Ten Ways To Turn Your iPad Into A 'Tablet Rasa'

6- Artist’s Touch

Originally downloadable for iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad at $4.99, but Artist's Touch just informed us, it will be offering the app for a limited time at an introductory offer of $.99.  And to celebrate Artist's Touch coming to the iPad, it will be giving away a brand new iPad 3G to one of the lucky users who signs up. Just imagine being able to draw or paint a portrait quickly and digitally, on the go. This app is the perfect tool for developing art at one  sitting or over time.  When the moment of inspiration hits, you can quickly sketch out your ideas and save it for a future time to review and update. For more information about the Artist’s Touch iPad app, see their official website at Artamata, Inc.

7- miArts

At $.99, miArts by miSoft is a powerful painting, drawing and animation app. Compatible with the iPhone, iPod touch and the iPad, miArts requires iPhone OS 3.1.3 or later. In addition, the Sound Recorder allows users to record music and background sounds to sync it with the animation. The In-App Save feature of miArts enables users to save up to 5 paintings and 5 animations in the App memory itself.

miArtsJr is an easy to use Paint App that integrates features that are interesting to kids. The tools include the Brush tool; the Pencil tool; the Color tool; UnDo and BringBack buttons with 15-step memory; the Eraser tool; the Finger Smudge tool and the Stamp tool.

8- Paintbook 2.5

Paintbook 2.5 is a 100% vector based media drawing, painting and sketching app  priced at $3.99 developed by Sean M. Puckett. The color mixer is very well thought out yet simplistic in its design. The brushes give you the choice of transparency with an effect similar to Photoshop's "normal" and "multiple" in the way color is added. It works very well and the multiplied effect indicated in this program by a drop of water gives a natural look even without soft edges, which is similar to transparent markers. The brush sizing and opacity are easy to use with instant visual feedback.

Here is a vid on Paintbook 2.0 before they upgraded to 2.5 for iPads.

9- Inspire

By KiwiPixel, priced at $5.99, Inspire offers up great simulation of dry brush and a palette knife that all runs very smoothly even on a 1st gen iPod touch. There are no layers yet, but the whole point of the app is to blend with paint on the canvas. It's an addictive and fun painting app available for the iPad, largely because of its ability to simulate wet paint on a canvas, which can then be blended and twirled into an array of stunning effects, courtesy of four different brush types: flat brush, round brush, fan brush and palette knife.

10- Inkling

Inkling provides a 'would-be' artist with the opportunity to draw bold, expressive sketches with a few quick strokes of your finger... Express yourself with spontaneous, dramatic thick/thin lines and natural-looking textures.  Very handy for doing back-of-the-napkin type sketches to explain ideas over dinner. With its ability to draw and erase thin and thick lines, Inkling allows for some surprisingly detailed artwork. Currently priced at $1.99.

John Tokash, who was the director of software development at Homestead Technologies and now works for Intuit has compared a few of the TOP TEN on this list - and personally thinks that the Sketchbook Pro is the best of the bunch.



People who end up being successful usually view change differently than the average person.  Such is the case with those that start fresh. When you clean the slate, you clear your mind and permit yourself the opportunity to start on that next project - and in the case of this TOP TEN list - you now have several options available to you. Please take a minute and vote in our 'TOP TEN Tablet Rasa POLL.' And for those that have tried any of these apps on your iPhone,iPod Touch or iPad, please provide us with your feedback. Our readers who have interest need to be as informed as they can when matching up all that is currently in the market today.