Tracing Ace!

Draw along with Peter H. Reynolds.

A drawing app by the New York Times bestselling author and illustrator and his nephew, Ben Reynolds.

Choose one of Peter’s drawings, follow his line with a finger or Apple Pencil, and watch your own artwork take shape.

Coming soon to the App Store

For iPad and iPhone. Will it work on mine?

The Tracing Ace title screen on an iPad: Peter's pencil illustration on torn paper, hand-lettered 'Peter H. Reynolds presents Tracing Ace!', and a START banner, with his drawings around the edges.

How it works

  • The 'Choose a Drawing to Trace' screen: Peter's hand-lettered pack covers, Animals, Creatures, Fruit and Fun, on a lavender field.

    Pick a drawing

    Shapes, faces, animals, fruit, creatures and more.

  • Tracing a chameleon: black lines drawn over most of a pale purple guide, with its spiky back and curly tail still to go.

    Trace it

    Follow Peter's line with a finger or Apple Pencil.

  • The 'Frame it!' screen: the finished chameleon in a wavy pink hand-drawn frame, with arrows to try others and a 'Use THIS Frame!' button.

    Frame it

    Try a few frames and pick a favourite.

  • The gallery: framed drawings, among them a king, a bird, a boat, a strawberry and the chameleon, under Peter's hand-lettered 'MY GALLERY' heading.

    Keep it

    It stays in your own gallery, on your own device.

A little help getting started.

Plenty of people need a little help to start drawing. Peter’s line is that help, and nothing more: Tracing Ace never scores, grades or corrects anything. No stars, no percentages, no red marks. Wobbly lines are welcome, and every finished drawing is celebrated the same way.

Prefer to take your time? In Calm Mode the guide stays put while you draw. When you’re finished it disappears, leaving only your artwork.

Use a finger, or an Apple Pencil on iPad. Undo is always one tap away.

Tracing a dog: bold black lines over most of a pale purple guide, with its spots, collar and front legs still to go.

Shapes, faces, animals, fruit, creatures nobody has named yet, and more. When you’ve finished tracing Peter’s lines, add a few finishing touches of your own and make it yours.

  • A dragon, drawn in black line by Peter H. Reynolds.
  • A strawberry, drawn in black line.
  • A furry creature with big eyes, drawn in black line.
  • An animal, drawn in black line.
  • A creature, drawn in black line.
  • A playful drawing, in black line.
Peter H. Reynolds' drawing of himself as a boy in 1968, looking up at the family photocopier, a bowl of fruit on top.

Inspired by a childhood discovery

In 1968, Peter’s mother rescued an old photocopier. It could only make very faint copies, so he traced the light grey lines with a black pen, then took his drawing to the copier at the local five-and-dime. In the new copy the grey lines disappeared, leaving only his own artwork.

“I love to draw. And I believe that everyone can draw.”

— Peter H. Reynolds, author and illustrator of The Dot and Ish

Decades later, he and his nephew, Ben Reynolds, made Tracing Ace to bring that discovery to your screen: follow the lines, and see where your creativity takes you.

Made for the fridge door.

When a drawing is done, pick one of Peter’s hand-drawn frames for it. Every finished drawing is kept in your own gallery, ready to show off, and you can save any of them to your Photos to print or share.

A finished chameleon wearing a hat, in a green spotted hand-drawn frame, signed Tracing Ace!, with buttons to save it, take it down or trace it again.

For families

Fun at any age, parents included: a calm, low-pressure way to ease into making something. Screen time that ends with a drawing you can keep.

  • No ads, and nothing pinging for attention.
  • No accounts to set up and no logins to remember.
  • Works offline: in the car, on a plane, anywhere.
  • Purchases and links out sit behind a grown-ups-only gate.

For classrooms

A calm drawing break that needs no logins and no Wi-Fi.

  • No student accounts, and nothing collected about anyone.
  • Fine on a shared iPad; drawings stay on that device.
  • Thinking of it for your school? Tell us what you’d need.

Trace. Draw.
Make it your own.

No accounts. No ads. Works offline.

Coming soon to the App Store

Support for Android, Chromebooks, and more is also on the way. More about Android and Chromebooks