Turn a photo into a sketch
Turn a photo into a pencil sketch, a charcoal drawing or a clean line drawing in a few seconds. It's free, it keeps the photo's full size, and the photo never leaves your device.
Drop an image here
or paste it, or pick a file
No image loaded.
Your image never leaves your browser — read and sketched on your own device, and nothing is uploaded to us or anyone else.
How to turn a photo into a sketch
- Step 1
Add the photo
Drop it in, paste it, or pick a file. JPG, PNG, WebP and iPhone photos all work, and the photo stays on your device.
- Step 2
Pick a style
Pencil for graphite on white paper, Charcoal for heavier shading, Line drawing for outlines only, or Colour pencil to keep a wash of the photo's colours.
- Step 3
Set detail and darkness
Detail sets how fine the strokes are; Darkness sets how hard the pencil presses. The preview updates as you move them.
- Step 4
Download the sketch
Save it as a JPG at the photo's full size, ready to print, post or trace.
Four sketch styles, and when to use each
| Style | What it looks like | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Pencil | Grey graphite strokes on white paper | Portraits, pets and anything you'd frame |
| Charcoal | Darker and softer, with heavier shading | Moody portraits and strong light |
| Line drawing | Outlines only, like an ink drawing | Tracing, colouring pages, tattoo stencils |
| Colour pencil | The pencil sketch, tinted with the photo's own colours | Travel photos and flowers, where colour matters |
The pencil look is a classic photo-editor recipe, done here on the pixels. The photo is turned grey, a blurred negative of it is laid on top, and the two are combined with a colour dodge. Where the photo is flat, the dodge burns out to white paper. Where it changes, at an edge, the blurred copy lags behind and leaves a grey stroke. The blur width is the pencil's width, which is what the Detail slider moves.
Line drawing works differently. It measures how sharply brightness changes at each pixel with a Sobel filter and draws only the big changes, so you get outlines with no shading. The photo is softened a little first, so skin texture and JPEG noise don't turn into lines.
A filter, or an AI that draws it again?
There are two ways to turn a photo into a drawing, and they give different results. A filter like this one keeps the photo: every line sits exactly where an edge was, so a face stays that face. It's instant, free and private, and it looks like a skilled tracing.
An AI model redraws the picture from scratch in the style you ask for: a loose ink sketch, a manga panel, a watercolour. It can look far more hand-made, and it can also change the details it redraws. If that's the look you want, AI image to imagetakes the photo and an instruction like “turn this into a loose pencil sketch”, for a credit an edit. For a sketch that looks older than pencil, run the result through the vintage photo filter.
Turning a photo into a tattoo? A line drawing makes a good stencil to trace, and the AI tattoo generator redraws it as finished tattoo flash. Making a card from the sketch? Add a title from the WordArt generator; its PNG has a transparent background, so it sits on the paper.
Frequently asked questions
How do I turn a photo into a sketch for free?
Add the photo here, pick Pencil, Charcoal, Line drawing or Colour pencil, and press Download. The sketch is made in your browser, so there's nothing to install and the photo is never uploaded. You need a free Leaxor account to use the tool.
Is there a free way to convert a photo into a pencil sketch online?
Yes, this page. Pencil is the default style, and the sliders change how fine and how dark the strokes are. There's no watermark and no limit on how many photos you sketch.
Can ChatGPT turn a photo into a sketch?
Yes. Upload the photo to ChatGPT and ask for a pencil sketch, and its image generator draws a new picture in that style. The difference is that it redraws: faces and details can shift. A filter like this one keeps every line exactly where the photo has it, because it works from the photo's own pixels.
Can I turn a photo into a sketch on my iPhone?
Yes. This is a web page, so it works in Safari with no app. On an iPhone the Download button opens the share sheet, where Save Image puts the sketch in Photos.
Can Canva turn a photo into a sketch?
Canva has its own photo-to-sketch feature inside its editor. If you only need the sketch, this page does it without opening a design, and you can upload the result into Canva afterwards.
How do I turn a photo into a line drawing?
Choose Line drawing. It finds the edges in the photo and draws only those, dark on white, like an ink outline. Raise Detail for more lines, lower it for just the main shapes. It's the style to pick if you want something to trace or colour in.
Which photos make the best sketches?
Photos with clear light and a plain background. Strong shadows give the pencil something to shade, and a busy background turns into scribble. A portrait by a window or an object on a table works better than a crowd shot.
Is my photo uploaded anywhere?
No. The sketch is drawn by your browser on your own device. The photo isn't sent to Leaxor or anyone else, which is also why it works on a slow connection once the page has loaded.
Other image tools
Want a drawing nobody photographed?
Leaxor's image generator draws from a sentence, sketch styles included, and turns the result into a video clip on the same account.
See the image generator