Turning a photo into a drawing/sketch is a great idea if you want to optimize and customize your experience. It’s very engaging and it can help enhance your photos in an exciting way. Thankfully, the steps you can follow and learn how to do it are not very hard, which is exactly what you want to focus on in a situation like this. Photoshop is a great tool that can help you do that, and it’s not very hard.
Use your photo in Photoshop
The main focus here is to ensure that your original image is very high quality. That image should ideally have a sharp contrast. You can open the image and then duplicate the background layer with Command+J, just in case you mess anything up. Choose Convert to Small Object.
Inverting the image
Command+I will help you invert the image. You have to go through this step because it adds a little bit of depth to the process, while making it feel very cohesive and interesting. That’s why it’s totally worth giving it a shot.
After that, you can add the Gaussian Blur. The idea is to choose Filter, Blur and then Gaussian Blur. 50 pixels will be fine for the radius, but you can change the value and experiment to see what works in your own situation.
Modify the blend mode
Another thing you will have to do is to modify the blend mode. You can change that mode to Color Dodge, and as you do that you get to see a very interesting change and the image starts looking like a sketch already.
Adding the level adjustment layer
Of course, the look is still not set properly, so you need to click the Adjustment Layer icon in the Layers panel, and pick Levels. The idea here is to change the mid tone and dark tones to help increase the overall contrast. After that, you can add a black and white adjustment layer.
Creating a snapshot
Now that everything is pretty much set, we need to apply a new filter to the entire image. Select everything with Command+A, and then choose Edit/Copy Merged/Paste and it should be good to go.
Adding some final effects
From Filter, choose the Filter Gallery and from Stylize you can pick the Glowing Edges filter. With Command+I you can invert the image again. In order to add that drawing look, go to the Adjustment Layer, pick Solid Color and then ensure the color fill is highlighted. Use the Filter Gallery and Convert to Small Object.
Making your photos a sketch might not seem easy, but it’s certainly one of those things that can be very exciting. The idea is to experiment and see how you can make your images better. And thankfully these tips and ideas shown above will help you achieve that. Your focus has to be on creating a unique and engaging version of your existing image. These tips and guidelines can help you achieve that very quickly!
