Challenge: Sketching from Photos

You can easily change the name of your layers, it sounds like your bottom layer is locked, does it have a little padlock symbol beside it?

OK layer pics

My original


Then make a copy of the 'background' image, desaturate and contrast:


Then stylize > Find Edges


Then bring the background layer to the top (if it has a padlock icon you will need to double click it first to unlock or click the padlock symbol above the layers while it is selected. Set that layer to colour


Merge the layers / use flatten image



Open a new document that is at least 100px wider / taller and fill the background with whatever colour you want. Right click on the layer and click blending and choose pattern overlay from the menu

Choose one of the patterns and set the blend mode to multiply or whatever you think suits



Then drag the 'sketch' from your other window into this one and set a drop shadow etc to make it look more realistic. In a new layer, draw (or use a brush) your pin and set a drop shadow and other blend modes to that to make it look realistic:

Baby Tiffin was just too adorable not to do something with.

mooficat , i had the same problem as my first layer was locked so i couldnt do nowt with it , so i duplicated the origanal and left clicked it and draged it above the other layer so it was at the top then i changed it there then merged it , hope that made sense.

I have made a habit of always copying the original onto a new image file, so I don't accidentally save over the original (I've done that more than I care to remember!) and I can always go back to the un-tampered with file if I really mess it up. That also removed the locked background layer problem. My first step is always to open the file, select all (Ctrl+A) and copy (Ctrl+C), create a new file (Ctrl+N) (which will automatically be the right size to accommodate the copied selection), and paste (Ctrl+V).

Originally Posted by valanhb

I have made a habit of always copying the original onto a new image file, so I don't accidentally save over the original (I've done that more than I care to remember!) and I can always go back to the un-tampered with file if I really mess it up. That also removed the locked background layer problem. My first step is always to open the file, select all (Ctrl+A) and copy (Ctrl+C), create a new file (Ctrl+N) (which will automatically be the right size to accommodate the copied selection), and paste (Ctrl+V).

Click to expand...

Am I the only one here that is completely keyboard challenged?
I do all that but with the mouse and dropdown menus.
PS that's why all my post are short as well

lol i use all the mouse and dropdown menus aswell. i find it easier.

I change between the two depending on what I am using, if I am using the mouse I tend to just use the mouse, but if I am using the tablet pen I will use the keyboard shortcuts

I don't use the keyboard short cuts unless I absolutely have to, because there is no other way to do something, for one very simple reason. I simply can't remember them.

LOL Well, I guess it's just me then. Probably because I'm so used to using keyboard shortcuts in Word and the rest of Office that I carry it over to Photoshop.

Some of them I do use all the time, for select all / copy / cut / paste / new doc. But for the filters and levels etc it really depends on the mouse or tablet use.

I also have some of my own shortcuts set up to make them easier

I'm an extreme beginner, but I thought this sounded like fun. The first problem I had was I couldn't find any way to turn the picture black and white. So I tried using the grayscale, but that turned both layers to grayscale. I tried a couple different things, but no matter what I did, both layers would switch to grayscale. If I created additional layers, they all became grayscale.

If I can't do it with Limited Edition, could I do with with Elements?

It should just be Image > Adjustments > Desaturate (Ctrl+Shift+U)

I don't have a version that old to check

If not, open the image twice, make one grayscale and copy and paste it onto the other document