Photo to Sketch - How to Turn Photo into Sketch in 20 Easy Ways
Last Updated on February 22, 2023 by Peter Wood
When you want to have a pencil sketch photo of your own, you do not need to pay for drawing the image. Instead, you only need to turn a portrait photo into a sketch. Of course, you can also have some changes and specialize your selfies according to your requirements.
What are the best photo sketch editors to turn photos into picture sketches? You can learn more about the 20 methods to create sketch photos on different devices to explore your creativity in a divertive job. Just read the review and choose the desired one.
WidsMob Retoucher
4 different color profiles with 28 classic and different camera profiles.
Custom film grain, color mode, color parameters, focus mode and toning.
Optimize the photographs with portrait touchup, noise reduction, etc.
Combine different effects from analog film, noise reduction and others to combine a desired result.
Part 1: How to Make Photo into Pencil Sketch with AI
To make photos into pencil sketches, convert images into cartoons, and apply pictures with painting filters, WidsMob AI Retoucher is a versatile photo editor with AI algorithms. Besides polishing photos with multiple filters and effects, you can also have portrait touchups, noise reduction, mosaic face, and lowlight recovery with AI algorithms. Moreover, there are a whole series of HSL enhancements, color adjustments, and noise reduction to touch up the photos.
1. Provide multiple analog films to explore t different monochrome photos.
2. Convert photos to cartoons, paintings, and sketches with AI algorithms.
3. Adjust exposure, contrast, highlights, and shadows before conversion.
4. Edit photos with crop, rotate, compare, flip, zoom in, zoom out, and more.
Step 1: Once you have installed WidsMob Retoucher, you can launch the program and click the Import button to upload the desired photos. Of course, you can also drag and drop multiple photos for a batch process. It supports JPEG, AVIF, WebP, as well as RAW file formats.
Step 2: Go to the Filter menu and choose the Pencil Sketch option to turn the photo into a pencil sketch. When the photos are too light in color, you can also use the Super B/W option to make a sketch with a darker color compared to the Pencil Sketch option.
Step 3: If the color for the sketch is too light, you can either use a smaller image or go to the Adjust menu to adjust the exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, and more. Once you have had the desired sketch, you can click the Save As button to save the sketch.
Part 2: How to Create Photo in Pencil Sketch via Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is another frequently used sketch maker with elaborate filters and dozens of layers. That’s the prejudice towards photo editing with Photoshop. It is not difficult to convert photos to sketches with Photoshop. If you have already converted the image to a line drawing with Photoshop, you only need to use the blend mode and adjust the layer opacity to convert the photo to a sketch.
Step 1: Open Photoshop on your computer and click the Open option from the File menu to import your image. Once you have imported the desired image, you can right-click the background layer and choose the Duplicate Layer option to copy another one.
Step 2: Choose the duplicated layer and click the Image menu. Select the Desaturate option or the Black & White option from Adjustments to convert the photo into a B/W one. You can use the same method to have a duplicate layer for the black and white layer.
Step 3: Head to the Image menu and choose the Adjustments option. You can choose the Invert option to apply a color negative-film effect. It inverts the brightness levels that make light areas dark and dark areas light for the image before making the photo into a sketch.
Step 4: Change the blend mode from the default normal to the Color Dodge mode. It will turn the photo into completely a white color. After that, you can click the menu and choose the Convert to Smart Object option to convert the color dodge layer into a smart object.
Step 5: Once you have completed the process, you can further blur the layer using the Gaussian Blur filter. Drag the Radius slider along the bottom to blur the layer's contents, which converts the photo to a sketch depending on the amount of blur you apply.
Step 6: Click the New Fill icon in the Layers panel, and choose the Levels option from the list to add a Levels adjustment layer to the smart object. You can darken the sketch color by changing the blend mode of the adjustment layer from Normal to Multiply.
Part 3: 8 Methods to Turn Pictures to Sketch Online
There are many online pencil sketch editors to get sketch photo effect on photos effectively without installing any program.
Here we will introduce their online photo editor below for your reference. Let's start checking together!
1. PicMonkey Online Editor Edge Sketch for Pencil Sketch Effect
PicMonkey can help you to make your photo editing, collage making, and graphic design ideas come to life.
With its Edge Sketch, you can easily make sketches out of your photos.
Here are at least a few traits shared with images playing particularly well with Edge Sketch include:
- Sharp, clear lines
- High contrast
- Low detail
- Broad swathes of the same tone
Now let's check the easy steps of turning a photo into a sketch.
Step 1: Put your image on the PicMonkey Editor.
Step 2: Select Edge Sketch from the Artsy effect group from the effects tab on the left.
Step 3: It will transform your photo into a monochrome sketch.
Step 4: You can adjust the Thickness, Level of detail, and Fade sliders to fine-tune the look until you get the sketched look good.
Step 5: Then click Apply and save your image for posterity.
2. Snapstouch Free Online Tool to Make Photo to Sketch
Snapstouch is a free online photo editing tool to convert photos to sketch, pencil sketch, painting, drawing, and outline.
