I’m so excited to be sharing a new digital scrapbook technique with you today! I recently saw some layouts by an artist named sorashell that just blew me away:
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a new and exciting technique and I was immediately inspired by sorashell’s layouts! I spent about a day (no joke) trying to achieve this effect in Photoshop and I just couldn’t get it quite right. I decided to sleep on it and try again the next day. When I sat back down and started fiddling with Photoshop, it dawned on me that I was probably trying to re-invent the wheel and that somewhere out “there”, someone probably has a plug-in that will do all the work for me. So I scooted over to google, typed in a search and voila!- I landed at AKVIS. I downloaded the free trial of Sketch v.12.5, unzipped it, installed it and within minutes I had a sketch conversion of my photo that was about a million times better than any of the conversions I had come up with the day before!
I wrote AKVIS and told them how much I loved their program and how much I thought you would love their program too and they have generously donated a FREE COPY for one of my lucky readers!!
But before we get to the give-away, I want to show you a quick tutorial (and it’ll be quick because the AKVIS Sketch program does all the hard work for you)!
This summer Zoe and I went to Chicago and I took a picture of Zoe and her two cousins. It is one of my favorite photos and I have been wanting to scrap it but I just couldn’t figure out how to show it off. The second I saw sorashell’s layout, I knew I had found what I was looking for.
This is the original photo:
There are two ways to use the Akvis Sketch v.12.5 program. There is a plug-in version that works with image editing software (for a list of compatible image editors, click here) and there is a standalone version what works independently. I used the plug-in because it was easier for me to edit my photo to get the effect I wanted.
I played around with the program a little and what I found was that the lines were bolder and darker on photos with more contrast:
This definitely is a matter of personal preference. I preferred the finer lines for this project so I went with the unedited version of the photo.
The plug-in itself was very easy to use. I installed it in Photoshop CS5 (I just followed the prompts on the installer and it pretty much installed itself). Once installed, the plug-in is located under Filter- AKVIS- Sketch:
The plug-in opens a new window with your photo and a box preview of what your photo will look like with the current settings. Under the Strokes Tab, you can adjust the angle of the strokes, set the minimum and maximum lengths of the strokes and define how intense the mid-tones appear in the photo. You can adjust the strength of the edges in your photo under the Edge tab.
You can also drag the selected square over different areas of the image and zoom in for a closer look:
There are a number of presets to choose from including default, b&w sketch, charcoal & color pencil sketch to name a few.
I actually liked the color pencil sketch the best but I wanted a black & white image. So I unchecked the box next to Color Pencil and it de-saturated the image:
Once you have your image how you want it, you simply click the check mark in the top right corner and it will start processing your image. You can view the conversion as it happens:
When it’s finished processing, the window will close and your original image will be converted:
Once your photo is converted, you select your magic wand tool (make sure you have un-checked the contiguous box and that the image has been promoted from a background to a layer) and click on a white area in your image.
Press backspace and all of the selected white areas will be cleared. I put a pink layer underneath the extracted layer so you can see that there is still quite a bit of light grey in the image:
For my purposes, this image will work just fine. But if you would like to clear more of the lighter areas, you can select them and clear them again. You can also put a solid black overlay over the image to make all the light areas black for a really cool stamped feel.
Once I had my converted & extracted image, I moved it in to my layout, added a distressed mask around the edges and changed the blending mode to multiple and lowered to opacity to about 80%.
kit: I’m Outta Here by Captivated Visions
All of the lighter areas disappeared when I changed the blending mode. You could also try changing the blending mode to color burn or linear burn for different effects! The possibilities are truly endless and this program is so much fun!
Now that you’ve seen one of the applications of this awesome program, you can enter to win a free copy! There are 4 different ways you can enter to win:
1. Leave a comment on this post (make sure you leave your email address)
2. Share this blog post on Facebook, come back here and post a link to your Facebook
3. Share this blog post on Twitter and come back here and post a link to your tweet
4. Share this blog post on your blog and come back here and post a link to your blog
You can enter up to 4 times!!
And if you love this program so much that you don’t even want to wait to see if you win it- make sure you are subscribed to my newsletter because tomorrow I will be sending out an exclusive discount coupon for 20% off on the AKVIS Sketch Home- Plugin, AKVIS Sketch Home- Standalone or AKVIS Sketch Deluxe!
Next week, I’ll announce the lucky scrapper who won AKVIS Sketch v.12.5 and show you some other fun things you can do with this program to spice up your layouts!! Until then, happy scrapping!
