The 10 Best Drawing Apps for Android

Find the best Android drawing app for your tablet whether you're a pro or a beginner

This article highlights the 10 best drawing apps for Android tablets whether you’re looking for a high-end feature-packed Android drawing app or a simple one for making the occasional doodle or sketch.

01
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Best Professional Android Drawing App: Sketchbook

Sketchbook Android drawing app on a tablet.
What We Like
  • Advanced image editing tools for professional artists.

  • All features are completely free to use.

What We Don't Like
  • Missing blur and sharpen tools.

  • No basic image filters.

Sketchbook is a completely free drawing app for Android tablets that boasts an absolutely massive selection of digital brushes, rulers, and other image drawing tools. The Sketchbook app is perfectly fine for those simply wanting to do some basic sketches but it’s primarily aimed at more advanced digital artists and is fully capable of producing professional-grade artwork.

02
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Best Pixel Art Drawing App on Android: dotpict

dotpict drawing app on an Android tablet.
What We Like
  • All the required tools for making pixel artwork.

  • Community features make it easy to get inspired.

What We Don't Like
  • App can take a while to load on older tablets.

  • Some features can be hard to find.

Dotpict is a drawing app designed purely for creating pixel artwork. The app lets you zoom in on a grid and manually draw an image dot-by-dot or use its tools for creating shapes for speedier image creation. What sets dotpict apart from its rivals is its online functionality that lets you view images made by others and download custom color palettes.

While this drawing app does have ads in its menus, these can be removed for a one-off $4.49 upgrade which also unlocks additional brushes and layers.

03
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Best Drawing App for Google Fans: Google Keep Notes

Drawing of Pikachu in Google Keep Notes drawing app on Android.
What We Like
  • Completely free to use.

  • All creations are saved to your Google account.

What We Don't Like
  • Switching between drawing and typing can be frustrating.

Google Keep Notes is a free app designed by Google for taking both typed and handwritten notes. You won’t be making any high-end digital artwork in this free Google app but it can be helpful for making quick sketches or brainstorming illustrations. A number of brush types and ink colors are available and all drawings made automatically sync to the cloud via your Google account and can be accessed on other devices.

04
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Best Animation Drawing App on Android: Animatic

Animatic animation drawing app on Android tablet.
What We Like
  • Really easy to make basic animations.

  • Videos can be exported in MP4 or GIF formats.

What We Don't Like
  • Lacks advanced options like aspect ratio and resolution.

  • No sound options.

Animatic is a great app for drawing animations quickly and sharing them with friends or followers online. The app’s UI is incredibly easy to understand with navigation between each animation frame being just a tap away at any time during the drawing process. Projects can be exported as animated GIFs or MP4 videos. You can also share the project file with another Animatic user for them to work on or check.

05
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Most Realistic Android Drawing App: Bamboo Paper

Bamboo Paper drawing app on Android tablet.
What We Like
  • Great visualization of the different notebooks.

  • The Quick Note widget is useful.

What We Don't Like
  • Lacks advanced export and save options.

Few notebook apps recreate the physical notebook experience as well as Bamboo Paper. From the custom cover colors to the interior page styles, you really do feel like you’re using a real notebook for your quick notes and sketches. The usual brush and color options are available for drawing in Bamboo Paper and individual pages can be exported to a number of photo and cloud apps and services. It’s worth noting though that advanced export options aren’t available. Individual pages will be saved in the PNG file format while exporting every page in a notebook will create a PDF or WILL file.

06
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Best Android Drawing App for Groups: Microsoft Whiteboard

Microsoft Whiteboard app on Android tablet.
What We Like
  • Completely free to use.

  • Great for collaborating with others.

What We Don't Like
  • Can be a bit slow on older Android tablets.

  • Need a Microsoft account to use.

Microsoft Whiteboard is a free app that acts as a digital whiteboard. You can write or draw on it using a variety of brushes, pens, stamps, and other tools. Importing images from other services or your device is also supported, making Microsoft Whiteboard ideal for creating vision boards or illustrating brainstorms. All progress on boards is automatically uploaded to the cloud so friends or contacts you’ve shared a board with can see your changes and make their own in real-time.

07
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Best Android App for Drawing on Video: SCAR

SCAR drawing app on Android tablet.
What We Like
  • 4K video recording.

  • Easy to add a watermark on recorded video. 

What We Don't Like
  • Initial setup can be intimidating.

  • Advertising in the UI is annoying.

Screen Capture and Recorder, or SCAR for short, is a free app that supports making screencaps and screen recordings of almost anything shown on an Android tablet. SCAR features some basic tools for drawing on its screen-capped images but its main focus is video recording which lets you record a video and then draw on the footage. This Android app is perfect for those looking to add annotations or watermarks to their videos.

08
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Best Android App for Drawing on Screenshots: Screenshot Touch

Screenshot Touch Android drawing app.
What We Like
  • Very easy to draw and write on screenshots.

  • Convenient tools for quickly hiding private content.

What We Don't Like
  • Some confusing language in the UI.

Screenshot Touch, as its name suggests, is an app that excels at taking screenshots and editing them with touch controls. The usual paintbrush and text features are present but the real benefit of this Android app is its extra tools, such as the blur box, which can be used to quickly and conveniently cover sensitive content in a matter of seconds.

09
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Best Alternative Drawing App for Android: Infinite Painter

Infinite Painter Android drawing app.
What We Like
  • Absolutely massive number of drawing tools.

  • Works well on old Android tablets.

What We Don't Like
  • May be too much for casual artists.

Infinite Painter, previously called Infinite Paper, is an incredibly impressive drawing app for Android devices that boasts a plethora of brush types, color tools, pattern libraries, and more. Talented digital artists have everything they need here to produce some professional-grade artwork and, best of all, this app works incredibly well on the cheap $90 Android tablet that it was tested on. Infinite Painter is a solid alternative drawing app for those having difficulty working with or simply dislike, Sketchbook.

10
of 10

Best App for Making a Drawing Habit: Sketch A Day: Daily Challenges

Daily Challenge Android drawing app.
What We Like
  • Free daily drawing projects to keep you motivated.

  • Loads of community features to inspire.

  • Free digital drawing tutorials.

What We Don't Like
  • Can’t draw within the app though this does allow greater artistic freedom.

The Sketch A Day: Daily Challenges app doesn’t actually feature any drawing functionality, but it’s still an app that many Android tablet artists will want to check out. This app is designed to motivate artists to draw every single day by presenting you with a chosen theme that the entire user base is tasked with completing. Everyone has a day or two to upload their artwork for the daily project and then, a day later, a new topic is announced. A number of in-app achievements are used to further encourage you to participate with a new drawing every day and a collection of free tutorials from other users can be used to take your artistry to the next level.

FAQ
  • How do I use an Android tablet as a drawing tablet for PC?

    You'll need an app to add this functionality to your Android tablet. One good option is Chrome Remote Desktop, which lets you share your screen between the tablet and a computer.

  • How do I digitize a drawing in Android?

    If you have a drawing on paper that you want to move to your Android, the easiest way is to take a picture of it with your device's camera. From there, you can import it to a drawing or editing app to add color, make changes, or other options.

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