Your first image is free, no sign-up needed
Photo to PaintingPhoto to Painting

Your photo

For the best result
  • A clear, well-lit photo works best; the main subject should not be tiny or blurry
  • Portraits, pets, landscapes and buildings all work
  • JPG, PNG, WebP or HEIC, up to 10 MB

Sketch tool

Shading

0/300

Photo to Sketch

Go from photo to sketch in pencil, charcoal, colored pencil or ballpoint pen, with the shading you choose. Your first image is free, no sign-up.

Original photo: Man in his mid 50s with grey hair and glasses: Pencil + MediumBefore
Photo to Sketch result: Man in his mid 50s with grey hair and glasses: Pencil + MediumAfter

Example result. Upload your photo to make yours.

Examples

Original photo: Man in his mid 50s with grey hair and glasses: Pencil + MediumBefore
Photo to Sketch result: Man in his mid 50s with grey hair and glasses: Pencil + MediumAfter
Original photo: Woman in her late 30s wearing a hijab: Charcoal + HeavyBefore
Photo to Sketch result: Woman in her late 30s wearing a hijab: Charcoal + HeavyAfter

Pick the Sketch Tool and the Shading, Not Just a Filter

Two rows of buttons decide your photo to sketch result: what it is drawn with, and how much of the paper gets shaded.

  • Pencil on sketchbook paper

    The default. The model is told to draw in graphite on white sketchbook paper, with visible strokes in soft grays. It is the safest pick for faces, because gray pencil keeps small details readable.

  • Charcoal on off-white paper

    Charcoal asks for rich dark strokes and smudged shading on warmer, off-white paper. Pair it with Heavy shading for a moody portrait or a dramatic street scene.

  • Colored pencil and ballpoint pen

    Colored Pencil lays loose strokes of color over a pencil underdrawing, so the sketch keeps a hint of your photo's colors. Ballpoint Pen draws in blue on lined notebook paper, like a doodle from the back of a school notebook.

  • Three shading levels

    Light keeps mostly outlines with a few quick hatching strokes in the darkest areas and lots of white paper. Medium, the default, adds hatching and cross-hatching to model light and shadow. Heavy goes for full tones from bright highlights to deep darks, like a finished study.

  • Drawn strokes, not an edge filter

    The model is asked for natural stroke direction, construction lines and slight imperfections, and is told the result should not look like a photo with an edge filter. That is the main difference from a one-click photo to sketch effect.

  • Your framing, your first image free

    The model is told to keep every person, pet and object where it is, and the sketch follows your photo's shape. Your first image is free across the whole site, with no sign-up, so pick the tool and shading you want most.

How to Turn a Photo into a Sketch

One photo, two choices and an optional note make up the whole photo to sketch flow.

  1. 1

    Upload one photo

    Click the upload box or drag a picture in: JPG, PNG, WebP or HEIC, up to 10 MB. Your browser converts HEIC to JPEG and scales large photos down before upload, so phone pictures work as they are.

  2. 2

    Choose a sketch tool and shading

    Pick Pencil, Charcoal, Colored Pencil or Ballpoint Pen, then Light, Medium or Heavy shading. Add a short note if you want something changed, such as only sketching the person on a plain background.

  3. 3

    Generate, check and download

    The sketch appears next to the panel that holds your photo, so you can compare the two. Press Download to save it, because the result is gone once you refresh or leave the page.

AI Image to Sketch Converter vs Filters and Photoshop

Four common ways to go from photo to sketch, and what each one asks of you.

This AI sketch makerOne-click sketch filterPhotoshop dodge and blurDrawing it by hand
How the sketch is madeAn image model redraws the photo with strokesEdges are traced and a sketch texture is addedDesaturate, invert, Color Dodge, Gaussian BlurYou draw it, line by line
Skill neededNoneNoneLayers and blend modesDrawing practice
Looks likeA drawing with hatching and construction linesYour photo with a sketch effectA soft graphite look over the photoYour own hand
Control4 tools, 3 shading levels, a 300-character noteStyle presets, some with slidersFull control over lines and toneFull control
Matches the photoTold to keep the framing; compare it yourselfFollows the photo pixel for pixelFollows the photo pixel for pixelAs close as you can draw
CostOne free image per visitor, no sign-upFree to subscription, typicallyA paid photo editorPaper and pencils

More tools

Frequently asked questions

Upload the photo above, pick a sketch tool and a shading level, and press Sketch My Photo. Your first image is free, with no account and no credit card. The free image counts for the whole site, not per page, so start with the combination you want most.

Medium suits most photos: outlines plus hatching that shows where the light falls. Choose Light when you want an airy line sketch with lots of white paper, for example as a drawing guide. Choose Heavy for a finished-looking study with deep darks, which pairs well with Charcoal.

You can upload it, but the model can only draw what it can see. A sharp, well-lit picture where the main subject is not tiny gives it clear edges and shadows to follow. If you only have a dark shot, Light shading keeps the sketch from turning into one gray mass.

Yes, the model is told to keep every person, pet and object in place. Many small faces leave little room for detail, though, so a closer crop gives each face more strokes. To drop a cluttered background, write a note like "only sketch the person, plain background".

The model is told to keep the pose, expression and recognizable features, and the framing of your photo. Nothing checks this automatically. It is an AI image, so compare it with your photo, which stays in the panel next to the result.

No. Changing the tool, the shading or the note does not edit the finished sketch; it needs a new run, which uses another image. There is no eraser, crop or upscale step either: download the result and edit it in any image editor.

Each photo to sketch run gives one image at 1K resolution, in your photo's proportions. That suits screens, social posts and a reference to draw from at your desk. It is not a high-resolution print file, and there is no vector or transparent version on this page.

Your photo is only used to create your artwork and is never used to train AI models. Your browser compresses it first, then it is stored under a long random link that the AI model reads from. You can email us to have it deleted. The finished sketch is kept by the AI provider only for a while, so download it.

There is no app to install: this photo to sketch page runs in any modern browser, including on a phone. It sketches one photo per run, so there is no batch mode and no API.

From our side, the image is yours to use for personal or commercial purposes, as long as the use is legal. Some countries do not grant copyright to purely AI-made images, and someone else could get a similar result. Only upload photos you own or have permission to use, and never photos of anyone under 18.