The Best Drawing Apps for Kids
Young children love to doodle and draw, and this can be a great way to hone their innate artistic skills.
Drawing apps can be useful tools to boost creativity and teach painting to budding artists of all ages. Drawing and painting also boost other crucial developmental skills like hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and creativity.
Whether you want to ignite their creativity or keep your kids busy with something productive, it is always handy to have a fun drawing app to fulfill your kid’s doodling desires.
Be it Android or iOS; we’ve got something for your little ones. Here’s our roundup of the 12 Best Drawing Apps for Kids.
The Best Drawing App for Kids:
1. Draw and Tell
With its child-friendly UI that lets kids create their own drawings, stickers, animations, and more, Draw and Tell is our top pick for this list.
This award-winning app lets your kids bring their stories to life with a variety of drawing modes. Your child’s creative expression can bloom with activities like Drawing, Telling, Coloring, and Sharing.
The drawing interface is easy to use and features 27 crayons, paint brushes, and colored pencils. It also has special rainbow and glow-in-the-dark crayons.
This app lets your kids use over 150 stickers with animals, food, cars, letters, and more. They can also choose from 32 premade backgrounds and 22 patterns to liven up their drawings. The iPad version has an additional 60+ stencils to aid with painting.
The ‘Tell’ part of the app lets kids create their own stories. They can move the stickers around while narrating their stories or describing their drawings.
Lastly, the app features coloring pages where your kids can fill in detailed drawings with fun animal friends. There’s even a handy feature to save all their drawings to Photos and share them with friends and family.
Aside from its drawing and coloring features, this app can be a handy tool to teach your kids just about anything, from numbers to animals. This app is a great way for your kids to spend their screen time creatively while learning drawing, reading, writing, and improving their confidence.
Draw and Tell app
For Ages: 3 to 9
The Good:
- Teaches kids drawing and lets them learn communication by narrating their stories and movies
- Allows for easy sharing of their creations
The Not-so-good:
- Not available on Android
Available on: iOS
Other Drawing Apps for Kids:
2. Coloring Games
For Ages:
Coloring Games is a painting app for preschoolers and elementary-grade kids. It features several different modes that allow kids to paint, draw and color images. Available in 59 different languages, this app can be enjoyed by kids around the world.
A pair of cute talking animals introduce you to the app and walk you through all the tutorials. Your kids will love learning with them and receiving praise for creating drawings.
The app features six different modes, some of which are Painting, Color Fill, and Drawing. It also has unique modes like Glow Pen and Water Art. The ‘Number Paint’ mode allows your child to draw while learning numbers and sequences.
The Fun Paint mode lets your child choose from a range of images and color crayons to paint. It also has stickers of fruits, animals, and emojis. There are several different pen types, like glitter pens, paintbrushes, and even textured pens!
Once your child finishes their painting or drawing, it gets added to their very own art gallery. They can then share this with friends and family.
This app contains no in-app purchases or advertisements and is completely free to use. With its child-friendly design and colorful characters, this is a great app for your kid to use for drawing.
Coloring Games interface
For Ages: 2-7
The Good:
- Many different modes with simple tools
- No ads or payments in the app; child-friendly design
- Available in multiple languages
The Not-so-good:
- Very basic features
- The brush size variety isn’t great
Available on: iOS, Android
3. Draw It
Draw It is a colorful drawing game where kids can compete against each other in a timed event to draw different words. Similar to Pictionary, users can draw words out for the game to guess; whoever draws the most accurate image first wins.
This app has a very unique art style that is sure to capture your child’s attention. It starts with a helpful tutorial on how to play the game and introduces users to the drawing interface.
It contains 58 different word packs across different categories like fruits, paintings, vehicles, sports, and many more. When you decide to play, you are randomly matched with three other players. Everyone is given two topics of which they must quickly draw one.
Whoever gets the most points by drawing as many doodles as possible wins the game and receive coins. These coins can be spent to unlock new words to draw.
Users can also customize their avatars from a selection of different characters. These show up as your display profile while competing against other players around the world. You can unlock new characters by reaching higher levels in the game.
This game is better suited for older children and can be enjoyed by adults as well. If you’re looking for a fun, competitive drawing game for your child, this one is perfect!
