How to make a photo drawn with a pencil in Photoshop. How to Make a Realistic Painting Effect in Photoshop

In this material I will tell you how, without much time and any in-depth knowledge and tricks, turn portrait photography into a pencil drawing (sketch).

In this material, I will use Photoshop version CS6, but the actions and commands used in the article are suitable for all versions of Photoshop up to CS3.

Below I have provided an image with the original and the finished result. In the picture on the left you see the original photo, and on the right the final image that we will get after applying the actions described in the article:

The first thing we'll start with is creating a copy of the original image. Open the photo in Photoshop, then open the layers palette (press F7) and press Ctrl+J, after which the background layer will be duplicated:

The copy will be located above the background layer and highlighted in blue, which tells us that this layer is active. All further actions we will produce with this copy of the image, leaving the original intact.

Now we need to desaturate the image. To do this, go to the main menu tab Image --> Correction --> Discolor (Image --> Adjustments --> Desaturate) or simply press the key combination Ctrl+Shift+U.

Now we need to create a duplicate of the black and white layer, in at the moment We have it active (highlighted in blue), so to duplicate it, press Ctrl+J again:

Invert the layer colors. Go to the main menu tab Image --> Correction --> Invert (Image --> Adjustments --> Invert) or simply press the key combination Ctrl+I.
This action in our case inverts the brightness values, which makes the light areas dark and the dark areas light, in other words, we get a negative photo:

Change the blending mode of this layer to “Color Dodge”. In this case, the working document window will be filled with white. Depending on the look of your photo, there may be some black areas remaining in some places, but the majority of the document will be filled with white:

Now go to the main menu tab Filter --> Blur --> Gaussian Blur (Filter --> Blur --> Gaussian Blur)

This opens the corresponding filter dialog box. Start moving the Radius slider to the right and you will see a sketch effect begin to appear in the document. The further you move the slider, the more blur effect will be applied and, accordingly, the intensity of the sketch effect will increase. However, if you move the slider too far, halftones will appear and the pencil drawing effect will disappear. In my case, I settled on a value of 12.5 pixels:

Right-click on the active (top) layer, and a context menu will open in which move the mouse cursor to the “Merge Visible” item, hold down the Alt key and left-click on this item. Thanks to holding Alt, we will have a new layer consisting of two merged upper (visible) layers. During this manipulation, the appearance of the photo in the working document window will not change. This is what the layers palette will look like:

Let's change the blending mode of this new layer to "Multiply" (Multiply), this action will darken the lines in the sketch. If you find that the lines have become too dark, reduce the Opacity value of the layer. I lowered the Opacity to 50%:

At this stage black and white drawing ready, and if you just need a black and white drawing from a color photograph, then you can stop. If you want to add colors to the sketch, then follow several steps below.

So let's continue. Let's make a copy of the background layer located at the bottom of the layers palette, for which we left-click on this layer and press the Ctrl + J combination, and a new layer will be created directly above the original.
But we need this layer to add colors to the sketch, so we’ll drag it with the mouse to the very top in the layers palette.

Now all that remains is to change the blending mode to “Color” (Color) and reduce the Opacity (Opacity), in my example I set the Opacity value to 65%:

Take another look at the end result:

Many people would like to learn how to make a real drawing from a photograph. Indeed, sometimes combinations look advantageous beautiful photos and pencil drawings. This business has its own charm.

But the catch is that making a good, real, high-quality drawing from a photograph is not so easy. Most existing plugins and programs do not make a pencil drawing, but some kind of similarity. Yes, it looks like it, but it’s a long way from a real drawing.

Let's consider two approaches to solving this issue:

Let's start exploring the first option.

I caught my eye quite interesting video lesson filmed by Alexey Kuzmichev. Indeed, the end result was a good pencil drawing from a photograph.

Turning a photo into a pencil drawing

Well, let's meet. I hope you liked the result. For me personally, yes. But, there is a small catch. Remembering all this is not so easy. So I decided to make a small cheat sheet that outlines all the necessary steps step by step.

Making a pencil drawing from a photograph step by step instructions

This is the image I got with this approach. There is a certain similarity with a pencil drawing, but, you know, we still need to work on the final result. Hover your mouse over to see the opening photo.

