There are many ways to create simple pencil-like sketch effects from photographs in Photoshop, including a number of commercially available filters, but here’s one way that I think creates a nice, and variable sketch effect.
1. Duplicate the original photo layer.
2. Add a Hue Saturation adjustment layer and desaturate the image by pulling the Saturation slider left to -100.
3. Click on the duplicate image layer created in step 1, and change the blend mode to Color Dodge.
4. Invert the layer by pressing [Ctrl/Cmd]+I, now your image should look pretty much like a blank white page.
5. Optionally, convert this layer to a Smart Object, this will allow you to easily vary the amount of blur applied in the next step.
6. Use Filter / Blur / Gaussian Blur and adjust the amount of blur to give you the desired sketch effect.
7. You can add other adjustment layers such as Levels, Posterize and Threshold at the top of the layer stack to further tweak the sketch effect.
8. If you would like to apply some of the original photos colour, duplicate the original photo layer, drag it to the top of the layer stack and change the blend mode to Color.
Fig 1 - Simple Sketch Effect
This article was first published in the June 2020 issue of Artists Down Under magazine.