Prominent creative software maker Autodesk has now updated its widely popular drawing app, SketchBook – draw and paint, in order to make it completely free. Aside from that, there really aren’t any named changes brought with the most recent release but that doesn’t mean this is no big deal. Ordinarily, users would need to sign up for a pro account with Autodesk in order to access the full extent of what’s included with the feature-rich artistry app. Now, there aren’t any extra sign-ups and the entirety of it are included at no cost whatsoever. That’s good news for those users who may have been looking to upgrade to pro but weren’t sure about the $2.99 cost that previously was required. While the app itself isn’t currently ranked on any of the Play Store’s top apps charts, it is among those art apps designated with an “Editor’s Choice” indicator tag.
There’s very good reason for that marking, too. Even for those users who don’t have access to a pressure sensitive or precision stylus, the tools included with SketchBook are extensive. For starters, art can be done in layers, so users don’t need to worry about messing something up while erasing a specific part of a piece and can have backups of layers just in case something goes wrong anyway. There are dozens of brushes, pencils, markers, texture tools, and other art supplies to choose from when using the app. Each of those has adjustments for size, flow, opacity, and more, depending on the brush style chosen. Smart selection, symmetry, rulers, shape, and line smoothing functionality are also included and each of those has similarly in-depth adjustment options. That’s leaving alone the image and layer transform features which allow those to be tweaked or rotated as needed to get the whole image lined up perfectly. Of course, no art app would be complete without the ability to both import and export images in various formats, in addition to adding text or creating a time-lapse of the work being completed.
For users who do happen to have access to a pressure sensitive stylus, things get even better with pen mode. Those allow some attributes of the sketches, drawings, or paintings to be affected by pressure applied, while accidental input from hands is ignored. Gestures will also be enabled, in that mode, to allow the hands to be used for controlling the interface overlays. With all of that said, there is still a subscription required for the Desktop variation of this application. That’s not really a big deal since anybody who wants to check it out on Android can now do so at no cost, just by tapping the Google Play button below.
