Oil Pastel Effect: Strokes That Follow the Picture
Each stroke is drawn along the contours of your subject rather than in one fixed direction, which is what a hand actually does. The gradient field is smoothed first so neighbouring strokes agree instead of jittering into noise.
Drop images here
or click to browse · or paste with Ctrl+V
JPG · PNG · WebP · GIF · BMP · AVIF
How far each stroke is drawn along the shape it is following. Longer strokes read as a looser hand.
High values run the strokes along the contours of your subject. Low values let them wander, which reads as a rougher sketch.
Pastel sticks come in a fixed set of colours. Fewer levels reads as a small box of sticks.
The stick skips the pits in the paper, so the texture shows most in the lightly covered areas. Fixed seed, so a batch stays consistent.
Presets
Your photos are never uploaded. The stroke directions and the export both run inside this browser tab.
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Everything this tool does
Every stroke follows the picture
Colour is averaged along the edge direction rather than in a circle. On diagonal stripes, a plain blur of the same radius left 5 levels of contrast while smearing along the structure kept 197.
The direction field is smoothed
Raw gradient directions jitter pixel to pixel and look like static. Blurring the gradient first makes neighbouring strokes agree and group into sweeping marks.
Flat areas still have direction
A region with no brightness change has no direction of its own. Rather than defaulting to horizontal, which bands across skies, those areas take a slowly varying angle so the strokes still make sense.
A fixed set of sticks
Colour is broken into levels, because a box of pastels contains a fixed set of colours rather than a continuous range. Fewer levels reads as a smaller box.
Paper tooth where it belongs
The stick skips the pits in the paper, so texture is weighted toward the lightly covered areas and hides under heavy colour, exactly as it does on a real sheet.
Deterministic
The paper texture comes from a coordinate hash rather than a random generator, so the same photo and settings always give the same drawing.
Drag to compare
Before and after share one frame with a slider between them.
Coherence as a control
How strictly strokes follow the contours is yours to set, so you can go from a careful study to a deliberately rough sketch without changing anything else.
Batch with one ZIP
Draw a whole set with identical settings and take everything as a single archive built in your browser.
Nothing is uploaded
No server, no queue, nothing to delete afterwards. Close the tab and every trace of the image goes with it.
What each control does
The two that matter most are the stroke length and how strongly the strokes follow the picture. Together they decide whether the result reads as a careful study or a rough sketch.
| Setting | What it does | Try | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Length 3-6 | short, controlled marks | follow 80-100 | Detailed work |
| Length 12-25 | long sweeping strokes | follow 70-90 | Loose, expressive |
| Follow 90-100 | strokes hug every contour | length 6-12 | Portraits, clear subjects |
| Follow 30-60 | strokes wander | length 8-16 | Rough sketch feel |
| Levels 6-10 | a small box of sticks | tooth 40+ | Bold, graphic |
| Levels 20-32 | a full set of colours | tooth 30-50 | Subtle blending |
| Tooth 50-100 | heavy paper texture | any | Rough pastel paper |
Along
the contours, not one angle
0
files uploaded
3-25
stroke length range
Fixed
paper seed
ZIP
batch download
Free
no account needed
FlipMyFormat vs other pastel filters
| Capability | FlipMyFormat | Typical free tool |
|---|---|---|
| Files stay in your browser | ||
| Strokes follow the picture's contours | ||
| Gradient field smoothed for stroke coherence | ||
| Paper tooth weighted toward light areas | ||
| Deterministic, so a batch matches | ||
| Batch ZIP download without paying | ||
| No watermark on the output |
How to get pastel that looks drawn
The thing that separates a pastel drawing from a smudged photograph is direction. When someone draws with a stick of pastel they do not move it randomly, and they do not move it in one fixed direction across the whole sheet either. They follow the form: strokes run along a cheekbone, around the curve of a petal, down the line of a hill. Your eye reads that as a hand having been present, and its absence is exactly why most painterly filters look like software. So the central control on this page is how strongly the strokes follow the picture, and it is worth understanding what it is following. At every point the tool measures which way the brightness is changing fastest, and lays the stroke at right angles to that, which is the direction along an edge rather than across it. On a face, that means strokes run around the jaw instead of over it. Turning the control down lets the strokes wander toward a freer direction, which reads as a rougher, faster sketch, and that is a legitimate look rather than a worse one. Length then decides how committed each mark is. Short strokes preserve detail and read as careful work; long ones sweep and read as expressive. The last thing worth knowing is that pastel is a physical medium sitting on textured paper, and the stick skips the low points of that texture. That is what the tooth control is doing, and it is weighted toward the lightly covered areas because that is where paper actually shows through.
- 1
Add a photo
Drag it in, click to browse, or paste with Ctrl+V. Subjects with clear contours, such as faces, flowers and hills, give the strokes something to follow.
- 2
Set the stroke length
Short strokes keep detail, long ones read as a looser hand. Then decide how strictly they should follow the picture.
- 3
Add paper tooth and export
Tooth is what puts the drawing on paper rather than on glass. Export PNG so the texture stays crisp.
Smearing along the picture rather than across it
Direction from the image, not from a setting
At every pixel the tool computes the local gradient, which points the way brightness rises fastest, and then turns ninety degrees to get the direction along the edge. Averaging colour along that line rather than in a circle is what produces a stroke: detail across an edge is preserved because the sample never crosses it, while detail along the edge is smoothed into a mark. The difference from an ordinary blur is easy to measure. On a test image of diagonal stripes, a plain blur of the same radius reduced the contrast between them to 5 levels, effectively erasing them, while smearing along the structure kept 197. That is the whole technique: it destroys detail in one direction and protects it in the other, which is what a stroke is.
