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Style tutorial: Pencil sketch

I had a request for a tutorial (okay, after I prompted), so here we go. This is the style we're looking at.





The tutorial deals with icon #3, but we'll skim over the first two as well.

We start with a picture. This is a screencap from Romeo and Juliet, directed by Baz Luhrmann, capped by Anna at Secret Obsession.



*sigh* So pretty. Okay. I select an area, Juliet and her reflection, crop and resize, to get this:



Now for the pencily part. Duplicate the layer, then go to "Adjust - Negative Image" to negativize (for lack of a better word) the top layer. It should look like this:



Next, go to "Image" and choose "Greyscale," resulting in this:



Now set the layer to Dodge. It'll mostly disappear.



Now's where the fun starts. You can create the pencil effect by doing a gaussian blur, but I like to use the regular blur tool, "Adjust - Blur - Blur." Doing that once creates this image:



Try doing it again: "Adjust - Blur - Blur More." More details come out.



And again!



You can keep this up as long as you want to get the details you want. For this icon, I stopped after 3. Careful, though, because the more you do, the more it'll end up just looking like a b&w photo rather than a drawing.

So. After blurring, I merged the layers to create my base. Then I increase color depth to 16 million. The next step for this was to color the "paper." In playing around with blend modes, I've found that multiply works to color the white space without obscuring the lines. So for this, I wanted the water colored separately, so I selected Juliet's face and filled the area with a yellow-gold color, inverted the selection and chose a blue-green for the water, gaussian-blurred the layer by 7 pixels, then set it to multiply.



That was too bright, not old-looking enough, so I added a layer filled with #6C5516, and set it to color at 40%.



Still too bright for what I wanted. I added a black and white gradient at a 45 degree angle and set it to overlay.



Now it's too dark, plus it's not old enough looking. I used an aged brush by [info]crumblingwalls in a medium gray-brown, erasing it where it obscures the reflection too much, and set it to normal at 60% opacity.



Time for a little more texture. Another aged brush, in a darker cinnamon brown, erasing it from the reflection and set to normal at 14% opacity.



Next the border, and I can't for the life of me remember who made this. Probably [info]saava or [info]dtissagirl. It's a dark brown, set to normal at 30% opacity.



I like this without text, personally. But it needed text for a challenge, so I used Aquiline at 10 pt, fading each line to blend with the background. It reads "It's like the mirror. The thoughts are there, but they create no reflection in you." From BtVS, "Earshot."



For this one, I did things a little differently. I created the base as I described above, but after merging the base layer, I added a dark brown raster layer and set it to color. This made the lines brown rather than gray, and the multiplied gold layer on top added richness to the lines as well as creating the paper color. I used some more aged brushes on it, added some noise and motion-blurred it to get the effect of pencil marks.



I did the same with this, except I added a text brush by [info]crumblingwalls. So so pretty!



Let me know if this tutorial was useful. I'd love to see what you come up with.

ETA: I wrote this at 4 am, and forgot to credit Joseph M. Apice, whose tutorial showed me how to create the base.

Comments

( 40 ideas — Have an idea? )
[info]kasatka wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 12:58 am (UTC)
Meh, most of the images don't show up for me. =\ Looks neat though!
[info]remyheart wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 01:03 am (UTC)
That's because I'm writing this at 4 am and I forgot to upload some of them. :) Try reloading and see if they all show up now. I think I got them all. I'm so tired I can barely see. :)
[info]kasatka wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 01:07 am (UTC)
Yup, they work now. Thanks! Really neat effect. =)
[info]remyheart wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 08:26 pm (UTC)
Most excellent! I'm glad you like it. :)
[info]jas_the_short wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 01:15 am (UTC)
Cool effect, thanks for the tutorial! =)
[info]eula_tequila wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 01:38 am (UTC)
That's a really cool effect. *g* Thank you for sharing.
[info]xsnowballinhell wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 01:50 am (UTC)
That's really interesting. I kinda like the pencil effect without the coloring, though. Thanks for the tutorial! :-)

Mandy
[info]remyheart wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 08:27 pm (UTC)
Hey, if just the pencil works for you, then cool. :) I'm glad it's helpful.
[info]clauw wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 02:07 am (UTC)
Thank you so much for sharing that effect, I just had a lot of fun playing with it! :D
[info]kathyh wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 03:09 am (UTC)
I really liked the style of this so I had a go using Photoshop Elements 2.0. It isn't nearly as clear as yours but I almost managed to make it work.

