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Show HN: ArtistAssistApp – a web app to paint better with ease (artistassistapp.com)

168 points by eugene-khyst ↗ HN
Hey HN!

I want to show my new open-source project ArtistAssistApp.

ArtistAssistApp - the web app to paint better with ease.

Tools for realistic color mixing based on real paints, tonal value drawing, simplified sketching, and more.

Import your own photos, select any desired color directly from the image, and learn how to mix it with your paints. The web app provides a step-by-step guide on how to precisely mix that color using your own paints using atomic or optical mixing. Atomic mixing is the physical mixing of colors together, while optical mixing is the result of placing a transparent layer of color over another color (glaze technique).

Save instructions on how to mix your favorite colors from the paints you have for quick reference.

Smooth your photo to reduce detail and focus on the big shapes and proportions of your subject, and learn how to simplify and abstract your paintings.

Use tonal value sketches that capture the light and shadow of your subject to learn how to create contrast and depth in your paintings.

Works on desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones.

You can try it at <https://artistassistapp.com/>. No login or registration required.

The source code is available on GitHub <https://github.com/eugene-khyst/artistassistapp>.

53 comments

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colesantiago
This looks fantastic, would it be possible to add support for stable diffusion image generation and with prompts as well?

I'm not an artist but I can see this working hand in hand with ArtistAssistApp.

Looks amazing!

eugene-khyst
Thanks! Adding image generation with AI should be possible. I have ideas for future releases and will add this one too. I originally planned to give users the ability to select an image from some database in future, a so-called inspiration image for those who don't know what to paint. Possibility to generate an inspiration image using AI sound like a great improvement to selecting image from some database.
colesantiago
This would definitely help artists sharpen their skills in reference drawing with a generated image and help folks like us to learn to paint with hundreds of generated inspiration images to choose from without leaving the web app.

I can also see my friends daughter using this web app as an open source coloring book!

Tao3300
I'm trying not to throw up. Keep that shit out of here. I've accepted that illustration is going to be completely devoured by generative AI very soon; can we please keep it out of hobbyist painting just a little longer?
herunan
Not a painter myself, but based on some playing around with the web app, I can certainly see how a painter can derive a lot of value from this. Seems comprehensive, yet practical and to the point.

Some feedback on the workflow. It seems like uploading a photo is optional, but it’s not all too clear. I’m assuming some artists might want to create a palette for something more abstract that doesn’t require a photo. Maybe focusing first on the palette, with an option of basing it on a photo might make more sense as a workflow. Then again, I’m not your target user.

Almost goes without saying, but being able to use it fully without registration will certainly get you all the HN points here.

TrianguloY
Or maybe add a couple sample photos to choose, that will help users to test the full features without needing to upload anything!
eugene-khyst
I've just added 3 sample photos, so people can play with the app without uploading anything.
eugene-khyst
Palette tab with saved paint mixes is always available. Color mixing requires selecting paints (Paints tab). On the Colors tab you can use color chooser widget or directly type the target color HEX without uploading the photo. But I see that I have to clearly describe this. Also, I will add a few sample photos ASAP, so users don't have to upload anything to play with the app.
feiss
Great idea and fantastic implementation!! This is very well aimed to actual painters. Are you a painter yourself, or did you have any help from a painter?

Awesome job

eugene-khyst
I am a semi-pro artist and graduated from art school. But I had an almost 10-years break from painting. Some time ago I started painting again and decided to combine my painting and programming skills. Before launching ArtistAssistApp, I painted about 10 works with its help to make sure it's convenient and easy to use. Also, I asked a pro artist to make a few paintings with the help of the app to get the feedback. These paintings by a pro artist I used for promo videos in Instagram, YouTube and GitHub.
feiss
That makes sense, and definitely adds value to the app. Thanks for sharing!
growingkittens
This is a "fun with art" app for learning art skills (as opposed to an app for working artists).

Some things of note:

- Drawing from photos (a flattened image) teaches you to draw what the camera sees, not what you see.

- Picking colors from a photograph is a quick way to choose muddy colors.

Tao3300
> Drawing from photos (a flattened image) teaches you to draw what the camera sees, not what you see.

That's a silly claim.

> Picking colors from a photograph is a quick way to choose muddy colors.

That's a little less silly. It's going to depend on the photograph.

eugene-khyst
The web app heavily utilizes the sRGB color space for calculations, which has a limited color gamut. As a result, some colors, especially those outside the sRGB color gamut, may not be accurately represented. But this is also true for taking photo of your painting and posting it to the social networks. If you can't accept some minimal inaccuracy of a few colors of your painting, you should not post it online and only exhibited it in galleries.
growingkittens
There are a minimum of two colors at play in a photograph: the color of the object, and the color of the light. Picking a color from a photograph is always an average of these two colors and any other interacting factors. When you place a color on a canvas, how it looks depends on the surrounding colors (look up simultaneous contrast for an interesting example).

This is not about how a painting looks online, this is about how the painting itself comes out.

Unfortunately, even well-known college art programs are not always rigorous in teaching theory. Art education is also a far different subject than being an artist. Bad habits are easy to create, and this app encourages shortcuts that create bad habits.

Tao3300
I guess the difference here is that I see this as a set of potentially useful tools for someone who already knows what they're doing, and not educational tools for beginners. It certainly doesn't seem to be advertised as such.
growingkittens
"learn how to simplify and abstract your paintings"

"to learn how to create contrast and depth in your paintings"

The creator talks about learning core art skills that a working artist should already have.

