Made by other people

What you are looking at

Each of these started as an ordinary phone photo. The generator splits it into flat areas of colour, gives every area a number, and prints that on canvas together with the paints that match those numbers. Nothing is redrawn by hand, so what you see here is what the tool does with a photo like yours.

Why one result looks sharper than another

Three things decide it, and you control all three before you order.

• Light in the photo. A subject lit from the front keeps its shape when the colours flatten. Backlight turns a face into one dark blob, and no number of colours repairs that.
• How many colours you pick. 24 gives you big, calm areas and a fast evening. 48 keeps skin tones and fur detail, but the areas get small enough that you will want a fine brush.
• Canvas size. The same pattern on 20x30 cm has areas half the width of the one on 40x50 cm. A portrait below 30x40 cm is fiddly work; a landscape is fine at any size.

Try it before you decide anything

You see your own pattern in the browser, for free and as often as you like. Only when you want it printed does it cost anything.

• Your photo as a complete kit — canvas, paints, brushes and hanging brackets in one box.
• Print the pattern yourself — three A4 or A3 pages: the image, the numbered outlines and the colour legend.
• From a photo of your dog, cat or horse — why fur survives the conversion better than skin does.
• A colouring page instead of a canvas — the same photo, made for pencils on paper.