Turn a Photo into a Color Sketch with Photoshop Elements

By Sue Chastain, About.com Guide

This tutorial will show you how to convert a photo into a color sketch effect. This technique is based on a Photoshop tutorial by Nick Slusarczyk. I've simplified the steps a bit and re-written the instructions for Photoshop Elements. Photoshop users can follow along, but a few commands might be in different menus.

Save the practice file: Photosketch.jpg (184 KB)

To follow along, right click the image link above, and choose Save Target As to copy it to your computer, then open it in the standard editing mode of Photoshop Elements. As you work through this tutorial, keep in mind that any settings given are for the supplied image. When using your own images, you may need to adjust the numeric settings for the best results at different resolutions.

In your layers palette, duplicate the background layer by dragging it to the new layer icon.

Double-click on the layer name and name this new layer 'Gray.'

Go to Enhance > Adjust Color > Remove Color. (Or use shortcut Shift-Ctrl-U.)

Duplicate the 'Gray' layer and rename it 'Smart Blur.'