Any photo to art programs aside from Fotosketcher?

[Neeka]

Hello! I can't draw to save my life and have about $8 in my bank account. If there's others like me out there, you might also use photos or 3d models to use for your backgrounds. However, I've noticed that I'm not exactly satisfied with what Fotosketcher does. I've tweaked but they still resemble photographs/ obviously look edited for my taste.

Do you have/know of any other (preferrably free/online) programs that achieve something similar?
[I've looked into Psychopaint, Gimp, PicMonkey, etc.)

Also to those who use 3d models--what do you think of using models (mostly architectural) from Second Life? Again, it'd bring me back to my 1st point about filtering them for a more sketched/cartoony look.

A sketchy look from Foto.: https://trello-attachments.s3.amazonaws ... ncil_3.jpg

[Mammon]

Not sure if this is legit advice or if I'm remembering it more rose-colored, but I'm experiencing the same problem with Photosketch now. The version of 1-1,5years ago was better and gave me sufficient BG quality. Not sure if that's actually true or if I'm misremembering it, so it's a longshot, but if you run out of ideas maybe try to find an older version...?

Also, I used Creative Common BGs andsubstituted real photos for backgrounds I couldn't find and then applied the same Photosketch filter to both. Maybe it'll look a bit less jarring to you if you use drawn BGs but with a Photosketch filter for most scenes that you can actually find CCs for, and only take the sacrifice of quality for the few unavailable BGs? Pick the right filter, and you can make a greater variety of Bgs (that clearly differ in art style) go together.

[Imperf3kt]

I found that fotosketcher works great with flat images.
I suggest first posterizing your photograph (reducing the bit complexity and number of colors) but not too far that you start to see squares.

I used fotosketcher on some stuff I drew in GIMP a couple of years ago and the result was pretty neat.
That said, fotosketcher is limited in functionality and the images it works with are also limited.

My best suggestion is simply to learn Gimp better. I also cannot draw, but with some practice, GIMP can do most of the work for you.
I also suggest installing the GAP plugins and the plugins pack from 2012. You can find these at the GIMP plugins directory.

The images I referred to:
Original http://i.imgur.com/blTj7E2.jpg
Fotosketcher 'pencil sketch' http://i.imgur.com/bYEpOgN.jpg