ChromaMagic 4+

See Color, Paint Color

Michele Clamp

    • $19.99

Description

See color, paint color. The artist's color companion.

ChromaMagic - the magical color tool for artists.

Have you ever been painting and said 'but what *is* that color?' Me too!

ChromaMagic exists for one reason only. My paintings looked wrong. I just couldn't get the colors in my paintings to look convincing. Try as I might there was always something off. Too bright, too light, too gray, not gray enough. Too blue, too brown, too pink. Why oh why could I not make things work?

Well it turned out it wasn't in the paint. It wasn't in the mixing. Special brushes didn't do the trick. Making those daft color charts didn't help either. And it wasn't even in the way I put the paint on the paper.

The problem was in my brain.

The problem was that I had no chance of mixing the right color. I was missing an essential part of the painting process. Something that would take years if not decades to figure out.

And the reason was that I wasn't *seeing* the right color.

Now I don't mean there was something wrong with my eyesight. What I mean that I was 'seeing' color but I wasn't really seeing *COLOR*. I didn't have the words or the means to really understand what I was looking at.

And if we don't really know what we're looking at how on earth can we translate it into paint? Even if we don't want to represent what we see how do we know what to change to enhance the effect? Flip a coin? Trust chance and experimentation? Repeat for years and years until we stumble on something that works....?

No.

So what changed?

Everything changed. I learned to forget about primaries, secondaries and tertiaries. I learned to ditch the traditional artists wheel. I learned to stop talking about 'warm' and 'cool'.

I learned to see color the way it is and not the way I expect it to be. I had to forget everything I had been told.

I learned about hue, value, and chroma. Munsell.

With ChromaMagic you can load up any photo or reference and see at a glance what any color is. And the colors are described in a way that is most natural for artists. What is the hue (red, yellow, green etc)? Yes! And what is the value (very important)? Yes! And what is the chroma (how gray or saturated it is)? Yes!!!

Color makes so much more sense now.

But there's more! As well as the Munsell color mode (which is fabulous by itself!) there are 4 extra modes to help you really see what is before us.

- Want to organize your reference into the major value shapes? Value mode will do that and you can change the number of value steps with a click of the mouse.

- Want to reduce your reference to just grayscale to really see those fine-grained values? Yes!

- Want to see how saturated or gray your colors are (this is always surprising!). Yes!

- Want to see how your colors are distributed around the color wheel? Yes

And yet there's still more:

- No more clicking around - ChromaMagic has a fantastic new interface with buttery smooth zoomable, pannable images.
- No more need to be tethered to wifi. Take ChromaMagic anywhere - even up a mountain!
- Too many colors in your reference? Average your colors over multiple pixels - 2500 of them if you want to.
- Want to know which paints are available for a certain color? ChromaMagic now has links to hundreds of top quality oil paints.
- Want to use ChromaMagic at home? On the bus? On a tablet? Now you can run it on your iphone, ipad or mac. All for one price!
- No more silly loading buttons. Drag and drop your files in one swish on the desktop (Bliss!!)
- Use ChromaMagic next to the easel for mixing. Now with mixing swatches and calibration values (no need for $1500 Munsell chips)

What’s New

Version 2.0.0

Two new color simplification modes. Make color even easier.
Pure Munsell value modes
New chroma interface including new high chroma display
Faster and smoother interface.
New grid overlay tool
Save your modified images to your photo library.
Select similar values AND colors.
Resize the image window inside the app.
Even more oil paints in the chip database
All new help text
Example reference images are included inside the help

Ratings and Reviews

5.0 out of 5
2 Ratings

2 Ratings

Nan0508 ,

Like discovering an artist's secret!

ChromaMagic is teaching me to "see" colors in a way that is so intuitive and so simple to use. The most important skill for an artist to have to create life-like portrait paintings is to, first, use the correct value and then, the correct color. ChromaMagic guides you to both.

For example, brown-coated dogs may look like a warm brown in a highlight but in the shadow, the brown is cooler, a purple brown. ChromaMagic gave me this insight - what a revelation! It took me just minutes to mix the colors based on the information from ChromaMagic. I've struggled with "seeing" the right color as I have learned to paint. With ChromaMagic I don't dread the color mixing step. It has taken that pain point out of my hobby.

ChromaMagic works across my Apple devices. Download (and pay) once, and it is available across all the devices.

Developer Response ,

Wonderful review Nan (is it Nan?). So glad its helping you see colors more clearly - exactly what I'd hoped for and exactly what I use it for too.

colleencaub ,

One app to rule them all

This one app does the work of 5 I had before. Its hard to find really workable Munsell oriented color apps, this one not only has Munsell but 2 other systems as well and integrates with Lightroom well. Plus its very intuitive to use I was up and running full speed on the first try. Some may think its pricy but worth every penny and more for the depth of information you get and how much time it saves me as a painter. Really a stellar app made by a very fine artist who really understands what is needed for visual art. Thanks Michelle!

Developer Response ,

Thank you so much Colleen. I (obviously) think it's a great tool and it's helped me enormously. So glad you find it useful too (and many thanks for the review).

Durhl ,

A must have!

I was watching Paul Foxton talk about “Chroma Magic”. I downloaded it immediately, this coupled with the Munsel Big book of color are very important tools for every artist! This is amazing! I am half way through a painting and wanted to verify my values, colors and chroma, all I can say is this is a must have. Easy to use and worth every cent! I love it. Thank you Paul for mentioning it and I look forward to seeing you and Michelle in videos and learning!

Developer Response ,

So glad you like it! As a painter myself I've learned so much using ChromaMagic almost to the point where I don't need it anymore. Saved me years of getting nowhere.

App Privacy

The developer, Michele Clamp, 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.

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Supports

  • Family Sharing

    Up to six family members can use this app with Family Sharing enabled.

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