Yep we know that you focus on the canvas, using your oils, gouache and watercolors... on top of that you may even dislike technology, and you don't do digital art! But before you leave, hear us out, you still need to keep track of your artworks, or photograph your paintings for social media or a digital portfolio! That's why we gathered a list of tools that may be useful to you artists, in 2026.
We tried to focus on popular and good quality apps. The prices of the apps/tools were gathered in April 2026 by visiting each product page. Limitations are noted for each tool.
Artwork Photography
You spent forty hours on a painting and then you try to photograph it with your phone. I start in front, but still you are at an angle, the photo is not quite rectangle. You put it on the floor photograph it standing above, now you cast a shadow on it... What should have been quite easy turn into a small nightmare. And bad artwork photos affect everything downstream: your portfolio submissions, gallery applications, print reproductions, social media, insurance records. These tools try to alleviate that pain.
PaintingLens — Automatic Perspective Correction for Paintings
PaintingLens is a camera tool built by the team behind manywalls (yes self promotion 😋). It auto-magically detects the edges of a painting, corrects perspective distortion, and returns a clean image.
Point your camera at a painting or import a photo from your library. The app identifies the four corners of the artwork and corrects the geometry automatically, and you can also fix it yourself for the very wild angles, same for the perspective fixing: just enter the dimension of your painting in extreme cases.
Platforms: iOS (and Android soon). Price: Free. No subscription, no paywall, no account required and no ads.
Adobe Lightroom Mobile — Color and Exposure Correction
Lightroom Mobile handles the step after straightening: adjusting white balance so the colors match what you see in person. Correcting exposure for uneven lighting, and applying lens corrections for barrel distortion.
The app also has a perspective correction panel (called Geometry) with automatic and guided modes, though it requires more manual work than PaintingLens for artwork-specific correction.
Platforms: iOS and Android. Price: Free tier covers basics (exposure, contrast, color temperature, crop). Selective editing, healing, masking, and RAW support require a Creative Cloud subscription.
Snapseed — Free Alternative for Quick Fixes
Snapseed is Google's free photo editor. It includes a Perspective tool that uses pinch, zoom, and drag gestures to correct distortion. With healing turned on, Snapseed automatically fills blank edges after correction so no cropping is required. It also has white balance, curves, selective adjustments, and a healing brush.
Snapseed received a UI redesign on Android in early 2026 and remains actively maintained.
Platforms: iOS and Android. Price: Free. No subscription, no watermarks.
Color Mixing
You stare at a reference photo, at your palette, then back at the photo. You mix something, but it's wrong. You add white. And now it's worse. This part of painting hasn't gotten easier in centuries, but at least now there are apps that simulate subtractive color mixing — the way paint actually behaves — rather than the additive RGB mixing used by most digital color pickers.
ArtistAssistApp — Color Matching from Photos
ArtistAssistApp is an open-source web app. Upload a reference photo or a photo of your painting in progress, pick a color from the image, and the app tells you which pigments from your chosen paint brand to mix and in what proportions.
It supports a large range of physical media: watercolor, gouache, acrylic, oil paint, colored pencils, pastels, etc. The app uses an empirical model based on the Kubelka-Munk theory to simulate real color mixing using spectral reflectances rather than RGB.
Does other technical stuff like, ahem, brace yourself, tonal value analysis, grid overlays for composition transfer, limited-palette mode, photo outlining for tracing, background removal, perspective correction, and white balance adjustment. Color similarity is shown as a percentage so you can judge how close a mix is to the target.
Platforms: Web app, it runs in your browser. Price: Core features free without registration. The free tier is limited to one color brand per medium. $5/month via Patreon unlocks 200+ paint brand libraries, high-quality outline mode, styles of famous artists, and removes ads. Source: GitHub repository, official site
Real Color Mixer — Simulated Paint Mixing
Real Color Mixer uses a light-spectrum model to simulate how pigments blend physically. It's different than "digital-side" RGB mixing (where blue + yellow = gray), this app produces results closer to what happens on an actual palette where blue + yellow would give you a green.
It has a built-in library of 430 predefined colors, an eyedropper tool for sampling colors from photos, and the ability to save up to 40 mixed colors per palette. You give it a ratio and it can even calculate exact amounts in liters, gallons, or fluid ounces.
Platforms: iOS (requires iOS 15.1+) and Android. Price: Free with ads. No paid ad-free version currently available (a common complaint in user reviews). Rated 3.9/5 on the App Store (34 ratings). Limitation: It does not match colors to specific paint brands the way ArtistAssistApp does. The 430 colors are generic, not tied to manufacturer product lines.
Composition Studies and Digital Sketching
Now we may enter little bit too much into the digital art side. But with some mastery it can help you see faster if a composition would work. Think about these as planning tools. You can use them to test color schemes, or try alternative composition, some of these digital brushes are so well made that they can gives you a good overview before committing paint to surface.
Procreate — Composition and Color Testing on iPad
Procreate is a digital illustration app, but you can use it for planning. Photograph a work in progress, import it, and try different color temperatures, rearrange elements, or test a warmer background. Without touching the actual canvas.
Over 300 brushes, layer support with blend modes, and high-resolution canvases up to 16K x 8K on compatible iPads.
Platforms: iPad only. Procreate Pocket ($6.99) is available for iPhone but with reduced features. Price: $12.99 one-time purchase. No subscription. Limitation: iPad only. No Android or desktop version.
