How to make an awesome pencil sketch of any photograph

Step 2 Assemble your computer equipment and software

After paper and pencils and erasers and stumps, a computer is a very handy tool to use for the all-important preparation step.

It will not help you draw anything, but it can sure make putting the paper to the pencil easier.

Here are the "must haves":

1) A scanner
2) A simple photo editing software like iPhoto, Photoshop, or any number of image editors
3) A bookmark in your browser pointing to http://www.blockposters.com

Comments

[SPININSPUR]

Thanks for a great Instructable for a beginner like myself. Its great for learning scale and technique!!!! there's way to much discussion about right and wrong on this subject. Lets just enjoy creating things, however we choose to do it !!!!

[mz anne thrope]

Yeah, i'm with you. This is a great way to practice shading and just start practicing ANY kind of drawing skill. That's the hard part...practice.

[shanon352]

I wish that I could draw that good! Great job!

[HandlewithCare]

And all you people out there that use this ought to be ashamed of yourselves

[thesparine]

If you read an instructable telling you how to make a cake, and it included a recipe, would you say the person that makes the cake with that recipe is not a "real chef"? I can hear it now... OMG! You are not a real chef! My grandma was a chef and she never used measuring cups, because she was naturally gifted! Anyone that follows a recipe is not making a REAL CAKE. You are all cheating if you follow recipes and not bake with your heart! A chef's hands were made by god and a real chef knows that if something needs a pinch of salt or a pinch of sugar by tasting! A real chef would never look in a book to see how to make something! Gimme a f**king break!

[RFilyaw]

Oh please. It's elitist no-so-artists like you that think the only way to do something is through years of study and practice. I've been drawing for many years, and while I wouldn't use this technique, I wouldn't fault someone else for doing so. YOU should be ashamed of YOURself.

[golfiscool]

Yeah, I would tend to agree with you. There are many techniques that could be used to draw.<br/><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.dueysdrawings.com/">Pencil Drawings</a><br/>

[HandlewithCare]

This is cheating! People can use this photoshop thing and cheat when the are not really drawing the pictures. What about us REAL artists that really do it the right way....what is that doing to us? It's as if you are laughing at us....saying "HA HA look at this...We can do this an easier way. This is cheap, unfair...and to me it is a form of forgery........IT"S CHEATING AND IT"S WRONG. You can ban me if you want but I will tell all my art friends about this site...and see what they think... You know you are wrong...How do buyers know if you truly drew their picture...Now they don't and I will pass it on. Now you are going to make buyers question all true art. Tahnks a lot

[thesparine]

If you read an instructable telling you how to make a cake, and it included a recipe, would you say the person that makes the cake with that recipe is not a "real chef"? I can hear it now... OMG! You are not a real chef! My grandma was a chef and she never used measuring cups, because she was naturally gifted! Anyone that follows a recipe is not making a REAL CAKE. You are all cheating if you follow recipes and not bake with your heart! A chef's hands were made by god and a real chef knows that if something needs a pinch of salt or a pinch of sugar by tasting! A real chef would never look in a book to see how to make something! Gimme a f**king break!

[Grey_Wolfe]

Your last sentence implies that you think yourself an artist of sorts, and consider yourself somehow compromised by the use of tracing by another. I've yet to meet a true artist that would tell someone they were doing something wrong by finding a way to create art that suited their talents, or at least discovering a way to try to improve their skills. "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." as they say. As long as someone gives me credit for the original idea, I'm all for someone studying my work to make art of their own. Even if they use tracing as their technique for the study.

[Keith-Kid]

By the way, a good artist can almost always tell the diffrence between a traced drawing or an honest one. Or at least a few details that are off. Besides, how its made is not important, when someone goes to ur house and comments on the painting, you don't have to give them an explanation, what matters is that there's art in that spot. Its not something sentimental, just a neat painting. Besides, even if its traced, tracing involves using a pencil doesn't it??!!! Tracing may actually help drawing skills, cuz you don't always get the lines right.

