Sketch on iPad Pro?

[Mr. K]

I plan to buy a new iPad Pro and I want to sketch with it. I own both AF Designer and AF Photo desktop. I want to make sketches that look like they are drawn with a pencil, so I don't need any vector graphics. Is AF Photo for iPad a better choice for this type of creations?

[Callum]

Hi M.K,

You could buy photo then use the below forum thread to make a pencil brush

 

Thanks

C

[Alfred]

I’m not an artist, but if I had to choose between AD and APh on iPad for sketching I would go for AD because it allows you to tweak vector brush strokes with the Pencil Tool ‘Sculpt’ feature.

[Mr. K]

Looking closer at these I think I need to go another route. I need an app that's really a "Sketch" type.

[Alfred]

22 minutes ago, Mr. K said:

I need an app that's really a "Sketch" type.

Adobe Photoshop Sketch, perhaps, or Procreate?

[Mr. K]

Anything Adobe scares me since they are always looking for me to pay a subscription fee. I like how Procreate looks, but I spoke with my cousin yesterday who uses it to draw her fabulous portraits, and she tells me there is no cloud integration. She has to manually email a copy to herself every time she wants to back up her work. I don't want to work that hard. I just want to draw! I'm doing more research. To continue this discussion here now may be inappropriate since it is no longer Affinity related. I see other options when I search for sketch app. Thanks for your input.

[Phojoegraphy]

15 hours ago, Mr. K said:

I plan to buy a new iPad Pro and I want to sketch with it. I own both AF Designer and AF Photo desktop. I want to make sketches that look like they are drawn with a pencil, so I don't need any vector graphics. Is AF Photo for iPad a better choice for this type of creations?

Procreate is the best sketch app IMO. It's the fastest raster based drawing app I've used on the iPad Pro and the interface really gets out of the way and lets you draw. You can do full on finished artwork with it as well. I use Procreate and Affinity Designer every day. Both Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo have very good pencil tools also, but I personally prefer doing my actual drawing in Procreate because it's just got a more fluid engine that feels better to me when making a mark. I suggest hitting an Apple store and maying giving them a try . My local one has Procreate and Affinity on their demo iPads.  

[Mr. K]

3 hours ago, Phojoegraphy said:

Procreate is the best sketch app IMO. It's the fastest raster based drawing app I've used on the iPad Pro and the interface really gets out of the way and lets you draw. You can do full on finished artwork with it as well. I use Procreate and Affinity Designer every day. Both Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo have very good pencil tools also, but I personally prefer doing my actual drawing in Procreate because it's just got a more fluid engine that feels better to me when making a mark. I suggest hitting an Apple store and maying giving them a try . My local one has Procreate and Affinity on their demo iPads.  

How do you deal with backing up your work using Procreate?

[Phojoegraphy]

1 hour ago, Mr. K said:

How do you deal with backing up your work using Procreate?

Make sure the app is set to back up to iCloud and it will reinstall your work if you need to do a fresh install. It also saves out to the files app, so you can send files to any cloud storage or Airdrop to your Mac. You can export a native layered Procreate file, PSD, JPG, PNG etc. Affinity apps work the same way. 

[Alfred]

5 hours ago, Phojoegraphy said:

My local one has Procreate and Affinity on their demo iPads.

It’s nice to be able to ‘try before you buy’, but (in the UK at least) Procreate is half the price of AD for iPad, so you wouldn’t exactly be throwing away megabucks if you went ahead and purchased it, only to discover later on that it didn’t really suit you.

[Mr. K]

4 hours ago, Phojoegraphy said:

Make sure the app is set to back up to iCloud

Can you explain how this is done please?

[DM1]

2 hours ago, Mr. K said:

Can you explain how this is done please?

You might also like to check out Artstudio Pro for iPad.

[Mr. K]

Nice! So once the storage is set to iCloud does that mean you can find them on your Mac's drive, convert them to JPGs (if needed), and then save them in Photos?

