Sketching Photographs in Adobe Illustrator (Secrets Revealed!)

Have you ever wanted to create an hand drawn image on your computer without a table pad?

Have you ever wanted to turn a photograph into a sketch?

If so, this Instructable is for you!

Remove these ads by Signing Up

Step 1: Starting in Illustrator

Open a new document in Illustrator and drag the image or photo you want to sketch on a new layer.

Adjust the size of the photo on your workspace to your liking.

Here we have a strapping young lad with his banjo.

Rename the picture "Original"

Note: This type of sketching is great when you have a picture that may be slightly blurry or out of focus, but you still want to use.

pepsiqueen says: Apr 3, 2008. 4:29 PM

i have tried this before in different ways in both illustrator and photoshop, but without the wacom the lines always end up being rather jagged because i am only using a mouse. anyone know a way around that?? (p) so what i ended up doing is using a raster to vector conversion program (does illustrator do this? it should) which gave me line in .dxf format, which i cleaned up in autocad THEN brought into illustrator/PS to colorize etc.

thegreatnerd in reply to pepsiqueenAug 22, 2008. 8:42 PM

Abnor is right; you're just not used to drawing with a mouse. I ran into this problem too with Photoshop and Illustrator before I had a tablet, but there are some things you can do to help with your mouse-eye coordination. For example, if you hold Shift+left click, you'll draw a straight vertical or horizontal line. If you click a point and hold shift, move the mouse, and then click another paint point, you'll get a straight line. Look at the tool settings in the upper left corner (or wherever you stashed them), and make sure the brush runs continuously. The faster you can sketch, the less jagged the line usually becomes. Short wrist circles and rectangles can help build up your skills. Shading boxes also helped me. Hope that helps!

abnor in reply to pepsiqueenJul 7, 2008. 2:25 PM

it comes out jagged cause you're not used to drawing with your mouse :P just keep practicing and using the mouse slowly, and keep going until you JUST CAN'T STAND your mistakes anymore.

Grey_Wolfe in reply to abnorJul 17, 2008. 3:12 PM

Very sound advice, abnor. It just takes a LOT of patience, Pepsi. You'll get it if you don't give up. I must say, interesting solution you came up with, though.

Karel Jansens says: Feb 26, 2008. 2:40 PM

Unless you're offering to buy me a copy of Illustrator, I'm sticking with ArtRage2 (http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html) and my tablet.

Grey_Wolfe in reply to Karel JansensJul 17, 2008. 3:09 PM

Are you using starter or full version?

107

killerjackalope in reply to Karel JansensFeb 26, 2008. 3:59 PM

Well I could 'get' you a copy no problem...

Karel Jansens in reply to killerjackalopeFeb 27, 2008. 6:28 AM

Why bother? ArtRage2 does everything I need, without the constant nagging feeling of guilt for warez-ing a piece of software I'm not going to use properly.

107

killerjackalope in reply to Karel JansensFeb 27, 2008. 9:29 AM

Ah it was just one of those jokes... I actually have uses for the software I have, it's not stolen either, just know someone with extra rights to give out... but have been there done that, doesnt make you feel guilty, but it's not the best idea in the world...

Karel Jansens in reply to killerjackalopeFeb 27, 2008. 10:20 AM

There you go then. Another perfectly good internet flameout spoiled by reason. Dagnaggit! if I wanted reasonable discussions, I wouldn't be on them thar Intartubes.

107

killerjackalope in reply to Karel JansensFeb 27, 2008. 11:38 PM

Ah hell give me something to argue about... you'll see...

abnor in reply to killerjackalopeJul 7, 2008. 2:26 PM

how about, American politics! Obama, or the other guy? :P

107

killerjackalope in reply to abnorJul 7, 2008. 5:27 PM

OTHER GUY!! NEWBZORS... I do believe that was the argument he was looking for...

Grey_Wolfe says: Jul 17, 2008. 3:04 PM

I miss my tablet (can't find the pen), but I like the use of tools here. Nicely done.

AmandaRose says: Apr 5, 2008. 1:22 PM

This instructable is SO cool!!!!! Please post more...you are SO wicked!

heavy.metal.nguyen says: Feb 26, 2008. 4:51 PM

I did this on GIMP ubt traced every line and colored it. The pic is my user pic on this site.

107

killerjackalope says: Feb 26, 2008. 4:00 PM

Nice one mate... It's handy that you can now move between illustrator and PS aswell to make raster graphics from smart objects created in AI

GorillazMiko says: Feb 26, 2008. 2:17 PM

Tool Tip? How's it a Tool Tip? But anyways, wow, really cool job. I've been wondering how to make these kind of pictures, might use them for Instructables, really cool job. Thanks for the great Instructable, it's awesome! +1 rating.