Why Your Mixes Look Muddy (And How to Fix It)
Muddy paint is almost never random — it follows a logical pattern. Understanding pigment dominance and opacity is the fastest way to clean up your palette.
Oil Painting Color Reference
Over 978 hand-mapped Rublev pigment recipes. Point at any color on your reference — see exactly which pigments to reach for.
The Desktop App
Load any reference photo, click any pixel, and instantly get the closest Rublev pigment recipe. The left panel ranks the top matches by ΔE color accuracy. The right panel tracks every color you've picked in the session.
Try It Live
Pick a reference photo below, click any pixel, and instantly see the Rublev pigment recipe. No install. No account.
How It Works
Click any swatch or paste a hex code from a reference photo to find the closest available mix.
Instantly see up to five Rublev pigments — listed in dominant order — needed to mix that color.
No more guessing. Every recipe is based on real pigment interaction, not digital blending.
Real Pigments. Real Results.
Every recipe in Artist Studio Pro comes from actual paint mixtures — swatched, measured, and compared under controlled lighting. This is the color chart that powers the engine.
Try the Mixer →
The Palette
Every recipe in Artist Studio Pro is built from this curated palette of historically-informed oil colors.
Video Demonstrations
Step-by-step oil painting demos showing how to use Artist Studio Pro at the easel.
Mixing Warm Shadows
Learn the classic warm/cool temperature trick for convincing shadows using just two pigments.
Skin Tones
How Transparent Red Oxide and Titanium White replace a whole bag of tubes for portrait work.
Landscape Greens
Why premixed greens look artificial — and how to build a full range from two pigments.
Neutral Grays
Using Natural Black Oxide and chromatic darks to keep your shadows alive and vibrant.
📌 Videos are being added regularly. Download the app for the full tutorial library.
The Studio Blog
Practical knowledge for the working painter.
Muddy paint is almost never random — it follows a logical pattern. Understanding pigment dominance and opacity is the fastest way to clean up your palette.
Two pigments. Dozens of neutrals, rich darks, and warm shadows. This is the mix every oil painter should master first, and why it works so reliably.
Tube greens are notoriously garish. The painters in the Flemish tradition mixed all their greens from blues and yellows — here's why that still works best today.
These two whites behave completely differently in mixes. Lead White gives warmth and translucency. Titanium White gives opacity and cool tints. Here's when to use each.
The two hottest pigments on the palette. Together they produce a range of oranges and golds that no other combination can touch. A full guide to the mix.
More colors don't mean better paintings. Discover the eight-pigment palette that covers nearly every color in the Artist Studio Pro database — and how to work within it.
The Full App
The desktop app includes the complete 978-recipe database, studio session logging, custom palette management, and works fully offline — no subscription.