If you’re looking to create digital drawings and other graphics, you’ll need to find a suitable software. Adobe Illustrator is the professional mainstay for this. But the pricetag for that is considerable, and I like to promote free software choices. Here are some fantastic free illustration software offerings, for you to try!
Krita is highly regarded as a professional-grade painting program. You’re welcome to install it on Windows, MacOS or linux.
Inkscape is a similar full-featured software, and is also downloadable for Windows, MacOS and Linux systems.
Sumo Paint allows you to draw and create in your browser, so it’s largely OS-independent. Use on your Chromebook, if you like!
ArtWeaver has a free version that you may install on Windows only.
Sketchbook is available for Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS. It has a $20 pricetag if you want it for your computer, but is free to download onto any mobile device.
Microsoft offers two apps for digital art creation, one is Paint 3D and the other is Fresh Paint. These are both free, but also only for Windows.
Adobe Fresco is a freemium offering, for iOS and Windows devices. By freemium, I mean that it starts out free, but as you bump into the limitations of the app, Adobe is ready to sell you the extra features they have locked up. Adobe Fresco is not (yet) available for Android or MacOS.
Vectornator is only available for iOS (iPhones & iPads).
You’ll find that some photo-editing apps also help with drawing projects, but what I’ve listed here are focused on art creation and likely offer the best tools for that. Enjoy!
PS: Adobe Express is a new free web-based tool to consider. It’s trying to do a lot of things, ranging from photo-editing to graphics creation to helping with your social media posts and videos. It could be a great freebie for any of your graphic design pursuits!
Hi Jesse! Thank you for the great program links! It is greatly appreciated. I have a question though. They’d be great for the iPad. When you say MacOS do you also mean iOS?
No, there is a difference there. Apple computers run on the MacOS, while Apple tablet and phone run on iOS.
So for the options above, I think only Sumo Paint would work for your iPad. Oh no, wait, Sketchbook will work on the iPad, I need to correct the post!!!
If I find other apps appropriate for iOS, I will add them to this post.