Watercolor Studio vs Pixel Shape
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Watercolor Studio
Transform your photos into realistic, fluid watercolors with advanced AI and intuitive tools. Customize your creations with layers, brushes, and artistic finishes for print-quality results. No artistic skill required to achieve beautiful, luminous paintings.
- AI-powered watercolor rendering
- Realistic and natural paint flow
- Customizable sliders and layers
- Variety of brushes and washes
- Print-quality output
- No artistic skill required
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Watercolor Studio is an Automated Photo to Watercolor Software with Realistic and Natural Style Watercolor Studio creates fluid, liquidy, translucent watercolors with paint that flows naturally. Built on-top of an incredible rendering system that uses real-world techniques, this application does the initial work, producing a watercolor instantly, then allows you to customize your paintings using an array of Sliders, Layers, Brushes, Color Washes and Artistic finishes. The end result—print quality watercolors filled with transparent luminosity and sheer beauty. Watercolor Studio uses artificial intelligence and image recognition to render the initial watercolor then gives you the ability to create infinite variations quickly and easily. Change paintings into an ink wash, add a beautiful artistic finish, brush in details, and even spatter it with liquid spots. Control everything from details-to-shades-to-negative space-to-coloring. No artistic skill needed! The beauty of a well executed watercolor comes from the transparency of paint on paper. It also comes from the watercolors unique free flowing characteristics. Watercolor Studio makes it easy to do just this with a one-of-a kind Liquid slider. As you move it, watch as color bleeds throughout the painting for an ultra wet style. Or use the Wet Edge slider to define edges with built-up pigment and color that bleeds inward naturally. Paint Layers allows you to create beautiful and unique watercolors by stacking watercolor layers, blending color washes and texture, and brushing in details. No artistic skill needed! Every photo placed in Watercolor Studio is automatically transformed into a watercolor with full control over settings. While it’s great to have complete control over what the paint does on the paper, some of the most beautiful effects occur in the experiment process. So have fun and try not to be too careful. You will be amazed at some of the paintings you will get. Watercolor—Portrait is a wet-on-dry painting with all the characteristics of a true watercolor. Fine-tune portrait detail and shades, then smooth color using the liquid slider while keeping contours clear and color defined. Watercolor—Landscape is an abstract free flowing wet-in-wet paint style, great for landscapes. Use it to spread indiscriminate details as if saturated with water for a loose wet watercolor painting with color that bleeds together. Ink Wash renders photos into soft subtle paintings, consisting of one-to-three colors. Choose from a library of washes to create ultra inky paintings or light monotone ones. Combine with Color Washes and Outline Layers for an expressive piece filled with artistic character. Liquefy is a transparent layer used to dilute and bleed color. Use the Liquefy Layer above one or more layers then brush with a continuous motion to blend areas where needed. This subtle effect smooths areas like a true paint brush dipped in water. Color Wash blends handmade color washes and textures into the painting while retaining some or all of the original color. Use them to warm up, cool down or to dapple light and color throughout the painting with control over how much. Use render modes to combine washes with Watercolor, Ink Wash and Outline Layers for breathtaking one-of-a-kind art pieces. Spatter adds liquid spots that actually looks wet and runny. Use them to add texture, age, and bits of color throughout the painting. Canvas is the base of your painting. On this layer use settings to change the canvas style (paper). Choose between cold press, hot press or rough. Here you can also increase the pigment granulation in the watercolor and how dark or light the transparency of the color appears on the paper. • High resolution support • Print worthy output
Pixel Shape
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Use words or shapes to remake a picture. Bored of zero-dimensional pixels, replace them with words or shapes that you choose or create your own shapes to remake your pictures with them. Non-Latin characters allowed
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Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Pixel Shape at Free against Watercolor Studio's $29.99. Pixel Shape also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). Watercolor Studio's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ads (none vs shown). On update cadence there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Pixel Shape is free to download; Watercolor Studio costs $29.99 up front. Pixel Shape sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Watercolor Studio asks for nothing beyond the download.
Watercolor Studio ships an update every 3 weeks, Pixel Shape every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on July 7, 2026 and September 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Watercolor Studio | Pixel Shape |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $29.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (91 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 83.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 91 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 371 MB | 118 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | JixiPix Software | Fluocode |
In-app purchases
Watercolor Studio
No in-app purchases
Pixel Shape
- Long text and Fonts$4.99
- Shape Editor$4.99
Questions
Is Watercolor Studio free?
Is Pixel Shape free?
Do Watercolor Studio or Pixel Shape have ads?
Which is updated more often, Watercolor Studio or Pixel Shape?
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