HueMixy

Hi, I'm Michael. I've been a graphic designer and web developer for over 30 years. Like many old professional designers fortunate enough to find time now for painting, I'm a techy, a purist, a professional.

The problem? It's time-consuming and boring work.

The Problem with Existing Tools

Like any good designer, I started using traditional design tools to create swatches and color palettes from my reference photos. There are plenty of online tools that let you upload an image and generate a color palette, but here's the thing they don't do:

They don't tell you exactly where on the painting each color goes.

And knowing exactly where each color comes from? That really improved my paintings. It stretched my color mixing skills too, because I started combining colors I never would have thought of. I stopped getting stuck painting the same old mixes from memory.

How I Actually Painted

As I paint with my swatches, I write down the actual mixes I'm using and record them. That way I'm learning, not just copying. But to do this, I needed a fast way to upload a photograph and instantly isolate all the colors I'd need.

The existing workflow was just too time-consuming. I knew there had to be a better way.

Paint Mixing Formulas: A Game Changer

Having approximate paint mixes generated from color lookup tables turned out to be hugely helpful, not just for pros, but even more for students and amateurs. It gives you a starting point for a mix instead of staring at your palette wondering where to begin.

The Biggest Problem I See in Paintings

One of the biggest failures I see in amateur paintings is the inability to see color. Paintings end up garish, muddy brown, or that bright tube green that, let's be honest, isn't very creative.

Having a good color study before you even start painting makes a world of difference. The problem is that generating a good one, one that tells you all the different colors and exactly where they go, has always been time-consuming work.

Until now.