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PureRef & Line of Action Alternatives: Build Your Own (2026)

If you’re hunting for a PureRef alternative that serves up a random face each day to practice drawing, you don’t have to settle for a tool built for someone else. You can build your own reference generator that fits exactly how you like to practice.

Why build instead of download

PureRef is great for arranging reference boards, and Line of Action is a go-to for timed figure and face drawing. But both are built to a fixed formula. If you’ve searched for the best PureRef alternatives in 2026, or a line of action alternative for faces, the honest answer is: most of them are close, but none are yours.

That’s the gap Auto fills. Instead of adapting your practice to an app, you describe the practice you want and Auto builds a personal mini-app—a “Frame”—around it. It takes minutes, no code, and you own how it works.

Build it in Auto

Here’s the shape of a portrait reference generator:

  1. Open Auto and describe what you want: a daily face reference generator for portrait drawing, with strong light and shadow.
  2. Ask for a button that generates a fresh portrait whenever you want one—not just once a day.
  3. Add a daily reminder so a new reference is waiting at a set time.
  4. Tell Auto how much guidance you want with each image. You can keep it light or detailed.

Because you’re describing it in plain language, you can tune every part until it matches your taste.

How someone built theirs

One Auto user built exactly this, and their prompts show a real, iterative process.

They started by asking for a learn-to-draw-portraits app that generates a new face each day with great light and shadow—plus a push notification every afternoon linking to the fresh reference.

Next they added a button on the main screen to generate a new portrait on demand, so they weren’t stuck waiting for the daily one.

Then they leveled it up: a feature to upload their own sketch and compare it against the original reference. Handy for spotting where the proportions drifted.

Finally, they trimmed the coaching text. The app was writing long, six-hour-study-sized breakdowns, so they asked for something aimed at 10–60 minute sessions instead—just two or three short sections with a few bullet points on what to look for.

That last step is the whole point of building your own: you notice something’s off, you say so, and it changes. Others have built similar Frames too—“Portrait Studio” is one already out there—proof that people are making these, not just downloading them.

FAQ

Is this a good alternative to Line of Action for high schoolers? It can be. Building your own lets you set your own session length and skip anything not suited to a classroom—useful if you’re looking at alternatives to Line of Action for high schoolers.

Can I get random faces on demand? Yes. Ask for a generate button so you get a new random face reference any time you want to practice.

Do I need to draw well to build it? No. You describe the app in plain words. Auto handles the building, so beginners and experienced artists start the same way.