Although I won’t say that I would actually use this tool for any specific project, I thought it would be good if I had a fairly good drawing tool to doodle with while travelling or while away from my laptop or desktop. This particular app appeared to be highly recommended with a 4/5 star rating and artist Jorge Colombo using it to create a cover for The New Yorker magazine. As a result I didn’t feel worried paying $4.99 for the app with references like these.

The documentation is hidden within the Info section, but I decided to just jump right in and see how far I could get before resorting to RTFM. Surprisingly I never had to check the instructions and within 3 minutes I had produced the following quick sketch (I used to sketch this type of thing in uni in order to stay awake during boring lectures).

Although very intuitive, reading through the features and viewing the samples on the Brushes website does let you know how powerful this tiny canvas can be. The interface is very concise and unobtrusive and doesn’t take up too much space on the limited screen real estate. To get started just click on the brush symbol to select your brush size and style. Then select your color from the color swatch and that’s basically all you need to know. Of course you zoom in and out by pinching or doing the double-tap like in most iPhone apps. Everything else is added features like having layers or using the eye dropper tool to select a color. There are some other shortcuts like double-tapping in the bottom left corner will activate the Undo, but you can also do this from the toolbar.

You can import pictures from your iPhone’s Photo Albums or take a picture with your camera for immediate editing and retouching. The final thing is how do you get the images off when you are done. If you press the broadcast symbol from the Gallery page this will automatically create a website on your iPhone so that you can connect to it and download any pictures you have created. This app does everything it is supposed to and does it fairly well without getting overly complicated. You can download this app from the App Store for $4.99.