Draw It interface
For Ages: 12+
The Good:
- Competitive drawing game that rewards speedy sketching
- A large variety of word packs to choose from
The Not-so-good:
- Annoying video ads in the free version
- Promotes unlocking new items by watching ads. Requires payment to remove ads
Available on: iOS, Android
4. Kids Doodle
Kids Doodle is a simple app that lets kids draw on a blank canvas or load an image to doodle on. The app has a simple design with all the necessary tools to let your kids make their own paintings.
The app features dozens of different brush types that let you create a number of different art styles. Paint, watercolor, patterns, chalk, and even a glow brush are available to use.
You can even upload an image from your gallery to doodle on. This can be great fun and add a new element of tracing and coloring that your kids can enjoy.
All their artwork is saved in an in-built gallery where you can view their drawings and share them with family or friends. This gallery also automatically saves your work, so you can pick up wherever you left off!
Another neat feature is the drawing animation, which shows your entire creative process step-by-step. This works similarly to a timelapse of a painting and lets you visualize all your hard work with a short animation.
If you’re looking for a basic doodling app for your children, Kids Doodle is a perfect choice.
Kids Doodle interface
For Ages: 3+
The Good:
- Simple UI and features that can be easily used by kids
- Video mode shows you a cool drawing animation of your painting
The Not-so-good:
- Basic features compared to other drawing apps
- Brush size selection is random
Available on: iOS, Android
5. Bini Drawing for Kids
Bini Drawing is a unique drawing app that brings your drawings to life. Young kids can learn how to draw different animals, vehicles, and more and see them come to life.
The app has multiple different categories your child can choose from. Some of these include animals, dinosaurs, and vehicles. Once you select a category, you can choose a drawing and start drawing it by tracing it step by step. The app gives your kids detailed instructions, as well as voice, commands to help them draw.
Multicolored pens, including a rainbow one, crayons, paint fill, and an eraser, are one of the many tools they can use. Once they finish their paintings, the app automatically animates the drawings. Make the birds fly and chirp, or make your car go vroom; Bini Drawing allows all these interactive activities to excite kids.
The app also gets updated from time to time and often features seasonal festive stickers and themes for Halloween and Christmas.
Although the base features are free to use, the full version requires a one-time payment to unlock. This unlocks all drawings under every category. Users can also pay to remove all ads.
This is a great drawing app that teaches young children drawing and lets them control their creations by animating them and bringing them to life.
Bini Drawing interface
For Ages: 3+
The Good:
- Detailed step-by-step voice instructions for kids
- Has easy-to-use tools and good UI
- Features soothing background music
The Not-so-good:
- Has annoying video ads
- All drawings are not free, some require a payment to unlock
Available on: iOS, Android
6. Kids Paint
Kids Paint is a feature-packed drawing tool that both kids and adults can use. It combines advanced features with a great UI that is simple to use.
The app lets users select from a wide range of brushes. Some of them include pens, highlighters, sprays, brushes, and even rainbow pens. Different paintbrush effects can be created using these.
Users can also select their brush size and color. The brush size ranges from 1 to 100 and allows for precise drawings. The color selector is detailed and lets users mix and match hues to get the perfect shade.
Basic shapes of any shape, size, and color can be created. Effects like dotted lines, brush strokes, and spray paint can also be mimicked using drawing tools. Solid background colors can be changed as per your liking.
If you feel confused about a color choice, you can hit the random color button to switch things up. A handy button also lets you hide the UI so you can appreciate your art.
Lastly, the app has all the necessary features to save and share your creations. You can easily import pictures from your gallery to doodle on or save your work to the app’s inbuilt gallery. The app also has intuitive zoom and centering buttons that let you glide across the screen and view your drawings.
Kids Paint interface
For Ages: 4+
The Good:
- Packed with tools for creating detailed art
- Can be used by both kids and adults
- No ads
The Not-so-good:
- May not be easy to use for younger kids
Available on: iOS, Android
7. Crayola Create and Play
Crayola Create and Play is a drawing app made for kids by the eponymous crayon company.
The app has dozens of minigames that let kids draw, paint, and color their way through hundreds of levels. The app is sure to have something for everyone and provides dozens of hours of productive play for your kids.
Kids can create drawings of various animals and objects in multiple mediums. They can choose to use pixel art or glow art, or simply color with crayons. The craftables let them design their own 3D dinosaurs, rockets, masks, and more
Apart from drawing, painting, and coloring, it has other features to care for pets, play arcade games, and learn new skills in the Discovery Classroom. Here, kids can watch real Crayola artists and learn new art and drawing techniques. Using a STEM-based learning approach, this app ensures your kids are never bored of knowledge.
