Learn how to get the most out of every feature. Whether you're analyzing a reference or mixing paint, these guides will help you work faster and more accurately.
Picking & Analyzing Colors
Best for
Building a color palette, understanding your reference
Use when
Starting any new painting or study
Quick start
Load image → Tap eyedropper → Pick key colors
Normal View is your home base for exploring colors in any reference image. Pick colors manually, extract them automatically, and build a palette that maps back to your image.
Picking Colors
Tap the eyedropper to bring up a draggable magnifier. Tap to pick, or drag it around to explore, then release on the color you want.
Long-press anywhere as a shortcut — the magnifier appears and you can drag to your target, then release to pick.
Adjust magnification in the Display menu to zoom in closer for precision work.
Change sample size in the Display menu to average colors from a larger area — helpful for textured surfaces where individual pixels vary.
Auto-Extracting Colors
Tap the magic wand to open the extracted colors dialog. Three categories help you quickly understand your image:
Dominant — The most common colors in your image, listed by percentage in descending order.
Range — Sample colors spanning the entire brightness spectrum from dark to light.
Accents — Distinct, unique colors that stand out from the rest.
Tap individual colors to add them to your palette, or hit Add All to add them all at once. Use the slider to adjust how many colors are extracted. You can enable auto-extraction on the dialog itself to show it automatically whenever you load an image.
Navigating the Canvas
Pinch to zoom and drag to pan around your image.
Double-tap the canvas or use the fit-to-screen button to center and fit the image.
Tap a swatch in your palette to highlight its location on the image.
Double-tap a swatch to center the image on that color's location.
Display Options
Customize how your color picks appear via the Display menu:
Show/hide markers on the image itself, or display them only in the palette.
Toggle numbers on markers and swatches for easy reference.
Enable connecting lines to draw lines from each palette swatch to its corresponding point on the image.
Frame mode distributes swatches around a frame surrounding your image, placing each color closer to where it was picked.
Connecting lines link each swatch to its location on the image
Grid Overlay
Enable the grid to help with proportions and placement:
Set rows and columns to match your canvas aspect ratio, or use square divisions.
Adjust line style — solid, dashed, dotted, or crosshairs.
Change line width and color to ensure visibility against your specific image.
Enable subdivisions (2, 3, or 4) for finer divisions shown with fainter lines.
Tip: Start by picking colors from your lightest light, darkest dark, and a few key midtones. These anchor points help you understand the full range of your reference before diving into details.
Understanding color relationships, planning transitions
Use when
Mixing paint, checking shadow/light relationships
Quick start
Select color → Tap Details or Compare
When you select a color, the color info card gives you everything you need to understand and work with that color.
The Color Card
Each selected color shows a card with four options:
Details — View comprehensive information: value, hue, saturation, color temperature, complementary color, and color codes (HEX, RGB, etc.).
Compare — Select another color to see the relationship between them.
Mix — Jump to paint mixing with this color as your target.
+Add — Add this color to your palette (same as the + button on the canvas).
Comparing Colors
Tap Compare on any color card, then choose a second color:
Select from your existing palette
Pick a new color from the image
Choose an arbitrary color from the color picker
The comparison shows relative differences in value, temperature, hue, and saturation — exactly what you need to mix accurate transitions.
This is especially useful for judging relative brightness and temperature between colors. Whether comparing colors close together or across the image, it's often hard to judge colors in an absolute sense due to optical illusions and color relativity. Compare gives you the objective relationship.
Tip: Use Compare to check relationships between shadow and light colors, or to see how an accent color differs from its surroundings.
Starting a painting, feeling overwhelmed by detail
Quick start
Go to Simplify → Adjust Details slider → Export or Open in Normal View
Simplification reduces overwhelming detail into clear, paintable shapes. It's like squinting at your reference, but with precise control.
Controls
Details slider — Move left for fewer details (bigger shapes), right for more detail.
Smoothing — Apply None, Subtle, or Strong pre-smoothing to soften edges and create cleaner forms before simplification.
Simplification Methods
Clustering (default) — Groups similar colors into distinct regions. A reliable all-around method that produces nice paintable masses.
Graph — Finds natural edges and boundaries in the image. Takes a bit longer to process, and may retain some edges that Clustering doesn't. Good for images with strong contours.
Posterize — Reduces colors to discrete levels for a poster-like effect.
Unlike other apps that simply blur your image, our simplification creates clean, paintable shapes with clear boundaries between color masses — exactly what you need for blocking in.
Working with Simplified Images
Use the color picker to see what colors the large masses are.
Export to save for reference while painting.
Open in Normal View to treat the simplified version as your new reference — pick colors, build a palette, and analyze it just like any other image.
Tip: Try blocking in with the most simplified version, then gradually increase detail as your painting progresses. You can keep adjusting the Details slider to match wherever you are in your painting process.
Checking value structure, seeing light/dark patterns
Use when
Planning composition, troubleshooting a "flat" painting
Quick start
Go to Values → Set 3-5 values → Tap swatches to highlight areas
Value maps strip away color to show only lightness and darkness. Getting values right is often more important than getting colors right.
