Welcome back to another very exciting tutorial here at the PhotoshopTrainingChannel.com.
My name is Jesus Ramirez and you can find me on Twitter @JRfromPTC.
In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to create a line drawing from a photo in Photoshop.
We'll start out with the same stock photo that I used for the Mockingjay Movie Poster
Tutorial, and we'll apply a few effects to give it that pencil drawing look. This effect
is actually very straightforward. You can apply it to almost any image, but keep in
mind that it will look better when you have a subject with a white background. Also, you
can follow along with me if you like, but if you're using your own image, you may have
to enter different values on the filters that we apply, so that they work on your photo.
Okay, let's get started. The first thing that I'm going to do is I will click on the background
and I'm going to Click and Drag it over to the New Layer icon. Then, I'm going to create
a new Black & White Adjustment Layer. This is going to turn everything black and white.
I don't need their properties, so I'm just going to click on the double sided arrow to
collapse the panel, then on the background copy, I'm going to switch the Blending Mode
to Color Dodge. And what Color Dodge does is it creates a stronger or more contrasted
version of Screen. If I go into Screen, you'll see what that creates; Color Dodge, similar
to screen, but more contrast. Then, I'm going to invert the colors. That means that the
light colors will become dark, and the dark colors will become light. And you can do so
by pressing Ctrl I on the keyboard, or by going into Image, Adjustment, Invert, but
Ctrl I, or Command I on the Mac, is much faster.
And you'll notice what happens. Everything sort of disappears, except for the black pixels.
If I come back into Screen, you'll see what that does. It essentially washes everything
out because only the light colors are showing, but if you intensify that effect, everything
is gone, except for the really, really dark pixels. What I'm going to do now is I'm going
to double click on the layer, click on Convert to Smart Object. If you're using a version
of Photoshop that does not have Smart Objects, you don't have to worry about this step. The
only reason I'm creating a Smart Object is so that I can have Smart Filters and I can
edit them later, but you don't have to do that. You can just go into Filter, Blur, Gaussian
Blur, and create the blur without a Smart Object, and I'll show you why a Smart Object
is beneficial.
But anyway, when you start blurring the image, you'll start seeing the outline of the image
come back, and this is what's going to create the basis of our line drawing. And the radius
that you should select is whatever looks good for your image. All the effects that I'm going
to show you today and the filters will have different settings if you're using a different
photograph, or if you want to get a different effect. So don't be so specific about the
settings that I use. Just look at the technique and adjust the settings accordingly to your
image. For this image, somewhere around, maybe, 1.9 or rounder. It looks like it will work.
I get a lot of details on the face, and on the jacket. Some of these lines are too dark,
but I think I can work with them. So I'm just going to leave the radius at 1.9 for now,
and I'm going to press OK. You can see that the Gaussian Blur was applied to the Smart
Filter, and the reason I created a Smart Object was that I could double click on the Gaussian
Blur Smart Filter to come back into the Gaussian Blur window, and adjust the effect, if necessary.
I'm not going to do that but I just wanted to give you that option, in case you needed
to make adjustments down the line. I'm going to click on this up pointing arrow to collapse
the Smart Filters, just to give it a little more room.
At this point, you might want to call this done, depending on the effect that you want
to achieve. But we want to create a much more realistic effect, so I'm going to show you
a few filters that are going to help us achieve that goal. I'm going to click on the background
copy, instead of clicking and dragging it to the New Layer icon. This time I'm going
to press Ctrl J, Command J on the Mac, which duplicates the layer. I'm going to Click and
Drag it to the very top. Now, I'm going to go into Image, Adjustments, Desaturate, which
desaturates the image. Then I'm going to go into Filter, Filter Gallery, and I'm going
to select Stylize, Glowing Edges. And this is going to help us create an outline around
an image that is going to mimic pencil lines, and you can play with the Edge Width to get
the width that is appropriate for the look that you're going for, the Edge Brightness,
and the Smoothness. For me, Edge Width of 1, Edge Brightness of 4, and Smoothness of
5 works. I'm going to press OK.
