In this tutorial we’ll show you a quick mixed media technique for combining your portraits with hand drawings. Download our start file and follow along!
Painting and sketching might be beyond most of us, but with Photoshop we can replicate the look. You can even make it look as though you were doing the drawing!
You’ll need a portrait, and a photograph of a hand holding a pencil or brush – or you can use our hand photo.
If you want to use your own photo, try to use one with a plain background, as this will make it easier to comp in. To shoot a hand, place your hand on a white background, such as a piece of paper, and shoot it using flash.
If possible, take the photo from higher up, with the hand on the paper, to increase depth of field and help retain focus. Allow for a slight shadow as this will help the end image look more realistic.
This technique requires the use of Photoshop’s layers, filters and the brush tool. First you need to create the ‘painted’ look for the portrait, then a ‘sketched’ version which you can brush into the painted-effect one to look like an incomplete piece of art. You can then insert your hand photo to give the whole thing depth.
While this project may sound difficult, by following our step-by-step guide you too can be sketching portraits in no time!
SEE MORE: Photo to cartoon effect – how to turn images into drawings and paintings
Mixed media techniques for combining portraits and drawings
01 Paint your portrait
Open portrait.jpg. Hit Cmd/Ctrl + J three times
to create three layered copies. Hide the top two layers by clicking their eye icons. Select Layer 1. Go to Filters > FilterGallery > Artistic > Cutout and set Levels 7, Simplicity 3, Fidelity 2. Hit OK. Set blend mode to Luminosity and opacity to 40%.
SEE MORE: How to cut out people like a professional with the Refine Edge tool
02 Add some style
Select Layer 1 copy and hit its eye icon to reveal it. Go to Filters>Filter Gallery>Stylize>Glowing Edge. Set Width 5, Brightness 8, Smoothness 5. Click OK, then Cmd/Ctrl+I (to invert the layer) and Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + U (to desaturate it). Set blend mode to Multiply and opacity to 70%.
SEE MORE: How to make a bokeh effect in Photoshop
03 Sketch things out
Hit Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E. Next, select the top layer and click its eye icon. Desaturate and duplicate it, then Invert the copied layer. Switch blend mode to Colour Dodge. Go to Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Set the slider to 60 pixels. Click OK. Hit Cmd/Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E again.
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04 Mix and match
Drag the painting merged layer (Layer 2) beneath the sketched one (Layer 3). Select Layer 3 and add a layer mask. Use the brush tool (B) set to black (X toggles between black and white). Right-click to select a brush; we used Oil Medium Wet Flow set to 1000 pixels. Paint to reveal the colour.
SEE MORE: Layer mask techniques anyone can understand
05 Include the artist
Open hand.jpg. Select the hand, and its shadow, using the quick selection tool (W). With the Move tool (V), drag it onto the portrait. Duplicate this layer, then hit the duplicate’s eye icon to hide it. Select the original hand layer and Hit Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + U, then set Blend mode to Multiply.
SEE MORE: How to mimic studio lighting for stylish portraits
06 Add some depth
Add a layer mask, select a soft round brush of around 100 pixels and paint over the edge of the hand’s shadow to soften it. Select the top layer and hit its eye icon.
Add another layer mask, and with the brush tool set to black, draw around the edges of the hand so that only the hand is visible.
SEE MORE: The 7 best colour controls in Photoshop (and how to use them)
Quick Tips
Fill in open areas such as the background at the left or her chest with gradual increases of colour to look more like a work in progress. Reduce the opacity to around 30% and brush over the area at random.
The complete paint effect can bring out rough-looking textures in the face and sometimes look a tad messy. Select the painting layer, apply a layer mask, then brush through with the brush set to dark and lower opacity, around 40-60% to soften the skin tones.
Go over this at random to attain a ‘washy watercolour’ effect. We have also lowered the overall paint layer opacity to 85%.
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