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<img [...] spike"/>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

I really liked the style of this so I had a go using Photoshop Elements 2.0. It isn't nearly as clear as yours but I almost managed to make it work.

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/Kdewhunter/Buffy-and-Spike-drawing-kh.jpg"Buffy & Spike"/>

Thanks for a fascinating tutorial. I'll keep trying with it.
[info]kathyh wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 09:07 am (UTC)
Being totally tacky here and replying to my own post. I had another go and got this

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<img [...] spike"/>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

Being totally tacky here and replying to my own post. I had another go and got this

<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/Kdewhunter/Spike-drawing-kh.jpg"Spike"/>

which seems to have transferred the technique to PS Elements a bit better. You did say you wanted to see the results! Stopping now I promise.
[info]remyheart wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 08:28 pm (UTC)
Oh, that looks neat!! I didn't realize it'd work so well with fandom set in modern times. :) I love the way Spike looks like that. It softens his hair to fit better with his face. Thanks for sharing!
[info]heretic_angel wrote:
Aug. 1st, 2004 07:42 am (UTC)
May I inquire you on how you did this? I can't seem to find on how to do this effect in photoshop.
[info]kathyh wrote:
Aug. 1st, 2004 09:28 am (UTC)
I'm using Photoshop Elements so it was a bit of trial and error but I went to Image - Adjustments - Invert for the negative bit; then to Image - Mode for the Grayscale; then I set the Layer to Linear Dodge as that seemed to duplicate [info]remyheart's example better than Colour Dodge. After that it was mostly the same as the tutorial except I couldn't (or didn't know how to) do anything to the colour depth so I fiddled a bit with Colour Variations in Enhance - Adjust Colour. I did find it worked better with some pics than with others and the lines weren't always as clear so I duplicated the image before I started putting on the colours and brushes. Hope that helps.
[info]birdythenerdy wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 07:41 am (UTC)
Oh! Thanks for the great tutorial. I converted it to PSP7, but it was awesome. This is what I made:



Thanks again :-D
[info]remyheart wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 08:29 pm (UTC)
That is absolutely gorgeous. What a great job! I'm glad it worked for you. Now go forth and make more, because that's truly lovely.
[info]nibo wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 08:45 am (UTC)
thanks for the great tut!! You said you wanted to see the results - and I ended up with this (after a little fiddling)

[info]remyheart wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 08:35 pm (UTC)
I like it! I wonder how the border would look set on soft or hard light, though. Or overlay? Still, the color you chose for multiply looks really good.
[info]fyredarkle wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 11:42 am (UTC)
Hey there, this is a great tutorial except it seems I am doing something wrong...I am guessing at the Dodge and then Blur stages (though it may be earlier)...probably because I am not really familiar with PSP8 yet. Please excuse my stupidity, hehe

Firstly should the duplicate layer be at a specific opacity? I ask because otherwise I wonder why have a duplicate layer at all? (confused*

I am also wondering if there are other settings within the 'dodge setting' that I need to fix or something. I go to 'Layers' then 'New Adjustment Layer' then 'Brightness Contrast' then the 'General' tab and pick 'dodge' but there is still quite a bit of the image showing when I do so. (What settings should the opacity and 'adjustement tab' etc be at?)
Subsequently the 'blur step' appears to be doing nothing at all!

Sorry, I hope this makes sense. Typical I seem to be the only one who can't get this to work, heh.

Thanks in advance!
[info]unbrokenspell wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 03:08 pm (UTC)
the dodge setting is a layer property. go to the window that shows all the layers you have, right click on the 2nd layer and click properties. blend mode should be dodge. (the brightness contrast is generally for things like thumbs in the corner of photos or something)
[info]fyredarkle wrote:
Aug. 1st, 2004 02:21 am (UTC)
Thank you so much...it's working better already *chuckle* damn my PSP8 inexperience, hehe.
[info]remyheart wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 08:46 pm (UTC)
The duplicate layer should be at 100% opacity. I didn't make up the base creation process, but from what I can tell, the negative overlays the positive image, and then the blur allows some of the positive image to bleed through, creating the pencil effect.

