The estimated reading time for this post is 3 minutes
If you’ve ever visited a museum and imagined what it would be like to create a beautiful work of art, check out FotoSketcher, software that allows you to create artwork from your photographs.
I first learned of FotoSketcher from Mike Maynard whose blog, Mike10163’s Blog, is one of my favorites. I recently came across one of his pins on Pinterest, but noticed that it wasn’t his customary scenic photography. Instead, the image seemed to be a pencil drawing.
When I asked Mike about the image, he wrote a post about the software he used to create the image: FotoSketcher. I immediately downloaded it and began using it with my images. The software is so fantastically fun to use that I couldn’t wait to share it with Wonder of Tech readers.
Ever since I first discovered Dynamic Light, enhancing my photographs has become a favorite pastime. Like Dynamic Light, FotoSketcher gives you the tools to enhance your photographs. But FotoSketcher uses enhancements that make photographs seem as if they were drawn or painted. FotoSketcher is free software for your computer that has dozens of features giving you control over the enhancement of your images. Using the software is easy and intuitive.
To get started, download FotoSketcher to your computer and open the program. Open a photo in FotoSketcher by clicking on the blue icon in the upper left corner of the screen. Your photo will appear twice, on the left and the right sides of your screen. A control panel will appear over the photos.
By using the control panel you can choose the category of effects you want to use:
- Pencil Sketch
- Pen & Ink
- Painting
- Stylized
- Miscellaneous
- No effect (just the framing, resizing, etc.)
Within each of these categories, you can choose from a number of effects, depending on the category. For example, under Painting, the choices include oil painting, watercolor, brushstrokes, and five others. FotoSketcher gives you a sample window to preview the outcome of each effect.
After you’ve chosen the type of painting/drawing effect you want, you can alter the effects using the sliding controls. For example, in Painting you can choose the maximum and minimum brush width, number of brushstrokes, how soft the edges are and how precise you want the brush strokes to be.
You can also add text and custom frames to your enhanced images.
Once you’re satisfied with the effects you’ve chosen, click the “Draw!” button and FotoSketcher will begin to work its magic. Be patient, the effects are not instant. Like a true artist, FotoSketcher takes its time in altering your photo. Well, not exactly like a true artist. The creation takes a few minutes, not a few months.
If you minimize the window while FotoSketcher is working on your art, the icon in your task bar will show the progress (Windows 7 only), but then you’re missing the entertainment of watching the software work.
This YouTube Video demonstrates how easy it is to use FotoSketcher to turn your photos into artwork:
Let the artist in you play around with the different effects. You may wish to use the watercolor effects for colorful scenery:
For a portrait, you may wish to use the oil painting effect:
For more inspiration, check out Mike’s blog and FotoSketcher’s Flickr page.
Have fun using FotoSketcher. If any of your images end up on Pinterest, please feel free to link your creations in the Comments section below.
Have you ever had dreams of being an artist? Do you like to add effects to your photos? Have you tried FotoSketcher? Let us know in the Comments section below!
*Pub image courtesy of Mike Maynard
Oh, my! More toys to play with! Someday I’ll get back to writing. Thanks, Carolyn!!
Hi Betsy, You’re right. This software is fun and addictive! Once you try it you will want to use FotoSketcher with all of your photos.
Enjoy!
Awesome Carolyn!!
I have always loved art, paintings, pictures and the kind. I guess I sketch and paint a little whenever I have the time – so there’s a little artist hidden in me too. 🙂
I would surely be checking out FotoSketcher, though the effects you mentioned can be done through Photoshop too I think, though I wonder if they really have the same effect. I love your painted picture 🙂
Heading right over and giving it a try, more so as it comes from you. 🙂
Thanks for sharing yet another wonderful piece of information. 🙂
Hi Harleena, I’m so glad you like FotoSketcher. It’s so much fun, it’s positively addictive. You begin to look at your photos in a whole new way, wondering what they would look like enhanced as an oil painting, water color, etc. This is seriously fun software! I hope you have a lot of fun with it, Harleena!
Thanks very much Caroline,
I have 28 days left for my Photoshop trial, and i don’t want to buy such an expensive program. This post has come to me like from heaven!
Warmly,
Angel.
Hi Angel, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you are excited about FotoSketcher. It doesn’t have all of the functionality of Photo Shop, but it does have some artistic features. You should also check out Pic Monkey, a free online website that lets you do photo editing somewhat similar to Photo Shop.
Thanks for stopping by Angel and let us know how this helped you! 🙂
Very, very, very interesting.
Now, that’s one thing I don’t mind having technology help me!
Hi Eleni, Yes, technology can your friend, Eleni, enriching your life in many ways. When I find tech that will do that, I love sharing it with Wonder of Tech readers. 🙂
I must say that some of the effects look great… whist others look downright ugly! I’m not sure if I’m a believer that this is the best photo manipulation software out there.
Hi Ozlat, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I think all of the effects are lovely. Perhaps it was my picture that you found ugly? 😉
As long as you found some effects that you like, then the software may be worth trying. After all, it’s free!
I have been using photoshop a lot to get similar effects on my photos, however only looking breifly on FotoSketcher it seems to me that it does the job even better!! And not only that, it’s free too!!
Thanks for sharing this. 🙂
Hi JD, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, I love free. Free is great. So there really isn’t a reason not to give FotoSketcher a try. You may really enjoy the effects that it produces.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with us, JD! 🙂
Hi Carolyn,
Nice pictures. I have just got back from a trip out to take photos, it poured with rain, the sun is shining now of course! You can also edit the pictures again after doing them with Fotosketcher. You can remove bits bits Paint for example. I have another editing program that is free that I use so I’ll review that soon.