1. Make two copies of the selected photo – Ctrl+J. Turn off the visibility of the first top copy.

2. Go to the second copy and click Ctrl+I– invert the layer. Convert the layer to smart object. Making a blend mode - lightening the base. Go to Filters – Gaussian Blur – make the blur radius 15 px.

- add an adjustment layer to this layer Saturation– lower the saturation to –100 (bleach the image);
- second adjustment layer - Levels, in the left window set the value to 95 (add contrast for the photo);
— group all three layers (select the layers while holding Shift and pressing Ctrl+G), call this group Warp;

3. Go to the top layer and turn on its visibility.

- convert it to smart object, select black color from the color palette, the background color should be white;
- select a filter Filter Gallery – Sketch – Photocopy– detail 3, darkening – 20;

- filter Filter Gallery – Strokes – Slanted Strokes– Direction balance – 78, stroke length – 50, sharpness – 10; Change the blending mode to Darken; Name the layer Circuit;

- duplicate this layer Ctrl+J, change the blending mode to Darkening the base, reduce the layer transparency to 80%, name the layer in Outline - copy;

4. Create a copy of the Outline-copy layer Ctrl+J;

- filter Filter Gallery – Imitation – Fresco– size 10, detail – 10, texture – 1;
- filter Filter Gallery – Sketch – Letter Paper– Tone ballast – 50, grain – 5, relief – 25;
— change the transparency to 60%;

5. Copy the main, bottom layer with the photo Ctrl+J, move the copy to the very top;

- filter Filter Gallery – Texture – Texturizer– Texture – brick, scale – 100%, relief – 15, light – on the right, tick opposite Invert;
- filter Filter Gallery – Sketch – Halftone Pattern– size – 4, contrast – 4, pattern type – line;
- filter Blur - Motion Blur– angle 45, offset 40 px;
— The blending mode for this layer is – Hard light;
- name the layer Halftones;

6. Duplicate this layer Ctrl+J;

— filter – Grain, intensity – 45, contrast – 45, grain type – splashes;
— change the transparency of the layer – 85%;
- name the layer Corn;

7. Duplicate the Outline layer Ctrl+J and place a copy at the very top;

- filter Filter Gallery – Simulation – Fresco– size –10, detail – 10, texture – 1;
– Layer blend mode – Darkening the base, transparency – 60%;

8. Duplicate the Halftone layer, place the copy at the very top;

- filter Filter Gallery – Texture – Grain– grain, intensity – 45, contrast – 65, grain type – splashes;
- filter Filter Gallery – Sketch – Charcoal– intensity – 6, detail – 5, tonal balance – 88;
- filter Filter Gallery – Sketch – Halftone Pattern– size – 1, contrast – 0, pattern type – line;
- filter Blur – Motion Blur– angle 45, offset 100 px;
– layer blending mode – Ordinary, layer transparency – 70% ;

8. Duplicate the main photo Ctrl+J, place a copy at the very top, convert to smart object;

-filter Filter Gallery – Sketch – Photocopy– detail –3 (sometimes it’s better to set 2 for a more elegant line), shading – 20;
— layer blending mode Multiplication, transparency – 50% ;

9. Add a paper texture to the drawing:

— download the image with the paper texture to your computer, here;
— drag the image with the paper texture onto our image, it should be on top;
— stretch it to fit the entire photo through Transformation;
- change the blending mode to Multiplication;
- change transparency to 60% ;

For myself, I made a file in Word and printed it out; the whole thing easily fit on one sheet of paper on both sides. With this approach, mastering this technique is much easier and more convenient.

Here is another picture that I got. We move the mouse and see the original. Here, however, I had to work a little with masks to further blur the background:

For those who want to apply this approach in their work on a regular basis, I recommend making an Action for Photoshop in which you can record all the necessary actions, as a result, the process of turning any photo into a pencil drawing will take a couple of minutes.

This is one way. The result, in principle, is not bad, it may be suitable for certain tasks, but, alas, it is far from a real drawing. To fully master the technique of converting a photograph into a pencil drawing, I propose another method in which there are no filters and the final result will depend only on your artistic taste.

