PainterLab vs Art Reference

PainterLab turns any photo into a practical painting study you can observe, simplify, and mix from. It is not a coloring game, and it does not paint for you. PainterLab helps painters and art students understand color shapes, value structure, and temperature relationships, then translate selected screen colors into real-paint mixing ideas. SIMPLIFY COMPLEX SCENES Organize a busy photo into clear, paintable color shapes. Explore natural color blocks, limited palettes, and region-based forms, then adjust detail and smoothing for your study. SEE THE VALUE STRUCTURE Compress an image into 2–10 value levels to study large light-and-dark relationships, grayscale organization, and Notan. Use the adjustable histogram to control each value boundary. UNDERSTAND COLOR TEMPERATURE Compare cool, neutral, and warm relationships across the image. Adjust balance and smoothing to reveal the overall temperature structure more clearly. TURN SCREEN COLORS INTO REAL PAINT Select a color from the original photo or a simplified color shape. PainterLab uses your chosen paint palette to suggest practical paint combinations and mixing proportions. You can also photograph your mixed paint and compare it with the target color. BUILD YOUR OWN PAINT PALETTES Choose the physical paints you already own and organize them into custom palettes. Mixing recipes are calculated using the palette selected for each study. SAVE EVERY STUDY Your source photo, observation modes, adjustments, and sampled colors are saved in the Study Library, so you can return and continue practicing at any time. KEY FEATURES • Photo-to-color-shape simplification • Value studies and Notan analysis • Warm and cool color-temperature analysis • Color sampling and real-paint mixing recipes • Custom physical-paint palettes • Study Library with automatic saving • On-device photo processing PainterLab includes free basic features. PainterLab Pro unlocks unlimited studies, additional simplification styles, fine detail controls, and other advanced features. Subscription options and local pricing are shown by the App Store before purchase and can be managed or canceled through your App Store account. Privacy Policy: https://wavecave-studio.uk/painterlab/privacy-policy Terms of Use: https://wavecave-studio.uk/painterlab/terms-of-service

Art Reference: Value Study helps painters, illustrators, and traditional artists see any reference more clearly. Study values, simplify light and shadow, overlay grids, and paint side-by-side with your canvas. A value (or tone) is how light or dark a color is. Learning to see values is one of the fastest ways to improve your drawing and painting. But it's hard to read shadows and highlights through all the color. This app makes it effortless. SEE YOUR REFERENCE IN VALUES Instantly convert any photo to grayscale, or a 7-value posterized scale. Flick between levels of detail, start in simple black and white, then build up value by value to train your eye. CROP & FRAME TO YOUR CANVAS Match your reference's composition and aspect ratio to your canvas before your first stroke. GRIDLINES Overlay grids to lay in your under-sketch with correct proportions. CURATED COLLECTIONS Don't have a reference ready? Start with dozens of hand-picked photos across Animals, Architecture, Botanical, Figure, Landscape, Portrait, Still Life, Skulls, and Master Studies from the great painters. NO AI ART Every starter reference is a real photograph or artwork, attributed to the original artist with a link to their portfolio. No AI-generated images. And your own artwork stays private in your personal iCloud, never shared online, never used to train AI models. WORKS OFFLINE No connection needed. Perfect for the studio, plein air, or anywhere you paint. CLEAN, FOCUSED, NO ADS Just the reference tools you need.