There are more examples of pictures done with Fotosketcher on A Zillion Ideas:
http://azillionideas.com/neodigital-art-variations/
I would be happy to put any pictures that anyone comes up with into a blog on there next week! I have a guest blog to post over the weekend and need more contributions!
I like the self portrait! 🙂
Hi MIke, Thank you so very much for introducing me to Fotosketcher and allowing me to use your photo here at The Wonder of Tech. Thank you also for your offer to Wonder of Tech readers to feature their photos at your blog.
I like your images on A Zillion ideas. I should try the sketch features on photos of buildings. I tried them with general nature scenes and they didn’t turn out very well.
Have you used all of the different effects? I like painting effects the best so far, but I think it’s important to use the effects on different types of photos. I am looking forward to exploring the features with many more photos! 🙂
Thank you Carolyn, and yes I agree, free is great 🙂
Also I see there is a portable version of the program, so now I can run it from a USB pendrive and show my friends.
I’ll be sure to stop by again, bookmarked. Take care.
Carolyn – This is simply superb, what a great tool and anyone can look like a pro artist with this now. Thanks a lot for sharing.
I am sure I will use it to create some cool portraits of my family and get them printed.
Hi Praveen, That’s a great idea to use FotoSketcher for family portraits! Are you going to use the oil painting effect? You can increase the appearance of texture on the photos to make the oil painting effect seem even more realistic.
I’m so happy you are excited about this software, Praveen! That’s just how I feel. 🙂
Looks like you are having fun with Fotosketcher!
Hi Stan, I definitely am having fun with FotoSketcher. I’d like to go through all of my photos and enhance them with this software. Why not improve on realism? 🙂
This sounds like way too much fun but I have to try it. Off to download now. Thank you for the tip.
Hi Jack, Yes, this software is definitely addictive. I find myself not only trying all sorts of effects on each photo, but wondering how all of my photos would work as oil paintings, drawings, etc.
I hope you have a lot of fun using FotoSketcher, Jack! 🙂
Hi Carolyn,
This is awesome! Another toy to play with, haha. I came across one of your pictures on Pinterest and wondered how you did that. Now I know. Although I love my Photoshop, I’ll definitely download this software and also share it with my kids. Especially since it’s free.
Thanks for sharing this!
Ilka
Hi Ilka, How wonderful to see you here again at The Wonder of Tech. How funny that’s how you found this post, as that’s how I found out about FotoSketcher, from Mike’s picture on Pinterest. Perhaps you will create some FotoSketcher art and pin it on Pinterest?
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with us here, Ilka! 🙂
Ahhh, Carolyn. Love your FotoSketch masterpieces. A very high percentage of my friends are the artsy type and will absolutely love this. Can’t wait to share it with them.
Thanks so much for letting us know about this fun resource. Aloha. Janet
Hi Janet, I’m so glad you like not only my “masterpieces” but the software too! I think your friends will really enjoy using this. It’s free, so why not give it a go?
Thanks for stopping by, Janet! 🙂
Wow..this looks so cool!! Fun..Fun!
Hi Ann Jane, How right you are! Cool, cool and fun, fun are the perfect words to describe FotoSketcher! 🙂
Hi Carolyn,
This looks awesome. I love playing around with effects too. And I have been testing various borders as well. Too bad that this is for windows only 🙂
Hi Jens, Great news! I just heard from the developer who kindly informed me that a Mac version of FotoSketcher is in the works. Stay tuned to The Wonder of Tech for updates! :-bd
That’s awesome. Thanks a lot.
I will stay tuned to The Wonder of Tech, no matter what… 🙂
Well, how cool is that? I loved your portrait turned into a painting.
My concern is, because my personal computer is also my office computer and it is getting somewhat antiquated, every new think I download seems to slow it down more and more. Just like the iPad, one of these days I will have my own computer too (the wife won’t let me touch hers, she thinks I’m a virus……….:).
Hey Bill, If you’re thinking of getting your own computer, definitely wait until Windows 8 comes out. It should be out later this year, so it will be a short wait until you can get FotoSketcher
That’s great, Now you don’t have to be Photoshop expert to give special effects to any image. This really seems so simple and easy to use. I’m going to download this software right away.
Hi Aasma, You’re right, FotoSketcher is much easier to use than Photoshop. It isn’t as powerful but it is much simpler without much to learn at all. 🙂
Oh Carolyn,
I’m going to have so much fun with this one. I’ve always wanted to like turn one of my photos into either a black and white or a drawing. It looks like this software will definitely do the trick for me.
Can’t wait to play around in it. Thanks for sharing and a big shout out to Mike for sharing as well.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, I’m so glad you like this software. It’s a lot of fun to play around with and I know you’ll have a blast using it. I hope we get to see some of your creations someday, somewhere, Adrienne! 🙂
well i think this is out and out cheating and i love it, i can make a masterpiece at a press of a button and say that i did it, oh what fun i shall have
Hi Phil, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! You’re absolutely right. FotoSketcher is cheating, but in a fun way. We are crating art in minutes, not months. But perhaps this will open up a world of art to others. How cool is that?
I’m 100% certain that you will have loads of fun with this, Phil. Enjoy!
Thanks for sharing this great review , to be honest I am using the adobe photoshop as a photo sketcher, Maybe I should try this one for me to know which is better.
Hi Kate, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! If you’re having no problems with Adobe, you can stick with it. But if you find Adobe difficult to use, you can try FotoSketcher. It’s free and easy to use so it may be a good solution for you. 🙂
Thanks for your reply Carolyn, true that adobe is so much difficult to use. I should try this at once, I guess you are right this is the best solution.
Give FotoSketcher a try and let us know what you think. It doesn’t have as many features as Photo Shop, but it is much simpler to use!