How to create pencil sketch photo effect in Photoshop
- September 9th, 2024
- Photoshop
Learn to transform any photo into a stunning pencil sketch photo effect. We’ll guide you through desaturating, inverting layers, and tweaking settings for that perfect effect.
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- Program: Photoshop
- Time estimation: Under 3 minutes
- Difficulty: Easy
Photoshop Pencil Effect Tutorial
First, open your image in Photoshop. Right-click on the background layer in the Layers panel and select Duplicate Layer. This will create a copy of your image to work on.
Step 2: Desaturate the Duplicate Layer
With your duplicated layer selected, go to the menu bar and click: Image > Adjustments > Desaturate
This will remove the color from your image, making it grayscale.
Step 3: Duplicate the Desaturated Layer
Right-click on the desaturated layer in the Layers panel and select Duplicate Layer again.
Step 4: Invert the New Layer
With the new duplicated layer selected, head back to the menu bar and click: Image > Adjustments > Invert
This will invert the colors on the layer.
Step 5: Change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge
Change the blend mode of your inverted layer to Color Dodge. This can be done from the dropdown menu at the top left of the Layers panel where it usually says Normal.
Step 6: Apply the Minimum Filter
With the same layer still selected, go to: Filter > Other > Minimum
Change the Preserve option to Roundness from the dialog box and adjust the Radius. Start by setting the radius to around 12.3, but you may need to adjust this depending on your specific image to get the desired pencil effect.
Click OK once you are happy with how it looks.
Conclusion
Thanks for following along, and stay tuned to Creative Nerds for more quick Photoshop tips!
Feel free to customize the specific settings mentioned as per your image’s needs to get the best result!
Preview
Video Transcript:
Hello and welcome to Crave Nerds. In today’s Photoshop tutorial, we’ll be sharing with you how you can create a pencil effect using Photoshop. So we’re going to start off by duplicating our original layer and then heading over to Image, Adjustments and select Desaturate. Once again, we’re going to duplicate our layer, which is a desaturated layer, then we’re going to head over to Image, Adjustments and select Invert, then we’re going to change the blend mode to become Colour Dodge, then we’re going to head over to Filter and select Other, Minimum and then from here we can apply, this is where it will apply our pencil effect. So we’re just going to change the Preserve to be Roundness and then from here we can just keep bringing up the Radius until we’re happy with the effect. So I would probably go with something around the 12.3 mark, this looks quite good but it will vary from photo to photo. Select OK and if you slightly zoom out, you can see that it’s created a really nice pencil effect that you can recreate and apply to almost any photo. Thanks for watching and stay tuned to Creative Nurse for further quick tips on how to use Photoshop.
