This is where your painting gets better
Upload a photo of a painting you're working on. ZincBlue tells you what's working, what to change next and why, then helps you at the easel. Built on twenty years of Martin Kinnear's teaching.
Free. No sign-up needed to see your critique.
“It is like working with a tutor looking over your shoulder and guiding your decisions… but only when you ask.”
Founder Martin Kinnear introduces ZincBlue, the future of personalised painting mentoring.
Built for Painters. Built From teaching Painting
ZincBlue is an adaptive learning platform built from more than twenty years of painting, teaching and mentoring.
That means it knows how painters actually work: how to understand what you are trying to do, recognise what is holding the painting back, and suggest practical ways forward.
Developed by painter and educator Martin Kinnear, RCA graduate and Courtauld doctoral scholar.
Discover the story behind ZincBlue →
How ZincBlue Mentoring Works
-
![Composition editor showing pink poppies cropped in a 5:4 landscape frame]()
1: Compose
Never work with an uninspiring reference again. ZincBlue helps you turn ideas, sketches and inspirational images into strong painting compositions. Some painters make extraordinary things seem ordinary, better artists make ordinary things look extraordinary.
-
![ZincBlue painting plan titled “Full plan — Just Married”, showing six steps for light and colour]()
2: Get A Staged Plan
Have a plan to succeed. Anyone can find or create a great image, but few can paint it. ZincBlue turns your composition into a step by step painting plan for any medium and palette, so you know what to do, in what order, and why. Good painters know that skills facilitate creativity.
-
![Screenshot of a Colourmix clicker showing a pink poppy oil painting, a selected coral-red color sample, and mixing guidance for Cadmium Red Medium.]()
3:Get At Your Easel Help
Painting is complex and rarely unfolds as expected. ZincBlue works beside you at the easel, from mixing a colour to balancing values across the whole work, answering the questions the painting raises, and helping you judge what to do next. Vision begins the work; sound judgement brings it to life.
-
![Hue family share note featuring a pink poppy painting, color distribution pie chart, horizontal color-share bars, and painting analysis text.]()
4: Actionable Critique
ZincBlue gives you specific, actionable critique: you can compare your work at different stages, against your reference or against a style you admire. Use the built in labs to create personalised mentoring on colour, value or style. You get useful feedback and a plan.
What painters say
“My expectation of what the app would do was massively exceeded. It was like being on the diploma, with the addition of a personal tutor at my easel.”
“It gives me ideas to try, the reasons why I should try them, and way more confidence in moving it forward.”
“In every single feedback there has been something very useful to consider.”
“The analysis and suggestions were insightful and practical.”
Not a chatbot. A painting teacher.
General AI tools talk about painting. ZincBlue looks at yours, and teaches from what it finds.
Measures what's really there
Colour, value, temperature and structure are measured from your own image, so the advice is about your picture, not painting in general.
Twenty years of critique
Built on Martin Kinnear's teaching and critique method, it diagnoses what's holding the painting back the way a tutor does at the easel.
What to do, in order, and why
Every critique turns into a staged plan for your medium and palette, with the reasons explained, so you learn as you paint.
AI only writes the guidance up in plain English. It never paints, alters or generates your images. How ZincBlue uses AI
Any medium
Oils, watercolour, acrylic and gouache, across styles and subjects.
Your own palette
Colour advice matched to more than 700 real artists' paints, and to the colours you actually own.
Phone, tablet or desktop
Talk to it at the easel, check a painting on your phone, plan properly at a desk.
Choose your membership
Personal mentoring for less than a single hour of one-to-one tuition a month. Cancel any time.
Annual
Best value- 25 credits a month
- Keep up to 12 projects at a time
- 8 Labs
- Cheaper top-ups
Pro
- 50 credits a month
- Keep up to 24 projects at a time
- All 12 Labs and spoken replies
- Lowest top-up rate
How far credits go depends on how you work, and you can top up any time. Memberships renew automatically until you cancel. See our terms.
Your questions, answered
Is it free?
Your first critique is free, with no sign-up needed to see it. Membership, with planning, help at the easel and the Labs, starts at £34.99 a month.
What is ZincBlue?
A new kind of painting mentoring. You bring the work you're making, and ZincBlue builds the mentoring you need from it: your painting, your aims and your way of working become your own course.
What are credits?
Credits are what you use as ZincBlue works on your paintings. How far a month's credits go depends on how you work. If you need more, you can top up any time, and higher plans top up for less.
Can I cancel?
Yes, any time, from your account. You keep access until the end of the period you've paid for, and you won't be charged again.
Which mediums and devices does it work with?
Oils, watercolour, acrylic and gouache, including mixed media and your own palette choices. It works on a phone, tablet or desktop.