Digital Art Journaling with Paper, and Where Your Sketches Can Live Next
I worked at WeTransfer, the company behind one of my favourite apps. Here's what Paper taught me about digital art journaling, and how to give your sketches a home with a story attached.
The app I loved before I worked there
Long before I joined WeTransfer, Paper was already on my iPad. It was made by FiftyThree, and WeTransfer acquired it in 2018. For a lot of people WeTransfer means sending big files. For me it also meant working at the company that looked after an app I already opened almost every day.
What I loved about Paper was how little it asked of you. A handful of tools, a page and your finger or a stylus. No layers to manage and no hundred brushes to choose from. You open it and you draw.
Why Paper works so well for digital art journaling
Most drawing apps think in single canvases. Paper thinks in journals. You fill a journal page by page, the way you'd fill a sketchbook, so it naturally becomes a record of your days: a coffee cup, a view from a train, a quick note after a museum visit.
- Few tools, less friction. You spend your energy on looking, not on settings.
- Mistakes are cheap. Undo is a gesture, so you try things you wouldn't risk in a paper sketchbook.
- Always with you. Your journal is on the device already in your bag, which is what turns sketching into a habit.
That's the core of digital art journaling: not making finished pieces, but catching moments often enough that they add up.
The part that was missing
Paper is wonderful at making things. What it was never built for is the story around them. A page in a journal doesn't remember that you drew it in the Musée d'Orsay after standing in front of a Monet, or that it was the first sketch you made after months of not drawing.
Exported sketches usually end up in your camera roll, between screenshots and receipts. Shared on social media, they disappear in a day. Working close to a creative tool made me notice this gap, and it's a big part of why I built artjournal.ing: a place where the drawing and the reason you made it stay together.
How to save and publish your Paper sketches
It takes less than a minute from Paper to your art journal:
Save the page from Paper
Open the journal page you want to keep, tap share and save it to your photo library as an image.
Add a moment on artjournal.ing
Tap the plus button. It works the same on your phone and on the iPad you just drew on.
Choose "My own artwork"
Then upload the image. This keeps your own work separate from the museum visits and street art in your journal.
Write what it was about
One or two sentences is enough: where you were, what you were trying to catch, what you'd do differently.
Tag it and choose who sees it
Tags like #digital, #paperapp or #sketch make it easy to filter later. Keep it private, share it with friends or make it public.
Your sketch then shows up on your timeline next to the art that inspired it. If you drew it after seeing a painting, log that painting too, and over time you'll see the line between what you look at and what you make.
What your digital art journal becomes
Once your own work sits next to your museum visits, your profile turns into something no single app gives you: a year of looking and making in one place. The monthly timeline shows when you drew most, your tags show which themes you keep returning to, and friends can leave a comment on a sketch the same way they would on a Klimt.
You don't have to publish anything. Plenty of journal pages are just for you, and that's fine. You decide, moment by moment, whether a sketch stays private, goes to friends or is shared with everyone.
Paper gave me a place to draw. I wanted a place to remember why.
Questions people search for
Who owns the Paper app?
Paper was created by FiftyThree. WeTransfer acquired Paper in 2018, and WeTransfer itself became part of Bending Spoons in 2024.
Is Paper good for digital art journaling?
Yes. Paper is built around journals instead of single canvases, and its small set of tools keeps you sketching instead of adjusting settings, which is exactly what a daily art journal needs.
How do I save my Paper drawings outside the app?
Open the page you want to keep, use the share option and save it as an image to your photo library. From there you can upload it anywhere, including to artjournal.ing.
Where can I publish my digital sketches with a reflection?
On artjournal.ing you can add a moment, choose "My own artwork", upload your sketch, write what it's about and decide whether it's private, visible to friends or public.
Give your next sketch a home.
Draw it in Paper, then save it with a sentence about why it mattered.
Start your art journal