Shades chosen for you
Millions of pixel colours become a handful of paint groups. You stop squinting at two patches wondering which is darker — the decision is made, and measured.
The colour mapping studio for oil painters
Less guesswork.
More masterpiece.
Turn your reference photo into an oil painting colour map. Discover every shade, where it belongs, and how to mix it from your own paints.
- No signup needed
- Your photos stay private
- Made for real paint
COLOUR, IN MOTIONA world of possibility
A little clarity. A lot more colour.Your reference, reimagined
MOUNTAIN STUDY / 08 COLOURS
Photography by Thomas Tucker / Unsplash ↗
A clearer path from reference to canvasFind your colours.Mix with confidence.Make it yours.
The hard part was never the brushwork
It is standing in front of a photograph asking the same three questions again and again.
What colour?
Which of the shades on my palette is this patch, really — and is it warmer or cooler than the one beside it?
Where, exactly?
Where does this shade start and stop? Where does it hand over to the next one?
How much of it?
How large is that area, and how much paint should I mix before I start?
Varnika answers those three. Everything that makes the painting yours — the blending, the edges, the texture, the decisions — stays with you.
Features
Built around how painting actually goes
Every shade gets its own map
Tap shade 05 and only shade 05 appears, exactly where it belongs. Fill it, outline it, or mark it with dots so you can see the reference underneath.
Mixed from your tubes
Tick the paints you own and get real recipes — "48 parts Titanium White, 2 parts Burnt Sienna, a touch of Yellow Ochre" — worked out with subtractive pigment mixing, not screen colour.
Hue separation you control
Decide whether shades follow the value structure or the colour families, to help preserve distinctions between similar colour families.
Measure the colour difference
The match between your shades and the photograph is measured in CIEDE2000 and shown plainly. No guessing whether you need more shades.
The transfer drawing
Switch to outlines and you have the boundary drawing for squaring up onto canvas — the same shapes you are about to fill.
Fix what the machine got wrong
No algorithm is right everywhere. Paint corrections straight onto the mask, merge shades that are too close, split one that is doing too much work.
Your reference never leaves
Everything happens in your browser — the analysis, the masks, the exports. Your photographs are not uploaded by the studio. Account and billing requests use a separate server API.
How it works
Three steps, then you are painting
- 01
Drop in your reference
Any photograph — a portrait, a still life, a devotional subject. 4K and larger are fine, and the original is never altered.
- 02
Choose how many shades
Start with five broad shades in the free studio. Higher shade counts are planned for paid tiers. Analysis time depends on your image, settings and device.
- 03
Paint one shade at a time
Mix the recipe, paint where the map says, move to the next. Light to dark, then bring the reference back up and blend the edges by eye.
From reference to real paint
A photo-to-painting tool for your next canvas
Varnika creates a colour map from your photograph: a smaller palette of shades, with a separate painting layer for each one. Use the map to plan an oil painting, prepare an outline for transfer, and explore mixing recipes using the paints you own.
Create a colour palette from a photo
Choose fewer shades for a bold study or more for detail. Compare the map with your reference before you start mixing.
Find oil paint mixing recipes
Select your tubes to explore suggested mixtures. Test a small swatch: pigments and brands behave differently from screen colours.
Plan your painting from a reference
Move from an outline to individual shade maps, then use your own brushwork to shape edges, texture and transitions.
Your reference is already on your phone.
Open the studio, drop it in, and see the shades in a few seconds. Nothing to install, no account.
Open the studioFree to try · no card · nothing leaves your device