will randomly make me sign in to access my drawings, or just to use Sketchbook . So far I’ve been good.

Thank you for making this wonderful app free!!

I cannot believe how much is packed into this free app! With a full color spectrum (or copic marker colors) and the insanely large library of brushes, there is no limit to the types of 2D art one can create in Sketchbook..the marks left by each tool are so realistic/detailed, it will feel like youre working in your favorite medium IRL and not on your phone/tablet.

My only complaint (and why i am giving only 4 stars) is with the interface itself. It is awkward and slow to change brushes or colors, and the “undo” button requires two steps to get to. There is a one step undo in the bottom left but it almost never works, seemingly only undoing a stroke when accidentally touched. All types of transformation (select, copy, cut, paste, transform, duplicate, etc) are found buried; worse, theyre not all even together, with some in layers and others in page layout (also where you’ll find Fill, which makes more sense with brushes no?) I do wish the UX were considered more, model off of an existing structure/format that has proven the test of time. Sure, alter it to fit the this app aesthetic but no need to reinvent the wheel!

I love using this app on my new iPad Pro (late 2018 version) - There’s a decent amount of brushes available and I haven’t had a drawing yet where I’ve reached my limit in layers. Some of the tools available are incredible helpful for some graphic design elements. I do wish there were a few more effects brushes added so I could try more new things with my artwork, but I can’t really complain considering all you get in one free package. One thing I can’t stress enough, though: Sketchbook needs keyboard shortcuts support for any keyboards compatible with the iPad. I have the most recent iPad and the Apple brand soft folio keyboard to go with it, but I am unable to use familiar keyboard shortcuts like Command+C to copy or Command+V to paste. Adding these shortcuts would save me and any other artists with a keyboard loads of time, which can be important when you’re on a deadline or just trying to get into the flow of a new drawing. Other than those two minors tweaks, I love Sketchbook and everything I’ve done with it so far. I can’t wait to see what else I’m able to create with it!

Everything works perfectly and I love how easy it is to control and the smooth drawing but there's only two things wrong, every time I double tap in the corner to undo it it draws on my drawing and I have to zoom out to make sure I don't mess it up. One more thing, once I create my picture and when I go to color it in, can you add a fill bucket? Because I have spent over 4 hours trying to color that SMALL picture without messing anything up, in corners I've gotta lower the size of the brush then when there's a big open space Instead of spending another 30 mins or so I have to turn it up and again and then back down, I mess up I have to do the redo button and then it messes it up more. So what I'm suggesting, can you please add the undo and redo button to the top with the other buttons and then add a fill bucket? It would be greatly appreciated, it's not much to ask but I can deal the undo and redo button but I can not be spending 3-5 hours trying to color in my whole painting when I can paint it in just a tap of a button. Thank you.

I absolutely love Sketchbook. In my opinion, it's the most organized and powerful drawing app on Sketchbook Store currently. There's so many possibilities added as of now that exceed what any other app has in the best way possible, and I appreciate that.

However, I do feel that it's missing a small handful of things that some other iOS apps actually do have. People might actually need these for certain sketches, but that could be prejudiced or biased, as this is what I've personally needed for some sketches.

Here's the things I'd thought of:

• Importing custom fonts for use in the text tool, presumably .ttf and .otf files.
• Adding effects to images, text, and other pre-existing layers. (i.e., glow, stroke, blur, drop shadow, etc.)
• More available locations to import photos as a layer, like iCloud Drive.
• The ability to snap-align photos and text to the center of both axes, for accuracy purposes.

That's what I think should be added, but they're all just my thoughts. It would be nice if you took at least some of them into consideration.

I also noticed that the option to import photos from the sharing module stopped appearing. I assume that it must've been removed. If you could re-add that, that'd be nice, as I found it quite efficient and never had any problems with it.

Overall though, this app is truly a wonderful app. I thank you so much for doing a great job with this, and I hope to continue seeing Sketchbook prosper.

I enjoy Sketchbook a lot, honestly. It’s free, simple, and helpful. But there’s a bug that really irritates me, mainly because you can only get rid of it by downloading and redownloading Sketchbook , and the process of doing so can be extremely annoying and tiring.
The glitch? Basically at random points in time, even after it’s been only 2 days since redownloading again, I’ll be coloring or doing linework, and the same color will look like it’s on another layer, despite it all being on one layer. It can seem minor, but it can be super distracting when it comes to the final product of the art, and makes the whole thing look messy. I have friends I asked about this, and they say they’ve had the same problem, and the only solution I’ve discovered is redownloading over and over again, frequently. I’d really hate to let this go, since I’ve tried other art platforms like MediBang, which proved to be super laggy and a generally useless and unintuitive platform.
Other than that, I enjoy Sketchbook and would recommend to anyone.