Painting Analysis
Painting Studio
Built from 25+ years of studio practice.
Painting Tools System
M8 checks your values, composition, color, and drawing structure before you waste hours painting in the wrong direction.
Get a clear first read on why the image feels off, then reveal the painter fix plan before you commit to the canvas.
Check whether your lights, shadows, and midtones are actually working before details take over.
Composition Preview
See focal placement, movement, and balance before they become hard to fix.
Color Preview
Extract palettes and understand how colors work together before you start mixing paint.
Drawing Preview
Use head-canon guides to catch proportion problems before you start painting.
No guesswork. Clear visual feedback instantly.
M8 Painting Tools helps you see it.
Hidden Structure Demo Values, composition, color, and drawing structure revealed from one reference before you paint.
Studio Home
Upload or open a checker.
ScanFind the biggest issue.
DecideChoose the next fix.
PaintWork with more clarity.
Studio Flow
How It Works
Make the big decisions first so your painting starts from a stronger foundation.
Bring in a reference, study, or painting and open it in the tool that matches your problem.
Reveal weak value structure, poor focal balance, and unclear color relationships.
Make the big decisions first, so your final painting starts from a stronger foundation.
Why It Matters
Catch the problem early, and the whole painting gets easier.
Tool One
Find Your Biggest Value Mistakes Instantly
Key tools:
Check whether your lights, shadows, and midtones are actually working before details take over.
Pick any point in your image and compare it to a clear grayscale value scale.
Reduce your image into simple tonal groups so the big light and shadow pattern becomes obvious.
Instantly see what’s too dark, too light, or off.
Tool Two
Fix Your Composition Before It Ruins the Painting
Key tools:
See focal placement, movement, and balance before they become hard to fix.
Use rule of thirds, center lines, grids, and other overlays to check placement and balance.
Understand how the viewer’s eye moves through your painting.
Test focal placement using a golden ratio overlay.
Explore balance, structure, and visual pressure.
Tool Three
Stop Guessing Colors. Know What to Mix.
Key tools:
Extract palettes and understand how colors actually work together before you start mixing paint.
See how the palette is organized across the painting.
Analyze temperature, contrast, and interaction between colors.
Identify harmony types like monochromatic, analogous, or complementary.
Get practical mixing guidance based on a painter’s palette.
Tool Four
Check Your Drawing Structure Before You Paint
Key tools:
Use canon, perspective, and compare overlays to catch drawing problems before they get buried under paint.
Compare front and side head structure with clear proportional guides.
Fit figure proportions with an 8-head guide before anatomy details distract you.
Check horizon, vanishing points, and major edge directions in one workspace.
Overlay your drawing against a reference to see proportion drift fast.
Painter Built
M8 Painting Tools was created by Jan Matěják, an oil painter, educator, author, and ARC Salon finalist specializing in classical oil painting techniques and the study of Old Master methods.
After years of teaching artists worldwide through books, workshops, YouTube videos, and Patreon, Jan created M8 Painting Tools to help artists analyze value, composition, and color with modern image-analysis tools guided by traditional painting principles.
This is not just another image checker. It is a painter’s tool - built from real studio experience, classical training, and years of helping artists improve their work.
Jan MatějákClassical oil painter, teacher, and creator of M8 Painting Tools.
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