APP
OF THE
DAY
Tayasui Sketches
Digital Drawing: Draw & Paint
Some sketching apps can feel intimidating, as if you needed graduate degrees in both fine art and computer science to make them work.
Tayasui Sketches is different. All you need is your finger.
The app’s minimalist interface on iPhone or iPad hides an assortment of advanced tools and elaborate color and brush options behind sliding menus. They’re there when you need them and blissfully out of sight when you’re creating.
The app’s brief tutorial tells you where everything is. Find several pen-tip and paintbrush types, a marker, a crayon, an airbrush, a blending instrument, a ruler, and even an an X-Acto knife at the bottom of the screen.
And they’re all shockingly true to life. (Well, the X-Acto knife isn’t quite as sharp.)
You draw with your finger or Apple Pencil. Push a little harder to get a thicker, more intense line, or tilt the brush to achieve different gradients.
If you have sketcher’s block and need some inspiration, tap the paper button to get out of your drawing, swipe down to find the Sketches Community, then tap in to see new, popular, and featured drawings made by real people.
Tayasui Sketches is available for free, but if you want to take your art to the next level, consider upgrading to Pro with a onetime in-app purchase.
There you’ll gain access to additional technical tools like curved rulers and more advanced layering. Enjoy bonus color options, patterns, gradients, and extra brushes with new variations. Best of all, unlock Wet Watercolor, which makes paint blend so magically that it looks like the real thing.