I received a very generic, “I’m so sorry you are having difficulties, we will look into it immediately and will be fixing any problems you may be having shortly.” I responded with a request to speak to someone because I had work to finish and a deadline to meet. I immediately reached out to their customer service in hopes that it was just me and not the program. I cannot undo anything I just drew, it won’t save, it won’t duplicate files the list goes on. Out of no where the program completely stop working. There were little things that would come up that were annoying but nothing that big to get upset about until recently. I liked it because it was simple and for the most part easy to use. I have been using Sketches Pro for about 2 years. I never write reviews but believe this was very necessary. It’s a terrific all around easy to use app for creative people and I’m so thankful they keep updating it to make it even better. No issues at all with bugs or crashing on any of them and I use it fairly often. I am using this app on a iPhone 13 Pro Max, a 2020 iPad Pro 12.9” and an older iPad Pro 9.7”. There isn’t another one like it and I use it frequently. The pen tool is one of my favorites, it is akin to an ape tel brush pen with pressure sensitivity. This is a robust art app but you have to take some time to play with all the brushes and textures, and I like the fact you can modify every color by press and hold the color.

The new pastel crayon is pretty neat and mimics an actual pastel stick. I just spent a couple of hours playing with each and every brush and it’s variations as I haven’t done that for awhile. I particularly enjoy the watercolor brushes and the ability to add water to the color to soften and blend. Through the various iterations they’ve added layers and canvas sizes and myriad other upgrades. I use Procreate a lot but I enjoy the ease of use with Sketches and the brushes have some really nice effects. I’ve used this app since it came out in the AppStore and then the devs made a Pro version, not sure why but I’m not complaining. Though I enjoy using this app, all the problems make it difficult. It also very frequently has problems with the paint tool, either just refusing to fill in anything at all no matter how many times I tap it (it shows it loading but then it never fills), or it’ll fill in things on other layers, etc. I’m sorry, I do love this app, but please try to fix this problem.Edit: while the deleting every bit of my progress on a given drawing continues to be a problem, there’s more than that. I really liked that drawing, this has happened too often, and I’m fed up. It hadn’t crashed or anything, just decided not to save at all when I closed out of the drawing and closed the app. When I came back, I found that the drawing had been entirely deleted. Today, I finished a drawing, was happy with it, and closed out of the app. Whenever it does this, it deletes all or most my progress. Lately your app has had a lot of problems with freezing and crashing. I love this app, it’s the only drawing app that I can really draw well with. I think these could really take the app to the next level, make it more convenient to use, and turn it into a true digital sketchbook (something I’ve been looking for!).

Lastly, I would love to see more gestures (and better palm rejection! This is the only app that gives me problems!), such as one that could hide and show the interface/tools. Often when I’m sharing sketches, I want to show how my idea progressed, and that feels clumsy each time I need to zoom out and zoom into something else. Aside from this, I would love the option to view sketches in book format, with the option to swipe to the next/previous pages. This is honestly frustrating, and my app and iOS are all up to date. I have a few suggestions for improvement, the first of which is to just fix the bugs! If my iPad screen locks, or I switch apps for even a second, I keep coming back the the app’s loading screen, where it shows the thumbnails of sketches, and often loses everything I was previously working on.

For me, it is perfect for initial sketches and quick illustrations. First, let me say that I have used and loved this app for years.

Tayasui