Curated collection

Best digital painting apps with layer support

Compare iPhone apps for the situation in this guide: digital painting apps with layer support. Review the listed features, purchase notes, and limitations, then confirm current details on each app's official store page.

What this shortlist covers

This collection is organized around one use case: digital painting apps with layer support. The app cards below provide the available feature descriptions, purchase notes, limitations, and source links so you can compare candidates against your own requirements.

How to use the comparison

Treat each listing as a candidate, then verify the requirement that matters most to you against its official store page. Greatooly labels researched listings separately from hands-on tests; inclusion here is not a claim that every condition was independently tested.

How we selected these apps

Check whether each app explicitly supports the core need described by: digital painting apps with layer support.
Compare documented limitations and the exact features available on the free and paid plans.
Verify any condition in the title, such as offline use, sharing, privacy, or subscription terms, on the official source before relying on it.

Frequently asked questions

How were apps selected?

This draft shortlist uses matching information in Greatooly's public app catalog. An editor should verify each app against the collection criteria and its official source before publishing the collection.

Does inclusion mean the app was tested?

No. The app detail page states whether information was researched or hands-on tested. Verify the use case and current terms with the linked official listing.

Lineova: Drawing & Painting

A multi-device drawing studio with brushes, vector tools, 3D texture painting, layers, comics, and animation.

Sketch Club

A paid drawing and painting studio with layered canvases, vector and brush tools, photo editing, community challenges, and Apple Pencil support.

Draw AR - Trace & Sketch

An augmented-reality drawing guide that overlays a photo or reference through the camera for tracing on paper.

Clay Shaper: 3D Sculpting

Clay Shaper is a 3D sculpting app that models objects as volumes of digital clay. It offers sculpting brushes, paint, symmetry, AR previews, and exports for printers and 3D tools. The free tier includes core sculpting with limits; a one-time Pro purchase unlocks more resolution, imports, exports, and saves, with no account or ads.

Paint.exe - Retro Paint

A completely free retro painting app with classic drawing tools, local saves, and offline use.

FORMA: Draw, Paint & Sketch

A drawing and illustration studio with brushes, layers, cross-device canvases, on-device reference generation, and export tools.

Sketchbook Studio

Sketchbook Studio is an iPad drawing and painting app for Apple Pencil. It includes pressure-sensitive brushes, layers, rulers, symmetry guides, filters, page templates, photo tracing overlays, and augmented-reality previews. Sketches are saved on the device; current pricing is not specified in the listing.