We developed a system for progressively creating images through a simple sketching and compositing interface. A large database of images is searched for matches to a user's binary outline sketch; the results of this search can be combined interactively with the current image. We introduce image descriptors for the task of estimating the difference between images and binary outline sketches. The compositing part is based on graph cut and Poisson blending. We demonstrate that the resulting system allows generating complex images in an intuitive way.

A descriptor for large scale image retrieval based on sketched feature lines
Mathias Eitz, Kristian Hildebrand, Tamy Boubekeur and Marc Alexa
EUROGRAPHICS Sketch-Based Interfaces and Modeling
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PhotoSketch: A sketch based image query and compositing system
Mathias Eitz, Kristian Hildebrand, Tamy Boubekeur and Marc Alexa
ACM SIGGRAPH 2009 Talk Program
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Video