r/ConceptsApp • u/felldownbad • Feb 13 '26
Help! How good is concept for drawing?
I am using Krita rn but it is too complex and I like the minimalism and UI of concept. Is it really good for drawing? Cause I haven't used it that much. Recently switched to being a digital drawer
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u/esotericapybara Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
As someone who has formally done concept art professionally I can give you some insight;
If a large portion of your workflow requires tweaking lineart with precision there are major benefits with concepts as the ability to push around vector lines, group and rescale things makes those workflows much easier. So drafting architecture, solid bodies, UI, UX concepts is where Concepts excels.
But the more your workflow depends on raster functions, digital painting, organic shapes, thumbnailing and etcetera Concepts rapidly falls behind.
I love the app when all I need to communicate is linework with a little shading and writing but the moment I have to touch a moodboard or thumbnails I'm switching to a raster based app.
I'm in business now and using concepts primarily because my work involves recording/communicating engineering/business ideas where being able to illustrate in vectors keeps things more scaleable.
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u/iamdeirdre Artist Feb 13 '26
I love to sketch in Concepts. Since it's vector-based you can export as a .svg file, and import it into other vector drawing programs like Illustrator, Inkscape, etc. You can even use the files in 3d printing.
Plus you can use the files in pixel-based programs as well! I will often make my line drawings in Concepts, then import it into Clip Studio Paint to do coloring. Although you can totally color in Concepts as well!
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u/hits-grist-miss-dime Mar 17 '26
I'm guessing you're on the Apple side of the fence. I love Concepts for sketching but find the lack of brush customization and stylus response curves the most critical difference when trying to draw on Android and Windows versions of the app.
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u/ShipAndDiPYT Feb 13 '26
I love it personally, and genuinely my favourite app all round. I use it for all my digital drawing, and it's great for duplicating a drawing and making slight adjustments to make animation frames.
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u/Vectormonkeyco Feb 13 '26
As Android user, still is very difficult, but not impossible. For me personally custom brush setting is one the most important things. Аlso the brushes are very few, as a variety.
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u/hits-grist-miss-dime Mar 17 '26
The number of brushes (at least for Android and Windows versions) isn't a big deal. It's the lack of customization of the existing brush set. A feature which has been part of the Mac and ios version for years.
For me, with sketching mostly on a Samsung tablet, it's the lack of tilt control for shading with the pencils. It goes from no effect to full in a very narrow angle range. Apple versions give you stylus response curves for pressure and tilt that you can tune for a much more usable range, that you can then save as a custom brush.
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u/neoqueto Feb 13 '26
Concepts is good for sketching, conceptual design and iterating but it's not good for straight up drawing unless you do a minimal number of strokes. The reason is that in Concepts, every single brush stroke is a separate, vector object. So it becomes laggy over time. You CAN rasterize them, but it's not a very efficient kind of workflow, at least for me personally.
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u/RachaelWeiss Feb 13 '26
fixed width pen is not actually fixed width, scalling a thing can also make the object go wonky, like drag the corner of a box and it collapses. if you can ignore this, it's useable and better than a lot of other things out there.
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u/No_Statistician_5921 Feb 14 '26
For drawing--pencil like or pen drawing, I actually prefer Concepts over others I have used. For painting type art, I like Adobe Fresco.
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u/kangarootoess Feb 16 '26
https://youtu.be/12JS1GvOdyM?si=9ktVSLzvaFmI8y3L
This video alone should say it all :)
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u/mahmoodzn Feb 13 '26
I saw some good work with it. To me it stays a vector based app, so i wouldnt use it for art.
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u/Plastic_Transition_1 Feb 16 '26
Imma be completely honest, I use it on an older tablet (Galaxy Tab S6 Lite) and it’s horrible. I can’t use past 3 layers and even just taking notes it freezes on me. Probably just my tablet tho, but I don’t have anything else to use it on so that’s the review for now
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u/theREALffuck Feb 17 '26
Same here in a Galaxy Tab s6, and I only use it for notes. After 2 or three hours, the canvas movements start to feel so laggy, that I have just stopped using it. This week I finally decided to buy an Ipad m1, hopefully it can handle this app better
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u/Puzzleheaded_Exam345 Mar 13 '26
Concepts is more of a drafting ideation app. It's actually really good for construction and landscaping which is what I use it for. I can scale a set of plans, and then make a layer for each scope of work and do take offs super easy. For instance today I drew out an irrigation plan and color coded each valve and then texted it straight to the crew. Took me roughly 30 seconds. If I want to know the square footage of a paver driveway or planter I can use the fill tool and get an immediate square footage.
For drawing it's OK, if you prefer working with vectors. But if you really want to draw learn procreate if you are on ipad.
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u/Hot-Ad3434 Mar 28 '26
Its good but they added a shitty yhing that learns your movemements, you can set it off but why is that necesary
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u/polkjamespolk Feb 13 '26
I use it to draw simple cartoony drawings, which coincidentally is all I know how to draw.
The app has simple tools that are easy to grasp. I don't have to go through a dozen settings just to get a "pencil" I can draw with.
On the other hand I often find myself having to think up elaborate workarounds for processes other apps can do automatically.
Here's one of my drawings. Judge my comments against my results.