Pencil drawing from a photograph without filters

This option is more like drawing and you will have to rely on your inner sense of proportion and harmony. You can get completely different results from the same picture. But, as they say, the more interesting it is.

It is important to choose a good, contrasting photo. The more expressive the eyes and facial features are, the greater the chances of getting a high-quality drawing as a result.

I chose a photo of a girl wearing a hat with snow. The contrast is good, the eyes are expressive. In my opinion, transferring to pencil can give a photograph lightness, airiness, and greater consonance. inner world child. Which is what happened in the end. When hovering with the mouse, you can see the difference between the original and the final result:

Now let's look at what needs to be done for this.

Take our photo and make two copies using a key combination Ctrl+J, on the color palette Main color– white, background – black;
We call the top layer Crib, keys Ctrl+Shift+U bleach it, Layer transparency install on 40% ;
We call the second layer Drawing, Ctrl+Shift+U bleach it, Layer – Layer Mask – Hide All– make a layer mask;
Create a new layer above the Main image and fill it with white;
We highlight Layer mask on layer Drawing, we will draw on it;

This is what we should have at this stage:

Creating the necessary layers for a pencil drawing from a photograph

First brush – Line Pencil

To highlight the most expressive elements image we will need a brush similar to a pencil mark.

Choosing a tool Brush– key B, turn on Brushes control panel F5;
Select a regular, round brush with hard edges, set the size from 2 to 6 pixels. I put 4px;
Put a tick in the box Dynamics of shape (Shape Dynamics) – Size fluctuation (Size Jitter) we put it on 60% ;
Diffusion (Scattering) – Diffusion put 43% ;
Broadcast (Other Dynamics) – Opacity fluctuation (Opacity Jitter) put on 10% ;
Upper right corner of the Brush Control Panel - select New set of brush options– Save our new brush called Pencil line;

You can start with the initial sketch. The task at this stage is to carefully highlight the necessary parts of the drawing for greater expressiveness. It is advisable to start as carefully as possible, setting the transparency from 10 to 30%. Here it’s better not to finish drawing a little, then, closer to the end, you can once again make the necessary selections.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Remember, we are working on a Mask, and the white brush in this mode only reveals the image of the lower layer.

This is what I got at this stage with the layer turned off Crib. I deliberately did not finish drawing all the details; it is better, in my opinion, to add the necessary touches later, at the final stage:

Initial sketch of pencil drawing

Second brush Pencil-shading

Now it's time to move on to shading. To do this you will need a special brush.

Turn off the visibility of the layers Drawing and Cheat Sheet;
Let's do main color Black, Transparency we put it on 100% ;
Brush Pencil line, make the thickness 2px and draw a line along the white layer while holding down the key Shift, line length approximately 80px;
Magic Wand (W) select this line;
Editing – Define Brush– save this new brush called Temporary, remove the line from the white layer;
Turn on F5 Brush Control Panel and make the necessary settings for the new brush;
Dynamics of shape (Shape Dynamics) – Size fluctuation (Size Jitter)60%, Angle fluctuation ( Angle Jitter) – 3% ;
Diffusion (Scattering) – Diffusion — 43% ;
Broadcast (Other Dynamics) – Opacity fluctuation (Opacity Jitter) — 10%, Variation in paint amount ( Flow Jitter) – 80% ;
Brush imprint shape (Brush Tip Shape) – Intervals (Spacing) – 70%, Angle ( Angle) set the value (-20 degrees);
Save the new brush with the name Hatching pencil;

Setting the brush transparency Pencil shading by 5-10% and begin to carefully shade your drawing. The Cheat Sheet layer can be turned off so that you can immediately see what happens on the white sheet.

Gradually, by changing the brush size, transparency and brush angle, you can achieve a very good result. Don’t be lazy, change all these values more often, thereby bringing your creation closer to a real pencil drawing.

If necessary, the desired areas can be further treated with a Pencil Line brush.

And don’t forget the simple truth: it’s better to underdo a little than to overdo it. Gradually, as you master the technique, a stable understanding of when to stop will be formed.

