Turn any photo into a line drawing

Tips for a photo that traces well

Your line drawing can only be as clear as the photo it comes from. A few small choices when you take or pick a photo give you cleaner lines that are easier to follow on paper.

• Use soft, even light, such as daylight from a window or a cloudy sky outdoors. Hard shadows across a face or a pet turn into extra lines.
• Look for strong contrast between your subject and what is behind it: a dark cat on a light sofa traces far better than a dark cat on a dark rug.
• Keep the background plain. A busy room, a crowd or a patterned wall adds lines you don’t need.
• Choose one clear subject instead of a group of small things, so the drawing has a single main shape.
• Shoot straight on and fill the frame, so the subject is big and its proportions are not stretched.
• Pick a sharp photo, not a blurry one. If the details are soft, the lines will be too.

Ideas to try

Not sure which photo to start with? These make good first drawings:

• Your pet, asleep or sitting still
• A portrait of a friend or someone in your family
• A favorite building, bridge or street corner
• Flowers and house plants
• A child’s favorite toy or teddy bear
• A photo from a holiday you want to remember

Pick one in the Pencilbloom app, and the app turns it into a line drawing. Then put your phone on a stand and follow the lines with your pencil on real paper, or save the outline. Either way, you end up with a drawing of a photo that means something to you.