So I’ve lived with the “magical” iPad for about a week or so now, and I have to say I like it a lot…for what it is. As I stated in my previous post on the topic, the iPad is predominantly for consuming media, not creating it. However, after looking into it a little more closely, I’ve discovered that maybe the iPad is a bit more useful than I thought.

As an artist and designer, I always have a sketchbook close at hand, but what if all I had was my trusty iPad? Well with the help of a few apps I can actually use the iPad as a fairly reliable sketchbook. Now I want to state up front that the iPad is NOT a tool I would use for any final drawings, BUT, for those initial concept roughs, this overblown iPod Touch is a great little tool to have around!

I started with the free drawing apps, specifically Doodle Buddy. Doodle Buddy was easy to set up and get to drawing. You poke the piece of chalk, adjust the size of the line, and go crazy. You can also draw on photos and create device backgrounds, but my primary goal is not to review apps, but to review iPad as a sketchbook. Certainly Doodle Buddy makes the iPad a great "in a pinch" drawing tablet. There a quite a few other free drawing apps to choose from, including Adobe Ideas, which lets you draw with vectors! As much as I enjoyed the free apps, I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing something. Enter Sketchbook Pro.

Sketchbook Pro is an awesome drawing program. For $7.99 you can use the same app as Jim friggin Lee does, with some great results! There are a number of options including drawing and painting tools, a full color pallette, and everything you’d expect in a quality electronic sketchbook. The best part is that you can save the file with layers in .psd format! Then just export the image and open up in Photoshop on your work computer and you have a fleshed out sketch to fine tune all night long, baby! In this Bigfoot drawing, I actually imported the psd to Illustrator, and drew the vector lines right on top for a pretty good final drawing in a very short amount of time. Maybe not gallery worthy, but quick and fun.

Bottom Line: iPad is NOT for final art. At least not at a truely professional level. But, with a little research and trial and error, you can very easily use it as a great little sketchbook. The only real downside is that you have to draw with your finger, which kind of sucks. Hopefully iPad 2 will have a stylus. Are you listening HP and Google? I said "STYLUS!!"