Alison Johnston

This tutorial can be used for several things, hence the terrible title :) Every tutorial I have here can be used in different ways to what is shown, I quite like this one though, because to get to the end result (pen and wash) the process naturally takes the path of a sketch or something you could use as a pattern to transfer one of your photographs to a canvas to paint.

Warning – there’s always warning LOL This is a really, really image dependant tutorial. There is probably no part of this tutorial that is going to suit another image, but the good news is that you’ll get to fiddle around with settings, and that can’t be a bad thing :)

So the start image comes to us from someone, but I can’t remember who. If anyone does find the owner, could you please leave the name and web address so I can credit them.

Open the image and duplicate the it by pressing Ctrl + J or dragging it to the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette. Working on the duplicate layer go to Filter>Blur>Smart Blur (If you haven’t got Smart Blur, try Surface Blur or Median) and you can punch in the settings I have if you are working on the start image. Click OK to accept the settings. Add a layer mask to this layer by clicking on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette. Using a black, soft edged brush and with the opacity of the brush at about 50% (top toolbar) in one swipe brush back in the face. Once you have that done, flatten the image Ctrl + E and then duplicate the layer. Got to Filter>Stylize>Glowing Edges and you can punch in the same settings I have – in the teeny weeny dialogue box LOL

Click OK to accept the numbers and then invert the image by pressing Ctrl + i on the keyboard. Then press Ctrl + U and take the saturation slider all the way down to -100 change the blend mode to Multiply. Take the opacity of the layer down to about 80% (you can fiddle with that later as well. You should end up with something similar to the image below.

Duplicate the original background layer and drag the duplicate to the top of the layer stack. Press Ctrl + i to invert the image and then change the blend mode to Colour Dodge. You’ll notice in the image below that the glowing edges might have been a bit strong in this instance because it has left a bit of colour in the image which shouldn’t really be there ….. thought to self – maybe I should have run through this to get the exact settings and make myself look good LOL This is where fiddling with the settings comes in useful.

Go back to the middle layer of the sandwich and fiddle about with the opacity of the layer. I took the opacity of the layer down to 60 % to give it a bit more of a pencil effect, if you leave it higher you’ll get the pen effect. At this stage you could use it as a pattern for painting or if you do it correctly :) as a pencil sketch – but you can take it one step further, all with some brushes and the foreground colour set to black. Set the f/ground colour to black and go and pick a brush, I chose ‘Watercolour Loaded Wet Flat Tip – 63’ In the top toolbar and took the opacity and the flow of the brush down to 10%. Paint over the little troll thing but try not to go back over the same area more than once. You may end up with something like the image below.

Go and grab a different brush, or you use the same one to go back over the image and build up an effect. If you make a mistake, switch the foreground colour to white and it will soak up some of the paint. Always make sure that you are working on the Colour Dodge layer, you’ll soon know if you’re not because you’ll end up painting with grey :) Adjust the opacity and flow of the brush to build up the image and zoom in and out to get an idea of how the process is going. After you do each paint layer in building up the image, it might be wise to take a snapshot so you can revert the image if you don’t like what you do next. You can go back to the middle layer (multiply blend mode) and take the opacity of the layer down to 0% to loose the pen/pencil lines and end up with a painted image. If you play around a little bit, you should end up with something a whole lot better than my image below :)

Have fun!