For people who "can't draw" and never keep a journal

Draw. Write.
Level up.

LevelUp Sketch turns ten minutes of drawing or writing into an RPG. Time on the page pays XP. Level up and you unlock real brushes, real papers, real fonts. Two crafts, one streak, one character sheet.

iPad and Mac. One subscription covers both. Coming to the App Store. No spam, one email when it opens.

The Today board in LevelUp Sketch on iPad, showing a Scribe character at level 1, a drawing challenge, a writing challenge, and a mixed list of today's quests with Write and Draw buttons.
Real screen, day one

Two crafts. One habit.

Drawing and journaling are the same practice wearing different clothes. Show up, make a mark, look back later and see you moved. The app treats them as one game.

Draw

Ten minutes on the canvas

Real Apple Pencil drawing with pressure and tilt, on a PencilKit canvas. Not a toy.

  • A daily drawing prompt, free forever
  • Seven inks, six palettes, three stroke ranges to unlock
  • Every drawing saved and dated, so you can put day one next to today
  • Freeform whenever you just want to draw
Write

Ten minutes on the page

A journal that is actually private, that counts, and that you can search six months later.

  • A daily writing prompt, free forever
  • Five papers, five inks, two fonts, stamps and templates to unlock
  • An entry counts at 50 words or three minutes, whichever comes first
  • Unlimited entries on the free tier, always

Do both in a day and the game notices

A double day pays a bonus of +25 XP and +5 JP on top of everything else. Write one line about a drawing you just finished and that reflection is worth +10 XP, up to three a day. Nothing forces you to do both. It just pays if you do.

Ten minutes a day. That is the whole trick.

No talent required. The game makes you show up, and showing up is what makes you good.

1

Show up

Open today's board. There is a drawing prompt, a writing prompt, and your challenge day waiting. Pick one. Pick both. Or just draw freeform.

2

Earn XP

Ten XP for every active minute, on the canvas or in the editor. Thirty more for hitting your daily goal, fifty for finishing a quest. Streak milestones at 3, 7, 14, 30, 60 and 100 days pay escalating bonuses.

3

Unlock real tools

Thirty-five brushes, palettes, papers, inks, fonts, stamps and templates, earned by levelling. Your toolbar is your inventory. Nothing here is for sale, and nothing you earn can be taken back.

What it actually looks like

Real screens from the running app, not mockups.

Your toolbar is your inventory

Everything greyed out with a lock is something you have not earned yet. Pen, Marker, Monoline, Fountain Pen, Watercolor, Crayon. Warm Tones, Cool Tones, Earth Tones, Neon Pop, Full Spectrum. You start with a pencil and six colours, same as everyone.

Canvas toolbar, level 1 account

The LevelUp Sketch canvas toolbar. Pencil and Basic 6 are active. Pen, Marker, Monoline, Fountain Pen, Watercolor, Crayon, Warm Tones, Cool Tones, Earth Tones, Neon Pop and Full Spectrum are greyed out with padlock icons.

Your diary is not your doodles

Journal backup is its own switch, separate from your drawings. Turn it off and your entries never leave the device. Sharing a sketchnote shares the drawing only unless you say otherwise, and the journal can sit behind Face ID.

Settings, journal privacy

The journal privacy section of LevelUp Sketch settings. Lock journal is off, Back up journal entries is on with the note that turning it off keeps entries on the device, and Allow sharing entry text is off by default.

An entry that counts, and knows it

Write a real thing about a real day. The bar at the bottom tracks words and active time, and tells you the moment the entry has earned its bonus. Fifty words or three minutes, whichever you get to first.

Journal editor

The LevelUp Sketch journal editor showing an entry titled First real entry, with a paragraph about drawing the same mug four days running. The journal editor status bar showing 64 words, under a minute of active time, and a green Complete marker.

Searchable six months later

Every entry is dated, tagged by type, and full-text searchable. The point of keeping a journal is reading it, and most journal apps quietly make that the hard part.

Journal timeline

The LevelUp Sketch journal timeline with a search field, a filter control, and one entry from Friday August 21 2026 labelled Entry, 64 words.

These are captured from a brand new account, which is why the counters read zero. Nothing has been retouched.

Pick a job. Change it later.

Your job shapes your quests and the order you unlock things, Final Fantasy Tactics style. Start as one of three, earn Job Points, unlock the advanced four.

Squire

Every masterpiece starts with a straight line.

Starter job

Chemist

Mix, test, discover what the page can do.

Starter job

Scribe

The page remembers what you forget.

Starter job
Warrior · Mage · Rogue · Bard ·

Tools you have earned stay yours forever, even when you switch jobs. Bard is the crossover: words and pictures telling one story.

Two 30-day paths

One for each craft. Run one, run both, or ignore them and keep drawing freeform. The first week of each is free so you can find out whether it suits you before deciding anything.

Drawing

Apprentice's Path

30 days from "I can't draw" to a finished piece: lines, shapes, light, and your first real still life. Day one is a mug, drawn badly on purpose. That is your before picture.

Days 1 to 7 freeDay 30
Writing

Scribe's Path

30 days from blank page to a journal you actually kept: start, notice, dig, connect. Day one asks why you opened the app. On day 30 you read it back.

Days 1 to 7 freeDay 30

iPad and Mac, from day one

Not an iPad app with a Mac version promised later. One app, one purchase, both machines.

Draw on the iPad

Apple Pencil, pressure and tilt, PencilKit native inks. It feels like drawing because it is drawing, just with a level bar on top.

Write on the Mac

A real keyboard for the days when you have a lot to say. Same journal, same XP, same streak.

Both stay in step

Start a drawing on the sofa, finish it at the desk. Edit the same entry in two places and it forks into two rather than quietly losing a version.

What it costs

The free tier is generous on purpose. A habit app that walls off the habit does not build one.

Free forever
$0

No trial clock, no account required. Everything works signed out.

  • A daily drawing prompt and a daily writing prompt
  • Unlimited journal entries
  • Five saved drawings
  • Every drawing tool you earn, XP, jobs, streaks
  • Days 1 to 7 of both 30-day paths
  • The Gratitude template, and writing your own entry from scratch
LevelUp Sketch Pro
Save 30%
$49.99 / year

Works out at $4.17 a month

$5.99 / month

Cancel any time

Same Pro either way. One subscription, iPad and Mac. Everything in Free, plus:

  • Both 30-day paths, all the way through
  • Unlimited saved drawings
  • Every entry template

Your daily prompts, your journal entries, your drawing tools, your XP and your streaks stay free forever. Pro is not how you keep the habit, it is how you go deeper into it.

Day one is a bad drawing and a messy paragraph.

That is the point. Get on the list and we will tell you the day it opens.

$5.99 a month or $49.99 a year when it launches. iPad and Mac, one subscription.