HEAVYPAINT Classic vs Value Study
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HEAVYPAINT Classic
A streamlined painting application focused on pure colors and shapes. It offers essential tools for artists, including improved smudge and blur, layers, masking, and erasing. Ideal for quick sketches, studies, and plein air work.
- Improved Smudge tool
- Improved Blur tool
- Layers
- Masking
- Clipping
- Erase tool
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HEAVYPAINT ClassicA simple yet secretly powerful painting app! Focus on pure colors and shapes with a streamlined interface. Ideal for plein air painting, color notes, sketches and studies. + Improved Smudge + Improved Blur + Layers + Masking + Erase + Clipping 30 day trial with full functionality.
Value Study
This app helps artists improve their skills by analyzing light and shadow in reference images. It allows users to break down tones step-by-step, from simple black and white to more complex value ranges, aiding in the understanding of depth and form. It's a tool to enhance traditional art studies.
- Step-by-step tone breakdown
- Highlighting areas of same value
- Focus on light, shadow, and form
- Greyscale value studies
- Works with reference images
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In art, value (or tone) refers to how light or dark a colour is. If you're learning to paint or draw, doing value studies is one of the best ways to improve. These small, loose sketches in greyscale help you understand where shadows fall and highlights appear—essential for capturing depth and form. Value Study is a simple, focused tool designed to help you see values more clearly in your reference images. Instead of just converting a photo to black and white, this app lets you break down tones step by step. Start with just black and white to map out the biggest shapes, then gradually add more values to refine your understanding. You can also highlight all areas of an image that share the same value, making it easier to see subtle shifts in tone. This is especially useful in complex references, like portraits, where different parts of the image might have the same level of shadow but look completely different in colour. Value Study isn’t here to replace traditional studies—it’s here to enhance them. Whether you're sketching, painting, or working digitally, this tool makes it easier to focus on the fundamentals of light, shadow, and form. Try it for free with all features enabled on sample images from Unsplash before deciding to unlock the full app with a low-cost yearly or lifetime purchase. All Value Study Pro upgrades count as lifetime purchase. Either option will unlock Value Study across iPhone, iPad and Mac. Annual: Auto-renews yearly. Lifetime: One-time payment, no fees. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Value Study at 4.8 against HEAVYPAINT Classic's 4.1. Value Study also leads on review sentiment (92% vs 54%) and ratings volume (3.3K vs 179). HEAVYPAINT Classic's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs fortnightly) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.6). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. HEAVYPAINT Classic sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Value Study sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Value Study holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Value Study has 3.3K ratings behind it against 179, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 54% of HEAVYPAINT Classic's written reviews are positive against 92% of Value Study's.
HEAVYPAINT Classic ships an update every 5 days, Value Study fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HEAVYPAINT Classic | Value Study |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (179 ratings) | 4.8 (3.3K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 54.5% of reviews | 92.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 179 | 3.3K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 51 MB | 35 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | HEAVYPOLY, Inc. | Diem Limited |
Customer experience
HEAVYPAINT Classic
Value Study
User reviews
HEAVYPAINT Classic
From 179 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎨 Unique, innovative painting tools and brushes
- 💡 Forces deliberate, decisive artistic decisions
- 🎯 Minimalist interface encourages focus on fundamentals
- 🔄 Playback feature to review artwork creation
- 🎪 Fun, experimental approach to digital art
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and data loss
- 😤 Confusing, unintuitive UI/UX
- 🔄 Inconsistent UI changes between updates
- 💰 Switched from one-time purchase to subscription model
- 🚫 Poor documentation and lack of tutorials
Value Study
From 3.3K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🚀 Helpful for value studies
- 💡 Allows adjusting number of values
- 🎨 Useful for artists and painters
- ⭐ Great tool for beginners
Room to improve
- 🐛 Issues with accurately representing blue hues
- 🔍 Difficulty finding/importing photos
- 🤔 Unclear instructions/lack of tutorial
Bugs and requests
HEAVYPAINT Classic
Reported bugs
18 issues- App crashes frequently, causing work loss
- Auto-save feature unreliable despite crashes
- Canvas flips upside down randomly
- Transform tool deletes paintings
- Undo button requires multiple taps
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- Zoom functionality buggy and destabilizes canvas
- Canvas resize not working
- Image corruption with layer duplication
- Eye dropper functionality haphazard
- Fill tool doesn't work with selected colors
- Pressure setting eliminates mark-making
- Brush size settings change across all tools
- Some brush textures cannot be changed
- Random blobs appear on export
- App crashes when switching between drawings
- Trial period not clearing for paid users
- Incompatibility with SE2 and older devices
- Speaker popping on undo action
Requested features
15 requests- Gesture controls (2-finger undo, 3-finger redo)
- Pressure sensitivity for brush size
- Lasso tool for moving selections
- Redo button functionality
- Canvas zoom capability
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- Resizable/collapsible UI elements
- Ability to move canvas with single finger
- Line work capabilities
- Better brush texture preset selection
- Canvas size input field
- Eraser tool
- Moveable UI panels
- Tutorial or onboarding guide
- Better save/export documentation
- Pressure control for size on all tools
Value Study
Reported bugs
2 issues- App crashes or fails to launch on some devices
- Occasional issues with image processing
Requested features
4 requests- Add ability to adjust value midpoint
- Include color study/color adjustment options
- Provide side-by-side comparison of original and simplified images
- Add customizable grid overlay
In-app purchases
HEAVYPAINT Classic
- Seurat Texture Brushes$4.99
- HEAVYPAINT Pro$9.99
Value Study
- Value Study Pro$3.991 Year
- Value Study Pro (yearly)$6.991 Year
- Appreciation$2.99
- Value Study Pro (Lifetime)$9.99
- Generous boost$9.99
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- Value Study$17.99
- Amazing supporter$24.99
Questions
Is HEAVYPAINT Classic free?
Is Value Study free?
Which has better reviews, HEAVYPAINT Classic or Value Study?
Do HEAVYPAINT Classic or Value Study have ads?
Which is updated more often, HEAVYPAINT Classic or Value Study?
Other comparisons