You should set the layer to "dodge" by using the layer palette on the right. Hopefully it's shown; if not, go to "View - Palettes - Layers" to bring it up. There'll be a little click box that says "Normal;" click it and choose "Dodge" for the dodge effect.

Some of the image may still show through. That's fine. :)
[info]fyredarkle wrote:
Aug. 1st, 2004 02:25 am (UTC)
Ah and THANK YOU even more for the tutorial in the first place and now your personal help. It's already coming along much better...I have the pencil effect happening as I type! *grin*

I'll post any thing I finish here later for your viewing pleasure (or not, bwahaha).
[info]fyredarkle wrote:
Aug. 1st, 2004 04:18 am (UTC)
*points at icon used on this post* NEW ICON ALERT! *squee*. Obviously I didn't actually use the effect exactly as outlined but I thought this gave a nice, yet different, outcome anyway.

THANKS again!!!
[info]remyheart wrote:
Aug. 3rd, 2004 05:25 pm (UTC)
Very neat! Hey, take it, run with it, find fun things to do. :) I got this icon by blurring just once and went "Hey, cool. Guess I'm done." :)
[info]dipping_sauce wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 03:18 pm (UTC)
Excellent tutorial! Though I use GIMP, I was able to adapt this easily (just change the Dodge of the greyscale inverted image to Addition)

This is my go at it:

[info]remyheart wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 08:47 pm (UTC)
Oh man, I love that. Is that a brush that you used for the white parts? It looks really nice.
[info]dipping_sauce wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 09:45 pm (UTC)
Thanks!

It's two brushes, actually -- one with flowers, and another with a sort of jagged edge and the letter. They're [info]quebelly's, I think. (I just discovered the Wonder That Are Brushes, and went on a bit of a mad downloading spree.)
[info]midnightrose618 wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 08:18 pm (UTC)
Call me a complete retard (I'll agree lol) but I can't find that whole 'Adjust-Negative'! Lol, help?
[info]remyheart wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 08:49 pm (UTC)
Hmm. What program are you using? I'm using PSP 8, and Adjust is one of the menu options (File, Edit, etc.) and Negative is the last option in that menu window.
[info]midnightrose618 wrote:
Jul. 31st, 2004 08:53 pm (UTC)
I'm using PS 7 so I'm not sure where to look.
[info]cherreh wrote:
Aug. 2nd, 2004 11:53 am (UTC)
I use PSP7, and in mine it's under Image --> Negative Image. For you it might be under Image Adjustments, from what I've heard.
[info]notarysojac wrote:
Oct. 21st, 2004 08:44 pm (UTC)
Image > Adjustments > Invert

or simply hit Apple-I

The direction to "set the layer to Dodge" has no single equivalent in Adobe Photoshop - we have Color Dodge or Linear Dodge and neither duplicated the effect the author got in PaintShop.

If we knew what layer effect Dodge does in PSP, we could probably figure out the equivalent in PS.
[info]dragonflymuse wrote:
Aug. 1st, 2004 04:09 pm (UTC)
Great tutorial - very clear and precise (and one I could follow easily - lol).

And since others are sharing their results...



Not overly happy with the border brush I chose... might have to go try it again. But I love the image effect.
[info]remyheart wrote:
Aug. 3rd, 2004 05:27 pm (UTC)
I'm glad it was clear. :) I wrote it, like I said, at 4 am, so I wasn't at my best. Heh. :)

I love that icon, especially with the text. Gorgeous.
[info]threebylive wrote:
Aug. 2nd, 2004 12:04 pm (UTC)
The tutorial is awesome and works well on full sized images also! :)
[info]jackiesue wrote:
Aug. 2nd, 2004 01:26 pm (UTC)
I converted this tut to PSP7 as well and my icon is the result! It's such a neat effect and I'm definitely going to be using this with my icons now. Thanks! :)
[info]remyheart wrote:
Aug. 3rd, 2004 05:28 pm (UTC)
Oh wow, that is fantastic! All y'all are amazing me. I'm so pleased!
[info]lady_maethoriel wrote:
Oct. 21st, 2004 05:01 pm (UTC)
Its a good tut...too bad its the same thing as this tut, except you added a coloring thing.
[info]ch1pper wrote:
Dec. 7th, 2005 11:03 pm (UTC)
Thanks! I used it to make this:
( 40 ideas — Have an idea? )

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