[Sypran]

you mean by like practice of drawing a face you help you draw it free hand later (i think i did that once, i could free hand the photo pretty well after tranceing it about 3 times before)

[Keith-Kid]

It's worked for me so far....

[Keith-Kid]

Not everyone is good at drawing. And tracing is very helpful!!!! Believe it or not, saves people hundreds on artists drawing. Although you hav a point on the paintings, but hey, thats life!

[Grey_Wolfe]

Then, as you would have it, if I were to create an image on my computer before drawing it, I would be cheating? I have made entirely new creations with mspaint for the purpose of drawing, then drawn them from the image. While I didn't use the technique to trace the images, simply a way of creating something for me to visualize from, I do not see tracing as inexcusible. Most artists, if not all, have traced at one time or another. I have used tracing as a method to learn hand strokes that worked best for me when trying a new technique or style of drawing. I didn't steal someone's work, I simply let them teach me by guiding my hand till I had a feel for it. Not everyone is a sketch artist, but this is still a wonderful way for them to make something beautiful and homemade. Forgery would be taking someone else's drawing, tracing it, then claiming it as your own.

[HandlewithCare]

USING AN IMAGE TO DRAW FROM THE IMAGE IS ONE THING..IF YOU ACTUALLY DRAW IT...BUT IF YOU USE ANY KIND OF COMPUTER TECHNIQUE TO CREAT THE "LINES" FROM AN IMAGE THAT YOU DID NOT DRAW YOURSELF....THAT IS CHEATING.........IT'S CHEATING....ISN'T IT A FORM OF FORGERY=tO IMITATE FALSLY..TO DEFRAUD.
yOU CAN'T TEACH SOMEONE HOW TO DRAW...YOU CAN MAKE THEM UNDERSTAND HOW TO BECOME A LITTLE BETTER BUT YOU EITHER HAVE IT IN YOU OR YOU DONT.
TRACING A PICTURE AND USING IT TO COMPLETE A PIECE OF WORK IS CHEATING...YOU DID NOT DRAW IT YOURSELF.

[Grey_Wolfe]

You apparently did not read my entire post, refer to the last line, and you'll see that I already said everything you just did. Though in a slightly less harsh manner. I disagree with Abnor on the fact that sketching is not an artform. And sketching also is not the same as tracing. Though I do agree that tracing, in-and-of-itself, is not it's own artform. Saying that you can't teach someone to draw is ridiculous. You can't teach someone to be an artist, agreed. But drawing is technique, like painting or dance, which you can teach. That technique transforming into art is completely on the individual's talent and passion.

[finfan7]

uh in case you didn't really pay attention, the only use of photoshop in this instructable is to make the picture grayscale. This isn't cheating its just tracing a picture that has been decolourised and blown up a bit. (there is no way you have gone your entire life without tracing something, especially if you are an artist) I draw and I don't find this offensive. Hell, I think that this is good; it will allow more people to learn to draw something other than squiggly stick people.

[abnor]

but it's not drawing! it's just just buying a coloring book and coloring in the lines. woo yea you're an artist cause you can draw in the lines. i don't think so buddy. we don't consider coloring an art, so why would we consider tracing the lines an art??!?!

[thesparine]

If you read an instructable telling you how to make a cake, and it included a recipe, would you say the person that makes the cake with that recipe is not a "real chef"? I can hear it now... OMG! You are not a real chef! My grandma was a chef and she never used measuring cups, because she was naturally gifted! Anyone that follows a recipe is not making a REAL CAKE. You are all cheating if you follow recipes and not bake with your heart! A chef's hands were made by god and a real chef knows that if something needs a pinch of salt or a pinch of sugar by tasting! A real chef would never look in a book to see how to make something! Gimme a f**king break!

[finfan7]

Its not quite that bad. I am not saying that the pictures created in this way are art, I am saying that they will lead to the creation of more artists because eventually 999,999 out of the million who do something like this move on to either stop drawing or advance to regualar drawing and trying to sharpen their skills in the normal way. I am for anything that brings more pieces of art into the world. This technique is a good thing in the majority of circumstances thus I accept it.

