Da Vinci Eye

Make real art on real paper

11 followers

Make real art on real paper

11 followers

•

•

Da Vinci Eye uses basic AR to virtually overlay an image on a real surface for you to trace. It is the ultimate tool for any artist, graphic designer, art students, sign makers, and even bakers! You can learn how to draw with step by step lessons, trace your own photos, or break images down into layers for a paint by numbers type of project.

The Best Da Vinci Eye Alternatives

The best Da Vinci Eye alternatives are SketchAR, Procreate, Value Study, Tayasui Sketches, and Procreate Pocket.

SketchAR

Choose SketchAR if...

✓you want AR tracing plus social sharing
✓you like guided drawing exercises and prompts
✓you want to trace on walls too

See details ↓

Procreate

5.0 ·

Choose Procreate if...

✓you want finished art made fully digitally
✓you need layers, brushes, and pro workflow
✓you want reliable autosave and stability

See details ↓

Value Study

5.0 ·

Choose Value Study if...

✓you want fast value studies from references
✓you need compare tools for painting accuracy
✓you want iOS, Android, and macOS support

See details ↓

Tayasui Sketches

Choose Tayasui Sketches if...

✓you want a lightweight digital sketchbook feel
✓you prefer natural media style brushes
✓you sketch casually across devices

See details ↓

Procreate Pocket

Choose Procreate Pocket if...

✓you want Procreate-style tools on iPhone
✓you sketch on the go without an iPad
✓you want quick ideas anywhere, anytime

See details ↓

What to Consider

Da Vinci Eye is a popular “camera lucida” style app for AR-assisted tracing—helping artists transfer proportions and placements onto real paper or canvases using a phone’s camera. The alternatives split into a few distinct camps: apps like SketchAR stay closest to AR tracing but broaden into a more consumer, social-driven experience, while digital studios like Procreate (and Procreate Pocket on iPhone) replace physical tracing entirely with a full painting-and-illustration workflow. For fundamentals and planning, Value Study takes a different angle by optimizing value and reference analysis, and lightweight sketchbook apps like Tayasui Sketches focus on a natural, quick digital drawing feel.

In evaluating options, we considered whether you’re creating on real surfaces vs fully digital, overall tool depth versus simplicity, cross-platform availability, reliability (autosave and risk of losing work), and experience trade-offs like ads, subscriptions, and feature parity across devices.

SketchAR

Augmented reality + art

Learn more →

SketchAR broadens the AR-tracing idea into a more playful, community-driven experience than Da Vinci Eye’s “studio tool” vibe. It still supports the core workflow of overlaying a reference for tracing, but it’s designed to feel like a consumer creativity app with more variety in what you can do and share.

If you want your tracing practice to come with guided activities, prompts, and a sense of participation, SketchAR is a natural fit. The product leans into sharing outcomes and social-style loops, which can be motivating for beginners who want quick wins, challenges, or content to post.

The trade-off is that the experience can be more interruptive than a dedicated tracing utility, with ads and occasional quirks that can break concentration mid-drawing. Choose it when the “fun + features + community” ecosystem matters as much as clean, uninterrupted projection.

Best for

Best for beginners and hobbyists who want AR tracing plus a social, guided practice experience.

Standout features

✓AR-assisted tracing overlays
✓Guided drawing exercises and prompts
✓Social sharing and community challenges
✓Works across different drawing surfaces

Procreate

Instinctive and powerful illustration tool on the iPad

5.0 · 12 reviews

Learn more →

Procreate is the pivot away from tracing altogether: instead of transferring an image onto paper like Da Vinci Eye, it’s built to create finished artwork digitally from start to export. It’s a full-featured illustration and painting studio centered on layers, brush control, blending, and canvas setup.

Where it stands out is depth without losing approachability—easy to sketch quickly, yet powerful enough to support polished, professional workflows. It’s also a strong option for artists who care about reliability, since autosave and overall stability are integral to the experience.

The main adjustment is mindset: you’re not using your phone as a projector onto real media, you’re committing to a digital-first process on iPad with Apple Pencil. Choose Procreate when you want more creative control than tracing provides, plus the freedom to iterate, undo, and refine with professional-grade tools.

Best for

Ideal for iPad artists who want a robust digital illustration and painting workflow.

Standout features

✓Layer-based digital painting and drawing
✓Extensive brush library and customization
✓Canvas and color management tools
✓Strong autosave and stability
✓Professional export options

Value Study

See light. See shadow. See clearly. App for Artists

5.0 · 2 reviews

Learn more →

Value Study takes a fundamentals-first approach that Da Vinci Eye doesn’t target: it helps simplify and analyze tonal structure rather than transferring outlines via AR. It’s designed for artists who want to plan light and shadow, group values, and quickly see what matters most in a reference.

A key advantage is speed and focus—turning reference photos into clear value groupings is the primary job, and it reduces the need to bounce through general-purpose photo editors. It also supports a practical workflow of comparing your work against the reference by checking values, which is especially useful for painting accuracy.

Unlike AR tracing tools, this won’t help you place proportions on paper, but it can noticeably improve how you design and read forms. It’s also attractive if you need flexibility across devices, since it’s available beyond iOS-only setups.

Best for

Best for painters and students who prioritize value planning and tonal accuracy.

Standout features

✓Value grouping and tonal simplification
✓Reference vs artwork comparison workflow
✓Fast grayscale conversion and studies
✓Cross-platform availability

Tayasui Sketches

Beautiful tools make Beautiful drawings

Learn more →

Tayasui Sketches is less about AR transfer like Da Vinci Eye and more about a simple, natural-feeling digital sketchbook you can open anytime. It’s a good alternative when the real goal is drawing practice and ideation, not projecting a reference onto physical paper.

The experience emphasizes a lightweight workflow and a “just start drawing” feel, which can be refreshing if AR setup, stands, and alignment get in the way. For casual sketching, it can be a comfortable place to build habits and explore styles without the overhead of a full pro studio.

There are trade-offs to watch for: if long, detailed pieces are the priority, reliability and account or membership friction can matter more than in heavier pro tools. Choose it when speed, simplicity, and a sketchbook vibe beat projection accuracy.

Best for

Ideal for casual artists who want a lightweight digital sketchbook experience.

Standout features

✓Natural sketchbook-style drawing tools
✓Lightweight, quick-to-start workflow
✓Simple interface for everyday sketching
✓Digital brushes for sketching and painting

Procreate Pocket

Sketch and Paint on iPhone.

Learn more →

Procreate Pocket brings a more serious digital art workflow to iPhone—useful when Da Vinci Eye’s physical tracing setup isn’t practical. Instead of using your camera to overlay a reference on paper, it’s built for creating directly on-device wherever you are.

Its biggest advantage is portability: it supports quick studies, concepts, and sketches during commutes, travel, or any time an iPad isn’t available. For artists who want Procreate-style creation on a phone, it can serve as a consistent extension of a digital workflow.

The compromise is that it doesn’t always match the iPad version feature-for-feature, and some advanced options can be missing. Choose it when you value always-available digital sketching more than a complete pro desktop-class feature set.