Just doodle it
By Meg Rivera
WHEN you find yourself seated with a pen and paper to hand, what do you do? Some of us might want to write down the beginning of a new fan fiction. The more organised write down a grocery or to-do list. If you are my work mate you fold scraps of paper into a menagerie of little animals. Then there are the doodlers.
The doodlers transform pen and ink into an extension of their imagination. Whole worlds crop up from the blank margins of a notebook, leaking into whatever notes you were meant to be taking. Even the stick-figure artists take heart, knowing that their stick people will always have a home as long as there is an old receipt around.
With the touch technology available in a tablet or phone, doodlers no longer have to depend on scraps of paper. This week, we spin a new side to this old pastime. These doodle apps have been tested without a stylus, so they are not necessary for the apps to be functional. Put down that old paper napkin, grab your smart device and away you go!
App name: Tayasui Sketches
Developer: Tayasui
Available on: Google Play, iTunes
Easy to use: If you have used MS Paint, this app has the same concept behind it.
Overall comment: Far before using the app to draw, I liked it already. The clean, sleek UI de-clutters the work space and makes it easy to use the whole screen. You can choose from a variety of drawing instruments, and each of them has a distinct and new effect. A great example of what streamlined and intuitive should look like. Four clicks out of five.
App name: Pen and Ink: A Watercolour Notebook
Developer: Stepping Stone Software LLC
Available on: Google Play, iTunes
Easy to use: Not as easy as the first app, but it’s only because it has more features.
Overall comment: The tricked out doodle pad. Think of it as the midway point between Photoshop and Tayasui. There are plenty of different brushes to try, particularly the watercolour effects. Like Photoshop, all the elements are arrangeable though individual layers. I like the feature that allows you to trace photos best, though I think a stylus would make it easier to do. This is certainly not for the stick-figure set, but fun to play with anyway. Four clicks out of five.
App name: Paper by FiftyThree
Developer: FiftyThree Inc.
Available on: Google Play, iTunes
Easy to use: The 18 second video at the beginning explains it all.
Overall comment: This app won App of the Year in 2012. I can see why too, it’s managed to crack what every tablet artist wants. The free version, which I tested out comes with only the fountain pen tool. The full version though, takes aspects of freehand drawing and translates them into a beautifully crafted UI. You can flip through your drawings in journals, post these online and even order a stylus created specifically for this app. I don’t draw, but if I did I would love this app to bits. Five out of five clicks.