Controls
Values slider — Set how many value levels to use (fewer = simpler study).
Smoothing — Apply None, Subtle, or Strong pre-smoothing for cleaner value masses.
Brightness — Shift all values lighter or darker while preserving their relationships.
Show Hue — Tint each value region with its original hue while keeping your simplified value structure.
The Value tool uses Smart Grouping to find natural value boundaries based on your specific image, rather than just dividing the grayscale range into equal chunks. This preserves the relationships between light and shadow that make your reference work.
Exploring Values
Tap a value swatch at the top to highlight all areas with that value.
Long-press to select multiple values, tap again to deselect.
Hold the image button (bottom right) to temporarily show the original for comparison.
Tip: Start with just 3 values (light, mid, dark). If your painting works in 3 values, it will work with more detail. Weak value structure can't be fixed by adding more values.
Before starting, evaluating if a reference will work
Quick start
Go to Notan → Adjust threshold → Look for strong interlocking shapes
Notan reduces your image to just two values — black and white — revealing the fundamental composition and value pattern.
Controls
Threshold slider — Adjust where the light/dark division falls.
Smoothing — Pre-smooth for cleaner shapes.
Invert — Flip black and white to see the pattern from a different perspective.
Hold the image button to compare with the original.
Tip: Notan is Japanese for "light-dark harmony." A strong notan has interesting interlocking shapes. If the notan looks weak or confusing, the composition may need adjustment before you start painting.
Planning palette, checking if shadows read correctly
Quick start
Go to Temp → Adjust balance → Note warm/cool patterns
The temperature map visualizes warm and cool areas — orange for warm, blue for cool — helping you see temperature relationships that might be subtle in the original.
Controls
Balance slider — Adjust the threshold between warm and cool. Shift it to see how temperature relationships change across your image.
Smoothing — Pre-smooth for cleaner temperature regions.
Hold the image button to compare with the original.
Tip: In natural light, warm light typically creates cool shadows, and cool light creates warm shadows. Check if your reference follows this pattern — it's a key to believable color.
Pick color → Tap Mix → Follow recipe → Photo your mix → Adjust
Match colors accurately by getting real-time feedback on your physical paint mixes. Set a target, photograph your mix, and get specific guidance on how to adjust.
Getting Started
Enter from the color card — Tap Mix on any color to set it as your Match Color.
Tap to update the Match Color anytime from your palette or by picking from the image.
The Match Color is automatically adjusted to be mixable with the paints you have selected in your palette. Why? Digital images can display millions of colors, but physical paints have a limited gamut. Some colors on screen simply can't be mixed with real paint — the app finds the closest achievable color from your palette.
The Mixing Workflow
See your Initial Recipe — Based on your palette, the app shows a predicted mix to get you started.
Mix your paint using the suggested proportions.
Photograph your mix — Tap the Mixed Color swatch to capture your actual paint with your device's camera.
Get adjustment guidance — The app compares your mix to the target and tells you what to add (e.g., "add white to lighten" or "add blue to cool it down").
Iterate — Adjust your paint, take another photo, and repeat until you hit the target.
Setting Up Your Palette
Under Mix options, choose from preset palettes like Split Primary, Zorn, Limited, Primary Triad, and more — or build a custom palette by selecting individual paints from the scrollable list. Your palette is saved for future recipes.
Note: Recipes are starting points, not exact formulas. Real paint mixing varies based on your specific paints and technique.
Virtual Mixing
Use virtual mixing for "what-if" experiments — see predicted results of different paint combinations without wasting paint. Great for planning mixes before committing.
Note: Paint mixing guidance works best with opaque paints (oils, acrylics, gouache). Transparent media like watercolors behave differently and won't match accurately.
Creating references to use while painting — printed, laminated, or on a second screen
Use when
Ready to paint, want a reference with big color swatches to compare against
Quick start
Tap Export → Choose options → Save or share
Every view in Color Study can be exported. Some painters laminate their color map so they can hold paint swatches directly against the reference colors. Others prefer to keep the app open while painting to examine new colors as needed — either way works.
What to Export
Color map (Normal View) — Your image with picked colors, markers, and palette. Great for color reference while painting.
Simplified image — Clean shapes for blocking in. Many artists print this and work from it initially.
Value map — Grayscale reference to check your values as you paint.
Notan — Two-value study for composition reference or thumbnail planning.
Temperature map — Warm/cool reference to keep your color temperature on track.
Export Options
When exporting from Normal View, you can customize:
Show/hide markers on the image
Include palette with or without the image
Frame mode — swatches arranged around the image border
Connecting lines from swatches to pick points
Numbered swatches for easy reference
Suggested Workflow
For a typical painting session, consider exporting:
Simplified version for your initial block-in
Value map to check against as you paint
Color map with palette for mixing reference
Keep these on a tablet next to your easel, or print them out.
Using Color Study
