Fun Friday: Sketching on your Smartphone

When I was much younger and even to this day, doodling and sketching have been a part of my everyday life. What started out as a pencil-on-paper distraction quickly made its way onto the computer after I discovered MS Paint. Laugh if you’d like, but there is something uniquely satisfying about using that pixilated paintbrush to tell a story. My doodling has finally caught up to my mobile world with the influx of drawing and sketching applications available on smartphones. And to indulge my artistic and creative side, this Fun Friday blog will inform you where to go to do some free mobile doodling of your own.

For Windows Mobile users, Mobile Sketcher is an application that lets you doodle on both blank pages (create your own from scratch) or on pictures already on your device. You can draw yourself into a beautiful landscape or put a funny face on a friend. All that’s left to do is save the picture and forward it to your friends. With Mobile Sketcher, however, you are limited both in your sketching tools and the colors you can use. Check out a video of Mobile Sketcher in action below.

iPhone has several sketching and doodling applications available in its Apps Store, but the best of the free choices in my opinion is iDoodle Lite. iDoodle Lite is similar to MS Paint’s capabilities with more color and tool options, as well as different types of pens and shapes that can be drawn. These pictures can be saved and sent to others or set as your phone’s wallpaper. You can also replay the drawing of your photo from start to finish.

If a game is more your style, there is a rather unique application called Sketcher for BlackBerry phones. The application uses rudimentary graphics (instead of doodling yourself, it looks like someone else has) and requires you to help a hand-drawn character maneuver through obstacles by “drawing” in slopes, bridges and jumps, although drawing requires a push of a button rather than any real skill with a mouse or touchscreen. This game doesn’t come free like the rest of our sketch-related applications, but you can download the app for less than $10. Need more convincing? Sketcher has been consistently rated as one of the most fun mobile games on the market.

No matter if you’re drawing a masterpiece or just whiling away the time, sketching apps are sure to inspire creativity and put a smile on your face, no matter your age. And to end this week in Fun Friday tradition, see what you can draw on your phone inspired by this week’s song by The Fall.