In art, value (or tone) refers to how light or dark a colour is. If you're learning to paint or draw, doing value studies is one of the best ways to improve. These small, loose sketches in greyscale help you understand where shadows fall and highlights appear—essential for capturing depth and form. Value Study is a simple, focused tool designed to help you see values more clearly in your reference images. Instead of just converting a photo to black and white, this app lets you break down tones step by step. Start with just black and white to map out the biggest shapes, then gradually add more values to refine your understanding. You can also highlight all areas of an image that share the same value, making it easier to see subtle shifts in tone. This is especially useful in complex references, like portraits, where different parts of the image might have the same level of shadow but look completely different in colour. Value Study isn’t here to replace traditional studies—it’s here to enhance them. Whether you're sketching, painting, or working digitally, this tool makes it easier to focus on the fundamentals of light, shadow, and form. Try it for free with all features enabled on sample images from Unsplash before deciding to unlock the full app with a low-cost yearly or lifetime purchase. All Value Study Pro upgrades count as lifetime purchase. Either option will unlock Value Study across iPhone, iPad and Mac. Annual: Auto-renews yearly. Lifetime: One-time payment, no fees. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
| Size | 31.7 MB |
|---|---|
| Initial release | |
| Price | |
| Platforms | Mac, iPhone, and iPad |
| Languages | Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and 4 more |
| Category | Graphics & Design |
| Compatibility | |
|---|---|
| Mac | Requires macOS 13.5 or later. |
| iPad | Requires iPadOS 16.6 or later. |
| iPhone | Requires iOS 16.6 or later. |
App's data is regularly updated.
Last update:
Small bug fix for photos that have been edited/cropped in photo library. It should now show the most recent version! --- Usually my work on the app focusses on new features, performance improvements or bug fixes. This update is a bit more business-ey. I’m incredibly grateful for all of you that support Value Study through subscriptions and lifetime purchases, not to mention reviews and word-of-mouth. I’m working to make sure new people who discover Value Study see its worth straight away and want to join in too. I’ve made some changes to improve how the app introduces itself to new users and to better show what it can do from the very start. I’m also putting more time into YouTube, creating videos that help newcomers get started and highlight new features as they’re released. As always, every App Store review, bit of feedback, or question sent to shane@valuestudy.app is really appreciated. Thank you for continuing to support an independent app. You’re helping Value Study grow and reach more artists around the world.