ShadowDraw: Learn How to Draw

Name: ShadowDraw: Learn How to Draw
Rating: 4.1 (1667 reviews)
Author: Shadow Draw Inc.

Easy Drawing App for Beginners

Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.

1.7K Ratings
Ages

13+
Years
Category

Graphics & Design
Developer

Shadow Draw Inc.
Language

EN
+ 2 More
Size

859.6
MB

iPad

Learn to draw on iPad with Apple Pencil! ShadowDraw guides beginners step by step — practice daily, have fun, and see your art skills grow. Learn to draw with confidence using your Apple Pencil. Featured by Apple as App of the Day in 2023 and 2025. ShadowDraw® is the easiest way for beginners to learn how to draw on iPad using their Apple Pencil. Our guided lessons teach you step-by-step by showing the real strokes of professional artists, helping you build confidence, accuracy, and real drawing fundamentals from your very first session. LEARN TO DRAW THE SMART, BEGINNER-FRIENDLY WAY  ShadowDraw breaks every drawing into simple, guided steps. You follow the same strokes as a professional artist, learning: * Line control * Shapes & construction * Proportions * Shading * Final detailing  Each step unlocks only after you complete the previous one, giving you a structured, supportive learning path—like having a private art teacher with you on your iPad. THOUSANDS OF STEP-BY-STEP LESSONS  Explore beginner-friendly drawing lessons across the most popular art subjects: * Manga & Anime Characters * People & Portraits * Animals (cats, dogs, horses, birds, dragons, and more) * Architecture & Buildings * Botanical & Nature Drawing * Birds & Butterflies * Coloring & Simple Shading * Holiday & Seasonal Art * Warm-Ups & Foundations * Sketching Basics  With over 2,000 guided tutorials, there’s always something inspiring to draw. PRACTICE YOUR WAY  ShadowDraw offers two flexible learning modes: Art Teacher Mode  We pick brushes and colors so beginners can focus on fundamentals. Sketch My Way  Choose your own tools and colors for creative freedom. BUILD A DAILY DRAWING HABIT  Short, approachable lessons help you build confidence and stay consistent. ShadowDraw makes daily practice easy, fun, and motivating—even for busy beginners. RECOGNIZED BY APPLE & TRUSTED WORLDWIDE  ShadowDraw has been featured in the App Store collections, including: * Incredible iPad Apps * Great with Apple Pencil * Apple Pencil Starter Kit * Better with Apple Pencil * The Best Drawing Apps * The Best Apps for Creatives ShadowDraw has also ranked as the #1 Drawing App in its category. Apple writes:  “With over 1,500 hand-drawn lessons developed by real artists, ShadowDraw is a drawing app for beginners who want to improve their skills through daily step-by-step exercises.” PRAISED BY THE PRESS  The New York Times “ShadowDraw… teaches drawing forms by having you follow along the animated pen strokes of another artist in an updated take on the ‘copying the masters’ approach.” MacBreak Weekly — Pick of the Week “…the next generation of step-by-step.” Also featured by CNET and Creative Bloq. LEARN TOGETHER WITH SHADOWDRAW+  A ShadowDraw+ membership unlocks the full library and supports Family Sharing, so everyone in your household can learn to draw at their own pace. WE’RE HERE TO HELP  Need support or have feedback? Contact us anytime through in-app Chat Support. Email: support@shadowdrawapp.com  Website: shadowdrawapp.com  Instagram: @shadowdraw For our EULA agreement, please visit:  https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ ShadowDraw® and Shadow Draw™ are trademarks of Shadow Draw Inc.

