draw

Save reams of paper with iPad app Art Set

My daughter is a destroyer of forests. She spends a great deal of her free time drawing, and because she is only six, she has a great deal of free time. We go through so much paper that I feel guilty each Wednesday morning when I drag the recycling to the curb. And that's just the pictures we toss; she insists on saving a high percentage of her output as well.

We've tried using a white board, but you can't save pictures from a white board and she spends the rest of the day walking around with ink all over the side of her hand. Plus, she likes to use drawing utensils other than markers, including colored pencils, uncolored pencils, pastels, pens, and a variety of paints. She has taken to the iPad, and with the 99-cent Art Set app, she now draws and saves pictures on the iPad, saving numerous trees each week. The only problem with Art Set is that I have to tell her that Angry Birds and DoodleJump are not among her current entertainment options when I hand her the tablet for a drawing session.… Read more

Crayola Trace & Draw turns iPad into art pad

You can already transform your iPhone into a baby toy and let your cats paint on your iPad. Now it's time to turn your toddlers loose on your Apple device.

The Crayola Trace & Draw system from Griffin Technology is an iPad 2 case designed to bring out your young one's inner Matisse or Motherwell.… Read more

Back to the drawing boards

When it comes to sharing ideas and communicating stories, sometimes it's just easier to present your thoughts by drawing them out. Not just for Pictionary, online whiteboards are great collaborative tools to help you visualize your thoughts and brainstorm ideas. These Web apps not only throw out the smelly dry-erase markers, but also add a few tricks to make sharing your works faster and easier than ever.

A Web Whiteboard (AWW), developed by Senko Rasic, was designed to be minimalistic and simple to use like a real whiteboard. Coded in HTML5, AWW not only performs smoothly, but leaves little … Read more

Turn your images into masterpieces

MobileMonet lets you make great-looking hand-drawn and artistic representations of your images. Though there are many photo apps in the iTunes app store that let you distort and add effects to images, with MobileMonet you can create truly unique projects using a two-step system. You either start with a photo from your library or you can snap a fresh picture using your iPhone camera. From there, MobileMonet makes a black-and-white line drawing of your image. Touch the screen to use a spray-can tool to add colors back in to your photograph with paintlike effects. You have a number of variables … Read more

Draw your racing line, then watch the results

DrawRace2 is the sequel to DrawRace, an unconventional but very fun take on racing games for the iPhone. In DrawRace games, you don't drive a car around a track in real time. Instead, you draw the path you will take around the track before the race even begins. When you're done drawing, you watch the race to see how you did.

While it sounds easy, you have to be very precise in the way you draw your line. As you come to sharp turns, for example, you'll need to draw more slowly, then speed up again as … Read more

Hot new iOS games for the long weekend

Several great new games were released this week for iOS that are perfect for keeping you busy during downtime over the long Labor Day weekend.

A couple of days ago, I wrote about Spy Mouse, Firemint's latest game that has you play as Agent Squeak, the mouse who stealthily steals cheese across tons of cleverly made levels. I highly recommend that you grab that game in addition to this collection, but I found three more that will satisfy just about every gamer's personal taste.

This week's collection of iOS apps are all hot new games from different genres. The first lets you draw your path around a racetrack; the second lets you use a jetpack to go for distance; and the third is a beautifully made hack-and-slash RPG.… Read more

Wacom gives sketchers an Inkling of the future

When it comes to tools for integrating freehand art into the digital workflow, Wacom remains the leader. Its tools aren't perfect--and certainly aren't cheap--but it's hard to find any more respected. And when it comes to drawing, nothing yet beats pen (or pencil) and paper for fluidity and portability. Wacom attempts to combine the best of both worlds with its Inkling, a pen and receiver combo that tracks your penstrokes for up to 50 sketches and uploads them to a computer for use with applications like Photoshop or Illustrator.

This tutorial video from Wacom shows you how … Read more

Spy Mouse already a hit in the iTunes App Store

One of the earliest game publishers to enjoy huge success on iOS devices was Firemint, maker of Real Racing 2 and Flight Control. Though it is not a company that puts out several games a year, you know that when Firemint does release something, it's probably going to be good. Last week, Firemint released its latest game, Spy Mouse, and with a mix of line-drawing fun and excellent production values, it has already reached No. 1 in the iTunes App Store.

Spy Mouse (99 cents - see note at bottom) is a line-drawing stealth game that challenges you to … Read more

Make high-res sketches from your images

My Sketch makes your photos into hand-sketched artistic drawings in only a few easy steps. Upon launch you get the option to take a new photo or choose one from your iPhone photo library. Once selected, My Sketch immediately has you crop the image to your liking, either in portrait or landscape layouts. The next step is to choose a style, and My Sketch offers 20 different types of sketch styles, from long-line sketches to pastel styles. It takes a couple of moments, but once the high-res sketch is finished, you have a chance to apply some finishing touches with … Read more

From photos to drawings on iOS

Even on the first day the iTunes App Store launched there were photo apps that let you manipulate and edit images on iPhone. The App Store has come a long way since then and, with new iPhones with faster processors and better cameras, the apps have gotten significantly better as well.… Read more