Information

Pastel Painter is a tool for pastel painters using a photograph as a starting point. It is based on the Munsell color system.

A monochrome image has hundreds of different values, and a color photograph has thousands of unique colors. An artist must therefore reduce the number of colors used in their work. Pastel Painter significantly helps the artist with this. You may reduce the number of colors in the photo between 2 and 255. Each color will be isolated in the image and shown with a Munsell notation.

If you have selected a pastel brand, Pastel Painter tells you which pastels to use and where to use them in the image. The name (ie id) of the pastel stick will be shown in the right column. If you have chosen several brands, only the name of one pastel stick (with the nearest color) will be shown in the right column (but the nearest pastel sticks from all the chosen pastel brands will be shown in the left column).

Pastel painter will also tell you how much the color deviates from the preferred pastel stick (0 is best, but 2.0 and below is very good). You can also change the colors in the image to the color of the suggested pastel sticks (the deviations will hence change to 0) (this function is not possible in the "Try it yourself" version). The images and the text can be saved and thus be loaded in Pastel Painter again (this function is not possible in the "Try it yourself" version).

And remember: Pastel sticks can be bought individually. Decide what is important in the picture and which pastel sticks Pastel Painter suggest there. You do not have to buy an expensive set with many pastels you do not use!

Although Pastel Painter is made for the pastel painter, others may find it useful, for example artists using pencils, color pencils, oils etc.

Instructions

1. It is worth noting that you can always start over again by clicking the "Pastel Painter” (home) button in the left-hand column!
2. Load a photo.
3. Crop your photo as necessary.
4. You can also make basic adjustments to the image.
5. Select one or more pastel brands (only two pastel brands (Faber-Castell and Mungyo) in the "Try it yourself" version). You can of course choose not to select a pastel brand at all. Pastel Painter will then only show the Munsell number.
6. Click or tap "Make a palette" button. You will now have three choices (not "Self-made palette" in the "Try it yourself version): "Automatic color palette", "Automatic monochrome palette" and "Self-made palette".

6.1 Automatic color palette.
Chose how many colors the image should have (from 2 to 255) and click or tap the OK button.
In the right-hand column, you will find the palette colors with Munsell notation and the name of the pastel stick with the nearest color. You will also see how much the color deviates from the color in the quantized image.
You may transfer the pastel colors (shown in the right-hand column) to the image by clicking the "transfer" button (this function is not possible in the "Try it yourself" version). The deviations then change to and the palette colors displayed in the right-hand column will then be the same as in the image.
The "transfer" button is only shown if you have selected a pastel brand and clicked or taped the OK button.
In the left-hand column, you can also find the Munsell notation and the names of pastel sticks from all the chosen brands with their color deviation.
6.2 Automatic monochrome palette.
A loaded color photo will be automatically converted to a black and white image. You can adjust the contrast and brightness before clicking the OK button.
Choose the number of Munsell values the imported image should have (0 being black and 10 being white).
In the right-hand column, you will find the palette colors with Munsell notation and the name of the pastel stick with the nearest color. You can also see how much the color deviates from the color in the quantized image.
You may transfer the pastel colors (shown in the right-hand column) to the image by clicking or taping the "transfer" button. The deviations then change to 0 as the palette colors displayed in the right-hand column will then be the same as the colors in the image.
The "transfer" button is only shown if you have selected a pastel brand and clicked or taped the OK button.
In the left-hand column, you can also find the Munsell notation and the names of pastel sticks from all the chosen brands with color deviation.
6.3 Self-made palette.
(This function is not possible in the "Try it yourself" version). By moving the cursor over the image, the color will be displayed in a window in the left-hand column together with the Munsell notation or pastel name. You may choose between an exact measurement (based on a 1x1-pixel area) or an average based on either a 12x12-pixel or 24x24-pixel area. By clicking or tapping on the image, the Munsell notation or the name of the pastel stick will be displayed over the image, with the same palette information displayed in the right-hand column. If you have chosen several brands, only the pastel stick with the lowest color deviation will be shown.

7. By clicking or tapping on one of the colors in your palette displayed in the right-hand column, the corresponding color will be isolated in the image. Other colors in the image will then appear grey in color (this function is not possible in the "Try it yourself" version).
8. With the Option button you can add the HSV, HSL or HSI color system too. HSV for hue, saturation, value; HSL for hue, saturation,and lightness and HSI for hue, saturation and intensity. Hue (H) is written in degrees [0° - 360°]. Saturation (S), Value (V), Lightness (L) and Intensity (I) are all written in percent. HSV is also known as HSB, for hue, saturation, brightness.
9. Finally, the text and picture can be saved (this function is not possible in the "Try it yourself" version). The saved image can then be loaded later or printed.