Painting a pinto horse in watercolor with Radost Dimitrova

Table of contents

• Picking up a reference photo
• Getting started with ArtistAssistApp
• Choosing colors to paint with
• Selecting a reference photo
• Accurately mixing the colors from a reference photo
• Removing backgrounds from images
• Mixing colors without wasting paint
• Tonal value study
• Drawing an accurate outline
• The finished painting
• About ArtistAssistApp

Radost Dimitrova takes her own reference photos, returns to the studio, and uses the ArtistAssistApp to plan colors and the painting. She demonstrates the app's color picker and mix suggestions (using her Winsor & Newton palette), background removal, tonal value study, and an outline/tracing tool. She emphasizes starting with a strong pencil sketch, choosing photos with clear values, and using the app as a helpful aid for beginners and for commissions. Radost also believes the app can be helpful for new learners without preventing them from enjoying the process of traditional art creation.

Picking up a reference photo

First, Radost needed some reference photos for the project, so she took the viewers for a walk. She said it has always been easier for her to work from photos in the calm of her studio, but that observing the animals in person — their reaction to the wind grazing their mane, seeing herself reflected in their eyes — felt breathtaking. Instead of searching for photos online, she is learning how to take her own, trying to capture that feeling of being part of nature's artwork. Radost described working in the golden hours as magical and explained why they are called that: the last moments before the sun goes down, when natural shadows are easier to differentiate. She said artists need to pick the right spot, be patient, and observe the tricks of natural light.

She mentioned she'd heard that the best pictures happen when it's cloudy — probably true — but noted that when you start painting, it can be frustrating to wonder where to put highlights, especially for beginners. ArtistAssistApp offers a solution for painters who struggle with values or want to study them in depth. Radost said she couldn't wait to go home and test it.

Back in the studio, Radost picked the right photo for her project and tested how ArtistAssistApp could help in her painting process. As she'd said before, she prefers to take her own reference photos even though 90% of them end up blurred. She believed one of the pictures would suffice; most of the horses were eating instead of posing, so she didn't have much choice.

Getting started with ArtistAssistApp

With the sketch ready, Radost used ArtistAssistApp to learn more about her reference and make a plan for the painting. She explained that the app was created to help artists solve certain problems and reiterated that it could be especially helpful for beginners. She described how the app runs in a web browser on desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones — no installation needed, although installing it offers offline access.

Choosing colors to paint with

Now that her pencil sketch was ready, Radost set the colors with the app. She explained that the app allows adding favorite paint brands and that she's a Window Newton girl — a palette she uses all the time. Choosing that 24-color set allowed the program to help with mixing colors or picking the right color from the reference photo.

Selecting a reference photo

Then Radost uploaded the reference photo.

Accurately mixing the colors from a reference photo

Radost said the fun part for her was exploring the colors. She's often been asked what to mix to paint certain things — the color of the grass or the brown of the pack, for example. For beginners who don't know their palette, doing it intuitively can be overwhelming, especially when aiming for realism. She thought the app's feature might help: clicking where you want to understand the colors shows potential mixes and a percentage of similarity, so users can choose. Some of the suggested mixes surprised Radost; she wouldn't normally pick some of them, but she said you learn something new every day. She added one suggested mix for the sky to her palette since that would be the first wash.

Radost described how the app combines mathematics and artistic surges, calling it brilliant for color theory nerds because everyone experiences art and learning differently. She confessed she'd always had trouble with backgrounds, but starting with them helped. When people learn, she observed, they tend to focus too much; the real magic happens when they relax and explore the knowledge they've received.

The moment she saw the color-picking tool, Radost knew how useful it might be for her. When it comes to commissions, a client wants a painting of their pet, Radost said, they expect familiar colors they see every day and love; the artist must capture both personality and the right colors. The tool can extract those colors from the reference picture and show what to mix to achieve them — a helpful feature for professionals as well.

Removing backgrounds from images

Regarding backgrounds, she noted that if artists want the main object's features to stand out clearly, the app can remove the background. For simple illustrations where the background is an annoyance, that feature could be handy.

Mixing colors without wasting paint

Radost reiterated that she's used to her Window Newton palette and loves mixing her own colors and experimenting. But for anyone who wants to try unusual mixes without wasting paint — she noted that refilling colors isn't cheap — the app offers a feature to mix colors digitally and also shows how they dilute with water and how pale they can become. She found that visualization helpful for deciding which mixes might work, then trying them in real life later.

Tonal value study

She admitted worrying that monochromatic animals might look flat and said that's probably why she picked a horse with more than one color — to avoid confusion. She advised choosing photos with more visible shadows and highlights so it's easier to decipher values. Radost said she finds it difficult sometimes to express the right values from certain photos, especially with people's faces and animals, since the values can be hard to see. For learners wondering where to place shadows and highlights, she pointed out, the app can separate these elements so they can be seen clearly.

Radost thinks all these features help artists study their reference more closely: they reveal things that were missed and help focus on them without feeling overwhelmed by the background. She admitted she gets distracted easily on location, and photos can be distracting too, so the tool could be useful for locating highlights in pictures.

Drawing an accurate outline

As a self-taught artist, Radost has been thinking a lot about the learning process and how it differs for each person. She hopes that the tricks in ArtistAssistApp, combined with her experience and observations, will help others on their journeys. She always emphasizes drawing and the importance of the initial sketch before adding color, but reiterated that the learning process varies for everyone. For complete beginners who struggle with sketching, she noted, the app can outline the object for you, making it easier to see. Users can even print and trace the outline, which might be good for children who learn by tracing; over time, the hand becomes familiar with certain shapes and forms.

The finished painting

Radost reflected that art is related to freedom, messiness, and impulsive decisions. Sometimes, when looking at a piece, viewers wonder what exactly it is — it can express an emotion or state and break rules and boundaries. But she advised that before breaking the rules, artists should learn them: learn to draw and to paint. She believes apps like ArtistAssistApp can be very helpful in that learning phase and that mastering craft can open new ideas and non-standard decisions that could lead to the next masterpiece.

About ArtistAssistApp

ArtistAssistApp, also known as Artist Assist App, is a web app for artists to accurately mix any color from a photo, analyze tonal values, turn a photo into an outline, draw with the grid method, paint with a limited palette, simplify a photo, remove the background from an image, compare photos pairwise, and more.

Try it now for free at https://app.artistassistapp.com to improve your painting and drawing skills and create stunning artworks.