Transform Your Photos into Art with Free AI Tools
I love using artificial intelligence, which has become an essential tool in my everyday life, both for business and personal. My three favorite “personal assistants” are available for free: Microsoft Co-Pilot, Chat GPT, and Gemini AI. I have used them often to generate images (Gemini is usually the best), but this weekend I experimented with having them turn photos I took on a vacation getaway to Vermont, into beautiful watercolors.
All I did was upload the images and say “please turn these into watercolors,” and within about 3 minutes they were transformed in art! Here are some of the before and after….you can also ask them to create oil portraits, cartoons and more. When it comes to people photos, the results were not as impressive…in fact, it made us all look much older. But the way the technology is advancing so rapidly, that could be different by next week.
There are also several AI tools designed just for turning photos into art. They are all free and you might want to explore these too.
| Tool | Best For | Key Features | Platform |
| YouCam Online Editor | Portraits & avatars | AI headshots, background remover, text-to-image | Web, iOS, Android |
| Fotor | All-in-one editing | Watercolor filter, object remover, AI enhancer | Web |
| FluxAI | Watercolor effects | High-res downloads, no watermark | Web |
| Artguru | Artistic styles | 10+ styles including watercolor, oil, anime | Web |
| PortraitArt | Personalized gifts | Oil painting, caricature, pop art | Web |
| OpenArt | Watercolor & filters | Style selection, creativity sliders | Web |
| PhotoDirector | Style transfer | Cartoon, anime, scene generators | Web, iOS, Android |
| AI Ease | Quick watercolor conversion | Fast processing, high-res output | Web |
Tips for Best Results
- Use high-resolution images with good lighting.
- Choose simple backgrounds to help the AI focus on the subject.
- Experiment with different styles—most tools offer previews or multiple generations.
- For portraits, close-up shots with clear facial features yield the best artistic results.
Have fun playing!!!
The tomato behind The Three Tomatoes.
Cheryl Benton, aka the “head tomato” is founder and publisher of The Three Tomatoes, a digital lifestyle magazine for “women who aren’t kids”. Having lived and worked for many years in New York City, the land of size zero twenty-somethings, she was truly starting to feel like an invisible woman. She created The Three Tomatoes just for the fun of it as the antidote for invisibility and sent it to 60 friends. Today she has thousands of friends and is chief cheerleader for smart, savvy women who want to live their lives fully at every age and every stage. She is the author of the novel, "Can You See Us Now?" and co-author of a humorous books of quips, "Martini Wisdom." Because she's lived a long time, her full bio won't fit here. If you want the "blah, blah, blah", read more. www.thethreetomatoes.com/about-the-head-tomato
So interesting, Cheryl! Thanks for sharing new technology that those of us in business can always use.
How fabulous and creative and beautiful!!