After quite a bit of clicking around, I found an app that I think will work perfect for my students.  I Google searched “Awesome Apps for Illustration” and clicked the first of many links that popped up.  The app I chose, Tayasui Sketches, wasn’t the first on the list, but it offers so much that I wanted to stick with it.  You can find the app through the Apple App Store as well as the Google Play App Store, which is great for classroom use because it won’t single out anyone that doesn’t have an iPhone.  The app is free unless you want to pay $1.99 for more tools or $4.99 for the Pro version.  Even with those extras costing money, I think it’s still very affordable if you decided to continue using the app for your own artwork. 

The app itself is pretty simplistic, only showing the tools when your finger comes off the screen, which I believe is a big plus because even with larger phone screens, apps tend to get cluttered with visible tools and options and allows for even less room to work with.  When the tools pop up at the bottom of the screen – your tool for mark making, your eraser, and your color swatch, you can click the tool to open up the menu for other mark making items.  With each option you choose, a small image-based tutorial will pop up for the item, but you can choose to opt out of that.  When creating a new image, you are given the option of paper type (ie- no grain, fine grain, lined, graph paper, grey, or black), which can help add to your aesthetic choices.  From pens and spray paints to a watercolor brush where you can actually blend colors before they “dry”, I was enamored with the results.

I think my students will really enjoy playing around with this app due to its wide variety of tools and dynamic interface.  I did run into one problem very quickly, however, which I could see be very frustrating.  The app froze on me and didn’t save any of my changes.  While I don’t know if this happens a lot, I will need to warn my students to save often.  I believe the best way to work with this app would be with a stylus, which will allow my students to develop their own fine motor skills in a manner that is used in art, rather than drawing with the tip of their finger.