Comparison

Handy Art Reference Tool vs Artist's Anatomy

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Rotatable 3D limb models
  • Customizable poses
  • Adjustable 3-point lighting
  • 3D head busts
  • Animal skull reference pack
  • Material editing
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

"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

About

Artist's Anatomy

This educational tool offers a 3D reference for human anatomy, ideal for artists and students. Explore detailed models from all angles to understand structure and form, which is difficult with traditional resources. Customize the model's appearance for focused study.

Highlights
  • 3D human anatomy models
  • Full-angle observation
  • Customizable materials and colors
  • Multiple language support
  • Observation and structure modes
Features
Read full description

"Anatomy for Art" is an auxiliary learning software designed for the professionals and enthusiasts of fine arts, arts and other related professionals, a set of reference tools for human body modeling. Through the full-angle observation of the three-dimensional model, you can directly understand the modeling structure of the human anatomy in the three-dimensional space, which is intuitive and accurate. This is difficult to provide with books and pictures. Especially when the muscle structure is interspersed with complex shapes, the plane angle is quite laborious to observe. If you are a student majoring in painting or sculpture, this software is an essential learning tool. In the software settings, you can change the material, color and background color of the model to focus on the shape and structure. Users who have not logged in and have not paid for the basic payment can also use the main functions of the software normally. For a complete experience, please purchase the "Male Body Anatomy Model" (basic payment) in the built-in store to unlock the main "observation mode" and "structure mode". The software can set multiple languages: simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, German, English, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian.

Screenshots

Handy Art Reference Tool4 screens
Artist's Anatomy4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Artist's Anatomy at Free against Handy Art Reference Tool's $1.99. Artist's Anatomy also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 5 months) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 15.0). Handy Art Reference Tool's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.0) and ratings volume (1.2K vs 9). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Artist's Anatomy 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 Artist's Anatomy sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Handy Art Reference Tool holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Handy Art Reference Tool has 1.2K ratings behind it against 9, 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 67% of Artist's Anatomy's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Handy Art Reference Tool ships an update every 5 months, Artist's Anatomy every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Handy Art Reference Tool versus Artist's Anatomy: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHandy Art Reference ToolArtist's Anatomy
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (1.2K ratings) — better4.0 (9 ratings)
Positive reviews85.0% of reviews — better66.7% of reviews
Number of ratings1.2K — better9
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#71 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.09.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size361 MB135 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperBelief EngineMu He

Customer experience

Handy Art Reference Tool

All ratings1,237 ratings
Positive97.4%
Neutral1.1%
Negative1.5%
Written reviews381 reviews
Positive85.0%
Neutral6.8%
Negative8.1%

Artist's Anatomy

All ratings7 ratings
Positive71.4%
Neutral14.3%
Negative14.3%
Written reviews24 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral16.7%
Negative16.7%

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
Show 1 more
  • Improve lighting controls and options

Artist's Anatomy

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Handy Art Reference Tool

One-time2
  • Feet Models$1.99
  • Animal Skull Pack$1.99
1 purchases

Artist's Anatomy

One-time1
  • Male body anatomical model$12.99

Questions

Is Handy Art Reference Tool free?
Handy Art Reference Tool costs $1.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Artist's Anatomy free?
Artist's Anatomy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Handy Art Reference Tool or Artist's Anatomy?
Handy Art Reference Tool is rated higher. Handy Art Reference Tool averages 4.8 out of 5 from 1.2K ratings, while Artist's Anatomy averages 4.0 from 9 ratings.
Do Handy Art Reference Tool or Artist's Anatomy have ads?
Neither Handy Art Reference Tool nor Artist's Anatomy shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Handy Art Reference Tool or Artist's Anatomy?
Handy Art Reference Tool ships an update every 5 months, and Artist's Anatomy every 2 weeks. Most recently, Handy Art Reference Tool was updated on November 6, 2026 and Artist's Anatomy on November 3, 2026.

Other comparisons