Tutorial: AKVIS Sketch

Pastel drawing technique

Pastel crayon is a kind of chalk. One usually draws with chalk or pastel on textured paper, but unlike chalk, pastel forms velvety strokes with soft porous edges and looks more intense in color.

In this example we will show you how to make a pastel simulation out of a digital photo.

• Step 1. Open the photo in Adobe Photoshop.
  
• Step 2. Make a copy of the background layer. For this purpose drag the backround layer to Add a New Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette.
  
• Step 3. Being on the copy of the background layer, call AKVIS Sketch and set parameters of the plug-in. Press the button , to convert the photo into a drawing with the chosen settings.
  
• Step 4. Apply the result by pressing the button . The plug-in window will be closed and back in the Photoshop workspace we'll have an image with two layers: the original photo and a color pencil drawing.
  
• Step 5. Let's change the blending mode for the layer with the pencil drawing : select Luminosity blend mode in the Layers palette.
  

  In this mode the resulted color will retain luminosity of the active layer's pixels, but hue and saturation will be taken from the underlayer. As a result, the strokes that characterize a pencil drawing will be kept, while the colors will get more saturated.

  On the left image you can see the original photo, and on the right - the drawing after changing the layer blending mode.

  
• Step 6. There is a Rough Pastels filter in Adobe Photoshop. It can create an effect of drawing on textured paper, which is typical for a pastel drawing.

  Note: Starting with version 6 of AKVIS Sketch you can add a texture to the image using the Canvas tab of AKVIS Sketch. However the tutorial has been done with an earlier version, so it continues as follows:

  Call the filter Rough Pastels and apply it with the following settings:

  
• Step 7. Let's reduce the filter effect. For this purpose choose Fade in the Edit menu and in the emerging dialogue box set Opacity to 50.

  Just a few simple steps and we have our pastel ready. On a small picture the paper texture is hardly visible, that's why we recommend to click on the image below to open a larger copy in a new window.

  Click on the image to open a larger copy in a new window