Handy Art Reference Tool

Belief Engine

In-app purchases

About this app

If you're an artist and ever wanted just quick and easy drawing reference for hands, heads, or even feet* without having to awkwardly pose your limbs in front of a mirror, this app is for you!


HANDY® is an artist's reference tool, consisting of several rotatable 3D limbs with a variety of poses useful for drawing. You can also customize and edit your own poses for hands, feet, and skulls.


Fully adjustable 3-point lighting means you can get easy lighting reference when using any of the 10+ included 3D head busts. Handy if you’re painting and need to know what shadows the head casts from a certain angle!


Also available is the Animal Skulls pack*. With over 10 different animal species, it's great for anatomical reference or creature design inspiration.

[*Foot rigs and Animal Skull pack require additional purchase]


NEW in Handy v5: Edit the materials of models! Selectively turn off their textures, adjust their specularity, or tint them a certain color.


Perfect for comic book artists, painters, or just casual sketchers!
Featured in ImagineFX's Top 10 Must-Have Apps!


Check out the video demo:
http://handyarttool.com/


Sign up for the HANDY newsletter for information about new upcoming updates!
http://www.handyarttool.com/newsletter

Follow HANDY on Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/handyarttool.bsky.social

Follow HANDY on X
http://twitter.com/HandyArtTool/

Ratings and reviews

The available models are good enough for basic needs. The app is easy to use. Foot models are an additional purchase. So are animal skulls. The animal skulls available are limited only to warm-blooded creatures. No fish, no snakes, no lizards, etc. The app doesn't support atypical configurations. No amputee setting, or total digit configuration (like if you wanted to draw a hand for a cartoon character that only has three fingers and a thumb). If all you need is hands, then it's great.

I love the lighting options and positioning for the head and hands, however, I before purchasing the app I thought that I would be able to move a full body model! There are no full body poseable models in the app, just heads, hands, and feet (if you want to pay for the feet...) I am pretty decent at drawing heads and I'm getting better at hands on my own, so this app isn't exactly what I was hoping for. If it had full body models, 5 stars! I struggle with lighting against the body, not the head

I don't usually write reviews, but Handy absolutely earned it. With brand new (free!) features being added such as subsurface scattering, new high-resolution models, and ability to load multiple models in a scene, they've established themselves as one of my essential tools for digital art. I recommend it to anyone who is starting out drawing or rendering and needs that solid anatomical/lighting foundation. Can't wait to see what features they will come out with in the future!

What’s new

Handy users, thank you for your support!
- Fixed an issue with the Animal Skulls displaying as pink due to the updated bundle not downloading automatically.