Being a photographer has its perks. You always have amazing photos that you can gift to your family and friends, and create photo albums and printed coffee mugs too.
But sometimes you need to add a special touch!
You can change a normal portrait into a beautiful pencil sketch by learning how to create line art and drawings from photos.
I've always been captivated by the delicate beauty and intricate detail of pencil artworks by famous artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Gustave Courbet, and Pablo Picasso.
Knowing how to use a photo to line drawing app is the key, and we will talk about such programs and the steps you need to know. We'll also discuss a few examples and smartphone apps to turn a photo into a line drawing.
Let's go!
📙Quick summary
Way #1: Sketch Drawer: The Best software to turn photo into line drawing
Sketch Drawer software
With loads of conversion styles, presets, and effects available, the Sketch Drawer software will turn photos into drawings with color shading if you want!
The program automatically detects light, shadows, colors, and outlines. So, you don't need to worry about making any selections or adjustments.
You will have an accurate drawing ready for use in only a few clicks!
Along with photo to line drawing conversion, the Sketch Drawer can turn an image into a stencil or an anime drawing.
Various options exist to get the desired look, but the steps are similar.
So, we'll be covering the list of things you need to do to use the line art converter software and the different styles and dozens of presets inside it. Don't worry; we'll learn more details about the conversion styles in the next section, with examples!
On opening the program, you will see an option Add File . Use this to upload your photo by browsing through your files or simply dragging and dropping.
Sketch Drawer has a toolbox on the top right side, where you can select one of the three options under Style - Realistic, Classic or Detailed Sketch.
Each of the three styles has a distinct look, and you should try them out to see which works best. To make things easier, Sketch Drawer line art maker app shows a preview of your final beautiful image, so you can try every option in a second and get a sample of the final result!
Realistic style captures the overall details and adds pencil shading to the final result. It works well for close-up portrait shots and still-life images.
Detailed Sketch, on the other hand, works well when you want to emphasize a wide range of detail and create a carbon copy of the image. While good for landscape images, it might not be suitable for portrait shots, which look better when subtle.
The Classic option has a minimalist appearance, with soft pencil strokes and less shading. You should use this if you want a simple natural-looking result and not something a perfect computer creates!
The style decides the overall look of the converted image – whether it will be detailed or realistic, or classic minimal.
On the other hand, the Preset decides the appearance itself – whether there will be any color, the amount of shading involved, whether the look will be like watercolors or pencil drawing, etc.
The Preset option can be found on the right side, below the Style option. It gives multiple presets like Felt tip pen, color drawing, pop art, low contrast sketch, high contrast sketch, etc. You will get a preview of each one as you hover with your mouse pointer over it and move around the list!
We'll discuss the various presets and what they do once we go through all the steps.
You are half done! After selecting the overall style and the preset to be applied, you can fine-tune all the settings using three options – Contour, Hatching and Colourization.
A box below the Preset option allows you to enable the above three options.
On enabling the Contour settings, you can control edge strength, smudging, and even the thickness and intensity of the pencil strokes used. By increasing the edge strength, photo to line art app will emphasize the outlines of the photo, giving you the best line drawing possible.
It would help if you tried adjusting the stroke thickness, too, so that you can get bold lines that highlight the outlines of your subject.
Hatching is the zig-zag, crossed lines that fill the white space in the sketch. It creates a pencil shading effect, with dark areas having more hatching to create shadows.
You can adjust the look of the hatching to your liking! By increasing the edge strength, you will again emphasize shading at the borders, leaving space in your photo.
You can also adjust mid-tone intensity here, deciding whether areas with moderate light – not too dark nor too bright – are also given the shading effect.
This is the most fun option to use!
On enabling the colorization setting, you can decide whether you want the line drawing to be a black-and-white sketch or have some color. Line Art software even lets you decide which color is used for converting photos into sketches and beautiful masterpieces.!
Click on the Run option at the bottom right to convert the full image into a sketch.
Once you are satisfied with how the strokes and shading appear, click Save File at the toolbar on top to save the finished image. Your drawing is ready in five simple steps!
Turn your photos into gorgeous pencil drawings with Sketch Drawer photo to sketch converter software! Making sketches has never been easier!
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How to turn photo into line drawing?
Why create line art from photos?
And the best thing is that changing photos to line art is simpler than you would think, and you get many options.
Best Line Drawing Effect Presets to Use
Schematic Drawing Preset
As the name suggests, the schematic preset gives you a simple black-and-white look. It is perfect for creating a pencil drawing appearance and works well for portraits!
While you will see less hatching and shading in this, the schematic preset renders soft, natural borders. So, you can use this as a reference to practice your sketching skills or take a print for your scrapbook.
Simple Drawing Preset
The simple preset also gives a black-and-white sketch, but unlike Light, the final result looks like a sketch width a white background made from a paintbrush rather than a pencil. This preset is great for creating a line drawing with mild shading and smudging, as usually happens when using watercolors.
Felt Pen Drawing Preset
This one is very straightforward. The Felt Pen preset converts the photo into a drawing with felt pen strokes instead of just penciled lines. This style highlights the borders, giving you a clean line drawing without much hatching or shading like in the Simple preset!
Photo into Line Art Examples
Animal Line Drawing
Bird Line Drawing
Tree Line Drawing
You can also choose the Pen preset, as the fine lines of a pen stroke will ensure that all the leaves look distinct from each other, and there's no blurriness or smudging!
🔬 My experience and expertise in Converting Photo to Line Drawing
🤔 Cons or Trade-offs of SoftOrbits Sketch Drawer:
🌟 When SoftOrbits Sketch Drawer might be the best choice for me:
Way #2: Using photo into line drawing online tools
No worries if you cannot download the converted photo to the line drawing app!