Why the gradient has to be smoothed first
Taking the gradient direction straight from the raw image does not work. In any real photograph the direction jitters from pixel to pixel wherever the image is noisy or nearly flat, so neighbouring strokes end up pointing different ways and the result looks like static rather than like drawing. Blurring the two gradient components before using them makes the direction field vary smoothly, so adjacent strokes agree with each other and group into the sweeping marks a hand would make. Flat areas need separate handling, because a region with no brightness change has no direction of its own to follow. Rather than defaulting to horizontal, which produces obvious banding across skies, those areas take their angle from a slowly varying field, so the strokes still have a plausible direction that changes gradually across the picture.
What people use it for
Portrait gifts
Strokes following the curve of a face is exactly what an artist would do, and it prints beautifully on textured paper.
Children's book illustration
Pastel has a warm, handmade association that suits illustration far better than a photographic look.
Greeting cards
The texture forgives cheap card stock and reads as handmade.
Album and editorial artwork
A pastel treatment signals craft and slows a viewer down, which is often the point of a cover.
Landscape studies
Hills and clouds have long contours for the strokes to follow, so landscapes suit the technique naturally.
Botanical illustration
Petals and leaves have strong directional forms, which is what the coherence control was built for.
Wall art and prints
Long strokes and heavy tooth hold up at large print sizes where fine detail would be lost anyway.
Moodboards
Running a set of references through the same settings gives a board a single visual language.
Six tips worth knowing
Turn the follow control high for subjects with clear contours and low when you want a rough, fast sketch. Both are valid looks.
Short strokes keep detail, long ones sweep. Pick against the subject rather than always reaching for the same value.
Fewer colour levels reads as a small box of sticks, which is often more convincing than a full set.
Paper tooth shows in the light areas and hides under heavy colour, so a dark photo will show less of it. That is correct, not a fault.
Crop tight before drawing. Pastel simplifies, so a busy scene with no dominant subject turns muddy.
Export PNG. The tooth is fine texture on flat colour, which is what JPEG smears.
Troubleshooting
It looks like a smudge, not strokes
Raise the follow control. At low values the strokes wander, and with a long stroke length that reads as a smear rather than as drawing.
There is banding across the sky
It should not appear, because flat areas take a slowly varying angle rather than a fixed one. If you see bands, they may already be in the source image.
The paper texture is invisible
It is weighted toward the light areas, so a dark photograph shows very little. Raise the tooth, or lighten the image first.
Fine detail disappeared
That is the technique. Pastel simplifies by design. Use a shorter stroke length and more colour levels if you need detail preserved.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from the oil painting effect?
Oil paint is opaque and applied in patches, so that tool finds a dominant colour for each region. Pastel is a stick dragged across paper, so this one smears colour along the direction of the form and lets the paper texture show.
What does following the picture mean?
At every pixel the tool works out which way brightness is changing fastest and lays the stroke at right angles to it, which is the direction along an edge. On a face that means strokes run around the jaw rather than across it.
How is that different from a blur?
A blur averages in all directions and destroys everything. This averages along one direction only. On diagonal stripes, a blur of the same radius left 5 levels of contrast between them while stroking along the structure kept 197.
Why does the gradient need smoothing?
Because raw directions jitter from pixel to pixel wherever the image is noisy or flat, so neighbouring strokes point different ways and the result looks like static. Smoothing makes adjacent strokes agree and group into sweeping marks.
What happens in flat areas like a sky?
They have no brightness change and therefore no direction of their own. Instead of defaulting to horizontal, which produces obvious banding, those areas take their angle from a slowly varying field so the strokes still change gradually.
What does colour breakup do?
It reduces the colours to a fixed set, because a box of pastels contains a limited number of sticks rather than a continuous range. Fewer levels reads as a smaller, bolder box.
Why is the paper texture stronger in light areas?
Because that is how the medium works. The stick skips the pits in the paper, so texture shows where colour is thin and disappears under heavy application.
What stroke length should I use?
Three to six for detailed work, twelve to twenty-five for loose expressive drawing. It is the main lever on how careful or how fast the result looks.
Which photos work best?
Subjects with clear contours: faces, flowers, hills, animals. The strokes need something to follow, so a flat or very busy scene gives them little to work with.
Is the result the same every time?
Yes. The paper texture comes from a hash of the pixel coordinates rather than a random generator, so the same photo and settings always produce the same drawing.
Can I print it?
Yes, and it suits printing well, especially on matte or textured paper which reinforces the tooth. Export at full resolution as PNG.
Why did fine detail disappear?
Pastel simplifies by design, and a long stroke averages over a long line. Use a shorter stroke length and more colour levels if detail matters.
Are my photos uploaded to a server?
No. The stroke directions and the export both run in your browser using the canvas API. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Which format should I export?
PNG. The tooth is fine texture sitting on flat colour, which is exactly the combination JPEG smears.
Is transparency preserved?
Yes for PNG and WebP output. The alpha channel is untouched. JPG has no alpha, so transparent areas are filled with the background colour first.
Can I process a batch?
Yes. Add as many photos as you like and the same stroke settings and paper texture are applied to each.
Can the effect be undone?
No. Smearing and colour breakup both discard detail permanently. Your uploaded file is never modified, so keep the original.
Does it add a watermark or need an account?
No to both. No sign-up, no email wall, no daily limit and no watermark on the output.