Pencil by 53 occupies a fuzzy pencil-shaped hole in my soul.  A stylus with an eraser?  And that knows the difference between stylus and finger for rapid smudge action?  That's ergonimically designed?  Dawww, I love you too, 53!

That said, the Paper app's only saving grace is that every last Pencil feature works with it and unlocks the (limited) premium tools.

• The color picker is finicky. Though the mixing action letting you slide back and forth between two colors with a rotar...

 Credit: Pallas Athene, Gustav Klimt.

The first time I wanted to burn something I painted was when I was 14 and I attempted to paint a gold watch. Hours and hours of painting and repainting later, I still had mud watch. Ironically, this was the painting I chose to frame and have on my bedside table for most of high school.  

This was years before my 11th hour realization I wanted to go to art school rather than get my MBA (parents, again: I'm sorry, I love you, thank you), but even then I knew...

You were walking around, minding your own business - then there it was. The perfect painting subject. Except for the fact that you don't have an easel stashed in your Mary Poppins back pocket, just your phone.  So you snap a photo for later.

Smile if you know that by "you", I mean me. I love plein air painting but it just doesn't work sometimes to paint on location.  Rain, moving vehicles, small children, it happens. So I take a lot of snowy day painting reference photos.

I'...