[DM1]

Sorry I don't have a Mac but if the Procreate file is saved on iCloud and you have Procreate on the Mac, I see no reason why you would not be able to. Procreate have a new release out today with some nice added features. Hint to Serif - c'mon guys time you released an update for all those annoying bugs that are spoiling an otherwise brilliant app. 

[Phojoegraphy]

On 11/7/2018 at 8:15 AM, Mr. K said:

Nice! So once the storage is set to iCloud does that mean you can find them on your Mac's drive, convert them to JPGs (if needed), and then save them in Photos?

Procreate is not a MAC app - iPad only. You can export a layered PSD or any flat image file (TIF, JPG, PNG, etc) from the iPad app and into iCloud drive, (or Dropbox,) which will show up on your Mac. Or you can export to  Air Drop and transfer them that way.

You can jump over to their forums and ask for people's specific Procreate workflows as everyone's setup is a little different. I'm sure you'll find something that works for you. https://procreate.art/discussions 

[Mr. K]

The Procreate folks tell me that "Document Storage on iCloud" does nothing. The setting is there to satisfy Apple's requirements. The files are stored inside the app.

[Mr. K]

My research is convincing me that AF Photo may be a great for photo editing, it most likely is not a good choice for a sketch app. I'd like to hear if you feel differently.

[DM1]

For sketching/painting and complex photo editing, Artstudio Pro may be a much better option. It has excellent features (not yet AS feature rich as Affinity but quickly getting there) and most importantly the developers promptly respond with fixes to reported bugs. Feature and UI improvement suggestions from forum members are commonly implemented. 

Affinity's features are great to have but if they don't work properly then they are more of a hindrance. Node 'eye glass' issue, Move tool continually transforming objects, drawing multiple short lines with pencil and pressure setting on freezes app with loss of work, rope setting with pressure on freezes app, colour studio colour picker freezes app etc etc. These are serious issues but no fixes have been forthcoming for, in some cases, many months. The LUT bug, while minor, goes back before July 2017 with no solution in sight.

Affinity Photo and Designer are brilliant apps and I love to use them but unfortunately they are let down by the developers apparent inability or desire to release timely updates to fix the many reported bugs (major or minor).  

[Mr. K]

8 hours ago, DM1 said:

Affinity Photo and Designer are brilliant apps and I love to use them but unfortunately they are let down by the developers apparent inability or desire to release timely updates to fix the many reported bugs (major or minor).  

And it takes an extremely long time to implement new features.

I'll take a look at Artstudio Pro. Thanks.

[toltec]

9 hours ago, DM1 said:

Affinity Photo and Designer are brilliant apps and I love to use them but unfortunately they are let down by the developers apparent inability or desire to release timely updates to fix the many reported bugs (major or minor).  

I’m a big Affinity/Serif fan but I agree with that. The trouble is, it’s ultimately bad for the company because the internet means their failures are broadcast to the whole world.

Once a customer buys a competing app, they are unlikely ever to be a Serif customer.

Serious bugs and user issues should be fixed within days (where feasible) not months.

Disgruntled customer vote with their feet (or wallets). Look at how many Adobe customers have bought Affinity products due to their subscription model. 

[JoeISP]

11 hours ago, Mr. K said:

My research is convincing me that AF Photo may be a great for photo editing, it most likely is not a good choice for a sketch app. I'd like to hear if you feel differently.

Check out videos by illustrator, Brad Colbow, he tests all kinds of apps and devices and gives good honest feedback. His videos are entertaining and generally simple yet very well done. 

I would highly highly recommend Procreate or the pixel persona in Affinity Designer. Both are wonderful to work with, although my nod for sketching/drawing would go to Procreate for pure responsiveness and some of the more realistic rendering. With Procreate, AD and AP, you have the option to save file IN the app, as well as to any cloud service or AirDrop to your Mac so any workflow will work. You can also have your iPad set to back up the app data on iCloud which means if you ever move to a new iPad, your artwork follows you over. 

[Mr. K]

Brad's videos are very helpful. He really likes AF Photo.

[emptyful]

For really basic sketching, I've always found Apple's Notes app to have, hands down, the best "feel." Purely subjective, and I also use Procreate, but there's a couple more pennies for you.