Grid Drawing Tool
Upload a reference photo and overlay an adjustable grid to help you sketch accurate proportions. Control grid size, opacity, and colour.
Open Grid Tool →100% Free · No Sign-up · Works in Browser
Simple drawing tools for better sketch practice
Add grids, simplify reference photos, and practice timed poses — directly in your browser. No downloads, no accounts.
Free Artist Tools
Everything you need to practise and study. All processing happens locally — your images never leave your device.
Pose Timer
Upload your own reference images and practice gesture drawing with timed sessions. Choose from 10-second quick poses to 5-minute studies.
Open Pose Timer →Image Simplifier
Simplify a reference photo for easier value and shape study. Adjust blur, contrast, brightness, posterize levels, and convert to grayscale.
Open Simplifier →Colour Palette Extractor
Upload any photo and extract 3–7 dominant colours by image area using Median Cut quantization. Get hex, RGB, HSL codes and export as CSS or PNG.
Open Palette Tool →Value Checker
Upload a reference photo and see it side-by-side in greyscale. Adjust contrast to clearly reveal shadows, mid-tones, and highlights before you paint.
Open Value Checker →More Tools Coming Soon
We're building more free tools for artists. Stay tuned.
Composition Crop
Coming SoonReference Organiser
Coming SoonDaily Drawing Challenge
Coming SoonWho is SketchKit for?
SketchKit is built for artists of all levels — from complete beginners working through their first sketchbook to experienced illustrators who need a quick reference aid in their workflow.
Art students use the Grid Drawing Tool to transfer reference photos onto canvas with accuracy, a technique used by masters for centuries. The grid method breaks a complex image into manageable sections so you can focus on proportion and placement.
Gesture drawing practitioners use the Pose Timer to simulate life drawing sessions at home. Upload your own curated reference images and set the timer to match your practice goals — short 10-second gesture sketches or longer 5-minute studies.
Painters and illustrators use the Image Simplifier to strip away distracting detail before starting a study. Reducing a photo to 3–4 posterise levels reveals the underlying value structure and makes it far easier to plan a painting.
Every tool runs entirely in your browser. Your uploaded images are never sent to a server — all processing happens locally on your device, keeping your references private.
From the Blog
Tips, techniques, and guides for artists at every level.
The Grid Method for Drawing
A complete beginner's guide to using the grid technique to accurately transfer reference photos to your canvas — the same method used by the Old Masters.
Read Article →Gesture Drawing: 30 Days to Better Sketches
How daily timed gesture sessions can dramatically improve your line confidence, speed, and ability to capture the essence of a pose in seconds.
Read Article →How to Extract and Use Colour Palettes
Learn how to pull dominant colours from reference photos and apply them to your own artwork — with a free in-browser tool to do it instantly.
Read Article →Understanding Value: The Secret to Better Paintings
Value — the lightness or darkness of a colour — is the single most important element of a convincing painting. Learn how to see and plan it before you pick up a brush.
Read Article →What I Wish I Knew When I Started Drawing in 2018
A self-taught artist's honest journey through watercolour, oil, pastels, acrylics and ink — the mistakes, the breakthroughs, and what actually made the biggest difference.
Read Article →Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, all tools on SketchKit are completely free to use. There is no sign-up, no subscription, and no watermark on downloaded images.
Absolutely. All image processing happens locally in your browser using the HTML5 Canvas API. Your images are never uploaded to any server. Once you close the browser tab, the images are gone.
SketchKit supports JPEG, PNG, WebP, and most other common image formats that your browser can display. Very large files may be slow to process depending on your device.
Yes. SketchKit is fully responsive and works on mobile browsers. However, for the best experience — especially with the canvas tools — a desktop or tablet with a larger screen is recommended.
The grid method is a technique where you draw a grid over a reference image and a corresponding grid on your drawing surface. By copying one grid square at a time, you can reproduce complex images with accurate proportions — without freehand estimation.
Gesture drawing is the practice of quickly sketching the energy, movement, and basic form of a subject — usually within 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Regular gesture practice builds speed, looseness, and the ability to capture the essence of a pose before getting into detail.