Ratings & Reviews

4.1

out of 5

1.7K Ratings

Amazing app!
12/08/2023

DJ Egerchanp
This is an amazing app, and I really enjoy it, but I was kind of disappointed when I hopped on ready to draw, and then it said I had to pay to draw, and don’t get me wrong. I know this probably was gonna happen because you guys work hard on this app and you don’t deserve to not get paid, but I enjoy drawing animals and the free daily drawing helps a lot but I would appreciate it if you get like gems every time you complete a a drawing based on its difficulty so like two gems if it’s easy five gems if it’s medium and eight gems if it’s hard and like it could cost 10 gems 20 gems to buy a medium drawing and 30 gems to buy a hard drawing or like 100 to buy one set or 200 to buy a medium one and 300 to buy a heart set and I’m not saying the gems have to be easy. They should be kind of hard because you guys work pretty hard on this app I bet, and you could have a gem shop whenever somebody wants to buy a few gems it costs money, and then you could keep your plans to get access to every single plan is just remove gems for the people that have the premium plan or the monthly plan. Anyways, I think this app is really great. I enjoy the free daily drawings that you get my favorite is the owl, the wolf and the dragon queen, I was also wondering if there was a way to post your own drawings make your own tutorials?
Amazing app!
12/08/2023

DJ Egerchanp

This is an amazing app, and I really enjoy it, but I was kind of disappointed when I hopped on ready to draw, and then it said I had to pay to draw, and don’t get me wrong. I know this probably was gonna happen because you guys work hard on this app and you don’t deserve to not get paid, but I enjoy drawing animals and the free daily drawing helps a lot but I would appreciate it if you get like gems every time you complete a a drawing based on its difficulty so like two gems if it’s easy five gems if it’s medium and eight gems if it’s hard and like it could cost 10 gems 20 gems to buy a medium drawing and 30 gems to buy a hard drawing or like 100 to buy one set or 200 to buy a medium one and 300 to buy a heart set and I’m not saying the gems have to be easy. They should be kind of hard because you guys work pretty hard on this app I bet, and you could have a gem shop whenever somebody wants to buy a few gems it costs money, and then you could keep your plans to get access to every single plan is just remove gems for the people that have the premium plan or the monthly plan. Anyways, I think this app is really great. I enjoy the free daily drawings that you get my favorite is the owl, the wolf and the dragon queen, I was also wondering if there was a way to post your own drawings make your own tutorials?
Ambitious, and one of a kind.
07/02/2025

Rabbitsears311
This app offers some very cool exercises, but sadly just a couple of months into a 1 year subscription, I’m waiting for the next great thing, and it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen anything new that’s as great as the Van Gogh or similar paintings. They offer “minimalist” versions instead of full versions of a few other famous paintings, but they really do disappoint in comparison. Also, one of the paintings disappeared at the moment I finished it after over 4000 steps of applying colorful strokes, and they didn’t respond to my email when that happened. More accurately described, this is a digital coloring book, for people who are happy tracing drawings, because it doesn’t provide much in the way of theory, even in concepts as simple and foundational as cross-hatching. They don’t give any info on what brushes the “ teacher” has chosen, or why, and sometimes, it’s clear that the brush they do choose doesn’t match the reference drawing.This app feels like a work in progress from a great development team.

Developer Response
Hi, Thank you for your thoughtful review. We are the only ones who have created this technology of learning to draw. Step by step, and at your own pace. We have done experiments like the Van Gogh drawing. They were tests to see how our technology would work. Also it's tricky because each one of Apple's iPads responds to these graphics differently. The performance relative to how much power the iPad has, plus free space, plus battery life, plus if you have any other apps open. And yes sometimes it did crash. But it's a lot of steps, so we try to figure out what makes it crash. Plus we try to give you new art to draw.... We also work hard to have ShadowDraw be "learn by doing". The more you draw, the more you build up muscle memory and learn to draw more. I am sure there are other apps that let you color great paintings of the past. We try to not compete directly with those apps that focus on the coloring book aspect. I am personally sorry that I didn't get to your email or chat message in time. I do work hard to get to all of them. I do not mean to intentionally ignore it. If I am not replying, it's because I may be working on a bug fix or an update also. We have also researched how to keep getting art lessons that you can't get anywhere else and also teach theory and technique. To put it another way. We think that there are many apps and YouTube videos that teach theory and specific drawing techniques. We can't compete with those. But what we can do is give you lots of great art you can't get anywhere else. Please tell me the apps you like that you give great reviews to. Or tell me the YouTube videos that you like. Or also tell me the YouTube videos that you give hard reviews to for missing things you wish they had. I want to learn from that. Message me in the app and I will gift you some extra time after your year is up :)
Ambitious, and one of a kind.
07/02/2025

