How to make a drawing from a photo?
Photoshop (Photoshop) - a program that has a huge number of features, many of which ordinary users do not even know. One of the most interesting features of the most popular image editing program is the ability to draw a picture from a photo. We will talk about how to make a drawing from a photo in Photoshop in this article.
Photoshop Features
There are various techniques you can use to accomplish the task of turning a photo into a drawing in Photoshop. Each technique allows you to achieve different effects. You can make a pencil drawing from a photo, or you can make a picture painted with paints, a cartoon image, etc. Let us consider in more detail the most convenient and popular methods.
brush painting
This task is easily accomplished with Photoshop's new Oil Paint filter tool. This tool contains 2 sections - "Brush" and "Lighting". In the first section, there are four "sliders": "Stylization", "Clarity", "Scale", "Bristles Information", in the second - two: "Angled", "Shine". As you may have guessed, the first tool is responsible for setting the "artist's pen", the second - for creating the necessary lighting for the "canvas". By playing with the appropriate filter sliders, you can achieve different sizes and nature of strokes, eventually creating a picture in the style that is most pleasing to you.
pencil drawing
Surprisingly, in order to make a pencil drawing from a photo, it will take more effort than to “draw” with paints. The work will be simple, but more steps will be required.
- Open the desired photo in Photoshop.
- At the moment in the palette Layers (Layers) you should have one layer called Background, copy the layer and name it "Photo1".
- Press the key combination Ctrl + SHIFT + U, after that the layer will turn black and white.
- Copy the layer again, name it "Photo2" and invert it with Ctrl+I.
- Now in the layers palette, select the Color Dodge option for the "Photo2" layer (after that, the layer will turn white, don't be alarmed, it should be so).
- We go through the path Filter / Blur / Gaussian Blur and move the "slider" in the palette that appears. At this point, the pattern will begin to "show up". In the filter, you can select the size of the strokes, the shadow and the depth of the picture.
- In principle, with the help of a skillful selection of the last parameters, it should already turn out quite well, but in most cases additional brush adjustment is required. On the main toolbar, select "Brush", color - black. In the properties of the brush, set the following settings - Hardness - 0%, Oracity - 5-10%, Diametr - the most comfortable for drawing, after which we edit the drawing by adding our own strokes. By the way, with the help of a white brush, on the contrary, you can remove unnecessary strokes.
cartoon drawing
Making a cartoon drawing out of a photo is perhaps the most difficult thing, although it is strange, because the word "cartoon" is so frivolous. To complete this task, you 
basic drawing skills and patience are required.
- Open the photo in Photoshop.
- Add a new transparent layer.
- Select the "Brush" tool, color - black, size - 1 pixel.
- We make the transparent layer active and start "drawing" on it - tracing the outline of all elements of the photo.
- Once we are done with the stroke, select the Fill tool and color the elements as we wish - since we are drawing a cartoonish drawing, we recommend using bright colors.
- All! It is done.
Programs for creating drawings from photos online
The above schemes for turning a photo into a drawing are quite simple, but if you do not want to perform even such small actions, you can always use 
some online service for solving this problem, for example, Photofaniya or Cartoonize . Just upload a photo, press Enter and wait for the result!
Other programs
Whatever one may say, Photoshop is still a rather difficult program to use, non-advanced users and the Layers panel will not immediately find it. On the other hand, mastering Photoshop is a very useful skill, and therefore the result is worth the effort. However, no one will mind if you use a simpler program to turn a photo into a drawing. Read about the most popular programs that solve this problem.
In this article, we'll show you an easy way to turn a photo into a cartoon drawing in Photoshop using various filters and blending modes. We don't have to paint or draw anything, so the result can be saved as an action and used for other frames.
Let's start. Open the image in Adobe Photoshop.
Unlike photographs, cartoon drawings have a limited set of colors, are characterized by clear borders and little posterization. To make a photo cartoonish in Photoshop, we will add effects using filters.
First, let's create a copy of the original layer so that the changes do not affect the original. Let's use the command Layer / "Layers" → Duplicate Layer ... / "Create a duplicate layer ..." or simply drag the layer icon onto the create a new layer icon in the bottom menu on the layers panel.
Now let's use the filter Filter / "Filter" → Blur / "Blur" → Smart Blur ... / "Smart Blur ...".
Our task is to make the colors in the photo simpler and "flatter", to smooth and blur the tonal transitions that are in the original image. We select the blur parameters so that the facial features remain recognizable and fairly clear, and the tonal transitions are smoothed out. As a starting point, you can use the parameters presented in the screenshot.
After the image is "smoothed", through the filter Smart Blur / "Smart Blur ..." make it even more contrasting with levels Image / “Image” → Adjustments / “Correction” → Levels / “Levels”.