ArtRage Vitae — Natural Media Simulation on Mobile
ArtRage Vitae focuses on simulating traditional media. It includes 16 tools: Oil Brush, Watercolor, Palette Knife, Paint Roller, Paint Tube, Airbrush, Ink Pen, etc... Oil paint smears and blends on textured canvas and watercolor creates delicate gradations. It also has a Real Color Blending mode that mixes paint in a realistic way. Paintings are compatible across all ArtRage editions, so you can start a sketch on your phone and finish on desktop.
Platforms: iOS and Android. Desktop version (ArtRage Vitae for Windows/macOS) sold separately. Price: $4.99 one-time purchase on mobile. No subscription, no in-app purchases.
Rebelle 8 — Hyper-Realistic Watercolor and Oil on Desktop
Rebelle 8 is the current version of Escape Motions' painting software. It simulates watercolor, oil, acrylic, and other wet and dry media — pigment particles flow through water, respond to paper texture and tilt. The oil engine models paint thickness. Over 170 paper and canvas surfaces are included.
Watercolorists can use it to rehearse a wash sequence before committing to expensive paper.
Platforms: Windows and macOS only. No mobile version. Price: One-time purchase. Standard and Pro editions available via the Escape Motions shop. 50% upgrade discount for previous version owners. Source: Official product page
Inventory and Portfolio Management
Artwork Archive — Art Inventory and Record-Keeping
After a few years of painting, you will have pieces scattered across your studio, a couple of galleries, a collector's living room, and possibly your mom's house. Good luck remembering the dimensions, materials, and sale price of each one when tax season arrives or a gallery asks for your full inventory.
Artwork Archive is an inventory database built for artists. Track which pieces are in galleries, which sold, which are in storage. Record dimensions, materials, photos, and provenance. Generate reports for insurance, PDF inventories for gallery submissions, consignment sheets, and price lists.
It also offers a public-facing profile page and "Private Viewing Rooms" for sharing curated selections with galleries or collectors.
Platforms: Web-based with mobile access. Price: Apprentice plan starts at $9/month (or $10/month paid monthly) for 100 pieces and 10 locations. Professional plan at $18/month adds income/expense tracking, Private Rooms, and integrations. Master plan at $36/month offers unlimited pieces and 3 users. Free 14-day trial, no credit card required. Source: Artwork Archive pricing page
Exhibiting Work Online
manywalls — Linear Digital Exhibitions
Most portfolio websites show your paintings as tiny thumbnails in a grid, sandwiched between a logo and a contact form. They compete with each other, users don't know which one to click on to expand and miss some of the best peaces because it didn't look as cool on a tiny preview...
manywalls takes a different approach to showing work online. Instead of a grid of thumbnails, you build a linear exhibition wall by wall. Each wall shows a single artwork at full scale, full screen on a beautiful textured wall that doesn't distract but enhance the painting (if you choose good colors of course!).
You actually create walls, in "manywalls", a wall can contain your painting but you can also just display text, write your story, create some narration to your exhibition.
You get an artist profile page that you can share. And each exhibitions also have their own link that can be used for gallery submissions, open calls, or social media.
Platforms: Mobile app on iOS and Android (where you compose exhibitions). The app generates a shareable web link for viewing. Price: Free. What it does not do: No search, no grid views, no e-commerce. It is an exhibition tool, not a general portfolio site.
How These Tools Fit Together (Without Becoming a Tech Person, but almost)
PS: you don't have to use them all
Before painting. Use ArtistAssistApp or Real Color Mixer to plan your palette and preview how specific pigments interact. Use Procreate, ArtRage, or Rebelle 8 to sketch thumbnails and test color schemes.
After painting. Photograph the finished piece with PaintingLens for perspective correction. Run the image through Lightroom or Snapseed for color and exposure accuracy. Add the work to Artwork Archive with dimensions, materials, and location.
Sharing. Build a linear exhibition on manywalls. Use individual corrected images for social media, gallery applications, and print orders.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best app for photographing paintings?
PaintingLens detects artwork edges and corrects perspective automatically, and is built specifically for painting photography. It is free on iOS.
How should I photograph my paintings for a portfolio?
Use even, diffused lighting, if possible outdoors on an overcast day, or indoors with two lights at 45-degree angles to avoid glare. Shoot straight-on, level with the center of the painting. If you use PaintingLens, being leveled with the painting doesn't matter too much, the app will fix it. Then adjust color accuracy in Lightroom or Snapseed. Export at a minimum of 1920 pixels on the longest edge for online use. (Source: Artwork Archive guide, CaFÉ guide)
Is there an app that simulates how real paint mixes?
Real Color Mixer (iOS, Android) uses a light-spectrum model for subtractive color mixing. ArtistAssistApp (web) takes a different approach — give it a target color from a photo and it suggests which pigments from your paint brand to mix.
What is the best free tool for artists to share paintings online?
manywalls lets you build full-screen, linear exhibitions for free. Each painting is shown at proper scale on its own wall, one at a time. Available on iOS and Android, with a shareable web link for viewers.
Do I need Lightroom if I already use PaintingLens?
They cover different problems. PaintingLens corrects geometry (straightening, perspective, edge detection). Lightroom corrects color and exposure (white balance, brightness, contrast). For accurate artwork documentation, use PaintingLens first, then Lightroom.