Sketch Artists Will Love Universal App SketchTime

When you first open the app, check out the Gallery. Here you’ll find three sketches that explain everything you need to know about the app. The first panel points out all of the icons within the app and describes their functions. Your choice of writing instruments are Pen, Marker, and Eraser. Choose a pen tip: round or square. Select from eight different pen thicknesses and twenty different colors. The arrow in the bottom left corner shows/hides this icon menu. The undo/redo arrows look like what you’d expect. The second panel explains zooming, panning, and how to taper a line with finger speed. The third panel describes Marker Blend Mode. This is how you decide which colors are covered up by the marker (if any).

Tap the “+” to start drawing on the white paper, or the rectangle-with-an-arrow icon to bring up several options. If you’ve already doodled and want to start over, tap “Clear Sketch”. To bring up a grid to sketch upon, tap “Show Grid”. The third option is my favorite: “Import Photo”. Whether you want to doodle on your collection of textured paper/wallpapers or a photograph from your photo library, this is a welcome feature.

And that’s it! Just start drawing. When you’re done, tap the Gallery button to save your work within the app. Once you’re in your gallery, tap on a sketch to see it up close. From that view, you can hit the play button (triangle icon in the bottom left corner) to watch the entire sketch being drawn again, right before your eyes. I can imagine how cool it would be for a real artist to watch their sketch being recreated, and sharing that process. The “rectangle-arrow” icon here brings up the following options: Save to Photos, Email Sketch, Share on Twitter, Duplicate Sketch, or Lock Sketch. Tap the grid icon to bring up all of the items in your gallery.

This extremely elegant and beautiful universal app is easy and fun to use. The gallery of photos below is a mix of my own child-like scribbles and actual art created with this app: I think you’ll be able to tell which is which. The comic strip and the portrait of Steve Jobs were created by artist Simone Kirschning; the landscape of Hamburg is by Benjamin Rabe.

The current low introductory price won’t last forever; if you want a gorgeous app you can use on all of your iDevices, pick it up today. Let us know in the comments if you use this app; in fact you can share your art with us on Disqus by hitting the “+” button in the corner of the comment box.