The layouts are awesome. Would love to have this tool in my arsenal. I’m still using Photoshop CS2 so I just hope it will work with it. Thanks for the chance to win and I’ll be watching for the coupon.
Love the look. Thanks for the chance to win!
This is fantastic! I too was admiring those layouts in the gallery. Thanks for the chance!
looks like fun!
this is to stinkin cool! thanks for sharing and the chance to win!
mya38d@charter.net
Awesome program, Kami – and I love your layout!!
That is totally cool Kami!! Thanks for pointing it out!! I shared on facebook! http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/profile.php?id=617028389
This is such an amazing technique! I love the results you had with AKVIS Sketch program and would absolutely love to win a copy for myself!! Thank you so much for the chance! ♥
Love that look! My mind is just racing with ideas on where to use this effect. Thank you for the chance to win.
Kami, What an amazing find! This looks like a something to put in my list of tool purchases! Thanks for the tut!
Hi, I would love to win this ! I love the sketches.
Thank you for the chance to win.
Awesome! What a great tool; the possibilities are endless!
Thanks for the chance to win!
Just love the look! I have tried to create this on my own too and it is difficult to get the lines sharp and nice! I want to win!
this is awesome! Thanks for the opportunity to win such a cool item!
I totally love this technique, I use Creative Memories Storybook 3, would it work with my program, I wonder?
But this would almost make me want to learn photoshop!! Love it, so glad you’ve brought it out of hiding and into the scrapbooking world.
Wow, love the sketch technique. Thanks so much for sharing this with us, and for the chance to win!
Wow! That is a really cool program! I love it. I like to write books for my kids, and the sketched pictures would be perfect for illustrating them. Thanks for the chance to win.
I love it so much I mentioned it on Facebook!
OH! This is so coooool!! I love the effect!!
Thanks for the chance!
dmnrolo@yahoo.com.br
I posted this on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001620765333
Thanks for the chance to win!
I don’t use Twitter, but I would post about it if I did. This is really cool.
This plug in looks totally cool, does it work in PSE or would I have to use the stand alone version?
puffinliz at yahoo dot com
This is a wonderful and fun technique. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!
I posted a link on my FB page: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home
puffinliz at yahoo.com
WOW — what an amazing program. I’d love to learn to use this and a free copy would be awesome.
What an awesome tutorial and this product looks like it rocks! Thanks for showing us a great product and for the chance to win it!
It’s amazing!!! What a wonderful tool for doing a million different projects!!!
Thank you for giving us a chance!!! =)
I talked about the giveaway in Facebook, here…
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100001164517169
Thank you again!!!! =)
Thanks for this chance
Thanks for the chance to win!
Would love this tool for my scrapbooking projects! Amazing.
What an awesome program!!! THanks for the chance to win!
Posted it on my FB too!
http://www.facebook.com/holly.trimmer/posts/10150290410906896
Tweeted for you too!
https://twitter.com/#!/mommaholly/status/111642130665058306
I posted this on my blog.
http://thefabfowlerfive.blogspot.com/2011/09/pictures-to-sketches.html
This is great…such a fantastic effect. I would love to win this plug-in. Does it work for Pse users too?
This looks like an amazing program, and one that would be fun to play around with. Thanks for the chance to win!
This is really cool looking. Thanks for the chance to win.
WOWOWOW!! i would LOVE to win this! this is so “me” or my style of scrapping. i love sketches and have no idea how to do them in PS. thanks for the chance to win!!!!!
tweeted it:
https://twitter.com/#!/cherylraydesign/status/111660004158869504
it’s on my fb too!
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=671463500
Wow! That is amazing! Would love to win it! Thanks
tajicat2000 at yahoo dot com
What a fabulous program and great picture & layout that you did too! Thanks for the chance to win it!
Thanks for using the time and effort to write something so interesting.
My site:
DSL Vergleich dslvergleichdsl.com
Great effect…thanks for the chance to win.
omg! this is fantastic AND it works with PSE! Gotta love that (for us PSE users). Thanks for the chance to win.
FB: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1332278660
The gorgeous effects I have achieved on trial download of the programme are absolutely amazing! I want it all! LOL! Thank you for the chance! I hope you pick me
my email is zinzilah at yahoo dot com
WOW!!! What an AWESOME tut this is and a COOL program too:) Love what you created, GORGEOUS!
I love this.. thank you for locating the plugin. I had seen those layouts as well and loved the sketch work… great tutorial, and I would love the chance to win this.. this is awesome.. I have always loved sketch work and this is a great find!! Thank you!!
Christa