Ever needed a quick pencil sketch for a layout? Here’s how to do one in under a minute:
Step 1.) Open in image in Photoshop or Elements.
Here’s one of my favorite ones of my Sam and me:
Step 2.) Convert to Black and White
In PS Elements: From the Menu Bar choose Enhance >Convert to Black and White and click Ok to accept the default settings.
In Photoshop: From the Menu Bar choose Image> Adjustments> Black&White.
You get a nice black and white picture:
Step 3.) Duplicate the layer
Duplicate the layer by right-clicking on it and choosing Duplicate Layer or going to the Menu Bar and choosing Layer> Duplicate Layer
Step 4.) Invert the new layer
Now Invert this layer by holding your CTRL key and pressing I (capital i) so you get a negative of the original:
Step 5.) Make the sketch
- In the layers panel, pull down the blending mode menu (circled in the screen shot below) and choose Color Dodge. Everything will vanish – don’t panic!
The negative layer cancels out the positive layer underneath.
- From the Menu Bar choose: Filter > Blur >Gaussian Blur and set the amount to anywhere from 1-9 – do it visually. A lower number gets more pencil lines but less details; a higher number thicker lines but more details. See? It may still look light, but we’ll darken it next.
Step 6.) Merge and adjust
- Holding your CTRL key click on each of the layers to make them active. Then still holding the CTRL key press E to merge the two layers into one.
- Open the Levels dialog box by pressing CTRL L. Adjust the levels by moving the left (black) arrow to the right until it touches the start of the “mountain” and then adjusting the center arrow to your liking.
Click ok to accept and you get this final result:
Cool huh?
(If the lines still aren’t dark enough for you, you can now duplicate the layer the same way we did before, then set the blending mode to multiply).
Happy Scrapping!
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