01
Materials
We read the technique and the difficulty of the picture, then name what it can actually be painted with: paints, brush numbers, paper weight or canvas size. A shopping list for this painting, not a general list of what an artist owns.
AI drawing mentorBreak down any painting
Break down any painting
step by step
Upload a picture you want to paint. We take it apart into materials, construction, colour and the last few touches — then walk the whole way through it with you.
Free · Your first breakdown takes a couple of minutes
Four phases
How it works
You upload the picture you want to paint and choose who leads the session — a strict master, a warm teacher, or someone in between. Paintredo takes the picture apart into phases and walks you through them in order: materials, construction, colour and the last few touches. Each step tells you what to do now, what to watch for while you do it, and what not to touch yet — and at any point you can ask a question or send a photo of your own work and get told what to fix.
02
Construction
Where the image sits on the sheet: the horizon line, the big masses, the proportions — and only then the detail. Each step is explained before you draw it, including where people usually go wrong on a picture like this one.
03
Colour
The painting broken into the shades it needs, each one shown next to its name. If a colour is not normally in a set, you get what to mix it from and in what ratio — plus what to lay down first and what to leave white.
04
Last touches
The shortest phase: two or three touches after which the work comes alive. A single point of white in an eye, the brightest spark on water, one last dark accent deep in a fold. Which ones depends on the painting.
Your mentor
Pick who teaches you
The same honest reading of the same picture, in four different voices. The tone changes the wording and nothing else — the difficulty is still called honestly, a mistake is still called a mistake, and the advice still comes with brush numbers and ratios. You choose before the breakdown starts and can change your mind on the next one.
The calm mentor
Even, to the point, no wasted words
“Put the horizon a little above the middle — that keeps the background from swallowing the front.”
The strict master
Demanding, keeps the pace, does not praise for free
“Three tries at that line, not twenty. Your hand should know where it is going.”
The warm teacher
Encourages, reassures, and will not let you quit
“What a confident outline! Now one small thing and it gets better still.”
The studio neighbour
Jokes, takes the fear out, keeps things moving
“The sky is not a blue bedsheet — it is darker at the top. Five minutes and you cannot unsee it.”Always there
Ask at any moment
Every step of the breakdown has a chat with your mentor docked at the bottom of the screen. Ask in your own words what is not working, and the answer accounts for the step you are standing on — including what you are supposed to be ignoring for now. Attach a photo of your own work and the mentor reads that instead of guessing.
Questions while the brush is still in your hand
You do not have to describe the problem well. “Why does this look flat” is a question the mentor can answer, because it can see both the reference and the photo of what you have painted so far — and it knows which step you are on, so it will not send you running ahead into work that belongs three steps later.
What makes the eyes look more alive? They feel flat right now.
Put one small bright highlight on the iris — a white dot near the top edge of the pupil, slightly off centre. That alone reads as wetness and volume. A second, much fainter one goes opposite it, lower and duller, and the eye stops looking flat.
Who it is for
Made for the painting in front of you
For people who want to paint one particular picture rather than take a course from scratch. Paintredo assumes no art training and no vocabulary: everything is explained as it comes up, in plain words.
- BeginnersYou are picking up a brush for the first time and do not know where to start. You get an order of operations, not the advice to “begin with the general shapes”.
- People who paint for themselvesYou paint now and then and get stuck on the same things — proportion, muddy colour, contrast that went missing. The mentor sees your work and says which one to fix.
- StudentsYou are learning, but between classes there is nobody to ask. Paintredo answers at the moment you are standing in front of the paper.
Breakdowns
Finished breakdowns
What other people got out of it — from the first line to the final layer.
Watercolour · 8 steps
Mountain landscape
Soon
Gouache · 6 steps
Cat portrait
Soon
Pencil · 5 steps
Still life
Soon