Transforming a personal photo into a comic strip has a special magnetism. After all, the photos we post on a social network are a sign of identity. Mobile cameras have so many options and filters that it is difficult to come out ugly in a selfie. However, sometimes we look for something different. And turning a real image into a drawing is fun, differential and interesting. No need to deal with Photoshop or Gimp. All you need is a photo, an Internet connection and a couple of free minutes. In an instant, your face will turn into a hyper-realistic painting, watercolor, or charcoal drawing. We explain how to do it.
Convert a photo into a drawing from your computer
There are a good handful of websites that transform any photograph into a small work of art , both free and paid. They all work very similarly, it is only a matter of time to find the effect that we like best.
Among the premium photo retouching websites, we especially liked BeFunky. BeFunky is a complete online photo editor with which we could spend all afternoon playing. As for its collection of artistic effects, the results are truly remarkable. The only defect that can be put is the watermark that it includes in the finished drawing. But it is a very easy eventuality to overcome. How? Paying for the service, naturally.
We are going to show you how it works. We were going to use a photo of the editor, but at the last moment we thought it was more convenient to use the face of this handsome man, who gives very well on camera.
The first thing is to enter BeFunky and access the Photo Editor. We can create an account through Google, Facebook or our email address, but it is not strictly necessary . Once we are in the Photo Editor, BeFunky will ask us to upload the image that we want to transform into paint. To do this, use the Upload option. Don't get lost with so much effect (at least, not today). The button that interests us is the Art button, the one in the shape of a flower, just below the star.
Go from photo to impressionist painting, ink drawing, sketch ...
From here on, your imagination is the only limit. Each tab hides a formidable collection of effects, so all you have to do is test. It is true that we have said that it only takes a couple of free minutes, but perhaps we have fallen short. First we have to get over the surprise that the styles saved in the "Digital Art" tab will cause us. Impressionist style, graphic novel drawing, oil painting, pop art, and an overwhelming etcetera.
But be careful, there are more tabs. For example, "Cartoonizer" allows you to convert the photo to a cartoon style. It even mimics the cel-shading tone of many video games, such as the latest installment of The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild. With the “Pointillism” tool we can get into Vincent Van Gogh's shoes for a moment. And with "Inkify" we will obtain a drawing made with brush and Chinese ink. And the story does not end here. Each of the effects has its own settings panel , where you can modify the smoothness of the stroke, the aggressiveness of the contrast and almost anything that comes to mind.
When we have satisfied our inner digital artist, we can download the image by clicking Save. The destination can be our computer, the BeFunky account, Google Drive and even Dropbox. And if we can't resist the urge to show our art to the world, BeFunky also has a button to share instantly.
More web pages to create drawings with your photos
We really liked BeFunky, but there are very surprising free options. One of these websites is pho.to, a spectacular online image editing service. Among the many tools that it offers us, you have to select the Funny Effects. Once there, we click on Art, and enjoy. We have endless options. We choose a specific effect, upload the photo, wait a few moments and that's it. There is everything. Colored pencil, charcoal… In addition, pho.to offers us its remarkable online image editor. When we have obtained our drawing, we can modify it to our liking.
Looking for more options? Try AnyMaking. Choose one of its eye-catching effects and transform your photo into a pop art painting. Rollip doesn't have as many effects for creating drawings, but it does have some really cool solutions. We finish with Cartoonize, another online image editor capable of astonishing anyone. Don't be fooled by the look of their home page, and try their Cartoonizer. Do not upload images that are too heavy, or you will wait longer than necessary. But trust us, the wait is worth it.
Turn a photo into a drawing or painting with your mobile
The comfort provided by the computer is very good, but today almost everything is done with the telephone. And how could it be otherwise, there are a lot of applications to obtain a painting from a photo . To explore the possibilities of the mobile, we will ask this kind young lady to lend us her image.
You have no doubt heard of Prisma. The application swept the profile photos on Facebook, and no wonder. We have already told you what can be done with this spectacular app, but we will refresh your memory. Prisma accesses the mobile photo camera by default. Similarly, it is possible to add a saved photo by touching the icon in the lower left corner of the screen. You have to take time to choose the filter, because it has a lot. And they are all awesome. Okay, you have to swallow some other ad But the people of Prisma will also have to eat once in a while, man.
Photo Lab
Man does not live by Prisma alone. The Play Store is full of apps that turn any photo into a work of art, and an excellent example is Photo Lab.
Photo Lab has plenty of tools to elevate our portrait to the altars of pop culture. We can insert our face on a canvas, create a GIF in which hearts come out of our eyes, mix two faces in one, and a creative one and so on. The Photo Lab home screen offers direct access to the most popular effects. But in order not to get lost, the options that interest us are "Work of art" and "Artistic funds".
Once inside one of those two options, we select the filter that we like the most and then we add the photo we want. This is where we find a very cool option. If we press "Faces", the app will detect all the photos on our mobile that contain a face. In this way, we save ourselves from having to search through the images of posing with food and the thousands of photos we have of our pets. Finally, we press the green arrow for the app to start processing.
When we have the transformed photo, Photo Lab allows us to do even more things. By touching the + symbol, we can create a GIF, add more effects on top or include text .
The Play Store is full of possibilities
There are a lot of apps to convert a photo into a drawing ( cartoonize in English). They are free thanks to the amount of publicity they carry, but not all the forest was going to be oregano, right? With the Sketch Photo Maker app, we can transform any image into an attractive pencil or charcoal illustration. There is another app with a very similar name, Sketch Photo, which also turns a portrait into a pencil artwork. The app has its limitations, but the number of filters is quite decent. At the end of the assembly, we can choose to save the drawing in three colors different from the typical anthracite tone of the pencil.
Immersed as we are in the full revival of 8 and 16 bits, it can give us by pixel art . In that case, Deep Art Effects is the application we are looking for. In addition to other very attractive filters, it allows you to convert an image into a fun pixelated painting.
On the other hand, there are applications that renew or increase their collection of filters. For example, Painnt's repertoire of effects is constantly on the move. It can process images in high definition, and it has a striking color treatment . In addition, it allows you to play with the parameters and modify the application level (transparency), brightness and contrast. The most attractive filters are paid, but with the free effects we can achieve real wonders.
Another surprising example is Spades. The filters of this app seem to never end, and new options appear every moment. Just when we think we have the paint effect we were looking for, the next artistic touch-up amazes us even more . To choose the application level, just slide your finger over the photo. Many filters are paid, but that is up to each one. We assure you that with the free ones you have art for a while.
And let's stop looking. Because with this collection of apps, you can easily spend the afternoon without doing anything else , eh?