Art Reference: Value Study
See light and shadows
Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
See any photo in values, crop to your canvas, and paint side-by-side.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
The developer, Gil Osborne, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Gil Osborne
- Size
- 189.5 MB
- Category
- Graphics & Design
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 26.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 26.0 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 26.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 26.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 26.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
English and 8 more
- English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Copyright
- © Gil Osborne