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Art Academy: SketchPad

by Daan Koopman - August 8, 2013, 12:40 pm EDT
Total comments: 15

8

Willing to create art? We welcome you to your new jam!

The Art Academy series is all about creating your own art pieces and following lessons to improve your skills. It is unsurprising that Nintendo is planning to release a Wii U version of Art Academy, though we are now only given a nice glimpse of what is to come. Art Academy SketchPad provides a preview of the full experience, giving you the ability to draw for a Miiverse public right now.

With this brand new application on Wii U, you aren't really given a tutorial on how to use all the tools. This is weird, because the previous entries did an excellent job of explaining everything you could do. If you are new to the series, your only help is a question mark button that will give you a general idea of what to expect from a feature. This may not be very inviting for beginners, but the app is still a lot of fun.

I am not a good artist and not even capable of drawing well in real-life, but the tools in Art Academy SketchPad made it appealing to try. You draw directly on the Wii U GamePad screen and this feels extremely nice, even more so than in the handheld versions of the series. Before long, I was painting a little world and ended up with something I felt alright about. Seeing what actual artists have done on Miiverse is even more impressive and I urge you to go check out the dedicated community.

Before you draw, you can choose a picture to inspire you and this will be shown on the television. You can also just go completely blank, if you have your own ideas to pursue.  After this, you choose the materials you will draw on with an additional option to pre-color the background. When you are finished setting up, you use various tools like pencils, colored pencils and pastels. These options are actually quite appealing to just toy around and have fun with. For closer details, you can zoom in and out on the painting. When you are done with your art, you can send it off to Miiverse. If you are running out of time, you can also just save it for later and continue to draw when you are ready.

Art Academy: SketchPad is a fun little app, which is essential for Miiverse artists and something to toy around with for others. You must understand, however, that you won't be guided through the experience, so you won't get any help understanding what you need to do. If you can get past that, you will find a fantastic tool to make pictures on the Wii U GamePad.

Summary

Pros
  • Great application
  • Plenty of tools available
  • Wii U GamePad screen nice to draw on
Cons
  • No guidance

Talkback

Leo13August 08, 2013

How much does this cost?

ShyGuyAugust 08, 2013

$4 US

Leo13August 08, 2013

Thanks

ShonenJumpAugust 08, 2013

its free

VahneAugust 09, 2013

$4 huh...not too bad I guess. However, it doesn't seem like people who buy this will get the full tool set. I'm pretty sure the full version will have paint and other tools as well...
So in other words, $4 is a bit much when you compare it to apps like Colors! on Android or 3DS or Sketchbook Pro on Android tablets (like the Note 10.1). This also seems like a paid demo of sorts...I'll probably still end up getting it though, since I'll never grab the full version anyway (full version will probably cost $40?).
I hope Jens Andersson has a Wii U version of Colors! coming.

Leo13August 09, 2013

Wait, is it $4 or free? I'm confused.

ShyGuyAugust 09, 2013

You can look it up in the eShop, it's $3.99.

Leo13August 09, 2013

Thanks, I haven't had a chance to use my Wii U for a few days

chilenozoAugust 09, 2013

This is what I call Miiverse art...or a art inspired by recreation of art (if you forgot the name of this infamous Spanish paint...google Ecce Homo)

https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYIHAAABAADKUKFaImipLg

TriponAugust 09, 2013

This isn't the full version of Art Academy, that is coming next year I think. The full version will have the tutorial.

RedBlueAugust 10, 2013

Are the tutorials going to be just an add-on?

TruenoGTAugust 10, 2013

For clarity, according the instructions, you cannot save to an SD card in this version and only 12 images can be saved per user. I imagine (hope!) these limitations will be lifted in the full version as it's an awesome drawing app.

azekeAugust 11, 2013

As i said earlier i think that charging for this app is a rip-off of sorts.

Amazing artists are drawing great pictures every day and promote your system and Nintendo decides to prey on them instead of encouraging their free marketing.

ShyGuyAugust 11, 2013

I think $4 is a small price to pay for the quality of the app I got.

I'm not sure how big of marketing reach these pictures have outside of people who already own a Wii U.

Now if there was a post to Twitter/Facebook option...

LudicrousDa3veAugust 19, 2013

It's really easy to share to other social media, though it isn't a single button press or anything. If you put something on Miiverse you can access it via the web version, and from there share your post to FB/Twitter, or save the individual image and go from there.

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Genre
Developer Headstrong Games
Players1

Worldwide Releases

na: Art Academy: SketchPad
Release Aug 09, 2013
PublisherNintendo
RatingEveryone
jpn: Egokoro Kyōshitsu Sketch
Release Aug 08, 2013
PublisherNintendo
eu: Art Academy: SketchPad
Release Aug 09, 2013
PublisherNintendo
Rating3+
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