Crayon
Waxy blue and orange strokes fill the shirt and hair, with a scribbled sky-blue background and visible paper grain.
Image to Drawing Turn a Photo into a Drawing in 12 Materials
Convert photo to drawing art that looks made with real materials: waxy crayon, bold marker, blue ballpoint hatching, oil pastel, chalk on a blackboard or a child’s doodle. Upload a portrait, pet or landscape and pick a medium.
Output Number
Example
Reference example. It is not a result generated from your upload.
Turn Photo into Drawing Art by Choosing the Material First
Most photo filters only trace edges. This image to drawing tool redraws your picture in a specific material, so the texture changes with your choice: crayon leaves waxy grain, marker lays down flat color with hard edges, ballpoint pen builds shadows from fine blue hatching, and oil pastel smears thick color across the paper.
The twelve materials sit in three tabs, each with four ways to change photo into drawing art. Dry Media: Crayon, Marker, Ballpoint Pen and Oil Pastel. Expressive: Chalkboard, Kid’s Drawing, Doodle Art and Children’s Book. Illustrated: Ink Wash, Felt-tip Cartoon, Sticky-note Doodle and Watercolor Pencil.
Looking for pencil, graphite or charcoal? Those study-like styles are on Photo to Sketch. Come here when you want a colorful drawing photo that looks hand-made, for a card, a poster, a gift or a fun profile picture, and when you want to turn pictures into drawings of pets and places as well as people.
Picture to Drawing Converter Examples in 12 Materials
Marker
Saturated marker color with crisp edges on the beard and collar and an almost blank background, close to a poster print.
Ballpoint Pen
The whole portrait redrawn in blue ballpoint hatching, with denser cross-strokes in the hair and shadows.
Oil Pastel
Thick, blended pastel in yellow and blue behind the subject, with broken, textured edges around the hair.
Chalkboard
White and colored chalk on a black slate, softly smudged around the face and denim shirt.
Kid’s Drawing
Loose colored scribbles and simple shapes, like a picture drawn by a child, while the smile and red hair stay recognizable.
Doodle Art
Black outlines surrounded by playful squiggles, zigzags and dots in bright colors.
Children’s Book
Soft colored-pencil shading and gentle tones, like an illustration from a picture book.
Ink Wash Pet
An orange tabby cat by a window, redrawn with ink lines and watery washes that keep the fur pattern and green eyes.
Felt-tip Cartoon
Bright felt-tip coloring with darker outlines turns the portrait into a cheerful cartoon.
Sticky-note Doodle
Quick pen lines on a yellow sticky-note background, as if sketched during a meeting.
Watercolor Pencil Landscape
A lakeside cottage and hills at sunset in watercolor pencil, with soft washes in the sky and pencil texture in the grass.
How to Turn a Photo into a Drawing
Upload a portrait, pet or landscape
Use a JPG, PNG or WebP up to 20 MB with one clear subject. Faces should be large in the frame and not hidden by hands, hats or heavy shadow.
Choose a drawing material
Pick a tab, then one material. Crayon and Kid’s Drawing simplify the most; Ballpoint Pen and Watercolor Pencil keep more detail.
Generate and compare
Make one to four versions and check the eyes, smile and hairline for people, or markings and eye color for pets, against your photo.
Download your drawing
Save the version you like as an image file. It is a flat picture rather than layered, editable strokes, so keep the original photo too.
Convert Photograph to Drawing with Dry Media
Turn a Picture into a Drawing in Crayon
Crayon is the most forgiving material: it skips fine texture and keeps big shapes and color. Use it for birthday cards or a playful profile picture, or to render an image crayon-style for a party invitation.
Convert Photo to Drawing with Bold Marker
Marker gives flat, saturated color and clean edges, close to a poster or sticker. It works best with a simple background; busy scenes turn into patches of color.
Custom Drawing from Photo in Ballpoint Pen
Blue ballpoint hatching rebuilds the face from thousands of tiny lines, like a notebook portrait. Be honest about generated art: don’t tell people you drew the picture yourself.
Making a Photo into a Drawing with Oil Pastel
Oil pastel layers thick, creamy color with rough, broken edges. Bright backgrounds and warm skin tones come through strongly, which suits portraits and colorful pets.
Tips to Change a Photo to a Drawing That Still Looks Like the Subject
Pick a photo with one subject
Group shots and busy streets get simplified into shapes; one person or animal near the center stays recognizable.
Good light, sharp eyes
Window light and an in-focus face give the drawing clear features to follow. A drawing from photograph details can only be as clear as the upload.
Choose detail level by material
Ballpoint Pen, Ink Wash and Watercolor Pencil keep fine detail; Crayon, Marker and Kid’s Drawing simplify on purpose.
Try pets and places too
Redraw photo subjects beyond portraits: a cat on a windowsill works well in Ink Wash, a cottage landscape in Watercolor Pencil.
Compare a simple and a detailed material
Generate the same photo in Marker and in Ballpoint Pen, for example, then keep the one that fits where the drawing will be used.
Say it was made with AI
If you share it with a caption like “I drew a picture of my dog,” add that it was generated from your photo.
Need Pencil Sketches or Other Edits?
Photo to Sketch
For pencil, graphite, charcoal or ink sketches with realistic shading, open the sketch styles hub.
Read the guideAI Photo Editor
Remove a distracting object or calm a busy background before turning the photo into a drawing.
Read the guideAI Image Generator
Have no photo? Describe a scene and generate a drawing-style image from text.
Read the guideMore Art Effects to Try After Photo to Drawing
Questions About Turning Pictures into Drawings
To turn an image into a drawing, upload the picture, open Dry Media, Expressive or Illustrated, select one material and click Generate. Compare the result with your photo, try a second material if the first simplifies too much, then download.
Use a sharp photo where the face fills much of the frame, then choose a detailed material such as Ballpoint Pen or Watercolor Pencil. Playful materials like Kid’s Drawing change proportions on purpose, so they look less like the original.
Here you get finished, colorful drawings in materials like crayon, marker, chalk and oil pastel. Photo to Sketch covers monochrome study styles such as pencil, graphite, charcoal and crosshatch, so start there for shading and realism.
This page needs a photo to work from. To make a drawing from words only, use the AI Image Generator and name the subject and material, for example “crayon drawing of a lighthouse.”
Yes. Pets work well when the animal faces the camera and its eyes are sharp. Ink Wash, Watercolor Pencil and Oil Pastel keep fur color and markings; check whiskers and eye color in the result.
No. The output is a flat 2D image that cannot be rotated or printed as an object. This tool goes from photo to drawing, not from drawing to 3D.
Photo to drawing is Free to try. Generating uses credits, and the Generate button shows the cost before each run.
Your own photos, or pictures you have clear permission to edit. Ask before turning a friend’s or relative’s portrait into a drawing, and do not use photos taken from other people’s accounts.
You download the photo drawing as an image file. For printing, check its pixel size against the print dimensions you want; cards and small prints are usually safer than large posters.
Each material redraws the whole image, background included. Crayon and Doodle Art may replace it with scribbles or patterns, so to make a drawing from a photo with a clean backdrop, upload one with a plain wall behind the subject.
Turn Picture into Drawing Art in Your Favorite Material
Pick crayon, marker, ballpoint, chalk or ink wash and compare up to four custom drawings from photos of people, pets and places.