If you’re anything like me, then you love to draw. Ibis Paint X is a great drawing app that can be used on your iPad, iPhone or Android device. It is a free download from the App Store. You can upload your art anywhere and share your drawing process via the speedpaint feature. There are over 142 kinds of brushes including dip pens, felt tip pens, digital pens, air brushes, fan brushes, flat brushes, pencils, oil brushes, charcoal brushes, crayons and stamps. There are various brush parameters such as starting/ending thickness, starting/ending opacity, and initial/final brush angle.There are quick sliders that allow you to quickly adjust brush thickness and opacity, and real time brush previews.
There are unlimited colors available, zoom up to 1000%, background color setting, rotating canvas, 32 filters, image stabilization and stylus support. You can add layers as you need with no limit. Layer opacity, alpha blending, adding, subtracting, and multiplying can be set to each layer. There is also a clipping feature for clipping images.
The speedpaint feature is built in so once you’re finished with your drawing, you can download the speedpaint to the device, upload it to YouTube, Facebook, or somewhere else. You don’t need a screen recorder to do a speedpaint! This is so awesome!
Directions
- The first step is to create a project. You do this by going to your Ibis Paint X gallery, which you do by tapping the gallery button when you open the app. Then you press a plus button which is at the top right corner area of the gallery page. You then get to pick from numerous canvas sizes, or you can get a picture from your camera roll, like if you want to digitally redraw a drawing you did with pencil and paper (you have to take a picture of the drawing that you want to digitally redraw first).
- After you have created a new project it’s time to draw.
- Once you are done drawing, go to your gallery and select the drawing you want a speedpaint of by tapping it.
- Then you tap the box with an arrow through it. A box asking how you want to save the art will appear.
- To save it at a speedpaint, tap (Movie) MOV.
- Then you can select roughly how long you want your speedpaint to be. The option you choose affects how fast or slow the speedpaint will be. You can select from a time range which goes from 6 seconds, 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 120 seconds, 180 seconds, all the way to 300 seconds. If you are uploading to YouTube, I suggest using the 300 seconds option.
- Once you choose the time option for the speedpaint, you have to let it encode by pressing okay when a pop-up appears saying “The encoding process takes a few minutes. Would you like to start?”. During the encoding process, it shows how the speedpaint progresses, and once it’s finished encoding, you can save the speedpaint to your device by tapping “save video”.
- To upload your speedpaint to YouTube, sign in to your YouTube channel via the YouTube app. There is a button with the picture of a camera on the top right screen. Click that button then select your speedpaint video from your Camera Roll. Click Next and type a title and description for your speedpaint video. Click Upload to upload to YouTube.
Ideas for drawing in Ibis Paint X
I use Ibis Paint X on my iPad to draw things such as characters that I create, creatures of assorted kinds, and other things as well. I use my finger to draw on my iPad. I do have a drawing pen that came with my iPad, but I just prefer my finger.
Some ideas for drawing things in Ibis Paint X other than characters would be animals, landscapes, cityscapes, architecture, people, nature, still life objects, or anything that is of interest to you. It’s up to you! My Mom always says to draw what you enjoy, and that’s what you’ll be best at drawing. The bonus is that you’ll be happy doing it, and maybe someday you can make a career out of it. P.S. That’s what I’m trying to do.
Easy to learn and great for ASD artists
Ibis Paint X is easy to learn and good for simple to complex drawings, so it’s a great app to use when starting out with digital drawing. There are a lot of other drawing programs that are more complex than Ibis Paint X, but have more of a learning curve. One day soon, I promise I’m going to learn Photoshop! Also, kids who are on the Autism Spectrum will likely prefer drawing with their finger so Ibis Paint X is perfect for them. I have Asperger’s Syndrome, which is why I think I prefer drawing with my fingers. Sometimes holding a pen in my hand just feels awkward and cringing! I know that’s difficult for neurotypicals to understand, but trust me that’s how it is. If you have a kid that cries when you try to get them to hold a pencil, let them fingerpaint or use a digital drawing app like Ibis Paint X with his or her fingers. Your kid will be much happier and may surprise you with how much they can really do.
Awesome for the classroom
I think speedpaint in Ibis Paint X is great to use in an art classroom, because each student can complete their own creative drawing and use speedpaint to upload and share. Maybe the teacher could show each student’s (those who want to share) artwork on a screen for classmates to see. This would be a great way for students to see that everyone has their own drawing forte’. Some people are great at landscapes, some are great at cityscapes, some are great at portraits, some are great at characters, some are great at still lifes, and some are great at nature drawing. It’s a good idea to always encourage students to draw some of everything so they can discover what they are good at, and enjoy drawing most. Plus you have to learn the basics of drawing everything, even the stuff you don’t like. For example, I don’t like drawing complex furniture pieces in a room background, but I’m trying to get better at it thanks to Mrs. Betty, my art teacher.
Speedpaints of my characters drawn in Ibis Paint X
The character that is part of the logo of this site is Orbal, one that I created and drew in Ibis Paint X! You will see some of my many other characters on this site as time marches on. I have too many characters to list since my imagination is pretty wild thanks to that good ole’ Asperger’s Syndrome! In the meantime, please check out my YouTube channel to see speedpaints of some characters that I’ve drawn in Ibis Paint X, and have fun making your own!