Auryn Ink is a unique painting program in the sense that its sole purpose is to create realistic digital watercolour paintings. It replicates many factors that watercolour artists utilise in real life, including water dilution, canvas wetness and paint dryness. It's a fun way to create stylised pieces with a traditional edge.
Collage is great to create moodboards of images that you can share
Price: £6.99
For artists who prefer to gather heaps of reference material, Adobe Collage is a portable mood board that you can use to define the atmosphere and visual elements of your project before hitting the drawing board (or screen). Reference material can be imported straight from your tablet's camera, Google and even YouTube, and you're able to draw straight into your collage.
This is an easy-to-use app for constructing any pose you want
Price: £2.47
Developed by artist Riven Phoenix as part of his life-drawing course, Pose Tool 3D enables artists to manipulate a 3D male or female model into any kind of pose.
"On first glimpse it may seem a little bewildering, but once you get a feel for it, this is a great little reference tool for digital artists," says staff writer Nicola. It also includes an anatomy mode featuring detailed muscle maps.
Hands are the bane of many artists' lives, but thanks to this useful app, Handy, drawing realistic hands can become a whole lot easier. With further updates on the horizon, the app comes with a selection of 24 different poses that can be applied to left and right hands, modelled in full 3D. Its three-point light system means the tool is also a useful source of reference for working out where light would fall across your character.
10. MARA3D Facial Expressions Featuring Steven Stahlberg
Start out by choosing a specified emotion, and then tweak away until you're happy with the end result
Price: Free (Lite edition)
At time of press, the full version of mara3D was only available for iPad and iPhone users, with Android customers only having access to the restrictive Lite version.
Where the full version is concerned, this app provides artists with a customisable reference tool for facial expressions.
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Start out by choosing a specified emotion, and then tweak away until you're happy with the end result. The app also comes with a gallery of the works of fantasy artist Steven Stahlberg, which is a nice little bonus.
