Guide to urban sketching with a tablet

Updated in Dec 2025

I've been urban sketching since 2009 and in this article I'll share everything you need to know about urban sketching on a tablet, including recommendations on tablets that are suitable for urban sketching.

In case you don't know, urban sketching is drawing on location and if you want to learn more about this activity, visit the Urban Sketchers blog. Most people I know use traditional media for urban sketching but it is also possible to create digital urban sketches. As for me, I use both traditional and digital media.

This article will look at

• Why draw with a tablet
• What to look out for when buying a tablet
• Drawing apps
• The experience
• Other urban sketchers to check out
• Final note

This article will not cover drawing techniques, the actual drawing process, because that is another topic on its own. If you want to learn the techniques, check out my Urban Sketching with Procreate on iPad course on Skillshare or Gumroad, or if you use Windows or Android devices then check out Learn to draw with Concepts app also on Skillshare and Gumroad.

Why draw with a tablet?

As much as I enjoy urban sketching with traditional media, I do sketch with a tablet occasionally just to try something different.

The biggest advantage of sketching with a tablet is convenience. There is no setup time, no need to prepare paint and water for painting, no waiting time for paint to dry, and no cleanup afterwards. That was the main reason why I brought a tablet to Seoul recently for a holiday trip with my wife. I wanted to sketch but didn't want my wife to wait that long while I paint, mix the colours and clean up, find somewhere to throw the water and dirty tissue. With a tablet, you open the app, sketch and you're done (after minutes or hours).

The second advantage is there are fewer tools to pack. All you need is just a tablet and its stylus. Of course if you're just sketching with pen, ink and sketchbook, you won't have to bring much supplies too. However with a tablet, you'll have that huge variety of digital tools and brushes.

Which tablet to get? What's the best tablet for sketching?

If you already have a tablet, you can skip this section.

You should get a tablet with pen support, a bright display and long battery life.

Look for tablets that advertise pen support. And even for tablets with pen support, the pen performance can vary significantly so it's always good to check (my) reviews.

Look for digital pens that support palm rejection, tilt and pressure sensitivity. These three features are essential for a positive drawing experience.

Urban sketching is usually done outdoors where it's really bright, so having a bright display will really help you see what's on the screen. From my experience, a display should have at least 1000 nits of brightness for it to be usable outdoors for sketching.

There aren't many tablets with displays with 1000 nits of brightness so your choices are limited, which is actually a good thing since you can filter out options fast.

When sketching outdoors, the display usually run at higher brightness and that will drain the battery much faster. Apple iPads usually have 8-10 hours battery life with normal use but when sketching outdoors battery life can drop to just 5-6 hours. To get longer battery life, you can use a portable power bank but that would mean carrying extra weight.

What tablet size to get?

An 11-inch is a good size that's not too big or small. An 11-inch display has a drawing area around the size of an A5-size paper, and that's a comfortable size to work with.

There are 8-inch tablets which are very portable but you get less drawing space, and there won't be much space for your hand to rest on the display too.

12 or 13-inch tablets nowadays are not that heavy and still easy to bring around. However the larger size makes them more unwieldy to handle with one hand. Using such big tablets usually mean you have to rest it on a surface to draw on.

Bigger doesn't always mean better. I am able to stand and sketch with an 11-inch tablet comfortable but it is noticeably more tiring with a 12-inch or larger tablet.

Recommendations

I have reviewed many drawing tablets over the years and these are my recommendations:

APPLE IPAD
The drawing experience with an iPad and Apple Pencil is fantastic and they have pretty good battery life. It's difficult to go wrong with getting an iPad for urban sketching.

Of all the iPad models, only the M4 and M5 iPad Pros have OLED displays with 1000 nits brightness. The other iPads have displays that are noticeably not as bright, and are suitable for indoor use but will struggle outdoors.

For extreme portability, there's the 8.3-inch iPad mini. If you want a larger display, there are the normal iPad, iPad Air and iPad Pro which are all available in 11-inch.

The largest iPad are the 13-inch iPad Air and 13-inch iPad Pro. Do compare the weight of all these tablets and take into account the weight of the cases too.

iPads are expensive. The 11-inch and 13-inch M5 iPad Pros are USD 999 and USD 1299 respectively. You can consider the M4 models which are one year older but still as good. Note that Apple Pencil is sold separately, and do get the correct Apple Pencil model.

If you are set on buying an or any iPad, get one with at least 128GB storage. And if you have to upgrade storage, that will cost extra too.

I currently have a 13-inch M4 iPad Pro and I find that too big for urban sketching. When I'm sketching, I find that I don't really need that big of a display.

WINDOWS TABLETS

There are no Windows tablets that I know of that have displays that reach 1000 nits as of December 2025. Anyway, the pen performance from most Windows tablets are not as good as what you can get with iPads and Android tablets.

SAMSUNG GALAXY TABLETS (FROM USD 629)

The Samsung tablets to buy are those that come with the S Pen. At the time of writing, the latest model is the Samsung Tab S11 series released in 2025. These tablets are available in 11-inch and 14.6 inch. I highly recommend the 11-inch since the Ultra 14.6-inch model is huge and more unwieldy to handle. Price for the 11-inch starts from USD 629 the last time I saw on Amazon.

I do not recommend the older Samsung tablets because their displays aren't as bright.

