Hello all my artsy friends! I am dropping in today with a quick and fun technique for creating chalk sketched effects in Photoshop. In January, I posted an article about digitizing sketches to make them more versatile for use on digital pages. If you missed it, you can find it HERE. Today, I am going to show you how to convert those digitized sketches into chalk drawings.
You can see the technique in action on this page:
I used one of the amazing chalkboard backgrounds from THIS set by Paula Kesselring, and added my sketch to it. (Click on layout for full credits.)
To achieve the chalked look, all you have to do is invert the sketch and then blend it with the Screen and Lighten blending modes. I started with a photo of the sketch (it was not extracted) and sized it to fit within the chalkboard element. Then I inverted the image with the shortcut Ctrl>I. You can also do this under the Image drop down menu: Adjustments>Invert.
Inverting the image will switch the values: lights will turn dark and darks will turn light. Once the image is inverted, blend it into the dark background with the Lighten and/or Screen modes.
I actually used two layers on my page. I set the first layer to Lighten at 100% opacity, then copied that layer (Ctrl>J), changed the blending mode to Screen and lowered the opacity of the layer to 28%. Each sketch and background will be different, so I recommend that you play with the blending modes until you achieve the look you want.
If you are using an extracted sketch, you can either invert the color (which will change it from black to white) or add a color fill adjustment (click on the half-filled circle icon in the layers palette and choose solid color from the pop up menu) and change the sketch to your color of choice. If the sketch looks too bright/solid to be a chalk drawing, try adjusting the opacity down until it looks more realistic.
And that is all there is to it! I hope you have fun playing with these chalk effects – I can wait to see your pages in the Gallery. :)
Until next time ~
Judie (HeyJude)
Joana says
Really cool effect!