Now let's create a copy of the layer layer1 and use the filter Photocopy from the group Filter Gallery / “Filter Gallery” (menu Filter / “Filter” → Filter Gallery ... / “Filter Gallery ...”).
We need to select the filter parameters in such a way as to highlight the main lines in the photo well and make the picture look like a pencil sketch.
This is what the image and the layers panel look like at this stage:
Set the top layer with the sketch to blend mode Multiply / "Multiplication".
The picture is starting to look like a drawing, but we'll move on.
The following steps will show you how to make a cartoon image out of a photo in Photoshop that will resemble a drawing from a comic book.
Click on the layer Layer 1(it is in the middle of the layers and is a blurry copy of the base one). Apply a filter to it Cutout/"Application" from the menu Filter / "Filter" → Filter Gallery / "Filter Gallery".
We select the filter parameters to your taste. It is necessary to reduce the number of tonal transitions and make the borders of colors in the picture more pronounced, but at the same time preserve the main features of the face and the recognition of the photo.
We put the layer layer1 blend mode Linear Light / "Linear light" and adjust its opacity.
Hand-drawn photographs look quite interesting. Such images are unique and will always be in fashion.
With some skills and perseverance, you can make a cartoon frame out of any photo. At the same time, it is not at all necessary to be able to draw, you just need to have Photoshop at hand and a couple of hours of free time.
In this tutorial, we will create such a photo using the source tool "Feather" and two types of adjustment layers.
Not all photos are equally good for creating a cartoon effect. Images of people with pronounced shadows, contours, highlights are best suited.
The lesson will be built around this photo of a famous actor:
The transformation of a picture into a cartoon takes place in two stages - preparation and coloring.
Preparation
Preparation consists in the selection of colors for work, for which it is necessary to divide the image into certain zones.
To achieve the desired effect, we will divide the picture like this:
- Leather. For the skin, select a shade with a numerical value e3b472.
- Let's make the shadow gray 7d7d7d.
- Hair, beard, costume and those areas that define the contours of facial features will be completely black - 000000 .
- The collar of the shirt and the eyes must be white - FFFFFF.
- Highlights need to be made slightly lighter than the shadows. HEX code - 959595 .
- Background - a26148.
The tool that we will work with today - "Feather". If you have difficulty using it, read the article on our website.
Coloring
The essence of creating a cartoon photo is to stroke the above areas "Feather" followed by filling with the appropriate color. For the convenience of editing the resulting layers, we will use one trick: instead of the usual fill, apply an adjustment layer "Color", and we will edit its mask.
So, let's start coloring Mr. Affleck.
- Make a copy of the original image.
- Immediately create an adjustment layer "Levels", we will need it later.
- Applying an adjustment layer "Color",
in the settings of which we prescribe the desired shade.
- Press the key D on the keyboard, thereby resetting the colors (foreground and background) to their default values.
- Go to the adjustment layer mask "Color" and press the keyboard shortcut ALT+DELETE. This action will paint the mask with black and completely hide the fill.
- It's time to start tracing the skin "Feather". Activate the tool and create a path. Please note that we must select all areas, including the ear.
- To convert the path to a selection, press the keyboard shortcut CTRL+ENTER.
- Being on an adjustment layer mask "Color", press the keyboard shortcut CTRL+DELETE, filling the selection with white. This will make the corresponding area visible.
- Removing selection with hotkeys CTRL+D and click on the eye near the layer, removing visibility. Give this element a name. "Leather".
- Applying another layer "Color". We set the hue according to the palette. The blend mode must be changed to "Multiplication" and lower the opacity to 40-50%
. This value can be changed later.
- Go to the layer mask and fill it with black ( ALT+DELETE).
- As you remember, we created an auxiliary layer "Levels". Now he will help us in drawing the shadow. Double click paintwork using the layer thumbnail and the sliders, make the dark areas more pronounced.
- Again we stand on the mask of the layer with the shadow, and outline the corresponding areas with the pen. After creating the outline, repeat the steps with the fill. Switch off when finished "Levels".
- The next step is to stroke the white elements of our cartoon photo. The algorithm of actions is the same as in the case of the skin.
- We repeat the procedure with black areas.
- Next up is coloring the highlights. Here we again need a layer with "Levels". Use the sliders to lighten up the image.
- Create a new layer with a fill and paint highlights, a tie, the contours of a jacket.
- It remains only to add a background to our cartoon photo. Go to a copy of the source and create a new layer. Fill it with the color defined by the palette.
- Deficiencies and "misses" can be corrected by working with a brush on the mask of the corresponding layer. The white brush adds areas to the area, and the black one removes.
