Art Toolbox vs Art Reference
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Art Toolbox
This app helps artists of all levels improve their skills by mastering light, shadow, and form. It offers tools for simplifying complex subjects, ensuring accurate proportions, and composing visually engaging artwork.
- Master light and shadow
- Simplify complex forms
- Portrait simplification with grids
- Proportions guide for lifelike portraits
- Composition grids for balanced art
- Tools for sketching and painting
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Art Toolbox is the perfect companion for artists of all skill levels, designed to help you master the fundamentals and create more confident, compelling artwork. Key Features: Master Light and Shadow Train your eye to recognize subtle value shifts and improve the depth and realism in your work. Break Down Complex Forms Simplify your subject into bold, readable shapes with the shape simplification tool—perfect for learning structure and design. Portrait Simplification Made Easy Start with flat colors and use facial grids to build a strong, accurate base for portrait painting or drawing. Perfect Proportions, Every Time Draw lifelike portraits with the proportions guide—no more guesswork or awkward angles. Compose with Confidence Design stronger artwork using 6 classic composition grids to create balanced and visually engaging pieces. Whether you’re sketching, painting, or just learning, Art Toolbox helps you focus on what matters most: improving your art. Terms & Conditions: https://arttoolbox.app/terms-conditions/ Privacy Policy: https://arttoolbox.app/privacy-policy/
Art Reference
This app provides traditional artists with digital tools to aid in physical art creation. Features include value studies, gridlines, side-by-side reference viewing, and curated project collections. It offers a clean, ad-free experience designed for painters and illustrators.
- Value study mode
- Gridlines for sketching
- Side-by-side reference/canvas view
- Crop and frame tools
- Curated project collections
- Color harmony experimentation
- Offline functionality
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Artists Reference is made for painters, illustrators, and traditional artists who work with real materials, not pixels. It gives you the digital reference tools you need while you're creating physical art. Key Features - Gallery: Take a photo of your finished work, add a frame, and view them all together in your personal gallery. - Value Study Mode: Instantly view your reference in 7-value scale to see shadows and highlights or greyscale to see tone and contrast clearly. - Gridlines: Helps get your under-sketch down accurately. - Side-by-Side View: Compare your reference and your canvas at the same time, optimized for tablets and stands. - Crop and Frame Tools: Adjust composition and aspect ratio of your reference to match your canvas before you begin. - Collections: Curated starter projects to help you practice and improve, including Animals, Architecture, Botanical, Figure, Landscape, Master Study, Portrait, and Still Life. - Color harmonies: Experiment with color harmonies to define the feeling if your piece and save swatches - Offline Friendly: Works anywhere, even in the studio or outdoors. - Clean, Focused Design: No ads. No clutter. Just the reference tools you need. - All of your artwork is private and only saved in your personal icloud. No artwork is visble to the internet or AI models Made for Traditional Artists Whether you're painting with oils, gouache, watercolor, or charcoal, Artists Reference helps you translate what you see into confident compositions and balanced values. Start with curated Collections to build your skills, or bring your own references for any project. No AI art is used for any of the starter project references in this app. All photos are attributed to the original artists with links to their portfolio.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Art Reference at 4.8 against Art Toolbox's 4.4. Art Reference also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 75%). Art Toolbox's advantage is ratings volume (22 vs 4) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Art Toolbox sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.00 per month and Art Reference sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Art Reference holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Art Toolbox has 22 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 75% of Art Toolbox's written reviews are positive against 100% of Art Reference's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 30, 2026.
| Parameter | Art Toolbox | Art Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (22 ratings) | 4.8 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 22 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 53 MB | 172 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Wes Castain | Gil Osborne |
Customer experience
Art Toolbox
Art Reference
In-app purchases
Art Toolbox
- Art Toolkit Premium$2.001 Month
- Art Toolkit Premium$9.001 Year
- Art Toolkit Premium$19.00
Art Reference
- Lifetime Full Access$9.99









