Art App Review
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Procreate is an intuitive digital illustration app available for drawing and painting on an iPad and can be downloaded at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/procreate/id425073498
The app comes with an entire library of brushes from different pencil types, inks, charcoals, to artistic brushes that form realistic looking painterly textures. Each brush can be customized with the Brush Studio and there are also thousands of brushes in a myriad styles available to download. Brushes can also be custom created from scratch.
A few of my artist friends have been using this app for years and I finally decided to purchase an iPad pro, Apple pencil, and the app this year to maximize my digital art experience. Procreate costs a single payment of $9.99 and as a working professional, I think that’s a fair price for such a powerful app that has a lot to offer. However, for schools with zero or low funding, the cost would make it challenging to offer the program for all students. Another downside of this app is that it is specifically made for iPad Pro on iOS 11.1 or newer. It cannot be installed on Androids or regular and older iPad versions limiting schools’ options if they do not have the funds to purchase the latest iPad Pros for students.
The app comes with an entire library of brushes from different pencil types, inks, charcoals, to artistic brushes that form realistic looking painterly textures. Each brush can be customized with the Brush Studio and there are also thousands of brushes in a myriad styles available to download. Brushes can also be custom created from scratch.
A few of my artist friends have been using this app for years and I finally decided to purchase an iPad pro, Apple pencil, and the app this year to maximize my digital art experience. Procreate costs a single payment of $9.99 and as a working professional, I think that’s a fair price for such a powerful app that has a lot to offer. However, for schools with zero or low funding, the cost would make it challenging to offer the program for all students. Another downside of this app is that it is specifically made for iPad Pro on iOS 11.1 or newer. It cannot be installed on Androids or regular and older iPad versions limiting schools’ options if they do not have the funds to purchase the latest iPad Pros for students.
Yesterday was the first time I used this app to create a digital illustration. Prior to using this app, I’ve mainly used Adobe Illustrator to make digital art. I found the app to be intuitive and user-friendly-- I never needed to look up instructions or tutorials on how to change brushes and colors. However, if someone needed more instructions, I found there are lots of sites offering tutorials on Procreate and even professional classes on sites such as Skillshare.
Just like Adobe Illustrator, one can paint and draw with almost an endless array of color options. Color choices can be controlled through Color Dynamics, Color Harmony, and Color History options. The artist can also touch hold the canvas to pick up an exact color they want to reuse, an option comparable to the eyedropper tool in Adobe Illustrator. I loved that the brush library is way more extensive with a plethora of options than found in Illustrator. This app is amazing in that it is a lot more intuitive than Illustrator because artists can draw directly on the iPad screen as if they are drawing directly on the canvas and the pressure applied on the Apple pencil mimics drawing pressures using a real pencil or brush.
Just like Adobe Illustrator, one can paint and draw with almost an endless array of color options. Color choices can be controlled through Color Dynamics, Color Harmony, and Color History options. The artist can also touch hold the canvas to pick up an exact color they want to reuse, an option comparable to the eyedropper tool in Adobe Illustrator. I loved that the brush library is way more extensive with a plethora of options than found in Illustrator. This app is amazing in that it is a lot more intuitive than Illustrator because artists can draw directly on the iPad screen as if they are drawing directly on the canvas and the pressure applied on the Apple pencil mimics drawing pressures using a real pencil or brush.
Another option not found in Illustrator but blew my mind in the app, is the time-lapse replay video of every step I took to create my drawing. I can envision students really loving this video replay option to assess adjustments they made and all the progress achieved towards their final artwork. I think middle and high schoolers would find this app exciting to use. The only concern about this app besides possible unavailable funding is that it seems very easy to take an image from the internet and trace over it to create drawings. This would hinder students from improving their hand-eye coordination and drawing skills.
Overall, I foresee using this app in classrooms to complement traditional drawing and painting classes but not to replace them. The app is fantastic in that it reduces waste and could be worth its price in all the money saved from buying drawing paper, pencils, paints, canvases. It is also time-friendly in that students don’t have to wash brushes and change brush sizes and switch out tools from using pencils to paints— instead, they can do that instantaneously with the touch of a button. There is also no mess of paint splatters or eraser particles to clean up on desks in the classroom. However, it could never replace the experience students learn of color theory in actually mixing paints themselves and creating the three dimensional textures with the layers of real paint on canvas.
Overall, I foresee using this app in classrooms to complement traditional drawing and painting classes but not to replace them. The app is fantastic in that it reduces waste and could be worth its price in all the money saved from buying drawing paper, pencils, paints, canvases. It is also time-friendly in that students don’t have to wash brushes and change brush sizes and switch out tools from using pencils to paints— instead, they can do that instantaneously with the touch of a button. There is also no mess of paint splatters or eraser particles to clean up on desks in the classroom. However, it could never replace the experience students learn of color theory in actually mixing paints themselves and creating the three dimensional textures with the layers of real paint on canvas.
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