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Thursday, June 13, 2013

Quick and Easy Pencil Sketches

In this short project you will learn how to use GIMP to quickly and easily  get a pencil sketch effect.



Note that the settings used in this tutorial work for the image I used. They can vary widely to achieve desired results for different source images. If you would like to download the picture I used in this tutorial, click here.

Open the image that you want to modify. Duplicate the image layer, Layer - Duplicate Layer.



Desaturate the duplicate layer, Colors - Desaturate..., Choose shade of gray based on: Lightness in the dialog.



Now, use the Edge-Detect filter on the duplicate layer to get the basis of the sketch effect, Filters - Edge-Detect - Edge..., select the Roberts Algorithm from the drop down menu,  set the Amount to 5.



Invert the colors on the duplicate layer, Colors - Invert.



Reduce the Opacity using the controls in the Layers pallet. I turned it down to 50%.



To get a black-and-white sketch quickly, the process is almost identical.



However, after you duplicate the image layer, go to the Colors menu and select Desaturate..., Choose shade of gray based on: Luminosity. Duplicate the desaturated layer and continue as above.


  • Filters - Edge-Detect - Edge...

    • Algorithm (Roberts) - Amount (5)

  • Colors - Invert

  • Reduce Opacity (75%)



This text tutorial is based on a YouTube video tutorial by Techtonicc.



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