Open up the photo that you wish to change into a drawing.
open photo you wish to change to a line drawing.
Duplicate the image in the layers palette.
duplicate layer
With the new layer selected you need to desaturate the image. To do this go to Image > adjustments > desaturate. Or choose Shift Apple U / Shift+Ctrl+U.
desaturate the image
Duplicate this modified layer. You should now have a colour background layer and 2 desaturated layers above.
Select the top layer and invert the image. To do this go to Image > Adjustments and choose Invert or press Ctrl+I / Apple I.
Invert Image
With the top layer still selected (the inverted layer) choose ‘Colour Dodge’ from the layers pallete drop down menu. (This will make most of the image turn white)
the canvas will turn white at this stage
We now need to apply a Gaussian blur to the newly white layer to allow parts of the layer underneath to show through. Select the top layer and choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.
Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur
Move the slider up and down to find what level suits your picture. The setting for this is often somewhere between 1 and 3 but will depend on how complex your original image is.
Gaussian blur settings to create a line drawing
To tidy up the image use the Dodge and Burn tools to clean up the image. The Dodge tool will lighten the pencil marks, the burn tool darken them.
I am going to use the dodge tool on the Coke can image to tidy up the background around the can.
Neaten up the image using the dodge and burn tools