The best part is that the app gets monthly updates to add new interactive activities and lessons. This means that your kids always have something new to draw or craft.
Crayola offers a unique learning experience that not only lets kids draw but also encourages self-expression, creativity, and artistic independence. If you’re looking for a fun educational app to spark your kid’s imaginations and help develop their minds, this one is for you.
Crayola Create and Play interface
For Ages: 3 to 8
The Good:
- Hundreds of activities, lessons, and minigames to keep your kids engaged
- Promotes learning while having fun
The Not-so-good:
- Large app size that consumes a lot of data and space
- Some features are limited and require a subscription to unlock
Available on: iOS, Android
8. Draw Story
Draw Story puts a fun twist to drawing by letting your kids play a drawing game featuring cartoon characters. As the name suggests, kids can draw different things to help the characters progress through the story.
The game features 10 episodes with 200 different levels for endless hours of fun drawings. Each episode has a different setting, where the main character is a hat-wearing stick figure. This character guides you through a tutorial at the beginning, teaching the basics of drawing.
Once you start the game, you can help the character get out of trouble by helping him manipulate his surroundings with your drawings. The game starts in a classroom, where kids can help the stick figure by drawing pencils, erasers, and books.
As the game progresses, so does the difficulty of the drawings. You help the character escape school in all different settings and interact with the cartoon world using your very own doodles!
For iOS, the game also has support for the Apple Pencil. With this stylus, users can double-tap the pencil to select new colors. Tilting and applying varying pressure also creates different strokes to help get details into your artwork.
This is a cool way for kids to learn drawing while enjoying a funny story filled with adventure and drama. It’s perfect for kids who want to draw without it feeling like a chore.
Draw Story interface
For Ages: 3+
The Good:
- Hundreds of unique levels for hours of fun
- Auto-recognition of your drawings
The Not-so-good:
- Drawings are time-limited, and the game promotes watching ads to unlock more pencils
- Contains annoying video ads
Available on: iOS, Android
9. Draw.ai Drawing and Coloring
Draw.ai is a unique drawing app driven by artificial intelligence that uses advanced algorithms to recognize your drawings. It also provides step-by-step drawing instructions for kids.
The theme menu lets your kids choose from a vast selection of fun characters, animals, and everyday objects. Once they select what they want to draw, they can do so in three different modes.
The draw mode lets them create a painting with step-by-step instructions. This is a great tool for younger kids. The app also features a glow pen for creating neon paintings.
The other mode is a coloring mode, where kids can fill in colors into premade drawings. Once they finish their art, it can be saved to your device and also gets added to their own studio gallery in the app.
A unique feature exclusive to Draw.ai is the Training mode. This tool lets kids draw and train a cute robot that uses machine learning to get better at recognizing your drawings. The more you draw, the better its accuracy gets.
With smooth animations and transitions for all your drawings, this app will surely capture your kid’s imagination. It even creates an auto-generated video of their drawing and coloring process.
Overall, this is a great app for kids who want to learn drawing and have fun with AI training.
Draw.ai interface
For Ages: 3+
The Good:
- Step-by-step drawing instructions for kids
- AI-Driven auto-recognition of drawings
The Not-so-good:
- Too many annoying video ads
- Requires a payment to unlock all themes
Available on: iOS, Android
10. Kid’s Art and Drawing
Kids Art And Drawing is a simple drawing app that presents your kids with a blank canvas. They can draw whatever they wish using a variety of painting tools.
There is a single screen that contains all the necessary tools to create your own doodles and drawings. The left side features a wide selection of pens of different colors, along with an eraser. Users can easily scroll and select their preferred color and start drawing on the canvas.
The right side has handy buttons for undoing and redoing actions, as well as a paintbrush size selector tool. Another button allows you to save your drawings directly to your phone’s gallery.
If you wish to, you can also share your paintings directly through the app using the share button. You can start afresh by using the clear button to reset your canvas.
Overall this is the perfect no-nonsense drawing app and a good choice for younger kids.
Kids Art and Drawing Interface
For Ages: 3+
The Good:
- Easy to use and intuitive tools for kids
- Sharing and saving to the gallery can be done directly through the app
The Not-so-good:
- Not available on iOS
- Very basic features
- Contains ads
Available on: Android