hopeasfro

If you are a newbie and you want to make art on a low budget then this would be helpful to you. For one, these apps have tablet/iPad and mobile versions.

This blog post is long overdue. I’ve had it in my mind to do this for quite a while. Having used both Autodesk Sketchbook and infinite painter for many months, I can make a good comparison of both. I didn’t start making art with fancy equipment, I had a phone with a big screen, and it worked quite well.

1. User interface and experience: Infinite painter allows you to change themes, though there are just 3 options. Autodesk Sketchbook doesn’t give you that. Another thing I like about infinite painter is its flexibility with importing images. You can import images to your canvas or import them as a reference photo. And that photo can stay anywhere on your screen. With Sketchbook, the reference photo has to stay on the canvas as part of the art. You can’t move or edit it freely. You might have to leave it in a tiny corner at the edge of the canvas. I don’t like that.

2. Brushes: both programs have multiple brushes with different textures, densities, shapes e.t.c. I like some brushes in Painter as well as Sketchbook. However, I find Sketchbookʼs brushes easy to edit. Painter’s is quite complex, but hey, it can be different for you. Nonetheless, because of the reason mentioned, I sometimes wish I could get all the brushes in Sketchbook to Painter and vice versa.

3. Textures: I may not be using much of the textures infinite painter has to offer because of my art style, but I find the sketchbookʼs texture better. I can actually use it in my art.

4. Colours and colour palette: one thing I love about Autodesk Sketchbook is this ⬇️

I can get a shade of colour at a snap of my fingers. Then once I pick a shade closer to what I had in mind, I just tweak it here… Simple.

The problem is it does not have the different tones and their names in its tablet version :/. On the other hand, you don’t have this on Painter, just a colour palette. But you can download various colour palettes from other artists in the community segment.

5. Vibrancy: It’s not just me that finds paintings in Sketchbook more vibrant than ones done on Painter. Painter has a pastel-like look to it. What do you think?

6. Glitches: Sketchbook doesn’t get updates so quite a few glitches occur and do not get sorted out. Nevertheless, the glitches I experience aren’t much annoying. Painter is fabulous, I don’t experience glitches and there are updates often. That’s a plus.

7. Sync: You need an account for Painter and this has some advantages like syncing. You can start an art on your mobile phone and finish it on your tablet/iPad or any new device. Sadly, with Sketchbook, you can’t. You don’t have an account on Sketchbook, no syncing. You might have to transfer the design to the other device and that can be quite complex.

8. Paid/Free: All Sketchbook features are free except if you want external brushes. For Painter you have a 14-day trial then you have to purchase brushes and every other feature. It was around $7.99 for everything.
TIP: Some users have complained that when they downloaded Painter on another device, they were asked to pay again. When downloading Painter to a new device. Use the same Google account you used to download the app into the old device and made the purchase. Then you won’t be required to pay anything.