This online tool can give a natural artistic effect in the resolution as the original image is. Snapstouch supports many image formats include JPG, PNG, BMP, etc.
Snapstouch will provide many additional options to improvise your effects, such as sketching in light pencil or dark or outline in painting for your image.
The steps for converting photo to sketch with Snapstouch is simple:
Step 1: Choose your image and upload it to Snapstouch.
Step 2: You can select sketch color by checking Custom color and setting the RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) parameter. If you do not use a custom color, the default sketch color would be Black and White.
Step 3: You can check the additional option includes Dark Pencil Sketch and Refine Faces.
Step 4: Click the SKETCH button and wait for seconds to let Snapstouch convert your photo into a sketch. Then you can click click DOWNLOAD to download the sketched image on your computer.
3. Picture to People Free Online Photo to Pencil Sketch Converter
Picturetopeople.org is a free online photo editor to turn your photos into pencil sketches online for free.
It is powerful and configurable software to transform a photo into an astonishingly realistic pencil sketch or another type of detailed art such as the ones made by the best professional artists.
You can get different strokes, pressures, and blends by changing the interface parameters. So it is possible to produce a piece of art that looks like made by using pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, crayon, chalk, watercolor, pastel, etc.
The steps are easy. Just input your image to picturetopeople.org within JPG, PNG, or GIF format. Set configuration like the overall style, strokes style, contour thickness, contour darkness, background color, strokes color, etc. Then click GENERATE button to wait for the conversion.
Then you can easily click the Download Image button to download the pencil sketch or Back to make another sketched photo.
4. Pho.to Graphite Pencil Sketch to Get Realistic Pencil Sketch from Photo
Pho.to provide Graphite Pencil Sketch photo effect to make your photo have a completed look with some art and convert image into realistic pencil sketch online.
Funny.pho.to can instantly sketch your photo for free, turning it into a drawing, so your sketch me request is a simple thing now. And the effect has two variants of the final look:
- 1. Pure Drawing: looks like a piece of cartridge paper with a picture on it.
- 2. Drawing with accessories: realistic pins are the best for ecards.
No matter what picture you choose, a portrait of a landscape, in color or B&W, when you sketch it online, the tool will automatically turn an image into a B&W pencil sketch.
5. PhotoFunia Free Photo Effects and Online Photo Editor
PhotoFunia is the last but not least online sketch photo editor we mention here. You can turn your photo into a pencil drawing with an online photo effect.
Step 1: Click Choose photo to upload your photo from your computer, use the recently uploaded photos, shoot a photo directly with your computer camera, or share an image from your online account.
Step 2: You can choose the photo area you want to keep by adjusting the editing area. Then click the crop button to set up the selected part.
Step 3: You can check the Fade Edges option according to your need. Then click GO to start transforming your image into a pencil drawing.
After a few seconds, you can directly download the finished sketch by clicking the Download button.
6. Convert Photo to Sketch with Sketchmyphoto
If you do not want to download the extra program to convert photos to sketch, you can use the online solution with Sketchmyphoto. You can convert images to digital sketch creation for portraits, pets, couples, buildings, or any other types of photos.
When you open the Sketchmyphoto, you can access different sketches, such as digital sketch, color sketch, or sketch canvas. If you are satisfied with the result, you can follow the steps to turn the photo to sketch art.
Step 1. Click Browse to upload the photo to convert to sketch. It takes a period to upload the file to the online converter.
Step 2. And click the Convert to Sketch button and wait a period for the whole process.
Step 3. Just preview the sketch online and select the product to purchase now. If you convert photo to sketch only, you can pay Digital Sketch for US$6.95.
There are more options to get a sketch in variation types. The Sketch Preview only provides a result of low quality. The digital photo sketch is of good quality at US$6.95. You can also convert photos to sketch with retouch at US$16.95. As for Digital color sketch, you need to pay an extra US$3.00.
7. Convertimage Applying Pencil Sketch Effect on a Picture Online
Convertimage can achieve real hand-drawn sketches over any photography and turn it into a beautiful online stroke drawing. Without complicated software or any plugin to install, and directly online. ConvertImage will carry out a beautiful pencil drawing effect and can thus give a unique atmosphere to your photographs.
Step 1. Go to the Convertimage webpage and choose the picture output format or keep it original.
Step 2. Then apply the Sketch Drawing effect to your picture and select an image you want to turn to line drawing sketch effect.
Step 3. Click the Send this image button and wait for a minute to download the sketched picture from the website.
8. Lunapic Free Online Sketch Photo Editor
Lunapic is a free online photo editor to turn photos into sketch or paint effects. This Lunapic image software and free art animated creator for editing photos for Tumblr, Facebook, Chromebook, or webSites.
- You can use Lunapic to sketch your Image.
- You can edit image files from your computer or directly online with a URL.
- Steps are simple: access this tool from the menu above LunaPic > Effects > Pencil Sketch.
