Paintsight keeps your reference photos in one place and gives you the studio tools to read them: notan and value studies, drawing grids sized to your canvas, color palettes, and a way to check your painting against the reference.
Free with up to 3 photos; one payment unlocks unlimited photos.
Three of Paintsight's tools also work here in your browser, with nothing uploaded. Each opens with a sample photo, or open your own.
Turn a photo into 2 to 7 values and see where each one falls.
Open the tool
The main colors of a photo, with each one's share, value, and whether it's warm or cool.
Open the tool
Put a grid on your photo that matches your canvas, square for square.
Open the tool
Simplify any photo into 2 to 7 values, then tap a value to highlight everywhere it falls. Compare several notan designs side by side, shrink the picture to a thumbnail where only the big shapes count, or squint at it without screwing up your eyes. Tap any spot to read its value on a 0 to 10 scale.
See the main color masses with each one's share of the picture, value, hex and RGB, and tap one to see everywhere it appears. Flatten the photo into color blocks for the block-in, map what's warm and cool, see where the most intense color sits, and put the palette on a color wheel that names its scheme.
Break the photo into flat planes, finer where the form turns, and fill them with color, gray, value bands or notan, or draw them as lines. Check that the subject reads as one silhouette, find the focal point and the big lines, see the hard and soft edges, and trace clean contours for drawing in.
Paintsight finds the vanishing points in a photo and draws your eye level, with guide lines running to each point. Drag a point to adjust it, in one-point or two-point perspective.
Put a grid on the photo that matches your canvas, such as 16 × 20 in, with numbered and lettered squares, then scale up square by square. Add rule of thirds, golden section, diagonals or harmonic armature guides, measure angles with a plumb line, and sketch over the reference with Apple Pencil.
Import from the camera or your photo library, tag photos such as hands, skies or fabric, and add notes with palette ideas and mixes. Keep favorites, group references into collections such as Ready to Paint, or tap the dice for a random one. Your library syncs with iCloud between iPhone and iPad.
On iPad the library sits in a sidebar and the tool options in a side panel, so the photo stays full size. Open a reference in its own window beside your painting app in Split View or Stage Manager, or drag it straight into Procreate or Files.
An app for iPhone and iPad that keeps your reference photos in one place and gives you the studio tools to read them: notan and value studies, drawing grids sized to your canvas, color palettes, design tools, and a way to check your painting against the reference.
Paintsight is free with up to 3 photos and every tool; one payment unlocks unlimited photos. There's no account and there are no ads.
Oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache and plein air painters, and anyone drawing from reference photos.
Yes. Prop your iPad or iPhone by the easel: the screen stays awake while a reference is open, and on iPad you can open a reference in its own window beside your painting app.
No. The value study maker, the palette and the drawing grid maker run in your browser, and your photo stays on your device.
Yes. Paintsight syncs with iCloud, so the same library is on your iPhone and iPad.
Notan is the design of a picture in two values, light and dark. What it means, where it comes from, and how to make a notan of your reference before you paint.
Values and notanWhy most painters plan in 3 to 5 values, what the 9-step and 10-step value scales are, and how to choose the right number for your subject.
Drawing and compositionHow to grid a reference photo and a canvas so the squares match, how to work out the square size for your canvas, and how to draw square by square.
Values and notanSquinting hides detail and shows the big shapes of light and dark. Why it works, how to do it, and how to squint at a photo.
Values and notanWhy a painting with the right values reads even in odd colors, how to judge the value of a color, and how to check yours in grayscale.
ColorWhat makes a color warm or cool, why a blue can be the warm one next to another blue, and how the color of the light sets the temperature of the shadows.
For iPhone and iPad. Free with up to 3 photos; one payment unlocks unlimited photos.
Paintsight
