Forge: From Idea To Final Sketch

Posted by Bogdan Lazar

Forge iPad App Review.

When a hobby becomes something that you take all the way to a professional level, it’s harder, and harder to buy the necessary tools you need, without spending a fortune. Your drums you bought a year ago on E-bay are no longer quite enough to get the sound that you’re looking for. And nor is an ordinary sewing machine, a pair of scissors, or just a pen and a paper, when you want to deliver a professional result. Your talent is still the most important part of the mix. But you need a tool to match up your talent, as well. And when it comes to sketching, the people at Adonit think they’ve got the perfect tool for developing sketch-artists.

How it works

Forge takes you step by step from the first line you trace on the paper to the final project you’re ready to share with the world. Import an image to inspire you, and use it as a template for your future project. Or start everything from scratch. Begin with the most basic sketch of your future complex drawing. Then continue from that point on. Step by step. Sketch by sketch. You probably won’t get the result you’re looking for with the first attempt you make.

You’re an artist, and artists always strive for perfection. That’s why, with Forge, you can always go back to your first draft that might have just been a shy outline of what it eventually was supposed to be. Or your second, where things started to make sense a bit. Your third, your fourth, your fifth. The beauty of Forge is that every time you feel like you’re about to rip apart what you’ve just created, you can do it without remorse. And you don’t have to start everything right from the beginning, when you only had a blank paper, and a pencil in your hand. You can start right from the last point where your work seemed to be going in the direction you were looking for.

Cool graphics, interesting controls

The graphics of the app are really cool, and smart, as expected. And the controls, as well. Forge is very focused on pinch, drag & drop, swipe, or tap sort of commands, rather than tapping on specific buttons for every action you want to make. This might be a bit confusing at first, especially if you’re used to having a save, or an exit button, when working on a project. But Forge is, after all, an app designed for a touch-screen device, so I can only appreciate the initiative, although this didn’t necessarily lead to the most intuitive controls.

Adapted to the needs of beginners, as well as professionals

Now, from colors to sketching tools, and a couple of boards, Forge is totally free to download, and use. However, you will need to make a $3.99 in-app purchase to be able to start, and modify as many projects at once, as you wish. And, if you’re also looking to use a more professional sketching tool, along with this app, you should consider adding a stylus to the mix. Forge recommends a Jot for $99.99. But, anyway, any stylus you already have is probably compatible with the app. Plus, if you’re just starting to test your sketching abilities, you can always use the tools the app has to offer, totally free of charge.

All in all, although I’m not a sketching artist, I found Forge to be a pretty cool app. Function, Controls, and Design-wise. I would have liked it even more if it was a sort of open-source app, where you would have the possibility to share your work with an online sketching community, and they could actively contribute to the development of your sketching project. But, other than that, if I were a sketch-artist, I’d definitely give Forge a try.

Screenshots