Part 4: Photo to Sketch Apps on iPhone and Android
And in most cases, people tend to convert photos to sketch on the smartphone after shooting. There is no need to transfer images to PC first to continue the photo-sketching process.
1. Pencil Sketch (Android Photo Sketch Editor)
Pencil Sketch is the all-in-one photo sketch editor to convert photos from gallery and camera into black-white or color sketch with one button click. With over 250,000 installations, Pencil Sketch has gathered loyal users because of its well-designed interface and representative image sketch tools, including Sketch, Doodle, and Hatch.
The sketch style will change your image into handmade paintings with smooth edges and curves. And Doodle style will show you cartoon sketch images, while Hatch style will add textures on your sketch photo on your Android phone.
Once you import the image, choose the three photo sketch options on the top, and then use the pen below to add some personal elements. Finally, download or share sketched photos as you like.
2. Photo Sketch (Android Photo Sketch Editor)
Photo Sketch app is another popular pencil sketch photo editor that works on Android to convert your picture into a sketch effect. With several seconds waiting, Photo Sketch offers a background remove a filter, with which you can erase the photo background of sketch images with your finger.
Moreover, the emoji, photo layer editing filter, and photo editing tools are free to use in the Photo Sketch app on Android phones. Now, are you ready to hug new sketch photos? Photo Sketch app will show you a different way to create sketch photos with easy-to-use filters.
3. Photo Sketch Maker (Convert Photos Like Pencil Sketches)
Photo Sketch Maker is an app to convert your photos like pencil sketches. This application is easy to use and free in-store. You can import an image from a mobile gallery, crop and convert it into a pencil sketch shape easily. Photo Sketch Maker has different sketch types like a pencil sketch, color sketch, hard pencil sketch, red pencil sketch, green pencil sketch, etc.
With this picture-to sketch app, you can watercolor sketch, share photos on social media and save images in a mobile gallery.
4. Artomaton (iOS Photo Sketch Editor)
Artomation is the iOS photo sketch converter and editor with picture sketch tools and painting options, like oil, color pencil, charcoal, marker, and many other photo sketch effect.
Choose the drawing resolution once you upload a picture on your iPhone. And then choose the sketch photo effect and apply the art tool. There are other image editing tools you can adjust. For instance, set thickness, density, color saturation, brightness, etc.
In conclusion, you can find 5 main standard art tools and 11 standard canvas materials in the free Artomation pencil sketch editor app.
5. Imaengine Vector Camera (iOS Photo Sketch Editor)
Imaengine Vector Camera is the characteristic pencil sketch photo editor on iPhone to create artificial photo sketch pictures of simple geometric objects. Not similar to selfie sketches, the result you get is the distinctly and computerized sketch images.
The whole photo sketch editor’s interface is also cartoonlike, for you to pick sketch filters and effects in an obvious way. You import the photograph, select from 30 filters to convert it into two-tone stencils, original Pop-Art drawings, and other sketches on iPhone.
6. My Sketch (Pencil Drawing Sketches)
My Sketch can turn your photos into beautiful realistic sketches and create unlimited sketch photos in high resolution. You can use photos directly taken from a Camera or Photo Album to convert to sketch in 20 different types. You can adjust the brightness and contrast to achieve the best sketch results and share them via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and E-mail.
7. Clip2Comic (Sketch-style Photo Effects)
Clip2comic is an app for making those caricatures of your favorite people. This app has a simple user interface, making you more likely to use it on your portrait shots. On opening, you will see your photo library. Tap on an image (the original photo) to open it and quickly transform it into a comic book-style drawing.
8. Becasso (Transform Picture into Artwork)
Becasso is a drawing app that is only available as an iPhone app. It uses clever algorithms to transform your pictures into beautiful works of art. There is a wide range of photo effects on top to make your images pop. There are three main areas to this iPhone drawing application. It transforms photos either as a watercolor, cartoon, or oil painting.
9. Enlight Photofox (Preset Sketch Tools)
Enlight Photofox drawing app is perfect for those who want simple photographic edits. It also attracts those who want to turn their images into art pieces. The features include drawing effects, image correction, painterly effects, and photographic filters. When you turn your image into a painting, you can head to the artistic part of the app and choose Sketch.
10. Photolab (Turn Photo into Sketch on iPhone)
Photolab is a great Android and iPhone app. It is ideal for turning your photo or picture into a sketch, painting, or even a watercolor image. On top of these painterly filters, you have the options of borders, frames, and montages. By opening the app and choosing your photo, you can select the effects category you want. Each will have several options to browse through, giving you control over your image.
Conclusion
The photo sketch apps above are free to use and do not focus on sketch images. You can use the photo filters inside to decorate your sketched photo and make them more beautiful and perfect.
Sketches can express your personal feelings and thoughts towards the arts. To find a good pencil sketch photo editor to specialize in current pictures, here are the best choices you can choose to give them a new life. Whatever solution you choose, you can get a unique atmosphere for your photographs. If you have any queries about sketching, you can comment here.