How to Turn Your Portrait Photo Into a Sketch
Turning portrait photos into sketches can add a cool new dimension to your photography, bringing out depth and highlighting important facial details. You can get a snappy-looking image, transforming the picture into a captivating sketch with no drawing skills needed, just use BeFunky’s Sketcher effects.
Turning a Portrait Into a Sketch
Portrait photography captures the essence of the subject, and turning that image into a sketch can help your picture take on a more interesting and artsy vibe. This type of image is the perfect accompaniment to your portrait photographs and it’s the type of piece that would look great on the mantle place or hanging on the wall.
BeFunky’s Sketcher GFX effect has you covered when it comes to producing high-quality and visually interesting sketches from your portrait portfolio. The image takes on the look of a pencil drawing, so if you’re looking for something similar but different be sure to check out the Pen Art effect as well
What Kind of Portrait Photo Is Best for a Sketch Effect?
You want to make sure that your subject’s face is clear and well-defined. The photo should also have balanced exposure and feature more than one color. If there isn’t enough detail, our AI won’t be able to outline the face properly. Similarly, if your photo doesn’t have enough contrast, the final result may include too much white space.
How Do BeFunky’s Sketcher Effects Work?
BeFunky’s AI Sketcher effects scan your photo for important details and features before
transforming it into a sketch. With Sketcher GFX in particular being our most realistic-looking sketch effect yet. What’s left is an outline of the subject, though anything in the background will get sketched out as well, if those details are clearly defined, which can make for an even more interesting picture.
How to Turn Your Portrait Photo Into a Sketch Drawing
Now let's dig into BeFunky and make that portrait into a sketch. You can head directly to the tool or start from anywhere else in the app, depending on your creative process.
Step 1. Upload Your Photo
To start from scratch, click Open at the top of the page or head to the Image Manager to choose something you’ve already uploaded. Or, if you have a photo on your desktop, simply drag and drop it onto your canvas. From there, you can click on the Artsy tab to open Sketcher.
Step 2. Select a Photo to Sketch Effect
Our Sketcher effects can be found by clicking on the Artsy tab. There are plenty of different sketch styles to choose from, but for this tutorial, we will choose Sketcher GFX.
Step 3. Adjust and Apply the Effect
Next, it's time to choose the Sketcher effect that you like best. For this example, we will select Sketcher GFX to create our sketch of the portrait.
By expanding the Settings menu, you can adjust the Fidelity, which measures how closely a copy resembles the original. There are a few different variations to the tool, so you will have plenty of options to choose from.
For this example, I set the Fidelity at 5 and the Variation at 2.
You can also manipulate the amount of effect you want, which can be used to create a comic book look if you allow some more of the original photo to peek through. Here, I set the effect amount at 56%.
Step 4. Save Your Sketch Image
Once you're satisfied with your photo to sketch artwork, click Save at the top of your canvas.
Turn Your Portrait Into a Sketch in Seconds
Taking your photographs and turning them into dazzling pencil sketches has never been easier thanks to BeFunky’s Sketcher effects. Give it a go to see for yourself!
Also be sure to try your hand at our other Artsy effects, such as Watercolor, Oil Painting, and Impressionist to create stunning artwork for display, sharing with friends and family, or creating standout marketing materials.
Additional Sketch Styles to Choose From
BeFunky’s Artsy tab offers even more ways to go from photo to sketch. Here are some of our favorites:
Charcoal Drawing
The Charcoal GFX effect turns your portrait into an amazing charcoal sketch. This effect is also located under the Sketcher category of the Artsy tab. Simply give it a click and watch your image transform – in seconds. You can change the fidelity, smoothness, pencil size, and variation to get the right look.
Pen Art
And although it isn’t found in the Sketcher category, the Pen Art is another great way to turn a photo into a sketch. These effects emulate the classic blue ballpoint pen sketch style. Choosing Pen Art GFX in particular allows you to choose between 5 AI-generated versions.
