How to turn a Photo to a Sketch in Photoshop

Ever look at a photo and think that would make a really nice sketch.  I have, but if your like me and can’t draw you’re often left wondering.  Not with Photoshop.  Here are simple instructions to turn a photo into a sketch.

Here’s a picture I took at a shoot earlier this year.  I think this would make a great sketch.

A photo that would make a great sketch!

A photo that would make a great sketch!

1. Open your photograph in Photoshop.
2. Turn your photograph to black and white by clicking Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate.
3. In the layers pallet, right click on the background layer and click “Duplicate Layer”
4. Rename the layer by double-clicking on the current name, “Background Copy.”  Call is “Sketch.”
5. Invert the colors in the new layer by clicking Image -> Adjustments -> Invert.
6. On the layers pallet, change the blending mode “Color Dodge.”  Your photo should now be 99% white.
7. Add a Gaussian Blur by clicking Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur.
8. Use the Radius Slide to set the amout of “sketching” you want.  In this example, I used 4.
9. Flatten the image by clicking Layer -> Flatten Image.
10. Save your image using File -> Save As so you don’t overwrite the original!

Here are the results:

The Results!

The Results!