This is the technique. There is nothing complicated, you just need desire and a little time to master. And the results can be very interesting.

Good luck to everyone and unusual creative solutions.

FotoSketcher - free graphic editor, with which you can turn a photo into a drawing using a large number of effects. The program turns images into drawings made with pencil or paints in different styles. Instead of a regular photograph, you will receive a painting painted by the artist's hand.

With FotoSketcher, you can discover the artist in you by turning photo images into paintings. Photos taken in FotoSketcher will be noticeably different from photos taken with a camera; if you try, you can create a real work of art in this wonderful program.

The name of the FotoSketcher program in Russian can be translated as photo sketch (sketch or outline). As a result of modification, a photograph (image) becomes a drawing or painting.

In FotoSketcher you can create images not only in the form of drawings made in different techniques, can be improved in a photo editor original photos: add or reduce brightness, increase contrast, color saturation, change size, crop image, sign a picture, add watermarks, send for printing, etc.

You can download FotoSketcher from the official website of the developer. The program runs on the Windows operating system; the application has a Russian interface language.

fotosketcher download

After launch, the main FotoSketcher window will open. At the top of the program window there are two panels: a menu bar and a button panel. The program is controlled from the menu bar.

Using the buttons, you can access the most popular functions of the program. Almost any graphic editor has similar functions: open an image, save an image, copy to the clipboard, paste, undo an action, crop, resize, add text, send to print, etc.

By default, in the main window of the program to demonstrate its capabilities, the initial image is open on the right side of the window, and the processed drawing, made in the form of a hand-drawn picture, is on the left side of the window. You can practice with this image, or add an image from your computer to the editor.

The program can be controlled not only with the mouse, but also with the help of “hot keys”. Click on the “Edit” menu item. In the context menu that opens, you will see which commands correspond to the keyboard keys.

Creating a drawing in FotoSketcher

Select the starting image, open it in the program, and then click on the “Picture Options...” button. This will open a new Drawing Options window. Here you can load settings (if settings have been saved previously), save settings, or reset settings to default.

First you need to choose a drawing style. Available in FotoSketcher large number various effects:

6 pencil sketch effects
2 ink pen sketch effects
10 painting effects (watercolor, oil)
7 stylized effects (cartoon, mosaic)
3 other effects
1 option without effects (frame, texture, text)

In the “Drawing style” setting, you need to select one of the presented styles: drawing made in pencil, ink, painting, cartoon, mosaic, etc.

When you move your mouse cursor over a certain style, you will see that a fragment of the image made in this style. This makes it easier to choose the right option.

After selecting a style, a fragment of the drawing will be displayed in the Drawing Options window. This fragment can be enlarged, showing the full size of the image, reduced to fit the window. This thumbnail image can be moved with the mouse in order to see different areas future drawing.

Now you can modify the image in accordance with the selected style: adjust the color intensity, contrast level, etc. Each style has its own settings. The Brush Guide button lets you change the size of the brush you'll use to create your drawing.

Apply various filters to give the image required type. Experiment to create a painting made in a certain style based on your ideas. Try to create a simple drawing first, and then, after you acquire the necessary skills, you can move on to creating more complex images.

After selecting the settings, click on the “Draw!” button. The project will take some time to process, so please wait until it is completed.

After processing is completed, the image is stored on the computer. If the result obtained is noticeably different from what was planned, then you can try to create several options before settling on a more suitable design.

This image shows that this is no longer a photograph, but a watercolor painting. The author of these lines studied in childhood art school, so I tried to make the drawing look like it was made watercolor paints(I liked watercolor best).

In a similar way, you can get creative by turning photos into paintings written in different styles.

In the final version, the image can be framed and a caption can be added to the picture. Try, create, create portraits, landscapes, etc. In order for you to succeed good paintings, necessary independent experience work in the program.

Conclusions of the article

The free program FotoSketcher is a graphic editor for image processing. With FotoSketcher, ordinary images are transformed into hand-painted paintings. The program has a wide selection of effects for turning a photo into a drawing made in different styles of painting and graphics.

