Sketch Master is an Android app that those looking to make a little something extra out of their phone photos should take a look at. It’s an app that’s designed to offer users a way of turning photos into what look like hand-drawn and painted sketches. There are effects that range from black and white pencil sketches to multicolor pencil effects. Cross-hatching, cartoon colors and more are all available here in Sketch Master, including a built-in photo editor to make it easy to adjust different aspects of your photo before you turn it into a hand-drawn work of art.
Just as with other apps and games, you can download Sketch Master from the Play Store for free. Once you launch the app, it’ll ask for either an image from your gallery or give you the option to take your own.
You can choose whichever photo file you want here, whether or not it’s been taken by yourself or sent o you or downloaded, you can choose whatever you like. I wanted to choose something that would look good in Sketch Master so I chose a photo of my new Stormtrooper mug.
One thing I liked is that you can easily mirror, rotate or flip your photo in this view, but you can also go into a more featured photo editor that’s built in to crop and apply different frames and such before using the filters in Sketch Master. This Photo Editor is actually supplied by Adobe, as Sketch Master are partners of the Creative Cloud Platform, and as you can see there’s a lot on offer here:
Including a Photo Editor from the likes of Adobe is a great idea, because users get access to polished software that really delivers. For creative types that have a Creative Cloud, they can sign in and get access to a lot of free content there and then.
The Photo Editor has a lot of different filters in it as well as frames and overlays, but the real fun is of course the Sketch master effects, of which there are many to choose from:
See here I have applied a black and white sort of sketch look to the whole photo, and it does look really cool. The black eyes of the Stormtrooper look good and the wood on my desk looks great. Still, there are better options for photos with real people in them, like this example:
As you can see here, the lady looks good in a watercolor style painting on the far-right of the display. Trying the same sort of thing with my Stormtrooper looks good, too.
Sketch Master works great for landscape photographs as well, like these here:
Sketch Master is a pretty nifty little app, and while some might consider it to be basic in its approach, that’s not really the point. Sure, this is an app that only offers up effects that mimic pencil and watercolor drawings, but if certain users are only looking for those effects, then why not download an app that’s good at this sort of thing? If they want to make some changes to composition of their image they can do that with the built-in Photo Editor from Adobe. That’s the whole idea of Sketch Master, it’s a fun and simple to use app that can add a little something to your photos or completely change them. I’m a big fan of black and white photography, and with Sketch Master I can turn color photos into black and white with something extra all rolled into one app.
Ratings
- Speed (4/5) – Sketch Master is a speedy app and it’s one that doesn’t take long to produce new photos with effects and such.
- Theme (4/5) – There’s a good selection of effects and filters here, but it’s only really for those that enjoy this style of art work.
- Features (4/5) – Some more filters would be nice, but this is a free app and it’s very easy to use, so it’s great for all ages.
- Overall (4/5) – While it might not be for everyone, Sketch Master is simple and easy to learn and is nice and speedy as well.
Pros
- Lots of different pencil styles to choose from, varying from black and white to lots of color, too.
- Works on low-end hardware just as well as it does on higher-end devices.
- Great for all ages and users as it’s very easy to use.
- Great way of adding something different to your photos and creating new photos altogether.
Cons
- Introduction to the built-in Photo Editor from Adobe would be nice, as it could confuse some users.
- Explanation and description of each effect inside the app would help a lot.
Sketch Master is a neat Android app that might not impress everyone, but it’s very easy to use and does exactly what it says it does; it turns your photos into sketches. They look damn good afterwards as well, and even though there’s room for improvement, this is a good app for younger users and those looking for a specific type of photography filter, rather than getting flooded with far too many options. There are some edits that can be made to the composition and such with the built-in Photo Editor as well.