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Many online photo to sketch converters are available, too, for free. Here are the best ones you can use easily!
Image ONLINE.CO
Online.co is the first of the list because you don't have to make any adjustments or selections. This free online program to turn a photo into a pencil drawing is very user-friendly, and all you have to do is upload your photo and click on Pencil Sketch!
The program automatically detects the outlines of your subjects and converts them into penciled lines while also turning shadows into dark shaded areas.
LunaPic
LunaPic is a full-featured line art app with many options like photo blending, collage-making, color drawing filters, etc. One of these options is Photo to Illustration, which also has a color version.
After turning on this online program, upload your image using the option in the toolbar. Once the upload is finished, you can click on the Effects button and choose the type of sketch with a white background. Apart from B&W Pencil Effect, you can select Colour Pencil Generator or Surreal Painting or Charcoal Sketch!
The photo in the sketch program will directly start the conversion and have your sketch ready in a few seconds.
Snapstouch
Snapstouch is another free app to convert photo to line drawing, where all you have to do is upload your image and select the pencil color. It does not offer many adjustments, but you can select a red, blue, or green pencil or a combination of any two of these colors.
The converter software will automatically analyze the original image and create the drawing for you.
Online Tools VS Sketch Drawer
Sketch Drawer stands tall, its lines crisp and shadows just right. It’s the Mona Lisa of digital sketching, while the online tools? They’re more like Picasso’s early doodles—quirky, but not quite frame-worthy. So, my friend, if you seek artistry, choose Sketch Drawer. 🖌️📸
Way #3: Using Adobe Photoshop to convert photos into line
In case you are already familiar with Photoshop, you can follow these steps and convert an image into sketch [4] on your own.
First, remove all colors from the image by reducing saturation or selecting Image > Mode > Grayscale from the Photoshop toolbar.
Create a copy of the layer by dragging it into the New Layer. You will now have the original photo background and a background copy layer.
Go to Image > Adjustments > Invert. This will reverse the lighting in the image, making the bright areas dark and dark areas bright.
Click on the Layers panel. You should see the Blend Mode as Normal. Change this to Colour Dodge. This will turn your photo almost completely white!
From the dropdown menu in the toolbar, select Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Keep adjusting the slider until you are happy with the effect. You should also adjust the radius size to change the thickness of the lines. A lower radius creates a more pencil-like effect!
For a simple photo into sketch conversion, Step 5 is all you need! But if you want to create a sketch with thicker outlines, you must duplicate your original layer again and keep it on top as the 3rd layer.
Now, choose Filter > Filter Gallery'>Filter > Filter Gallery. Here, you will see a Stylize option, under which there is a Glowing Edge option. Adjust the edge thickness and edge brightness as you wish!
You will see bolder lines in your final image by slightly increasing the width and reducing the brightness.
That's it! It would help to have a nice illustration of your photo ready.
There are many other options under the Filters tab, like Torn Edges, which you can try to add more effects and shades in your final photo.
How it is in compare to Sketch Drawer?
Way #4: What is the Best Convert Photo to Line Drawing App?
Most of our family photos and selfies are on our smartphones. This is why it is great to have a few convert photo to line drawing apps handy for quickly converting images into sketches.
Photo Sketch Maker
Sketch Photo Maker is a free photo to sketch maker to turn any photo in your phone into a AI sketch. Apart from the usual black and white pencil, you can choose from effects like colored pencils, oil painting, and hard pencils.
Once the chosen effect is applied, you can add smooth drawing effects, crop the photo, or directly share it with your friends!
Optoreal Sketch Maker
The Optoreal Sketch Maker is a free converting photo into line art drawing app available for Android smartphones. It gives options like pencil drawing effect, cartoon camera options, color effects, oil painting, and even cartoon-style effects. You can also shift colors in the sketch and turn it red, blue, or green like a hip-hop album cover!
All you have to do is choose a photo from your phone gallery and get started.
This convert photo to line drawing app is yet another user-friendly program that lets you convert any image into a creative sketch. The advantage of this app is that it offers 10+ more presets than the ones we discussed earlier!
Along with painting effects, you can convert your photo into a cartoon poster or use crayon, wax effects, and pop-art style presets.
Enlight Photofox
Are they good in compare to Sketch Drawer?
So, dear traveler, when faced with the choice, remember: Mobile apps are the training wheels; Sketch Drawer is the Nimbus 2000. Choose wisely, and may your sketches be ever enchanting! 🌟🔮
Sketch 1 Sketch 2 Sketch 3 Sketch 4 Sketch 5Ben Heine Photo to Sketche Gallery
📙References
Sketch Drawer
JPEG, BMP, PSD, TIFF, GIF, PNG, PCX, JPEG 2000, TGA, Animaged GIF, Multipage TIFF, WEBP, PSD, ICO, MNG, WBPM, WMF, JBG, JP2, JPC, PGX, RAS, PNM
Exif, JFIF, XMP, IPTC, HEIC
.jpg, .jpeg, .jfif, .pjpeg, .bmp, .gif, .psd, .png, .ico, .ani, .cur, .icl, .jng, .mng, .tiff, .tif, .tga, .wmf, .emf, .j2k, .jbg, .jp2, .j2c, .ras, .pnm, .pgm, .ppm, .pgx, .jpc, .dpx, .wbmp, .pcx, .cr2, .nef, .raw, .dng, .arw
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Convert photo to line art in Illustrator
Convert photo to line drawing using Paint Shop Pro
