Create a work of art in three easy steps:

Professor Franklin’s Instant Photo Artist enables you to turn any photo into a work of art, by applying a series of filters that make your photos resemble oil paintings, pastel recreations or airbrush artwork.

The good thing about this piece of software is that it can convert the whole photo on its own, but it also lets you take control of the process. That is, you can grab the virtual brushes and create the painting on your own. You don’t even need to have any special skills, as the picture is already outlined in the background. Simply fill it in with colors while applying the effect you like most: oil painting, pastel, pencil, airbrush, etc. There are also special presets that resemble the work of famous painters or painting styles.

On the downside, I found the shareware limitations to be too strict, bearing in mind that this is a creative software tool that users would probably like to test more thoroughly.

With Instant Photo Artist you can turn your favorite photos into realistic artwork that you can then use for calendars, postcards or posters.

Professor Franklin’s Instant Photo Artist lets anyone paint like a master … absolutely no experience is needed. Wondering what can you do with your completed art? Think of the amazing holiday cards you can send out. How about creating invitations that will captivate your guests? Add elegant, artistic images to your website that are guaranteed to make your competitors green with envy. Create stylish art for use in cards, calendars or maybe to frame and decorate your wall. And remember, you don’t need any artistic experience at all.

You paint by moving your mouse over the outline of your photo. Select large brushes to paint abstractly and smaller brushes for finer detail. Your painting begins to appear before your very eyes and in minutes you’ve become one of the masters!