Photo to painting converter
Photo to painting in one step: drop in a picture and pick a style – the sample photo shows right away what oil, watercolor, cartoon or mosaic look like. Your photo stays on your device; the effect comes from classic painting filters, not AI.
Source: Kuwahara, Hachimura, Eiho, Kinoshita (1976) – Processing of RI-Angiocardiographic Images, in: Digital Processing of Biomedical Images (Kuwahara-Filter). Updated: .
How it is calculated
In short: This tool turns a photo into an oil painting, a watercolor, a cartoon or a mosaic using classic painting filters. Areas are smoothed into brush strokes while edges stay crisp, and a canvas or paper texture is added. Everything runs in your browser: no upload, no AI, no account.
How it works
- Drag in a photo, pick a file or paste it with Ctrl + V – until then a sample photo shows the effect.
- Choose a style. Brush sets how coarse the strokes or mosaic tiles are; color intensity controls how vivid it looks.
- Click “Save painting” to download a PNG or JPG up to 2400 pixels on the long side, or share it straight away.
The math behind it
At the core is the Kuwahara filter (Kuwahara et al., 1976). For every pixel it looks at four neighbouring squares and takes the color of the calmest one – the square with the least variation in brightness. The result is flat patches of color like brush strokes, without blurring the outlines. The oil painting adds richer color, a slight relief from the brightness gradient (impasto) and a canvas weave. The watercolor lightens the colors, lets them bleed a little and darkens color edges, the way pigment collects at the rim of a drying wash (Curtis et al., SIGGRAPH 1997), plus a faint pencil underdrawing and paper grain. The cartoon reduces brightness to a few steps while keeping the hue, and draws black outlines from the difference of two blurs (XDoG, Winnemöller 2012). The mosaic splits the picture into tiles with grout and a slight bevel.
Honest limits
It is a filter, not a painter: it doesn’t invent new strokes or imitate a specific artist the way AI apps do. Landscapes, pets, flowers and portraits with clear shapes work best; tiny details get lost with a coarse brush. Large photos are scaled to 2400 pixels for export so the processing stays smooth on phones too.
Privacy
Your photo is processed only in your browser and never uploaded. Only the style and slider positions are remembered. The sample photo was generated locally for this site.
More effects: photo to sketch and the photo editor for brightness, filters and cropping.
Frequently asked questions
How do I turn a photo into a painting online for free?
Drop your photo into the box above, pick a style and click “Save painting”. It’s free, with no sign-up, no watermark and no upload.
Can I turn a photo into an oil painting?
Yes – choose “Oil painting”. A coarse brush gives broad, expressive strokes; a fine brush keeps more detail. Keep the canvas texture on for the most authentic look.
How do I make a photo look like a watercolor?
Choose “Watercolor”. Colors get lighter, bleed slightly and gain darker edges and paper grain, just like real watercolor. Color intensity controls how strong the wash is.
Is this an AI photo to painting converter?
No. Every style is a fixed image filter (Kuwahara filter, color steps, outlines). The same photo with the same settings always gives the same result – and nothing leaves your device.
How do I do this in Photoshop?
Photoshop has Filter › Stylize › Oil Paint and, in the Filter Gallery, Watercolor and other Artistic filters. This page gives similar results without software or uploading.
Can I print my painting?
Yes. The export is up to 2400 pixels on the long side – enough for a print of about 8 × 12 in at 200 dpi. For poster-sized canvas prints the resolution only holds up when viewed from a distance.
Sources and legal basis
- Kuwahara, Hachimura, Eiho, Kinoshita (1976) – Processing of RI-Angiocardiographic Images, in: Digital Processing of Biomedical Images (Kuwahara-Filter)
- Curtis, Anderson, Seims, Fleischer, Salesin (1997) – Computer-Generated Watercolor, SIGGRAPH ’97 (dunkle Ränder, Pigmentverteilung)
- Winnemöller, Kyprianidis, Olsen (2012) – XDoG: An eXtended difference-of-Gaussians compendium, Computers & Graphics 36(6)
- ITU-R BT.709 – Luminanz Y = 0,2126 R + 0,7152 G + 0,0722 B
- MDN – CanvasRenderingContext2D.getImageData() / putImageData()
- W3C – Web Share API
- ITU-T T.81 / ISO/IEC 10918-1 – JPEG
- W3C – Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Specification
- Google for Developers – An image format for the Web (WebP)
- AOMedia – AV1 Image File Format (AVIF)
- MDN – Image file type and format guide
- MDN – HTMLCanvasElement.toBlob()
As of: · Editorial policy
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