How to Create a Smooth Pencil Sketch from an Ordinary Photograph

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By christiv35
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Create a Smooth Pencil Sketch from an Ordinary Photograph

This tutorial will show you how to turn your ordinary photograph into an original pencil sketch work of art with Photoshop.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Original Photograph
Adobe Photoshop
Some familiarity with photoshop
Imagination and Creativity

Step 1

Original Photograph

Open the image in Adobe Photoshop that you want to convert to a pencil sketch work of art. I used a favorite picture of a dog named Laddie.
Step 2

Desaturated Layer

Duplicate the original layer - (Cntrl + J).
We want to desaturate this layer - (Cntrl + shift + U).
Step 3

Inverted Layer

Duplicate this desaturated layer - (Cntrl + J).
Invert this new layer - (Cntrl + I).
Step 4

On this Inverted layer change the layer mode to color dodge. Your picture should now be just a white screen. (that's okay, that's what you want)
Step 5

Some tuitorials would have you stop here but you want better right?

Next you want to go to Filters - Blur - Gaussian Blur. Play around with the radius until you get the look you want. I used a radius of 9.
Step 6

Now for the fun part in my opinion, burning and smudging. This is where you individual creativity comes into play and this Pencil sketch is much more than a bunch of photoshop filters.
I like to flatten my image at this point and clean up the background with the eraser tool.
Step 7

Once your image is flattened create a new layer- select all and fill with white. Drag this layer to the bottom of the original. You will need to unlock the original layer to do this. With the top layer selected use the eraser tool to clean up the art. I erased any background smudges and left my background plain. Do what works best for your photograph.
Step 8

Next I select the burn tool and go in and darken areas. Then I use the smudge tool to blend and smudge until I get a smooth looking pencil sketch.
That's it!