Tutorial: Sketch, Tox Man method using Graphic Pen

[big_bad_toxman]

Danny has inspired my to go nuts with some photo art. So, here's something that I've been playing around with.

I was after a coloured pencil look with bright colours and a strong outline. I've come up with something that I think looks pretty good and it seems to work quite well on different photos. Here are the steps:

1. Duplicate the background layer
2. Add an HSB adjustment layer (grouped with previous) and bump up the saturation and lightness to make the colours nice and bright
3. Duplicate the background layer and move it to the top. Run the graphic pen filter (Filter - Sketch - Graphic Pen...) and tweak the settings to suit the image. Set the blen mode to Screen and set the opacity to 60%.
3. Duplicate the background layer and move it to the top. Set its blend mode to colour and set the saturation to 90% (I'm still learning blend modes, so not sure if this is a bit of a redundant step but it seems to add some depth back to the brightened image)
4. Duplicate the background layer and move it to the top.
5. Desaturate the new layer and crank up the brightness and contrast. We're going to use this layer to find edges, so we want to have really good contrast for the areas we like, while blowing out the detail in the areas that we're not interested in.
6. Filter - Stylize - Find Edges
7. Set the blend mode for the edge layer to multiply and set the opacity to 80%
8. Add a new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer and group it with the edges layer
9. Fiddle the brightness/contrast until you get a nice amount of detail

and Robert is your father's brother.

I've created an action that does all this, so feel free to grab it. No aftermarket photoshop filters were used, just the Graphic Pen and Find Edges filter. The action is for Photoshop 7.

The picture is of my youngest - Catherine in one of her more "relaxed" moods.

[big_bad_toxman]

After...

Here's the results

[big_bad_toxman]

And the Action...

Sorry - it's got a couple of other actions with it for backgrounds. The action is the "Graphic Pen Artwork" entry.

Cheers
Tony

[DannyRaphael]

Hey, Tox:

Interesting effect. Thanks for uploading the actions, too.

Here's an application of the action on the daughter of a friend of mine who plays with my daughter.

~Danny~

[big_bad_toxman]

Danny, I see she has the same front teeth as my eldest daughter!

[Cheryl H]

Interesting process. The results on all 3 look different to my eye--all 3 are pleasing. Graphic pen is a filter I haven't played with before.

It's always fun to try something new. Thanks for sharing.

[big_bad_toxman]

Thanks Cheryl! Funnily enough, my original subject for this action was a floral arrangement

I think that perhaps the "screen" blend mode blows out some images that have high contrast. It's worth fiddling with the blend mode of the "outline" layer to retain detail in bright areas.