Forums > Digital Art and Retouching > Convert to line art, sketch, trace, outline ?

Photographer

Hero Foto

Posts: 989

Phoenix, Arizona, US

Anyone know a tutorial for trace, line art, sketch for PS?

want to convert an image of a person into simple outline without all the details ... like a single stroke outline sketch ...

http://www.trubalcava.com/sketchbook_ga … ough01.jpg

Jan 12 13 06:10 am Link

Retoucher

Peano

Posts: 4106

Lynchburg, Virginia, US

Not as good as your target image (an actual sketch), but something like it ...

1. duplicate background image
2. put a B/W adjustment layer above that
3. convert the duplicate into a smart object
4. change blend mode of the duplicate to Divide
5. apply Gaussian blur to the duplicate (the smart object allows you to re-adjust the blur)

Experiment with the B/W sliders to fine-tune the effect. You can also paint with black on the smart filter mask to apply the blur selectively -- for instance paint it out to remove gradients in the skin tones.

https://img89.imageshack.us/img89/598/sketchhq.jpg

EDIT: Another approach described here.

https://img571.imageshack.us/img571/2174/sketch1aq.jpg

Jan 12 13 07:05 am Link

Photographer

Hero Foto

Posts: 989

Phoenix, Arizona, US

thanks ... those are what I've come out with when trying to get the target sample .. still baffled ...

Jan 12 13 05:57 pm Link

Digital Artist

Platinum Dust

Posts: 106

San Francisco, California, US

If you want it to be just like the target sample, your best bet might be to have someone actually sketch it. Since you want it to be just like a photo you provide it should be pretty simple and relatively cheap. I've done a few sketch commissions like these before.

Jan 12 13 07:48 pm Link

Photographer

Pelle Piano

Posts: 2312

Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden

A way to get a vectorized look is to use Threshold to get a bw image with no gradation.You will notice that some parts look good and some are to much black, so doing this in steps and combining the best settings, can get you a better overall look.

The lines gets very jaggy. A good way to make them even is to apply blur until they are even and then use Contrast ( Legacy ), to get them sharp again.

Its a way to fake portraits done with the pen tool. Here is one I did ...

https://www.lutzimages.com/thread_images/emelie_II/profil_vector_800.jpg

Jan 13 13 01:00 am Link

Photographer

NothingIsRealButTheGirl

Posts: 35726

Los Angeles, California, US

pellepiano wrote:
The lines gets very jaggy. A good way to make them even is to apply blur until they are even and then use Contrast ( Legacy ), to get them sharp again.

When I want to antialias hicon jaggies I try if possible to work at 4x resolution (at least 3x) and then reduce to the desired final rez.

For certain workflows that gives good results.

Jan 13 13 07:38 pm Link

Retoucher

Joann Empson

Posts: 430

Walnut Creek, California, US

You might get decent results with the Poster Edges filter in the G'MIC plug-in for GIMP.

Here's the result I get with Peano's photo (using the Curves tool to increase the contrast and applying the Poster Edges filter with default settings).

https://i.imgur.com/8JenW.gif


This process takes less than a minute, as shown in this video screencap:

https://i.imgur.com/eRt4J.jpg

Jan 15 13 12:16 am Link

Retoucher

Sofia Zasheva

Posts: 154

Sofia, Sofija grad, Bulgaria

The prettiest result I've ever came up with was with pen tool and tracing the path with a suitable brush with pressure settings. You can do "sketch" things, you can do vexels, anything.

Jan 15 13 01:39 am Link