Photoshop Tutorial - Colour / Black Pencil Drawing

1. Introduction

There are many photoshop tutorials depicting colour and black & white pencil drawing effects, but this is how I do it using the 'sketch' and 'Photocopy' filters. The Infra Red 'add on' to the Black & White effect is achieved by adjusting the Red, Green and Blue Channels to the settings shown.

2. The Effect

2.1 Click here to see the original image and click on the original image to return to this page.

2.2 Click here to see the colour pencil effect and click on the colour pencil effect to return to this page.

2.3 Click here to see the black & white pencil effect and click on the black & white pencil effect to return to this page.

2.4 Click here to return to the main Photoshop page.

3. Keystrokes

3.1 Open the image.

3.2 Check that the default colours in the toolbox are set to black and white, for the foreground and background respectively.

3.3 Image>Image Size, setting height = 690 pixels. Click OK

3.4 Image>Adjustments>Vibrance, setting vibrance = 20, saturation = 20. Click OK.

3.5 Filter>Sharpen>Unsharpen Mask, setting Amount = 150%, Radius = 1 pixel, Threshold = 0 levels. Click OK.

3.6 Copy the 'background' layer and rename it 'colour effect'.

3.7 Filter>Filter Gallery>Sketch>Photocopy, setting Detail = 3, Darkness = 25. Click OK.

3.8 Set the layer blending mode to 'soft light' and the opacity = 75%

Note: This is the completed Colour Pencil Drawing effect. Continue with the tutorial to achieve the Black & White Infra Red, Pencil Drawing effect.

3.9 Copy the 'background' layer and rename it 'black & white effect', ensuring that this layer remains sandwiched between the 'background' and 'colour effect' layers.

3.10 Image>Adjustments>Channel Mixer, ticking the Monochrome box and setting Red Channel = -20, Green Channel = 200 and Blue Channel = -80. Click OK.