The 10 Best drawing and design apps for your kids

Tired of scrubbing crayon drawings off your wall? Or do you need your child doing something to engage and grow their brain as they use the tablet or phone instead of watching videos all day. Look, kids are a creative bunch, and we never want to stifle their imagination. But getting them to draw on the sketchbook you bought them can be hard.

Thanks to the internet, you have access to thousands of art apps you can download for them. But now you have a new problem; which drawing app is best for your child out of the thousands? In this article, I’ve selected a handful of children’s sketching and design apps made specifically to stimulate their minds and turn on their Picasso-mode. This will help you narrow down to what app suits their taste best. Here’s a list of the 10 Best drawing, coloring, and design apps for your kids. Some are available on IOS and others on Android.

Note: I have not been paid to feature any of the apps on this article and I will not receive any commissons if you download any of the apps listed here.

1. Colouring and drawing for kids (Free: iPadOS and iOS)

This a wonderful doodling and coloring app made for kids. It has a colorful interface with cute animal cartoon characters your kid will love. It is designed for young kids of preschool age and is also suitable for toddlers from ages 2 to 4.

Your kid will be taken on a journey of colorful coloring games to keep them engaged, which is better than just giving them a blank slate. It’s a lot like a digital coloring book with the tools and palette right on screen. The tools are in easy to identify illustrated icons. The icons are large enough so that kids don’t confuse them or press two at a time.

The coloring games are organized into 9 topic packs with 144 coloring pages. That’s enough to keep your kid entertained and creatively engaged for days, and they can easily recolor the pages over and over. Your kid will also be constantly entertained by the funny animations and sound effects available in the app. It’s also available in several languages, so if your household is bilingual, they can learn in both languages.

Coloring games like this are great in developing children’s motor skills and logic. Try it yourself or with your kid and enjoy this fascinating coloring and drawing app.

2. Kids Paint (Free: Android)

Kids Paint is a simple drawing and painting app that lets your imagination run wild. There are no restrictions of games or coloring books, you can paint whatever you want. It packs a lot of tools like an eraser, multiple brushes, a large color palette and a saving feature. You can also share your kid’s drawing with the rest of the family.

This app reminds me of Ms Paint. remember doodling around on your old computer? Both you and your kid can have a lot of fun sketching and coloring on this app. And as you get better at drawing the app keeps up and you can make some amazing art especially with a stylus pen. Although finger painting is just as fun.

The tool icons are not as playful or colorful but they are easy to get used to, and a re well placed at the bottom and top of the screen leaving you enough space to draw and doodle.

There’s something so relaxing and freeing about drawing whatever you like in whatever color, and this app gives you that. Kids from 3 to 12 could definitely enjoy this app and so could you.

Happy Colour by Numbers (Free: iPadOS and iOS)

This is one for the older kids and one you will also probably enjoy. Like the name suggests, this is a digital coloring book that lets you color an inked drawing and guides you along using numbers assigned to each color.

The interface is really simple, basically containing just the color palette at the bottom of the screen and the image filling the rest. This app is really calming, both for kids and adults and very much enjoyable. It’s very easy for someone with little artistic skill but also allows the more talented kids to do more with detail and shading. You can create some brilliant artwork.

It’s also a great time-killer, you won’t notice the hours go by because it’s so fascinating. The coloring book contains a whopping 6000 pictures you can color and all of them are free! You’d be hard-pressed to find a coloring book app with so many drawings available.

Happy Colour by Numbers also has a number of categories to help you find what you like to color, including, cute animals, buildings, landscapes, sports, flowers and so much more. The app truly takes you to your own colorful universe and your kid could definitely fall in love with this one.

Kids Doodle – Color & Draw (Free: Android)

Kids doodle is a simple drawing app available on android. It features 24 neon brushes of different colors that let you draw brilliant glowing stick art. The background is black that adds on to the neon effect.

The fun thing about this app is you can finger draw happily without the need for a stylus. It’s simplicity is what makes kids love it so much. Drawing on the app is like painting with light, making glowing crayon doodles.

