Handy Art Reference Tool vs Custom Color Picker
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Handy Art Reference Tool
This app provides artists with rotatable 3D models of hands, heads, and feet for drawing reference. Customize poses and lighting to achieve realistic results for your artwork. Additional packs for animal skulls and foot rigs are available for purchase.
- Rotatable 3D limb models
- Customizable poses
- Adjustable 3-point lighting
- 3D head busts
- Animal skull reference pack
- Material editing
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"Thanks to this useful app, drawing realistic hands can become a whole lot easier" - ImagineFX "Pencillers, inkers, and colorists should all give this a look!" - Tony Moore, co-creator of The Walking Dead If you're an artist and ever wanted just quick and easy drawing reference for hands, heads, or even feet (IAP) without having to awkwardly pose your limbs in front of a mirror, this app is for you! HANDY® is an artist's reference tool, consisting of several rotatable 3D limbs with a variety of poses useful for drawing. You can also customize and edit your own poses for hands, feet, and skulls. Fully adjustable 3-point lighting means you can get easy lighting reference when using any of the 10+ included 3D head busts. Handy if you’re painting and need to know what shadows the head casts from a certain angle! Also available is the Animal Skulls pack. With over 10 different animal species, it's great for anatomical reference or creature design inspiration. [Foot rigs and Animal Skull pack require additional purchase] NEW in Handy v5: Edit the materials of models! Selectively turn off their textures, adjust their specularity, or tint them a certain color. Perfect for comic book artists, painters, or just casual sketchers! Featured in ImagineFX's Top 10 Must-Have Apps! Check out the video demo: https://www.youtube.com/@handyarttool Sign up for the HANDY newsletter for information about new upcoming updates! http://www.handyarttool.com/newsletter Follow HANDY on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/handyarttool.bsky.social
Custom Color Picker
This app assists artists in selecting and mixing colors for realistic drawings. Create custom palettes, scan them, and blend up to three colors for your artwork. Save and share your palettes with others.
- Custom color chart creation
- Color chart scanning
- Smart color picking
- Mix up to 3 colors
- Palette Cloud Backup
- Palette sharing
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Introducing “Custom Color Picker” app, a customizable color picker for all kinds of artists. Learn realistic drawings FAST AND EASY! Custom Color Picker app will help you pick the best colors for your realistic drawings using your own custom palette. Made for colored pencils artist, watercolor pencils artist, acrylics artists, pastel artist, etc.... Create your color chart -> Scan your color chart -> Begin color picking. App Features: 1. Color chart recorder 2. Smart color picker 3. Mix and blend up to 3 colors. 4. Photo grid 5. Adjustable color depth 6. Palette Cloud Backup service (You will never lose your custom palette in any platform) 7. Palette sharing via cloud (Build and share your palette with friends) Full access to all features plus Palette cloud back-up service and sharing for a one time purchase. • Link to Privacy Policy/Terms of Use: (also accessible inside the app) Terms of Use: http://www.merg3d.com/ccp/ccpTerms.pdf Privacy Policy: http://www.merg3d.com/ccp/ccpPrivacy.pdf
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Handy Art Reference Tool at 85% against Custom Color Picker's 23%. Handy Art Reference Tool also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.1) and ratings volume (1.2K vs 51). Custom Color Picker's advantage is price (Free vs $1.99) and update cadence (every 6 days vs every 5 months). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support 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
Custom Color Picker is free to download; Handy Art Reference Tool costs $1.99 up front. Handy Art Reference Tool sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Custom Color Picker sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Handy Art Reference Tool holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Handy Art Reference Tool has 1.2K ratings behind it against 51, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 85% of Handy Art Reference Tool's written reviews are positive against 23% of Custom Color Picker's.
Handy Art Reference Tool ships an update every 5 months, Custom Color Picker every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Handy Art Reference Tool | Custom Color Picker |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (1.2K ratings) — better | 4.1 (51 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 85.0% of reviews — better | 23.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1.2K — better | 51 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #40 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 10.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 361 MB | 27 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Belief Engine | Kristian Olidana |
Customer experience
Handy Art Reference Tool
Custom Color Picker
Bugs and requests
Handy Art Reference Tool
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes on launch for some users
- Purchased content not unlocking
- Positioning and movement issues
Requested features
6 requests- Add full body models and poses
- Include more facial expressions and emotions
- Allow for custom hand and finger posing
- Implement ability to save custom poses
- Add more diverse skin tones and ethnicities
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- Improve lighting controls and options
Custom Color Picker
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Handy Art Reference Tool
- Feet Models$1.99
- Animal Skull Pack$1.99
Custom Color Picker
- Custom Color Picker Full$11.99
Questions
Is Handy Art Reference Tool free?
Is Custom Color Picker free?
Which has better reviews, Handy Art Reference Tool or Custom Color Picker?
Do Handy Art Reference Tool or Custom Color Picker have ads?
Which is updated more often, Handy Art Reference Tool or Custom Color Picker?
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