Producing a pencil sketch

1. Camera settings
2. Exposure
3. Jpeg, tiff or RAW
4. Work flows
5. Jpeg work flow
6. RAW flow
7. File details
8. Storage
9. Computer set up and basic work flow
10. Image selection
11. Transferring images between folders
12. RAW processing
13. Sharpening
14. Shadow/highlight tool
15. Correcting under-exposed images
16. Overexposed images
17. Reducing digital noise
18. Correcting sloping horizons
19. Mono conversions
20. Layers
21. False snow
22. Producing a pencil sketch
23. Using layers to produce a painting effect
24. Using a layer to burn and dodge
25. Curves
26. Altering contrast using curves
27. Altering part of the curve
28. Pysadelic curves
29. Curves and monochrome
30. IR conversions
31. HDR (High Dynamic Range) processing
32. Highlight & Shadow in Photomatix
33. Book list
34. Return to home page

1: Open an RGB image and make a copy layer by dragging it to the new layer icon.

2: Image>Adjust>desaturate this new layer

3: Drag this layer to the new layer icon to make a duplicate layer.

4: With this new layer active Image>Adjust>invert

5: Then change the blending mode for this layer to Color Dodge. Your image will become predominantly white.

6: Use ONE of the blur filters to make this layer look like a sketch. Try Gaussian to start with but any of the other filters will have a different effect. Only use one. Experiment with any adjustment angles and/or settings. Also try lowering the opacity of this layer.

7: Now create a pattern layer by clicking the adjustment layer icon (fourth from right) and selecting Pattern. Click the preview window box arrow and also click the fly out menu arrow. From the drop down palette select ‘patterns' you are looking for the ‘stucco' pattern. the layer will go grey and grainy. you can change the scale of this pattern by double clicking the thumbnail and using the sliders that appear. Also try using other patterns.

8: In the layers palette change the blending mode to ‘overlay' and adjust the opacity to suit.

9: Your image should now look like a drawing.

10: To add some subtle colour, as in the above example double click the background layer to make it movable. The layer name will change from ‘background' to'0'.

11: Drag this layer in the layers palette so it is immediately under the pattern layer. Adjust the blending mode to ‘soft light'. Your screen should now look like this.

You can also experiment with other blending modes.

Once you've got to this stage you can add colour by painting on new layers using different blending modes and playing with the opacity.

I much prefer the above result to one below achieved by using the colour pencil filter in PS's artistic set.