How to turn a sketch into an AI illustration

Photograph or export the drawing so that the important lines are visible. Remove avoidable distractions from the image, such as a dark camera shadow across the paper.

You do not need to resolve every detail. You do need to know which decisions matter. For a drawing of a cyclist carrying an oversized bouquet, these might be the forward movement, the large flower shape and the empty space ahead of the bicycle.

Write down the features you want to keep. This gives you a better review standard than whether the output looks polished.

Describe the medium and level of finish you want to explore. For example:

Develop this sketch into a flat editorial illustration with textured color fields and simple shapes. Keep the cyclist's forward lean, the oversized bouquet and the open space ahead.

This is a starting instruction, not a guarantee that the geometry will remain unchanged.

Avoid requesting several conflicting finishes in the same pass. A tightly rendered photographic treatment and a sparse graphic drawing solve different visual problems. Explore them separately if you genuinely need to compare them.

Bring the sketch into Plnty and use image-gen to describe the intended development. Compare the first output against the original before adding more detail.

Look for the drawing's structure:

• Is the main gesture still clear?
• Does the composition guide attention in the same way?
• Are the objects connected sensibly?
• Has a deliberately exaggerated shape become ordinary?
• Has the tool invented detail that distracts from the idea?

A polished result that loses the composition may be less useful than a rougher result that retains it. Select the version that gives you the strongest base for refinement.

If you want a particular texture or visual treatment, try Style transfer mode with the sketch or selected illustration as Subject and a suitable reference as Style.

Start with two images so that the relationship is easy to evaluate. A paper-texture reference might guide the surface quality; a finished illustration might also influence shading, forms and color. Inspect how much of each influence entered the result.

Keep the original sketch visible. It remains the source of the visual idea, even when the reference contributes the finish.

Use recolor when you like the structure but want to explore a specific palette. Choose the colors and their relative weights, then inspect whether the hierarchy still works.

For a structural correction, return to image-gen with a narrow request. If the correction needs a defined region, use inpaint to mark the area. For example, you may want to repair a handlebar without inviting a redesign of the whole composition.

Review each accepted change at both full size and thumbnail size. Detail can improve the finish while making the central idea harder to read.

Before placing the image in an article, poster or campaign, compare it with the original intention and the output requirements.

Check edges, anatomy, object connections and any printed text. Inspect the image at the actual size where it will appear. If it needs a background extension or a different crop, review that as another design decision.

Add final typography and production details in your layout workflow. A finished-looking raster image is not automatically an editable illustration file with the layers or vectors a project may require.