Turn a photo into an oil painting
Oil, thick impasto or flat acrylic brushwork with a canvas texture, from any photo.
Drop an image here, or .
Runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Photo to Painting: how to use it
- Drop in a photo.
- Choose Oil painting, Thick impasto or Flat acrylic, then set the brush size and canvas texture.
- Download the painting as JPG or PNG.
Tips
- Bigger brushes look more painterly on large photos; small photos need a small brush.
- Turn Canvas texture down to 0 for a smooth, digital-painting look.
Photo to Painting: what it does and when to use it
Photo to Painting turns a photo into an oil painting: details merge into confident brush strokes, edges stay crisp, colours get a little richer, and light rakes across the paint and a faint canvas weave as if it hung on a wall. Choose a classic oil painting, a thick impasto with heavy, sculpted strokes, or a flat acrylic look with fewer, bolder colours.
It uses the Kuwahara filter, the painterly filter used in photo editors for decades: each pixel takes the average colour of the calmest patch of paint around it, which flattens texture into strokes while keeping the outlines of faces, buildings and trees. Brush size sets how big the strokes are, and Canvas texture sets how much the paint catches the light. It is a filter, not an AI generator, so the painting is always your own photo, made in your browser.
Landscapes, flowers, pets, still life and city scenes make the most convincing paintings; very small or busy photos turn into noise. Very large photos are painted at about 3 megapixels, which is plenty for a canvas print up to around A3. For a softer, lighter look try Photo to Watercolor, and for a pencil drawing, Photo to Sketch.
Photo to Painting: frequently asked questions
How do I turn a photo into a painting for free?
Drop the photo in and choose a style. The painting appears in a moment and downloads with no watermark. It runs in your browser, so the photo is never uploaded.
Is this an AI painting?
No. It is the Kuwahara painting filter plus brush lighting and a canvas texture, applied to your photo's own pixels. It does not invent anything, so the painting is always your photo, and the same settings always give the same result. Related guide: DPI, PPI and print size, explained properly.
Can I print it on canvas?
Yes. Photos are painted at up to about 3 megapixels, which prints well up to around A3 or 11 × 16 inches. For bigger prints, enlarge the painting first with the Image Upscaler.
What is impasto?
Paint laid on so thickly that the strokes stand up from the canvas. Thick impasto uses bigger strokes and stronger lighting across them to imitate it. Related tool: Photo to Watercolor.