Rabbitsears311

This app offers some very cool exercises, but sadly just a couple of months into a 1 year subscription, I’m waiting for the next great thing, and it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen anything new that’s as great as the Van Gogh or similar paintings. They offer “minimalist” versions instead of full versions of a few other famous paintings, but they really do disappoint in comparison. Also, one of the paintings disappeared at the moment I finished it after over 4000 steps of applying colorful strokes, and they didn’t respond to my email when that happened. More accurately described, this is a digital coloring book, for people who are happy tracing drawings, because it doesn’t provide much in the way of theory, even in concepts as simple and foundational as cross-hatching. They don’t give any info on what brushes the “ teacher” has chosen, or why, and sometimes, it’s clear that the brush they do choose doesn’t match the reference drawing.This app feels like a work in progress from a great development team.
Developer Response 07/01/2025
Hi, Thank you for your thoughtful review. We are the only ones who have created this technology of learning to draw. Step by step, and at your own pace. We have done experiments like the Van Gogh drawing. They were tests to see how our technology would work. Also it's tricky because each one of Apple's iPads responds to these graphics differently. The performance relative to how much power the iPad has, plus free space, plus battery life, plus if you have any other apps open. And yes sometimes it did crash. But it's a lot of steps, so we try to figure out what makes it crash. Plus we try to give you new art to draw.... We also work hard to have ShadowDraw be "learn by doing". The more you draw, the more you build up muscle memory and learn to draw more. I am sure there are other apps that let you color great paintings of the past. We try to not compete directly with those apps that focus on the coloring book aspect. I am personally sorry that I didn't get to your email or chat message in time. I do work hard to get to all of them. I do not mean to intentionally ignore it. If I am not replying, it's because I may be working on a bug fix or an update also. We have also researched how to keep getting art lessons that you can't get anywhere else and also teach theory and technique. To put it another way. We think that there are many apps and YouTube videos that teach theory and specific drawing techniques. We can't compete with those. But what we can do is give you lots of great art you can't get anywhere else. Please tell me the apps you like that you give great reviews to. Or tell me the YouTube videos that you like. Or also tell me the YouTube videos that you give hard reviews to for missing things you wish they had. I want to learn from that. Message me in the app and I will gift you some extra time after your year is up :)
THE BEST APP TO LEARN HOW TO DRAW PERIOD!!!
05/12/2020

Darius - the IPad Pro Rookie
Stop looking for other drawing apps because you just found the best drawing app there is PERIOD. This is by FAR the definitive, must have, absolute winner of the drawing apps. Not only is there so, SO much content to learn how to draw, the way in which the tutorials work are intuitive. If I can draw using this app, trust me you can too! Step by step tracing instructions, abilities to alter the canvas and zoom in and out to better see the strokes and the endless amount of subjects to draw! You want to learn how to draw faces better? They got it, Male and female faces. You wanna draw horses better? They got it! You wanna learn how to draw mountains, trees, bushes, landscapes, portraits, THEY GOT IT! If they don’t have it, message their team. I have never had customer support like this. These people actually do care, I know that makes you uncomfortable thinking that they actually do care. But they do so get over it! I love this app. It will never get old. Even when I become a professional artist! I’ll know where to hone my skills. Man I am thirsty. Gotta go! Download this app now! You won’t regret it!
THE BEST APP TO LEARN HOW TO DRAW PERIOD!!!
05/12/2020

Darius - the IPad Pro Rookie

Stop looking for other drawing apps because you just found the best drawing app there is PERIOD. This is by FAR the definitive, must have, absolute winner of the drawing apps. Not only is there so, SO much content to learn how to draw, the way in which the tutorials work are intuitive. If I can draw using this app, trust me you can too! Step by step tracing instructions, abilities to alter the canvas and zoom in and out to better see the strokes and the endless amount of subjects to draw! You want to learn how to draw faces better? They got it, Male and female faces. You wanna draw horses better? They got it! You wanna learn how to draw mountains, trees, bushes, landscapes, portraits, THEY GOT IT! If they don’t have it, message their team. I have never had customer support like this. These people actually do care, I know that makes you uncomfortable thinking that they actually do care. But they do so get over it! I love this app. It will never get old. Even when I become a professional artist! I’ll know where to hone my skills. Man I am thirsty. Gotta go! Download this app now! You won’t regret it!
I would give this a 10 out of 10
05/26/2025