The app doesn’t take itself too seriously and that could be a reason your kid may love it. My only criticism about it is that the icons are small and not very kid friendly. They look a bit dated and hard to figure out at first glance although eventually you get used to them.

One awesome feature it has that most other drawing apps don’t is “movie mode” in which you can playback the drawing you just made like a short process video. If that doesn’t impress the kids, I don know what will. It has undo and redo buttons and you can share your kid’s drawings on multiple social channels. Go on then, draw your cat in neon.

Colouring games for kids 3-5 (Free: iPadOS and iOS)

This app offers entertaining coloring games deesigned for young kids between 2-5 years of age. The drawings are fun stickers you can color in with their range of bright colors. The interface and buttons on the app are colorful, identifiable and large enough for kids to use without strain.

Like the first app on this list, it feature funny sound effects coupled with some animations that keep children engaged. Coloring games like these are great for teaching toddlers the different colors and improving their creative thinking.

Magic Slate – Color & Draw (Free: Android)

Magic slate provides you a blank spage to start with. You can change the background color for your kids. The app has a wide range of brushes and colors allowing you or the kids to do simple doodles, or make elaborate detailed drawings (to some extent with a stylus).

Finger painting is fun on this one too and you can style your paintings and drawings with the different brushes to look like crayon drawings, oil, or acryllic paintings. The interface may not be as easy on the young kids and toddlers to pick up, but it is not too bad. You get an undo button as well as an eraser plus a gallery for saving your pictures and share your work. It’s a great app for children over 5 and adults too. Draw anything you want! Literally.

Drawings Pad: Digital Painting (Free: iPadOS and iOS)

This is another app that lets the kids doodle while it records the drawing as a video that can then be shared with their friends. Handy feature! This app has one of my favourite interfaces on this list. The tools are well organized with identifiable modern icons all in a clean design.

It’s feature-packed with different interfaces for different users. The first one is kids doodle that has different backgrounds and color presets for easy drawing and coloring. Doodle desk has more tools like 3D brushes. Sketch desk allows you to go a bit further with more detailed sketches and drawings. Photo desk helps you quickly edit photos with many effects available right on the app. And finally, it has a wonderful coloring book with up to 10 categories to choose from.

The app is quite simple to use and navigate considering how many features it packs. More advanced kids will enjoy all the features of this app, and it’s a really good app to help them transition to more advanced professional programs later if they have their minds set on visual arts career.

Sand Draw Sketch Drawing Pad: Creative Doodle Art (Free: Android)

Remember drawing in the sand at the beach? This app lets you do that right on your device. It may not be as tactile, but it’s a fun concept and the kids will surely love it. It’s a really simple fun app.

The app provides you different sand textures and the effects are realistic and very satisfying. You can even move around the shells and stones! Once you’re done drawing and want to start afresh, you can erase by washing away the drawing with a wave! How clever is that?! We’re not done yet.

The app has a few templates to customize your sand drawings and a number of beach objects like sandcastles and mermaids. This is a great simple, down-to-earth app (no pun intended) that you and your kid will come back to over and over again.

Magic Board – Doodle & Color (Free: Android)

The magic board is reborn on your phone or tablet. A clever well-designed app that lets your kids draw on a blank are with all the colors of the rainbow. The app has marker-like brushes of different sizes and you can easily select the colors from the fun, cartoonish interface. It’s clearly made for kids to have fun in and the sound effects are playful and entertaining.

The app also has a pack of stickers you can easily drag onto your drawings and some cool animated effects. You can also save drawings to an album and share with friends. It’s a colorful app with everything a kid needs to let their imagination run wild.

Summary

Drawing apps for kids help them develop their artistic skills, motor skills, learn creative thinking and learn more about colors and understand the environment around them. There are a lot of apps available for your kids, and it may be overwhelming trying to pick the right one. I hope this article helps in narrowing down your choices and understanding the different features out there. If you have any suggestions or feedback, reach out through the contact form on my about page. What drawing app does your kid like?