Photo to sketch

Turn a Photo Into a Sketch

One photo, drawn six ways: pencil, charcoal, cross-hatching, ink line art and colored pencil.

AI Gahaku team · Tested October 8, 2026

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Scan with your phone camera

App Store
Google Play

Short answer

Open the AI Gahaku app, choose a photo and pick a sketch or colored pencil style. Graphite gives a light pencil portrait on blank paper, ink gives clean line art, and charcoal goes dark and dramatic.

Real results

One photo, six drawing styles

One photo, six looks, no retouching.

Photo of a smiling woman with shoulder-length black hair and a yellow sweater in a living room

Original photo

Front-facing, in a bright room with plants and a sofa.

Light graphite pencil portrait of the woman on blank paper

Graphite app

Soft grey pencil on blank paper, the room gone. The classic portrait sketch.

Dark charcoal drawing of the woman with heavy smudged shading

Charcoal app

Heavy black smudges on a dark background. Dramatic, light on fine detail.

Pen cross-hatching drawing of the woman and the whole living room

Crosshatch app

Fine pen hatching that draws the whole room, plants and sofa too. The most detailed of the six.

Clean black ink line drawing of the woman like a coloring page

Ink Drawing app

Clean black outlines, almost no shading — like a coloring page or a comic.

Warm colored pencil portrait with reddish-brown hair and a yellow sweater

Colored pencil · Classic app

Warm colored pencil strokes. The yellow sweater stays; the black hair turns reddish brown.

Very pale pastel colored pencil portrait with faint colors

Colored pencil · Soft app

Pale pastel tones and gentle contrast, with streaks of green and pink in the hair.

What changes, and what doesn’t

  • Face and pose stay close to the photo in all six styles.
  • Backgrounds follow the style: graphite clears the room, cross-hatching draws every object in it.
  • Color has a mind of its own: colored pencil turned black hair reddish brown, and the soft version came out very pale.
  • Another photo may come out differently — that is part of the fun.

How to turn your photo into a sketch

  1. 1

    Get the app

    Install AI Gahaku on iPhone or Android and pick a bright, clear photo.

  2. 2

    Pick a drawing style

    Graphite, charcoal, cross-hatching, ink or colored pencil — take your pick.

  3. 3

    Create and save

    Generate, save, then try another style on the same photo.

Draw your own in the app

Sketch, colored pencil, watercolor, painters and illustration — 300+ styles to explore.

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Scan with your phone camera

App Store
Google Play

Want a taste first? Try a painter style in your browser.

Frequently asked questions

Can I turn a photo into a sketch for free?
The sketch and colored pencil styles are in the AI Gahaku app, which is free to download and has an optional PRO plan. The free web trial offers five painting styles but no sketch style.
Which style looks most like a pencil drawing?
Graphite. In our test it gave a light pencil portrait on blank paper. Cross-hatching looks like a pen drawing, and ink looks like line art.
Will the sketch still look like me?
In our test the face and pose stayed close to the photo in all six drawing styles. Colored pencil changed the hair color.
Can I use it as a coloring page?
The ink line art style gave clean black outlines with little shading, which is the closest to a coloring page. We have not tested printing it.
Is my photo stored?
Your photo is sent to AI Gahaku and its AI providers for processing. The photo and result may be saved for quality review and troubleshooting. See the Privacy Policy for details.

Related

How these examples were made

Generated October 8, 2026, one image per style, no retouching. The person in the photo is fictional, created with an AI image generator; she is not a real person.

Generation record (JSON)