[HandlewithCare]

YES IT IS THAT BAD. IT'S FORGERY...LEARNING IS ONE THING...BUT YOU SHOULD NOT USE THAT PIECE THAT YOU JUST CREATED WITH SOMEONE ELSES LINES. TO PRACTICE IS GREAT.....AND WE AS REAL ARTISTS ARE BY NATURE REALLY GOOD AT TELLING FAKES ANYWAY. ONLY WE KNOW IF SOMEONE IS BUYING A FAKE...YOU CAN TELL...BECAUSE USUALLY THE PEOPLE THAT ARE USING THIS CHEATING TECHNIQUE FORGET CERTAIN THINGS AND THEY LEAVE CERTAIN THINGS TO GIVE A TELL TALE SIGN THAT JUMPS OUT . BUT TO A WANNA-BE ARTIST THEY DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING OR NOT DOING AND TO A REGULAR BUYER...ALL THEY THINK IS..."WOW...LOOK AT THAT! HE/SHE IS VERY GIFTED"...........THEY THINK IT IS REAL...CAUSE THEY JUST DON'T REALIZE THEY HAVE BEEN CHEATED....AND I SUSPECT THAT THEY WOULD ACTUALLY FEEL QUITE "hAD" IF THEY FOUND OUT...AND THEY SHOULD GET THERE MONEY BACK....I ALSO THINK THAT IF PEOPLE USE THIS WAY THEY SHOULD HAVE TO STATE THAT THEY DID..IT'S USING .IT'S WRONG I AM FOR MORE ART ALSO....ALL THE WAY....BUT CHEATERS ARE CHEATERS ARE CHEATERS...AND IT SHOULD NOT HAVE A PLACE IN THE ART WORLD UNLESS TO BE LISTED AS MAYBE......... COMPUTER BASED ART- TRACING TECHNIQUE- LINE ENHANCED ART- SOMETHING BESIDES DOOPING PEOPLE INTI THINKING THAT SOMEONE ACTUALLT HAND DREW THE PIECE.

[HandlewithCare]

FOOT IN MOUTH........SORRY BUT IT'S TRUE "This isn't cheating its just tracing a picture" LOOK UP THE WORD CHEATING......AND LOOK UP THE WORD TRACE.

[Sparklepire]

Are your caps lock stuck on? D:

[Grey_Wolfe]

Perhaps another way of looking at this. Photography is considered an artform by many. It takes skill, and a certain level of natural talent to make truly beautiful photographs. Now, say that you use the technique in this instructable on your own pictures, are you any less of an artist? I'd say no. Nor are you stealing, or cheating. You are an artist who is converting their own art into another media. If you were taking credit for a picture taken by another person, then you'd be both stealing and cheating. It's seems quite the same as a digital artist who creats an image, and then simply changes the palette and calls each different palette shift a different piece. If it's your art, than whatever you do to it, it still remains art (unless you really screw it up). And we might want to remember that cartoon artists make their livings by tracing, and no one considers them to be cheats or shams. But Fin's right, this wasn't posted as a money making technique, and most readers aren't going to try to scam the world by calling it art. It's more of a arts and crafts project for around the home. And your arguments (since thats really what it is) would be much easier to read without the overbearing use of capslock. You don't need to 'YELL' to be heard, as it were.

[finfan7]

What do you think the probability of anyone actually using this technique to make money? Anybody who does a good enough job for it to actually be sold can probably draw anyway and anybody who can't draw well enough for it to be sold isn't going to (and probably couldn't) sell it. I have serious and solid dobts that anybody is going to use this process to go out and start selling pictures made with it. Like I said only people who could draw anyway would be able to produce the quantity and quality of them necessary to make any kind of usefull money, and they would feel a bit absurd for doing so.

[abnor]

ah you got a good point there... but why let anybody get the credit of just tracing something anyway? i don't like this instructable because it explains directly how to copy images and use them for our own ill-minded schemes. but then as many people said, it is very useful to trace something then paint it, rather than draw, or trace for practice, or getting something right, but in my head i still think it wrong.. might just be my inner artist tho. ah i'm done arguing for now :P