The beauty of digital drawing is its ability to be both accessible and mobile. Traditionally, drawing requires paper, a wide range of colored drawing utensils, a flat surface to lean against and a few extra tools like erasers and sharpeners. When drawing digitally, all you need is your tablet and stylus of choice.

Your daily commute on the metro can turn into an opportunity to work on the portrait you’re gifting your mom for her birthday. Waiting for your flight to take off can be transformed into a chance to catch up on some creative client work. By being able to work from anywhere, you can further develop your creativity and increase the amount of time you spend refining your drawing skills.

Digital Drawing 101

When it was first invented, digital drawing meant dragging a few pixelated lines across your screen using your mouse or trackpad. Today, with hundreds of apps made for digital drawing or digital painting, you can create lifelike watercolor flowers, detailed landscapes and eye-catching characters just like you might with paper and pen. 

With digital drawing, you have an infinite blank page where you can start as many projects as you desire. You also have access to millions of colors, which you can either blend yourself or select from a pre-created color palette. With the ability to undo, redo, resize and layer with ease, you can just have fun creating without worrying about every stroke being perfect.  

Eight images are visible on a white background. Each image shows the way the artist has transformed her digital art into products including a mug, a rug, a candle, a holiday card, a tote bag, a shower curtain, a kitchen towel, and greeting cards. Each product features some sort of cat or dog drawing. 
Class still from Skillshare class Drawing in Adobe Illustrator: How to Retain the Artist's Hand by Kris Ruff This artist took her dog and cat drawings and transformed them into a variety of products. 

If you’re not sure if digital drawing is for you, try recreating a sketch you already have. This will give you an opportunity to explore your digital drawing app of choice and compare it to your usual workflow. If you create products like prints, coffee mugs or tote bags with your designs and you have to digitize your sketches to do so, you won’t have to worry about that if you’re starting digitally from scratch. 

Equipment for Starting Your Digital Drawing Journey

A first-generation apple pencil sits on a white background.
Still from Skillshare class Fashion Illustration: Digital Drawing with Attitude by Danielle Meder When choosing your digital drawing equipment, it’s important to consider both software capability and whether it will work well with your unique art style. 

Unlike traditional drawing, you won’t need paper, pencils and erasers to get started. Which equipment you choose will be based on your unique goals and drawing style but everyone who plans to start drawing digitally should invest in the following:

  • Tablet: One of the most commonly used devices for digital drawing is the tablet. There is a wide range of tablets you can try but when making your final choice, consider your budget as well as the tablet’s pressure sensitivity, active area, resolution and software capability. 
  • Stylus: When choosing a stylus you can consider its grip and comfort, tip sensitivity, button functionality, battery life and software capability. 
  • Computer: While tablets are often chosen for their mobility, you can also use a computer to draw digitally. You can either choose a computer with a touch screen that is sensitive to pressure or use a graphics tablet. 
  • Graphics tablet: A graphics tablet is a flat drawing surface that will digitize your hand-drawn creations as you draw. Also known as a digitizer, a pen tablet, and a drawing tablet, graphics tablets are loved for their natural drawing experience, portability and software capability. 
  • Smartphone: While it is a smaller canvas, you can draw digitally on your phone using your finger or a stylus. Since this digital drawing tool can fit in your pocket, you can take this digital canvas just about anywhere. 

Choosing the Ideal Drawing Software 

When deciding on the right drawing software for you, you can consider the tools you already have. Procreate, which is one of the most popular digital art apps, only works with the iPad so you won’t be able to use it with other tablets. If you’re still not sure about digital drawing, see if you have any friends who will let you use their digital drawing tools for an afternoon. By borrowing from a friend first, you can test out a few different drawing software options and tools without making an investment first. 

Another thing to consider is the app's capabilities and your future goals. Procreate’s animation capabilities might be something you’d be interested in as your digital drawing skills improve. Procreate’s resources like their brush studio might make an investment in the app worthwhile if you like to have a lot of unique brushes at your disposal. 

Depending on your budget, you should also consider that you have paid and free options when choosing a drawing software.

1. Adobe Fresco

A popular free digital drawing and painting app, Adobe Fresco can be used on iOS and iPadOS devices. With a large library of brushes, a non-destructive editing workflow and a wide variety of tools for creating detailed art, this app works well for beginners and experts alike. 

2. Procreate

The Procreate app is open to a digital drawing of a woman looking back over her shoulder. She has long brown hair tied up in a bun and dark makeup and lips. The artist made the portrait with a sketchy but striking style. 
Still from Procreate Portraits: Using Layering and Analog Elements for Striking Digital Art by Nadia ValeskaEven digital drawings can look like they were drawn on paper with the right tools. 

Also available on iPadOS, Procreate is well-known for its blending modes, masks and customizable brushes. Procreate also supports animation which means you can make dynamic digital creations from your drawings. 

3. Krita

A completely free and open-source digital drawing software, Krita is a powerful and versatile tool for digital drawing as well as 2D animation. Since it is available on Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, it also has a large and active community of users.

Digital Drawing Explored: The Motivation Behind Its Use

A lot of artists who used to exclusively draw in a sketchbook have made the transition to digital drawing. With its versatility, accessibility and mobility, digital drawing can be an easy choice for those who like to draw on the go, prefer a digital aesthetic or want to be able to adjust their creation as they go. 

Digital drawing can be appealing because it is:

  • Constantly evolving with regular Improvements and upgrades
  • Easy and convenient 
  • Adaptable to the user with its wide variety of brushes and tools
  • Versatile especially when it comes to exporting a wide variety of digital files and creating different artistic aesthetics 
  • Cost-effective
  • Quick and efficient 
  • Easily archivable and preserved since you don’t have to worry about your creations getting damaged or lost if they’re safely saved to the cloud
  • Easily corrected with undo/redo tools

Unleash Your Imagination With the Magic of Digital Drawing

This next week, get started on your digital drawing journey by either borrowing a few tools from a creative friend or family member or buying what you need to get started. You can try exploring a few different software with free trials and see which feels the best for you.

Have fun exploring and experimenting and take the time you need before diving into any big projects. In just a few months, you might be amazed at how your digital drawings have transformed. If you’re a beginner or a professional looking to develop your digital drawing skills even further using software like Procreate and Adobe Illustrator, Skillshare has the best class selection.

Written By
Calli Zarpas

Calli Zarpas

Producer & Writer by occupation. Ceramicist & Newsletter Editor by avocation.

  • Click here to share on Twitter
  • Click here to share on Facebook
  • Click here to share on LinkedIn
  • Click here to share on Pinterest