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Book Review: iPad for Artists: How to Make Great Art With Your iPad

Book Review: iPad for Artists: How to Make Great Art With Your iPad

by Tablets for Artists

ipadforartistsbook

 

iPad for Artists by Dani Jones

iPad for Artists is an illustrated book with tons of tips on making digital art, choosing the best iPad styluses, the best iPad drawing apps, and more

If you’re looking for a book with an in-depth discussion of tools and techniques for iPad art, digital illustrator Dani Jones’s iPad for Artists: How to Make Great Art With Your iPad is your ticket. It’s available only in paperback form–here it is on Amazon. We wish it were available as an e-book that we could read on IPad. But on paper, we can read it while working on your iPad at the same time, so paper makes sense.

The author is an excellent digital artist whose site is at danidraws.com. Here is one of the many books she has illustrated:

ipadforartists

 

 

 

 

 

 


The Best Mariachi in the World
by J.D. Smith, 
illustrated by Dani Jones

Jones reviews styluses, art apps, and more. The book contains many illustrations in her delightful style, as well as artist spotlights to show other artists’ work.

Her favorite iPad painting and drawing apps

Her favorite painting and drawing apps for iPad are Sketchbook, Procreate, ArtRage, and Brushes. You get those from the app store on your iPad, and they will install onto the iPad.

Besides introducing tools, she takes you step-by-step through creating a work of art on your iPad. You will learn to use layers and other important features. She used to have a lot of great tutorials on her blog, but she has changed her focus and taken them down–so you’re going to have to buy the book to get her excellent instruction.

She covers creating art that looks as if it has been done in different media, including pencils, cartoons, watercolor, oil paint to create portraits, landscapes, and other types of art. She does children’s books. (You may be surprised that a lot of kids’ books are done digitally, but it’s quite normal now.) You’ll also learn about working with photos. an She takes you through creating slideshows and organizing your work.

She also talks about which iPad is best for artists. Any iPad is fine and they all can be used with all the art apps. Newer versions are faster. iPads with more memory will allow you to store more artwork. However, storage space isn’t that important as far as the amount of pictures, as if you have a lot of iPad high-resolution art, you can store them in ICloud, or transfer them to your computer.

Her favorite iPad styluses

As for styluses, she prefers the Adonit Jot Touch, and the Wacom Bamboo iPad Stylus.

(See our article on the best iPad styluses.)

 

The apps are up to date as of now, but we hope she releases a new edition. The apps have universal characteristics, and this book will show you those, so it should help with any finding the best art apps for iPad, new or old. iPad for Artists does not cover every single app out there, but it’s plenty to get you up to speed.

She points out that while tablet PCs have a much wider capability for artists, the iPad is a popular item, is portable, and versatile. More and more art apps and styluses are made for IPad.

The book will get you much farther than just playing around on the iPad, though playing around is a must for any artist of any kind–it makes you understand the tools and media, and to overcome limitations.

We highly recommend Dani Jones’ iPad for Artists: Make Great Art with your iPad, for those starting out on the iPad and for artists making the transition to digital. It covers not only tools, techniques, and apps, but helps you become a better artist.

 

Besides using her iPad, Dani does a lot of her work on a Wacom Cintiq–here is my review of the 13HD Cintiq.)

 

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iPad Air 2

 

 

 

ipad for artists

The Wacom Bamboo Stylus comes in lots of colors! You can use it on your iPhone, Kindle Fire, Android phone, and any other tablets that use a capacitive stylus. See our article on best iPad styluses for artists.

 

End of review of digital art book iPad for Artists