Turn over the picture gallery on your phone. Perhaps an old picture of your parents first meeting, showing your pals laughing at a backyard barbecue, the drowsy puppy lying in a sunshine. Imagine now those moments captured pencil lines guiding expressions, shadows swirling across the paper. Turning pictures into sketches has a certain alchemy. You are giving a picture a completely new character businessfig, not retouching a photo.

There are plenty of techy methods to start; no paint-stained fingertips are necessary. Opening your app store is like having a sketch party for your pictures—Prisma, ToonMe, and hundreds more. You add a picture, play about with a few parameters, and then your selfie looks like a somber charcoal sketch, or perhaps a zippy comic strip. Wild is the range. Whimsical color splashes, dramatic black-and- white, soft hatching like you would find in a notebook sketch.

Then, though, there is the hand-drawn trail. Get hold of a real pencil and paper. It may turn into an adventure. Things sometimes go sideways; a face turns unexpectedly comical, a background changes into abstract squiggles. Claim it. A few of the best works were pleasant mistakes. I used to try to draw my old beagle. The ears finally became quite large—family mythology, today. Hand sketching adds unique qualities not possible with computer-generated images. Sometimes the best bit is those untidy margins.

For those yearning something more professional, looking for a freelancing artist is wise. Look through internet portfolios to find folks that transform pet pictures into manga covers or graduation pictures into fine art. Toss a picture their way to check what returns. The perspective of every artist will astounds you. The best thing about this is You don’t need an artistic degree to start this process.

But why trouble drawing at all? Simple—pictures abound, but drawn versions defy convention. Among the digital trash, they attract attention. Send one as a thank-you letter, frame one above the fireplace, or print a heart-felt anniversary sketch. Personal and appealing, sketch-ified images inspire those you are giving real thought for.

So grab a pencil if you’re feeling adventurous, dig out a picture, try one of those applications, or pick something. Play about; avoid obsessing about errors. Sketches are about seeing your experiences in an unexpected perspective, not about perfection; occasionally, they also have some entertainment value.