Now the lines are white and the background is black. I want the opposite, and we already
know how to invert colors. We did it just a minute ago. So I'm going to press Ctrl I,
Command I on the Mac, to invert this layer. Then, I'm going to use a Blend Mode to get
rid of the white pixels and keep the black. To do so, I'm going to go into Multiply. Multiply
makes the white pixels invisible and it makes the black pixels visible. So, now, I have
an outline from our drawing. What I'm going to do now is I want to create some shading
around my drawing, but I want to use something that looks like pencil wax. To do so, I'm
going to click on the background layer, again. Press Ctrl J, Command J on the Mac. Click
and Drag that duplicate all the way to the top. We're going to Desaturate it. This time,
I'm just going to press Ctrl Shift U, that's Command Shift U on the Mac, and if you forgot,
you can also get to that by going into Adjustments, and Desaturate. The shortcut's right here.
Now I'm going to apply a different filter. So I'm going to go into Filter, Filter Gallery,
and this time, I'm going to apply one of the filters found in the Sketch Section, and I'm
going to choose Charcoal, and that's going to create this sketching effect; looks a lot
like pencil lines, and that's what I want to use—Charcoal Thickness 1, Detail 4, Light
and Darkness 48. Again, you might want to play with these settings to get a different
look on your image if you're going for something different. Press OK when you're done. This
time, we don't need to do any inversion, but we do need to get rid of the white and keep
the black. So, we're going to change the Blend Mode to Multiply, and we get this effect.
And now we have the original line drawing with some extra lines to help us define the
drawing a bit more and these etch lines that make it look a lot like a pencil drawing.
If I Zoom In, I'm going to select the Zoom Tool by pressing Z on the keyboard, and I'm
just going to Zoom In, and you can see how this looks a lot like a drawing already.
The problem that I see is that I lost a lot of details in the eyes, so I want to bring
some of that detail back. I'm going to press B on the keyboard to bring up my Brush Tool,
then I'm going to make the brush a little bit bigger, so, maybe, something about this
big. And what I'm going to do now is I'm just going to paint with black on the Layer Mask.
I haven't created a Layer Mask yet, so I'm going to create on this Layer Mask icon to
add a Layer Mask, and if you will remember, when you paint with black on the Layer Mask,
it hides the pixels that are selected. I'm going to press X to press the foreground and
background colors. The foreground color is now black, and if I paint with black on the
Layer Mask, it hides the pixels that were there before. And I'm going to do the same
thing on this side. And, maybe, if I have a smaller brush, we can create a better defined
eye later, and, maybe, make it bigger again.
By the way, I'm using the bracket keys on the keyboard to adjust the brush size. I'm
going to Zoom Out by holding the Alt and using the mouse wheel, just to see the effect that
I have, and I don't like how this eye—the right eye—is looking, so, maybe, I'll hide
that entire area, and maybe, this area, too. And we're going to work with this a little
later on, to give it more definition. So, I'm using Mask to hide the filters that I'm
not happy with. And you could do that with the rest of the image. I'm not going to for
this tutorial. I'm just going to do the eyes, but, at least, you know the technique, so
you can apply it to your image. What I'm going to do now is add one more layer. This time,
I'm going to use the Wacom tablet to draw. If you don't have one, don't worry. I'm going
to show you how you can apply these effects with the mouse first. And what I'm going to
do is I want to just create some lines around the image to further enhance the effect of
a pencil drawing. What you want to do if you're using a mouse, is get a really small brush,
maybe, 1 or 2 pixels. We'll start with 1 and see how that looks, and I'm just going to
paint. That looks pretty good, but maybe the Opacity is too much. I'm going to bring that
down to, maybe, 56%, and I'll probably bring the Flow down and I'm going to paint now.
And that's looking much better.
This is looking more like the pencil lines that you see here, so I'm just going to press
Ctrl Alt Z, Command Option Z on the Mac, to Undo, and I'm going to Zoom In to the image,
and I'm just going to start painting in some areas. And now that I'm painting on it, I
actually think it's too dark, and I'm going to get rid of those lines by pressing Ctrl
Alt Z, Command Option Z on the Mac, and, maybe, bring the Opacity down even further, maybe
35%. And now that I'm painting, I'm sort of liking it better. So now I'm creating lines
in here. I'm filling in areas that I think need detail, maybe, like the earlobe here.