Tao3300
Oh. You read closer than I did. Fair enough. You're right.
smokel
You probably know this, but it gets even worse. Paint can be applied in many translucent layers, and the reflectance of paint materials can differ a lot. The color therefore also changes depending on how you look at the painting and under what lighting conditions.

The same goes for objects, and photos typically capture only a limited subset of this.

gainda
they're referring to how an image will get perceived if its flattened in a photo v. experienced with binocular vision. drawing from life is taking 3D and making it 2D. drawing from a photo is taking 2D and keeping it 2D. also it did occur to me a photo will likely struggle to reproduce color as accurately as it occurs in real life. i mean just yesterday i pulled over to take a photo of the rising sun lighting up the underside of mammatus clouds and my iphone couldn't do it justice. i don't think the claim is silly; i was an art major at one point and went through this very discussion in my life drawing class.
ianbicking
The first claim seems kind of obvious, doesn't it? You have the opportunity to paint something closer to an experience of a place or scene, but a photo will encourage you to make a reproduction of a scene as taken by a photo.

For colors, I'm assuming that while you can make exactly the color in the photograph, the colors will mix on the canvas leading to a muddying of the colors. I'm not a painter, but I'm guessing you'd want to create brighter colors so that the final result matches your intended color. (And also it's easier to dull colors than to brighten them.)

WA
It's not silly. Drawing from photos isn't super bad and you can still learn a lot of useful skills, but you'll get:

- wrong colors, because of the lower dynamic range of a camera compared to the human eye

- lens distortions

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beardyw
For the audience this is aimed at I would have thought acrylics would be an option. Also not sure about paint brands, are you working with those brands?
eugene-khyst
I'm not working with any paint brand at the moment. The reason for using real paint brands is that the app relies on the RGB encoded paint colors. Each branch has different names of similar paints and even paints with the same name have different RGB values. Thus, letting users to choose predefined paints looks like a solution. I will add acrylic paints in the future. Didn't want to delay the launch of the app.
eugene-khyst
I've just added acrylic paints to the ArtistAssistApp.
mxben
Could you talk about the arithmetic you are using to make mixing colors work?
eugene-khyst
The resulting color of a paint mix is a weighted geometric mean of the paints' reflectance curves. The code is available on GitHub: <https://github.com/eugene-khyst/artistassistapp/blob/main/sr...>.
gus_massa
When picking a color, it would be nice to show a zoomed version so it's easier to pick the color of thin lines. (I used a hand draw gif, not a photo of a real object.)
eugene-khyst
Thanks for the idea. I will think how to implement it.
hersko
My wife who is a painter is extremely excited to use this. Thank you!
nyanmatt
Very cool! As a novice painter who can’t mix colors to save their life, I’m very excited about trying this out next time I’m in front of the canvas.
jack_riminton
This is great! I've been looking to build something very similar with regards to mixing colours. I've been working on simplifying paintings too, with a way to gradually increase the complexity of objects at various stages. Keep it up!
eugene-khyst
The source code is available on GitHub. You can use it as an inspiration. Also, feel free to contribute to improve something in the app.
lasermatts
I've picked up painting in the last few weeks taking class at the local County Parks system and today sat down to try my hand at my first painting based off a picture. Got frustrated, took a coffee break and saw this on Hacker News.

This is incredible! Super helpful -- as others have noted -- mixing colors and getting a rough sketch down before starting to paint is deceptively difficult, and this is a great resource!

eugene-khyst
Glad to hear that. I launched the app on the right time.
Jolter
Why can’t I zoom on this web page? It’s the first thing I wanted to do but it immediately snaps back out. Safari on iPhone.
eugene-khyst
I don't have an iPhone to check it myself. But zooming works in Safari on Mac. Do you try to zoom a photo on the Colors tab using pinch?
Jolter
Thanks for the quick reply.

It’s funny, I can’t reproduce it now. Works fine! The problem was on the front page. I wanted a closer look at the illustration under “Realistic Color Palette”.

chrischen
This is the missing piece to my painting robot that I tried to create. I had started work on a physical paint extruder powered by an Arduino, and had the 2D plotter with brush all setup. The missing piece was figuring out how to convert screen color to paint color and how to mix the physical paint. Now all the pieces are available to actually make the painting robot a reality.
foknvp2er12
Finally, a useful software without the «help» of LLMs and other neural crap.
smokel
I have been toying with similar apps, but never got around to polishing it like this. Great work!

A few things I would have liked to build, if I had infinite time:

- A "tone trainer" app, where you can gamify your ability to recognize tonal values in photos.

- An app that lets you take a picture of your drawing or painting in progress, and then highlights where you are off in the reference image.

eugene-khyst
These are really great features but they are not easy to implement. Sometimes I take a photo of my painting and convert to greyscale to compare with the reference tonal values. Automating this process will be very useful. Thanks for sharing this.
beyondwu
It sounds hard and looks amzing. From the comments, it does'nt use any AI or LLM. Can AI make this better or worse? I feel AI is hard to make thing under control?
eugene-khyst
Thanks! I'm not sure that realistic color mixing or tonal value sketch can be improved in any way by AI. It's a pure math. A math models can be improved. For example, in color mixing instead of relying on sRGB color space which has limited color gamut, adopt CIE LAB color space. Paint reflectance charts can be measured with higher precision. Probably, with the help of AI simplified sketch can be done. But I'm not sure that the simplified sketch made with AI will be better than the one made by applying the median blur.