The result of our work looks like this:
As you can see, there is nothing difficult in creating a cartoon photo in Photoshop. This work is interesting, however, quite laborious. The first shot can take several hours of your time. With experience, an understanding of how the character should look on such a frame will come and, accordingly, the processing speed will increase.
Be sure to check out the instrument tutorial. "Feather", practice stroking paths, and drawing such images will not cause difficulties. Good luck with your creativity.
How to make a cartoon photo in Photoshop in 5 minutes?
Think it's difficult? - Not at all! And now, friends, I will teach you how to make a cartoon photo in Photoshop to amuse yourself, surprise others and to it wasn't boring.
Turn on Photoshop
First of all, launch this “magic”, as you already understood, Photoshop graphics editor.
Applying the effect
Now - click on the "Filter" menu line to open a list of its "offers".
In the "drop-down" list - click on the line "Filter Gallery". You are almost there, guys.
And now - click the left mouse button on the "Imitation" filter subgroup. And when all the options for this function open, select "Application". This will be the very “magic” tool that will modify your picture in a split second.
On the right, in the effect settings window, you will see three parameters, changing which you can achieve different results of frame processing.
Setting the parameters
The first of them, "Number of levels" - is responsible for the clarity of the picture. Increasing its value - you add the accuracy of nuances to your cartoon image.
The next one, Simplicity of Edges, will play into your hands if you move its “slider” to the left. The more to the right it turns out, the more your picture will look like a set of different shapes from a school geometry course.
And the third one, "Clearness of Edges" - gives your drawing more detail when you move the "slider" of this setting to the left.
Choose, friends, the most suitable, in terms of the final result, and the optimal parameters of this effect in your opinion, and click on the "OK" button.
I will say right away, guys, that a lot depends on the "source" of the future "cartoon". Take those where the person is “captured” in close-up, and there are not very many small colored details. Then - the result of processing will be prettier.
But if you want to become a true Photoshop professional, then here you go...
Good luck to you, and supportive creative muses! See you!
Sincerely, Sergey Ivanov
In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a cartoon illustration from a regular photo. Using photo sketching techniques, brushes, halftone textures, you will get a professional comic effect. Let's start!
Preview of the final result:
Step 1.
Open the image of the girl from the resources of the lesson (Ctrl+O).
Desaturate the image right away (Image-Adjustment-Desaturate).
We get the following result:
Step 2
Duplicate this layer (Layer-Duplicate Layer or Ctrl+J).
Invert colors in an image (Image-Adjustment-Invert or Ctrl+I):
As a result, we get a semblance of a negative:
Changing the blend mode (Blending Mode) this layer on Color Dodge (color dodge):
Step 3
Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. (Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur).
Let's leave only the contours of the image. Set the blur radius to 5.7 px.
The resulting sketch looks pretty good, but it needs to be improved. In the places indicated in red, we will increase the visibility of the outlines.
Step 4
Let's merge the layers of the image. To do this, right-click on the thumbnail of any layer and select - Flatten Image (Layer-Flatten Image).
Rename the resulting merged layer (double click on title) to the Sketch layer.
Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N) under the sketch layer and fill it (Edit-Fill or Paint Bucket tool) white (#ffffff).
Create a mask on the sketch layer (Layer-Layer Mask or click on the mask icon at the bottom of the layers panel).
Step 5
Activate the sketch layer mask (click on it) and select Brush (brush) black color (#000000) 50 px with 45% stiffness (hardness). We paint over the background areas to the left of the girl and the upper right corner.
To clean up the extra strokes of the legs, use the black brush. (brush) 35px with soft edges, swiping over them.
Your sketch should now look more defined, like the image below:
Step 6
Set the blending mode (Blend Mode) layer with a sketch on Multiply (Multiply), then duplicate it (Ctrl+J or Layer-Duplicate Layer) 7 times. This technique will help to bring out the missing details of the image.
Select all copies of sketch layers (Ctrl+click on layer thumbnails) and merge them into one layer (click right mouse button on the selected layers and select - Merge Layers).
Rename the merged layer to "Sketch Details" and create a layer mask for it.
Step 7
On the "Sketch Details" layer mask, use the Brush (brush) black to paint over almost the entire image, except for the girl's shoes, hair, and gun.
Your image should look like this:
To complete the work on the sketch, we will clarify some more points. Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N) and call it "Contours". Choosing a brush (brush) 3-4 px with black hard edges. Opening the brush settings panel (F5) and in the section "Form dynamics" (Shape Dynamics) set size variation (Size Jitter) pen pressure (Pen Pressure). We emphasize the contours of the face with a brush, imitating the comic effect.
Step 8
Here's what our sketch looks like after we've finished working on it:
Merge layers "Sketch", "Sketch details" and "Contours" (Ctrl+click on layer thumbnails, then Ctrl+E). Name the resulting layer "Sketch".
