As the iPad grows into its own as a convergence media consumption and creation device, we’re on the lookout for new applications that might be of interest to our readers.  Our first review comes from Konstantin Golovchinsky (@bespokephoto) who reviews Autodesk’s Sketchbook Pro app for the iPad, currently available for $7.99.

In truth, I’m not much of a drawer or sketcher, I can manage a stick figure if I need to, but overall I am drawing challenged. That being said, Sketchbook Pro in the right hands is a powerful tool. In my hands it has its uses as well.

The first thing that I appreciate as a photographer and retoucher about Sketchbook is that it has layers. This is a huge asset in general because you can turn them on and off as you work. The second is the brush palette is really robust. It has most of Adobe Photoshop’s best qualities for making just the right brush to paint with; Radius, Opacity, Spacing, and Feather. Plus you get two options for your color picker, a standard swatch grid of 30 colors:

His review continues after the break…

Also there’s a Painter style picker circle with a Saturation diamond in the center. Below that are your HSB sliders and RGB values. Most important of all, there’s an actual eye-dropper for picking tones directly from your image!

For the true artist and designers, the Brush palette also also contains options for Fine Tin Pencil, four Round Tip Pencils, two kinds of Airbrush, Paintbucket, Felt Tip pen, Rollerball, Eraser, Marker, and another 45 extra Brushes, plus 15 leaf/flower patterns.

The actual user interface consists of single, double and triple finger swipes which control your painting, zoom, undo and redo, brush size, and palette activation. Pretty simple to learn even without a manual, but the first time you launch, Sketchbook gives you a short tutorial before letting you at the program.

I used it here to mark up some retouching that needs to be done. Red circles to denote spots that need removing, orange lines denote light areas that need burning, blue lines are ares the need a Healing Brush. It didn’t take too long to do and is precise enough that its actually functional.

The one thing missing that I’d like to see most is a Type tool, I think that would really be beneficial for artists, designers and photographers alike.

We would like to thank Konstantin for his review, and look forward to his next one!  If you want to check out the app, you can get in the iTunes App Store for a mere $7.99.

If you have an app you’re interested in, drop us a line and we’ll arrange a review of it.

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