iPad Pro as a drawing tool.

[aevan]

So I'm just wondering what peoples experiences are with using the iPad Pro as a drawing device. I've read reviews, but I feel like they fall short since they're usually done after a short period of use. I want to know how it holds up day to day long term kinda stuff. Kind of a niche application I suppose, but hopefully some people here have some good insights.

Thanks!

I've been drawing on an iPad Pro for more than a year. In my work, I tried and owned a lot of drawing devices - Intuos, Cintiq and Surface products.

Apple Pencil and iPad Pro offer the best drawing experience of all the devices I have tried. The weight and feel of the Pencil, the lack of paralax, the latency - are all best on the market. However, the most important thing is the activation force and the pressure curve. Not to get too technical, basically, it's how easily (or hard) can you naturally achieve the exact pressure (meaning line thickness or opacity) and sustain it over the lenght of the line.

Also, when it comes to portability, iPad Pro wins easily.

However, things are never that simple. All this doesn't matter at all if the software is not good. Luckily, things are much better these days than they were before, but you still might require a desktop/laptop software for certain workflows.

- iOS 11 is great, even better than macOS/Windows at certain tasks (like collecting reference)
- Procreate 4 (I've been testing the beta) is really amazing. For sketching, painting - it easily matches or surpases Photoshop.
- Affinity Photo is a full Photoshop replacement in every way, but drawing is, sadly, a bit off. Doable, but not as good as Procreate.

So, basically, if you just care about illustration - iPad Pro is the best there is. Really, it's the best when it comes to the feel of the drawing, mobility, snappiness, usability. If you want something more - like graphical design - a good old mouse, keyboard and Adobe software is still king. And 3D like Zbrush or 3D Coat - nothing close on iPad.


Almost all illustrators and concept artists I follow now use iPad Pros in addition to their Wacoms, or exclusively.


So, there you go. Choose based on your planned workflow.

P.S. Apple's line is not "most laptops" and iPad is faster than "most" (more or less). It is faster than MacBooks, for example, and Apple doesn't hide hide this. But the main point here is that most PC laptops - are cheap laptops. And they use crappy components and are much slower than iPads in any practical sense. Anyway, it's marketing. And also the truth, really.

 

[spesifikbrush]

Go for it. 100% worth it. iPad Pro and Apple Pencil are the ULTIMATE digital drawing experience in my honest opinion. I've bought a 9.7 Pro with Pencil a year ago, it boosted my productivity and inspiration like A LOT. Having such powerful apps in your fingertips is awesome. When I sold my iPad Pro and got a Galaxy Tab S3, the remorse was huge. Fortunately, I am back with an Pro 10.5, and I am loving the drawing experience more than ever! There's almost no lag (20ms is very short!). The app named Procreate is by far the BEST app for drawing. For a Photoshop alternative, there's Affinity Photo. You can find almost every PS feature on it (It also have a desktop app, which is basically same. I wish Adobe brought their app to iPad Pro like Serif did).

Also, iOS 11 is coming and if you saw the videos of it, you know that iPad is going to be more like a computer without losing its perks. Procreate 4 will come when it is released, it embraces the features of iOS 11 like Drag & Drop, Metal 2 etc.

Since the new iPad Pro's are out since July, it's a great time to get one. If you want it to be portable with no performance compromises, 10.5. If you want a bigger screen no matter what, 12.9. These two right now, comes with a free Beats X. You can even get the 9.7 model if you want to save money. The choice is yours. I hope you'll be happy with it ^^

 

[max2]

Yes but what is the best drawing app then ? I know I know everyone says procreate but is it really?

 

[DaniJoy]

Yes but what is the best drawing app then ? I know I know everyone says procreate but is it really?

best if you like raster drawing.

 

[aevan]

Yes but what is the best drawing app then ? I know I know everyone says procreate but is it really?

As DaniJoy said, for "raster" painting (non-vector) - Procreate is the best. Solid alternatives are Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, Paintstorm, MediBang Paint and Affinity Photo. But for many reasons, Procreate is the best.

For Photo editing and Photoshop replacement (in everything that is not drawing) - Affinity Photo is really, really powerful. It can also be used for painting, but the feel is not as good as Procreate. Also, for Photo stuff, Pixelmator is nice too, but not as powerful as Affinity.

Finally, for vector drawing, there are a few cool apps, but when Affinity Designer comes out, I believe it will be the best app for that on the iPad.