Tutorial: Pencil Sketch - an alternative method

[DannyRaphael]

The attached file illustrates the difference between a couple (so-called) 'pencil sketch' (or some might say charcoal or chalk) effects.

Image/Method and/or Comment
* Top Left/Original image for the sake of comparison

* Top Right - Photoshop Sketch/Photocopy filter (settings: 24/5) + a Levels adjustment layer for added contrast.

* Bottom Left - Generated using the method Lisa posted from the About.com Graphics forum in which one step calls for converting the image to Grayscale. (See the Realistic Pencil Sketch thread just before this one. The results are a definite improvement over the vanilla Photocopy filter.

* Bottom Right - This was an "accidental art" discovery. (The layer-by-layer sequence and settings can be seen in the screenshot of the Layers palette included in the attachment.)

I found it interesting that sandwiching the middle desaturated, inverted, blurred with two color layers seemed to yield more skin tone detail than the other methods. I topped these layers with a Channel Mixer adjustment layer for the Grayscale look and a Levels adjustment layer for contrast tweeking.

While the last two methods are Photoshop specific, from what I've seen of other applications like Paint Shop Pro, Photo Paint and PhotoImpact it appears they could be ported without a great deal of difficulty. (Easy for me to say.)

To me the results of these methods provide base images. Additional possibilities might include "patch up holes," adding texture (Texturizer? Angled Strokes? Crosshatch? Colored Pencil?), apply a little blurring here and there (Gaussian? Dust and Scratches? Smart Blur? Median?) and/or adding color where desired.

I look forward to seeing other "Photo-based Art" methods described in this forum.

A big thanks to Doug Nelson, our site Webmaster, for making this "new playground" available, especially to wannabe-artists w/o a lick of native drawing skills, like myself!

~DannyR~

[jeaniesa]

WOW! Great results Danny! I don't have time to "play" at the moment, but I DO plan on participating in this forum whenever I can. I'm at the bottom of the learning curve, but was greatly encouraged with my "water color" results, so I'd like to learn more.

Jeanie

[daniel83]

Danny, do you have any idea what filter they use for www.sketchmyphoto.com? i tried and the conversion is very fast as it can display the sketch instantly.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by daniel83

Danny, do you have any idea what filter they use for www.sketchmyphoto.com? i tried and the conversion is very fast as it can display the sketch instantly.

Hi Daniel... Welcome to RP. Check this link...

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/pho...-examples.html

I don't know know what was used to achieve the effects illustrated at SketchMyPhoto. Considering the near instant results, I doubt if it was any kind of commercial plugin.

Based on the quality of the SketchMyPhoto examples and the transformation done on an image I uploaded, honestly I wasn't too impressed. The results one can achieve using Akvis Sketch, the absolute best plugin of this naturein my opinion, run circles around SketchMyPhoto.

As far as I know the fully functional 30-day trial of Akvis Sketch is still in effect. If so, give it a go.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by sharynideas

Here is a couple of attempts I've made at pencil sketches. Still needs refining to get a darker, less subtle version.
This is what I do with PS Elements 5.

Thanks for sharing the steps to your methods.

A couple easy ways to darken the final result in Elements or Photoshop...
1. Add a Levels adjustment layer to the top of the layer stack and drag the far left and/or middle slider controls to the right.
2. Add a Levels adjustment layer to the top of the layer stack, change the layer blend mode from Normal to Multiply or Color Burn and adjust Opacity as needed.

[ydelle]

I never found a sketch action or tut that really looked like a real pencil drawing.
Also went to the sketch site and the pics came back very jagged when they were printed out.
I will keep on looking for that perfect sketch.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by ydelle

I never found a sketch action or tut that really looked like a real pencil drawing.

Agreed. Unfortunately "pencil sketch tutorial" has been misapplied by many people, including yours truly, for many years.

I will keep on looking for that perfect sketch.

You will never find a method based only on actions, filters or plugins. A pencil sketch look (rendered by pencil or digital stylus) has characteristics that can only be achieved by hand. Plugins and filters don't have the built-in intelligence to make tonal, stroke direction, stroke density decisions that only a human artist can make.

[Gewuerz]

Thanks for the nice tutorial.

Gewuerz

[zigzaggzoom]

I am really impressed Danny. I like those all the methods and the images. Basically those all the images cab help me to draw different kind of images and that is step by step. I consider that as a tutorial pictures of the pencil art.