Here it needs a little more detail, and it’s okay if you don't draw perfectly. This is
more of a sketch look, so it's okay if you go over the lines and, you know, you have
the hand drawing look. That's what we're going for. So, just as you can see, I'm just simply
painting with the mouse. I'm not using my Wacom tablet yet. So that's how you would
do this technique using the mouse.
Now, obviously, if you have a Wacom tablet, it's a lot easier, and not only because it's
easier to draw with a pen, but you have pressure sensitivity. So I'm going to bring the Flow
all the way to 100%, Opacity 100%, and if you use a Wacom tablet, make sure this button
is pressed, so you can use pressure sensitivity when you draw. So I'm not really going to
draw too much. What I want to do is, actually, do two things. I want to enhance the hand
drawn look, and I want to fix areas that don't have a lot of detail. So, for example, I can
come into the nose here, and, maybe, add-- We'll help enhance the nose, like so. What
I'm also going to do is in areas where there's shadows, maybe I want to apply some lines
that look hand drawn, like so. And I'm not doing too much. I'm essentially scribbling
on these areas just to make it hand drawn. So, got a little more detail in the ears,
maybe, come back and work on the eyes a little bit. Make the eyelash a little bit darker,
and I'm going to go a little bit faster.
All I'm really doing is creating this hand drawn look on the edges here, just to make
it a little more realistic. Also, in areas like the hair down here, I can, maybe, do
something like this, to make the hair stand out a little bit better. And, again, in areas
where the shadows may withdraw, more lines that look hand drawn, like that. And I'm not
doing too much, as you can see. And, something you may want to do on edges like this, maybe
you extend the lines out and it looks more like a hand drawing. As you look through your
image, you may find areas like this where the filter didn't do that good of a job, so
you may want to hide it by just painting over it, like so. And, obviously, the more time
that you spend, the better results that you get; but you get the idea.
One thing that I am going to do is in areas like this where there's not a lot of detail.
I can come in, and just paint a line along the edge, just to give it more definition.
And, again, in these areas, I'm just going to do some very, very light strokes here.
And if you're thinking to yourself, in areas like this, it's going to be really hard with
the mouse, and yeah, it is. It's obviously a lot harder to draw with the mouse than it
is with the Wacom tablet. But it can be done, you just got to take your time. In areas like
this, I'm just going to go the opposite direction of the strokes. That way, it looks a little
more like a hand drawing, and again, create those edges there. And I'm not going to take
too much more time because I think the filter did a really good job, but I just wanted you
to see how you can further enhance the image if you needed to. I'm going to double click
on the Zoom Tool, just to go to 100% and you can see our final drawing there, and once
you have everything completed, one thing you may want to do is this. I'm going to add a
new solid color, and I'm just going to make it white. I'm going to disable this layer
and I'm going to go to the Channels Panel and I'm going to select anyone of these panels.
It doesn't really matter which one, they're all the same. We're working with a black and
white image, so they're all going to be 100% the same. So choose one, Click and Drag it
over onto the new channel icon to duplicate it. Select it, and then, press Ctrl I on the
keyboard, Command I on the Mac, to Invert.
Now, we're going to create a selection out of the light pixels, which are the pencil
marks. I'm going to press Ctrl, Command on the Mac, click on the channel copy thumbnail
to make a selection around those light pixels, come back into the Layers Panel, enable the
White Color Fill, and select another solid color. You can choose black if you want to,
but you can also choose a different color, maybe, you had a drawing with a blue pen,
or something like that. I'm just going to select the dark gray and press OK. Now, the
image is being created just by this solid color and this Layer Mask. If I hold Alt,
Option on the Mac, and click on the Layer Mask icon, you'll see what the Layer Mask
looks like. I'm going to hold Alt, and click on the Layer Mask icon again. Now, if you
want to make any further adjustments at this point, you will have to make them on the Layer
Mask, but I recommend making all the adjustments before you get to this point. That way, what
you see in the Layer Mask is the finished product. And, of course, you can change the
color of the background, which is white to something else, or, maybe, add a paper texture
or something like that, to make things more realistic.
And that's it for this tutorial. If you have any comments or questions, please leave them
down below. If you found this video useful, share it with a friend, and hit that Like
button, and, of course, don't forget to subscribe. Thanks for watching and I'll talk to you again,
soon.