The drawing experience of Samsung tablets is comparable to iPads. The main advantage iPads have over Samsung tablets is there are more graphic design apps available, more specifically apps that can handle vector, text and layout.

WACOM MOVINKPAD PRO 14 (USD 900)

The Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 is a 14-inch Android tablet from Wacom with excellent pen performance. The OLED display brightness is 900 nits. The matte glass surface has no reflections and feels nice to draw on.

Downsides? It is quite big though and the smaller Wacom MovinkPad 11 isn't as powerful and the display brightness is just 400 nits.

Do you need a screen protector

I used to use a matte screen protector but I no longer do so.

When sketching outdoors, the anti-glare can diffuse the reflections to the extent that the whole drawing surface is bright and glaring and uncomfortable for my eyes. While I love the tactile drawing experience provided by a textured surface, I love my eyes more.

When working indoors, the anti-glare isn't really an issue because the light source is usually localised such as from a window. When you're outdoors, light and bounced light is coming from everywhere so the anti-glare will always be glaring to a certain degree.

A matte textured screen protector will also affect the display's image quality, more specifically the contrast, sharpness and vibrancy of the colours. If you really want a matte screen protector, I recommend the brand SuperShieldz which is cheap and good. There's no need to spend more than US $10 for a single piece of screen protector.

Or just go without a screen protector and get a flip case instead.

Depending on the tablet and pen you use, you may be able to find rubberised pen tips that can give you more friction and control while drawing. If you have the Apple Pencil, these are the $2 silicone Apple Pencil tips I highly recommend. If you're using the Samsung S Pen, just read the product description to look for mentioned of soft or rubberised tips.

With the rubberised pen tips, a matte screen protector isn't really necessary.

If you're worried about the glass display scratching, just note that glass is is considered a ceramic and is harder than metal. Even metal pen tips cannot scratch glass, but they may scratch the anti-reflective coating coating on the glass.

Drawing apps

Regardless of whether you're using iPad, Android or Windows tablets, there are many capable drawing apps on these three platforms.

Some of the drawing apps available on the iPad are:

• Procreate
• Medibang Paint Pro
• Clip Studio Paint
• Sketchbook Pro
• Tayasui Sketches Pro
• Concepts
• PaintStorm
• Infinite Painter
• Affinity Photo
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Fresco
• ArtStudio Pro

And some of the drawing apps available on Android are:

• Artflow
• Clip Studio Paint
• Concepts
• Infinite Painter
• ibisPaint
• Krita
• Medibang Paint Pro
• Sketchbook
• Tayasui Sketches

Some of the touch-interface-friendly drawing apps on Windows are:

• Adobe Fresco
• Concepts
• Leonardo
• Sketchable Plus
• Sketchbook Pro
• StylusX
• Medibang Paint Pro

It's common to see people mention Procreate as the main reason to get an iPad over other tablets. The thing is there are plenty of wonderful drawing apps on Android tablets too from the Google Play Store. You won't be missing out much by going with Android

What's it like urban sketching on the iPad

Sketched on the train in South Korea

Sketching digitally on a tablet is so convenient. Just power on the tablet and you can start sketching. I don't have to clean up my watercolour box and find somewhere to throw the water and dirty tissue.

Creating art with traditional media is limited to the tools you have, and working with limitation can sometimes make you more creative. With digital art there are more things you can do. In addition to drawing and colouring, you can undo, erase, mask, select, transform, move things around, using layers and more. Since there are more things you can do digital, it opens up lots of possibilities.

My workflow with digital urban sketching is quite similar to using traditional tools. I still draw with lines, add colours, then textures. I try not to use undo as much as possible because redrawing takes up more time, and reducing undoes helps you be more careful when drawing.

You can really learn the ins and outs of the drawing app you use, such exploring the huge collection of brushes available, diving in the settings, and really experiment with what the drawing app can do.

I don't think one should be too obsessed with creating the traditional look with digital tools. Focus instead on your subject and the story you want to tell.

With digital art, it is easy to test different styles and composition.

Some urban sketchers to check out

Rob Sketcherman is an artist and urban sketcher based in Hong Kong. He's the first person I think of when I think of iPad artist. He has been sketching with the iPad and Apple Pencil ever since they existed.

Uma Kelkar is a painter who works with traditional and digital medium. She is also the author of The Urban Sketching Handbook: Drawing with a Tablet.

Don Low is so good at sketching that it doesn't really matter what tools he uses.

Final note

iPad Pro 12.9 vs 11

Currently in the market, common tablet sizes are 8, 10, 11 and those larger than 12-inches. When it comes to urban sketching with a tablet, I do feel the weight of the tablet and case is very important. To me, an 11-inch tablet is way more portable compared to larger tablets. Larger tablets will use larger cases which are also heavier. Any tablet larger than 12-inches is likely to need a surface to work on.

An 11-inch tablet is still considered big and still provides a good drawing experience unless you're using apps that have very cluttered UI design, e.g. Clip Studio Paint.

A tablet is not cheap and it represents an investment. With digital art, you no longer need to buy paint and paper so you do save money in other ways. When you buy digital brushes, those brushes last forever.

I certainly won't be ditching my traditional media anytime soon. Right now I enjoy using the iPad just to try something different creatively. It's a great tool for urban sketching, but it's just another tool which has to depend on you to unleash its potential.