Sketches by KyofSonder

Tayasui Sketches, Digital Drawing App

I've been calling the app I use to draw all of my digital art "the free Sketches app on Android" because I use it on an Android phone, and the homepage icon looks like this.

All it says under the simple pen against a white background is "Sketches" without any other names or identifiers.

However, when I opened it the other day I paid enough attention to see that it actually says its full name the first time you run it after having it closed for awhile.

I didn't want to keep being vague about the name, because I know there are other people like me who (for whatever reasons, we all have different situations) can't justify buying and/or subscribing to a digital drawing program or app and are always looking for a free one to allow them to draw. I know I always pay close attention to the exact name and features when another artist or writer mentions a free program they use and get frustrated when they just say "that one, I'm sure you all know it" or "the thing with the icon," so I'd like to share the same details I seek out with anyone who wants them.

If you're one of those people, Tayasui Sketches is available on at least Android and may or may not be available on other mobile platforms. Here's my relevant knowledge and thoughts about Tayasui Sketches.

This program is largely free of fees, subscriptions, and/or ads. It has the one-time cost for its pro upgrade, still image ads you have to scroll past in your sketch library, and the occasional prompt to buy its pro version if you try to use pro features. It may have other ads that play here and there, but they're so rare that they're not memorable to be and I can't be sure what -- if anything -- triggers them to happen.

It's also fairly easy to intuit what goes where and which buttons do what in areas where the initial tutorial/help menu falls short. Developing my own tricks for it and ways of using it has felt natural, for the most part, and it's a big part of why I stick with this app even when I can't use the pro version.

Another reason is the array of tools it gives free users. Not being able to use layers has been frustrating sometimes, and I sometimes look longingly at the small "more tools available in pro" banner in the tool table, but what I can and do use is great for my style of art. Being able to use painterly brushes has helped me refine my art style a lot, the pen brush makes my handwriting and lineart look much more legible than when I draw or write notes on paper, and the text, smudge, and lasso tools have seen more use than I'd expected when I started.

I especially love the options to change the texture and color of the canvas itself, and how the size and opacity sliders for almost all the brushes/tools are so easy to adjust. Being able to save and export my sketches has made sharing my art a lot easier, too.

It's not a perfect program, those most likely don't exist and I'm sure this one has flaws I haven't even noticed, but overall it's great for beginners and good for people who can't get/use a paid app. I like Tayasui Sketches a lot.

Since I wrote this post, Tayasui Sketches has become unusable for me. This doesn't necessarily mean it's unusable for others, as the brush quality hasn't decreased at all and the app is just as intuitive to use as ever.

The problem for me is that I don't have income, so I can't pay for the pro version or ad removal. This has been the biggest barrier for me with drawing apps in general, and I was really happy that Tayasui Sketches solved it... until it started placing two still-image ads for its pro version at startup that I had to carefully close in order to use the app at all. That got frustrating, but wasn't completely a deal-breaker. I may hate ads, but I can handle a few here and there for the sake of art.

What was a deal-breaker was a few months after they'd increased their pro version ad campaign, when they locked the ability to use multiple brushes/tools on a single canvas. It is now a pro version feature to use anything more than one brush/tool at one time. You have to tediously switch between your chosen brush and your eraser in the single non-pro brush/tool slot, for instance, while carefully avoiding accidentally clicking on the other brush/tool slots in case you open the "Oh? You're buying pro? Click here!" window.

It's still not especially expensive (even if subscriptions can stack up) which is why I think plenty of other people who do have an income can sacrifice a few dollars a month and enjoy a very good little drawing/painting program that is user-friendly for both beginners and seasoned artists.

I love this app, I love the art I've created on it and will post more to this blog as soon as I'm able, I just resent that paywalls have been put up where they had seemed to be completely unnecessary before. Access for people like me is gone, and I've personally had to find other routes to making art instead.

Just to make a point, every time I finished a panel of this I would export it as a PNG on the perceptual setting and use it as a color reference for the next panel

IT'S BAD

PLEASE CHECK YOUR COLOR SETTINGS

ive been noticing the EXACT SAME PROBLEM whenever i would export an image from procreate and it drove me CRAZY that my art would desaturate all the time. anyway, if you're in a canvas, go to settings > canvas > canvas information > color profile

once youre in color profile, if your current color profile is display P3, CHANGE IT!!!!!! it is desaturating your colors. you're gonna want to change it to sRGB IEC6 1966-2.1 instead

if you're starting a new canvas, you can just go to color profile and change it that way. im SO grateful for this post for giving me the push i needed to experiment with procreate files and finally see what was changing my art to be so desaturated

like LOOK at this!!!!