Photo stylization is always very busy for beginner (and not so beginner) Photoshoppers. Without much preamble, I will say that in this lesson you will learn how to make a drawing from a photograph in Photoshop.

The lesson does not claim any artistic value, I will simply show a few techniques that will allow you to achieve the effect of a hand-drawn photo.

One more note. To successfully convert the photo there must be enough large size, since some filters cannot be applied (they can, but the effect is not the same) to small images.

So, open the original photo in the program.

Make a copy of the image by dragging it onto the new layer icon in the layers palette.

Then we desaturate the photo (the layer that we just created) using the keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+U.

Make a copy of this layer (see above), go to the first copy, and remove visibility from the top layer.

Now let's proceed directly to creating the drawing. Go to the menu “Filter – Strokes – Cross Strokes”.

Using the sliders we achieve approximately the same effect as in the screenshot.

Then go to the top layer and turn on its visibility (see above). Go to the menu “Filter – Sketch – Photocopy”.

As with the previous filter, we achieve the effect as in the screenshot.

As a result, we get something like this (remember that the results will only be fully visible at 100% scale):

We continue to create the drawing effect in Photoshop. Create a fingerprint (combined copy) of all layers using a keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E.

Then go to the menu again "Filter" and select the item “Imitation – Oil Painting”.

The applied effect should not be too strong. Try to save as many details as possible. The main starting point is the model's eyes.

We are approaching the completion of the stylization of our photo. As we can see, the colors in the “picture” are too bright and saturated. Let's correct this injustice. Create an adjustment layer "Hue/Saturation".

In the layer properties window that opens, use the slider to tone down the colors. saturation and add a little yellow on the model's skin with a slider color tone.

The final touch is applying the canvas texture. Such textures can be found in large quantities on the Internet by typing search engine corresponding request.

Drag the picture with the texture onto the model image and, if necessary, stretch it to the entire canvas and click ENTER.

Change the blending mode (see above) for the texture layer to "Soft Light".

This is what you should end up with:

If the texture is too pronounced, you can reduce the opacity of this layer.

Unfortunately, the requirements for the size of screenshots on our website will not allow me to show the final result at 100% scale, but even with this resolution it is clear that the result, as they say, is obvious.

This concludes the lesson. You can play with the strength of the effects, the saturation of colors and the application of different textures (for example, you can apply a paper texture instead of a canvas). Good luck in your creativity!

To create one that would look as realistic as possible and could be used to create various graphic works, it is not enough to use standard filters or programs. It is necessary to master the principles of operation Adobe Photoshop.

We decided to simplify your work and have put together several lessons that tell you in detail how to make pencil drawing in Photoshop to make it as realistic as possible.

Pencil drawing effect

This is perhaps the most best way from those that have ever been found on the Internet. Using this video lesson, achieve pencil drawing effect you can literally do it within 5 – 10 minutes.

Drawing with colored pencils

In this tutorial you will learn how to turn any photo into crayon using Adobe Photoshop. For beginners, it will take a little effort to complete this lesson in this program.

Pencil drawing from color photo

Making a pencil drawing

Our masters also decided to keep up with fashion trends in the world of Adobe Photoshop. That's why make a pencil drawing in Photoshop together with you on the pages of our website.

There are several ways to do it pencil drawing in Photoshop. This program even has special filters to create a similar effect. However, in this lesson you will learn how to create a sketch with a pencil without resorting to them.

It is not at all necessary to be able to hold a pencil in your hand or be professional artist. This lesson will show you how make a pencil drawing in Photoshop with the most realistic imitation of living materials.

A great example of how you can quickly and easily transform photo into pencil drawing (sketch) in Photoshop. In this video tutorial you will find all the necessary information, so even a beginner can cope with the implementation.

To convert any photos to drawing, done with a simple pencil , there are many plugins and programs. However, the opinion of the author of this lesson is unequivocal: “We have not yet created such a button to make a pencil drawing in Photoshop with one click.”

Pencil drawing in Photoshop

Many professional designers and wedding photographers use pencil drawing effect from a photograph in Photoshop to add grace and artistry to the photo. There are a lot of methods to transform a photo into a sketch using a simple pencil.