Tutorial: AKVIS Sketch

The work of the artist

The author of this example is Heike Nocher.

The works of art evoke different feelings. But the most amazing thing is to see the process of creating the work of art. Unfortunately you can't always attend at this process. The author Heike Nocher acts as an artist drawing a flower and invites us to see the creation of the piece of the art. Using AKVIS Sketch you can repeat his steps and create you own piece of art.

The author used Adobe Photoshop.

• Step 1. Open an original photo in your photo editor.
• Step 2. Copy the layer and rename it.
  
• Step 3. Let's transform our photo into the black and white sketch.

  Call AKVIS Sketchfrom the main menu of Photoshop: Filter –> Akvis –> Sketch. Adjust the values of the parameters at the Settings panel .

  The author set the following values: Charcoal = 2, Angle = 180, Size = 1, Min Length = 3, Max Length = 10, Midtones Intensity = 5, Midtones Hatching = 100, Sharpen = 100.

  Press the button to start the process.

  The result will be shown in the After tab.

  

  Press the button to apply the result and close the plugin window.

• Step 4. The first part of our tutorial (photo-to-sketch conversion) is ready. Now let's add a color to our image, so it won't be so dull and dark.

  Make the mask of the layer: press the button Add vector mask in the Layers window.

  Choose the Brush tool from the Toolbox. Change the values of the parameters: master diameter = 108, mode - normal, opacity = 33%, flow = 100%.

  Press the Set foreground color button at the Toolbox and choose any grey color from the Color Picker dialog box. Note, when you use the mask, our flower doesn't become grey, the layer in the colored areas becomes semitransparent. Thus, we've created the effect of the blending the original color image and the black and white sketch.

  
• Step 5. Copy the upper layer and work with its mask.

  Choose the Brush tool one more time, press the button Set foreground color and choose the white color. Now we have to color the part of the flower to get the smooth change from the black and white to the color areas.

  Here we get the double masking of the layers. The color part of the flower bud becomes less bright amd more similar to the sketch, not the photo.

  
• Step 6. Now we want to add the author's participance to the process.

  Open an image with a hand. Copy it and paste it as the new layer.

  
• Step 7. Let's transform our hand to the sketch. So it will match our background. Call AKVIS Sketch again. Activate the check-box "Color Strokes". Set the values of the parameters.

  The author used the following settings: Charcoal = 2, Coloration = 70, Angle = 120, Size = 2, Min Length = 0, Max Length = 7, Midtones Intensity = 6, Midtones Hatching = 100, Sharpen = 100.

  Press the button to start the process.

  

  Press the button to apply the result and close the plugin window.

• Step 8. To make our hand more realistic let's add the shadow.

  Copy the image of the hand and return to the lower layer that will be a shadow. Choose from the main menu Image -> Adjustments -> Levels. Change the values of the parameters in the appeared window to make our hand and shadow black. The author set the following values: Adjust shadow input level = 215, Adjust midtone input level = 1, Adjust highlight input level = 227.

  
• Step 9. Let's make the shadow's border softer. Choose the standart Photoshop filter: Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur. Change the values of the parameters. The author set Radius=20
  
• Step 10. We want to make the hand and shadow more realistic again. Choose the Move Tool and move the shadow to the left and change the value of the layer opacity in the Layers window. The author set the following value: opacity = 50%.
  
• Step 11. Here is our final result: a hand drawing a flower.