Wonderful! Now let's start coloring our sketch. Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N) and call it Primary Colors. Set the blending mode of this layer to Multiply. (Multiply).
I didn't use separate layers to paint the heroine's hair, skin, and clothes. One layer is enough in our case. If you are going to colorize on a tablet, then activate the "Shape Dynamics" section in the brush settings palette (f5) and paint with 100% opacity (Opacity).
Step 9
If you don't have a tablet, select the pen tool (Pen tool) in outline mode (pen icon in a frame in the top menu) and create an outline around the girl's face.
After closing the contour, right-click on it and select from the menu - Create Selection (make selection). Specify the feather radius in the selection dialog box (feather) 0 and click OK.
Set the foreground color to #fedcb9. Filling in the Selection (Alt+Backspace or Paint Bucket Tool) foreground color.
Using this method of painting, we colorize the entire sketch. Below are the colors for each patch area. If the fill colors go beyond the outline of the area being painted, use the Eraser tool to erase (Eraser Tool) superfluous.
Step 10
Fill colors:
Having created the color base of the image, we will give it depth by adding shadows and highlights. Create a separate layer for shadows and highlights (Ctrl+Shift+N) and call it "Shadows/Lights". Add a clipping mask to this layer. (right-click on the thumbnail of this layer and select - Create Clipping Mask).
Whatever we do on the clipping layer will be limited to the underlying color layer.
Step 11
In this step, we will define the light source in order to correctly distribute the shadows and highlights in the image. In our case, the light falls on the right.
Keeping in mind our light source, we begin to mark the blackouts and light areas. Using a soft brush (brush) with opacity (Opacity) set to "pen pressure" (Pen Pressure) if you are on a tablet; and brush (brush) with opacity (Opacity) 30-40% if you use a mouse. Below are the colors that I used to apply shadows and highlights.
Step 12
This is how the illustration now looks with shadows and highlights.
As a finishing touch, we will add a halftone texture to the girl's image. Download the set of halftone textures from the resources of the lesson and open them in Photoshop. Choose one from the set and transfer (MoveTool) to our document. Change the bit mode before transferring.
Place the halftone texture above all layers in the panel and change the blending mode to Multiply. (Multiply).
Now, so that the pattern is only on the girl, create a clipping mask on the layer with it. (right-click on the layer thumbnail and select - Create Clipping Mask).
Lowering the Opacity (Opacity) halftone layer up to 40-50%.
Step 13
Adding a Mask to the Halftone Pattern Layer (Layer-Layer Mask-Reveal All) and black brush (brush) 120-130 px and 80% hardness (hardness) hiding part of the image.
And we get the following result:
Step 14
To remove the white background around the girl, use the Magic Wand Tool (Magic Wand Tool) with a permit (tolerance) at 32 (Top Menu). We make a click on the white background, highlighting it.
With the main background selected, additionally press Shift to activate the “add to selection area” option, and press the tool between the arms and on the hips.
Step 15
Once you have selected all areas of the background, go to the menu Layer - Layer Mask - Hide Selection (Layer-Layer Mask-Hide Selection). This will remove all the background from the image.
Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N) below the layer with the girl and call it "Background". We fill (Edit-Fill or Shift+F5) its color #f07e0f.
Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N) above the background layer, but below the "Girl" layer. We call it Lines.
Step 16
Activate the Brush (brush) and select the very first one in the default set. Opening the brush settings panel (F5) and in the "Brushprint Shape" section (Brush tip shape) set the size to 8 px with spacing (Spacing) 175%.
In the "Form Dynamics" section (Shape Dynamics) increase size fluctuation (Size Jitter) up to 100%. Set the foreground color to white (#ffffff).
Hide the visibility of the layer with the girl (click on thumbnail eye) and, holding Shift, draw a horizontal line with a brush (brush) in the center of the canvas from left to right.
Step 17
Increase the line to the height of the canvas using Transform (Edit-Transform or Ctrl+T). Hold Alt and drag the middle node of the frame up, stretching the line vertically.
This is how the pattern turned out:
Go to the layer with the line in the menu Filter-Distort-Polar Coordinates (Filter-Distort-Polar Coordinates). Activate the option "Rectangular to polar" (Rectangular to Polar).
Step 18
It turned out a nice radial pattern.
Press Ctrl+T (Transformation) and, holding Alt+Shift, increase the rays on the canvas.
Blur the rays with the Gaussian Blur filter (Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur) with a radius of 14.8 px.
Step 19
Lowering the Opacity (Opacity) beam layer to 52% and turn on the visibility of the layer with the girl.
And now our cartoon is ready! This is the final result:
I think you liked such interesting techniques for creating comics. Good luck and creative success!