Arty828
I love when you finish drawing there’s an option like add a few of the finishing touches I don’t know sign yeah and when you go to your sketches there is the thing that you didn’t do anything to it and you finished it in days that you did something I don’t know how to explain there is something about this game that I love do you know why don’t I know how to explain I’m a kid I’m nice also I don’t have an iPad Apple Pencil iPad pencil I don’t know what to call it so I’m just playing with my fingers and just makes it so hard but you can just add the finishing touches that you know this when you finish button yeah when you touch The button you can like color and add your own little touches and I love it I love to draw, and I’m just thinking if I keep practicing on the iPad on this I might actually learn how to draw on paper yeah actually I know how to draw a paper. It’s just easier when they do that I just do that on the paper is the on your device
I would give this a 10 out of 10
05/26/2025

Arty828

I love when you finish drawing there’s an option like add a few of the finishing touches I don’t know sign yeah and when you go to your sketches there is the thing that you didn’t do anything to it and you finished it in days that you did something I don’t know how to explain there is something about this game that I love do you know why don’t I know how to explain I’m a kid I’m nice also I don’t have an iPad Apple Pencil iPad pencil I don’t know what to call it so I’m just playing with my fingers and just makes it so hard but you can just add the finishing touches that you know this when you finish button yeah when you touch The button you can like color and add your own little touches and I love it I love to draw, and I’m just thinking if I keep practicing on the iPad on this I might actually learn how to draw on paper yeah actually I know how to draw a paper. It’s just easier when they do that I just do that on the paper is the on your device

This update brings ShadowDraw up to date with the latest iOS design system and introduces a new way to track your lesson progress. • New progress bar that fills as you complete each step of a lesson  • Full-width design for clear, continuous feedback as you draw • Improved compatibility with the latest iPad system updates Enjoying ShadowDraw? Your review helps our team keep improving and helps other beginners discover the app.

Version 2026.3 Mar 26

Subscriptions

ShadowDraw: Monthly Plan

Premium access to ShadowDraw+ for one month.

Free Trial
ShadowDraw: Yearly Plan

Premium access to ShadowDraw+ for one year.

Free Trial

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- User Content
- Identifiers
- Usage Data
- Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Accessibility

Information

Seller: Shadow Draw
Size: 859.6 MB
Category: Graphics & Design
Compatibility: Requires iPadOS 16.0 or later.

iPad
Requires iPadOS 16.0 or later.

Mac
Requires macOS 13.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.

Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
Languages: English and 2 more

English, Spanish, Swedish
Age Rating: 13+

13+

Learn More

Infrequent
Mature or Suggestive Themes
Alcohol, Tobacco, Drug Use or References
Sexual Content or Nudity
Guns or Other Weapons
In-App Purchases: Yes

ShadowDraw: Monthly Plan $7.99

ShadowDraw: Yearly Plan $49.99

Learn More

Developer Website

Privacy Policy

Supports

Family Sharing

Some in-app purchases and subscriptions may be shareable with your family group when Family Sharing is enabled. Learn More

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ShadowDraw: Learn How to Draw

Ratings & Reviews

Amazing app!

Ambitious, and one of a kind.

THE BEST APP TO LEARN HOW TO DRAW PERIOD!!!

I would give this a 10 out of 10

What’s New

Subscriptions

ShadowDraw: Monthly Plan

ShadowDraw: Yearly Plan

App Privacy

Data Not Linked to You

Accessibility

Information

Supports

Family Sharing

You Might Also Like

Art Set 4

MediBang Paint – Drawing & Art

Tayasui Sketches

Sketch Pro: Draw & Create Art

Tools for Procreate

Sketchar: AR Drawing App

Clip Studio Paint

Prêt à Template

Concepts

Brushes for Procreate