MICHAEL JAMES SMITH TV

Review by eFreeware

The most distinctive thing about MICHAEL JAMES SMITH TV is that nothing in it is sped up. The developer says the lessons run to hundreds of hours and none of it is sped up, so a painting unfolds at the speed it was painted. For anyone who has tried to learn from a five-minute video of a two-day canvas, that difference is the whole pitch.

It is a subscription app from PalettePro Ltd in the Art & Design category, built around the teaching of professional artist Michael James Smith. The lessons cover photo realistic painting, and the app is free to download with in-app purchases that unlock the full catalog on a monthly or yearly basis.

I would point this at two groups: people picking up a brush for the first time who want to be walked through the basics, and painters with some experience who want to tighten their technique and finish more ambitious work. If you already paint confidently and are looking for quick inspiration rather than instruction, the format here is deliberately slower than that.

Painting alongside the artist, in real time

The core experience is a paint-along. You work beside Michael James Smith as he goes through the whole process of building a picture, from the first marks to the finished surface. The pace is the point: because the tutorials run at real time, you can match your own brushwork to his instead of guessing at what happened between edits.

Lessons also supply a reference photo and a sketch diagram to download. The reference gives you the subject to work from, and the diagram gives you a starting structure so you are not drawing the composition from scratch. For anyone who has stalled at the blank canvas stage, having both before the first brushstroke removes a lot of the guesswork.

The teaching runs the full length of a painting rather than jumping to the interesting parts. That suits a patient temperament. It also means a single lesson is a real sitting rather than a quick browse, so the app rewards people who can set aside a proper block of time rather than snatch five minutes here and there.

What the lessons cover

The curriculum starts at the foundations and works upward. Color mixing is covered as a basic skill, and the instruction carries through to the fine detail work that separates a competent painting from a photo realistic one. That range means the same catalog can serve someone learning to load a brush and someone trying to get the last highlights right.

Subject matter is broad within the realistic tradition. There are lessons on landscapes, portraiture, still life and animals, so you are not locked into one genre if your interests change. Someone who starts with a simple still life can move to a portrait or an animal study without leaving the app.

Oils are the main medium, since that is what Michael James Smith paints in. The developer notes that the same techniques apply to acrylics, which matters if you work in a faster-drying medium or want to avoid solvents. The methods carry over; only the handling of the paint changes.

The subscription and what it unlocks

The app itself is a free download with no ads. Full access to the features and content comes through a subscription bought inside the app, either monthly or yearly, and it renews automatically at the end of each cycle unless you turn off auto-renewal at least 24 hours before that point. Billing runs through your Google Account and is managed there.

Pricing varies by region and is confirmed in the app before you buy, so the figure you see depends on where you are. If a free trial is involved, any unused portion is forfeited when payment goes through. That is standard for this kind of app, but it is worth reading the renewal terms before you commit to a year.

The practical question is whether you will use it enough to justify a recurring charge. A subscription makes sense for someone painting regularly through the year. For occasional sessions, the monthly option is the lower-commitment way in, and the yearly one only pays off if you know you will keep going.

What you need before you start

This is an instructional app, not a studio. You bring the canvas, the paints, the brushes and the space to work in; the app brings the teaching, the reference photo and the sketching diagram. Expect to have materials on hand before a lesson begins, since the tutorials assume you are painting along rather than just watching.

The real-time format asks for patience. A full painting takes as long as a full painting takes, and there is no accelerated version to skim. If your schedule only allows short, interrupted sessions, the lessons can be harder to finish, though the downloadable reference and diagram mean you can pick a painting back up where you left it.

The focus is narrow by design. This is one artist's approach to photo realistic painting in oils, extended to acrylics, across a set of traditional subjects. That is a strength if it matches what you want to learn, and a constraint if your interests run to other styles or media.

A calmer way to spend an evening

Beyond technique, the app is pitched as a way to step away from a busy day. The developer frames painting here as something that clears the mind and relaxes you, and the slow, guided format supports that: you are following a process rather than racing a clock. For people who find that kind of focused work restorative, the appeal is as much about the hour itself as the finished canvas.

That also shapes who gets the most from it. Someone who wants a structured, unhurried project to work through over several evenings will settle in quickly. Someone looking for a fast reference tool or a library of short tips will find the pace here mismatched to how they like to work.

A sound choice for learning to paint realistically

MICHAEL JAMES SMITH TV does one thing with unusual commitment: it teaches photo realistic painting through long-form, real-time lessons, with a reference photo and sketch supplied for each one. The subject range, from landscapes to animals, and the bridge from oils to acrylics give it more breadth than the single-artist format first suggests. It holds a 4.9 average from 212 ratings, with more than 10,000 installs, and it was released in February 2020.

The trade-offs are the ones the app sets for itself. You need your own materials, you need to be willing to paint at the artist's pace, and full access runs on a monthly or yearly subscription whose price varies by region. None of that is hidden, but together they mean the app rewards regular, unhurried practice.

I would suggest it to beginners who want to be taken through the basics properly, and to experienced painters who want to sharpen their realism under close instruction. If you can give it a standing slot in your week and a table you do not have to clear away, the subscription is easy to justify. If your painting happens in rare, short bursts, the monthly plan is the sensible way to try it before committing to a year.

What's new in version 10.500.1

* Bug fixes * Performance improvements