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Drawing and Painting in PhotoImpact

Back in the days of Photoshop 4.0, I read an article about art by computer, and how easy it was to create a pencil drawing or watercolor from a photograph. I can't remember the author's name anymore. If I could I would surely share the credit for what is to follow. Anyway, his method wasn't actually that "easy." He wasn't talking about the generic Artistic Filters or Sketch Filters that pop down from the filters Menu. This was down and dirty- ten layers, EQ curves, six different blending modes, all with different transparency levels- kind of stuff. But, wow, I really could turn a photo into the drawing I was always trying to create while in college.

With that in mind, I was working in PhotoImpact 6 last week, trying to give a different look to a photo a client wanted to use as a cover for his PDF magazine. What I discovered amazed me. The old Photoshop tricks work better in PI and take about one-third the time. If you want to follow along, the two original images I used to create the images above are here.

1
Open the Hat and Flowers.jpg (or try your own photo). For this technique the first thing we need to do to any image is open up the mid-tones. So from the Format menu click on the Tone Map (or CTRL+SHFT+T, shortcuts are always faster). Click on the Highlight Midtone Shadow tab, then enter 25 in the Midtone box. Click OK. Now we need to desaturate the image so click on Hue & Saturation in the Format menu (CTRL+E). Move the Saturation slider all the way to the left and click OK. We'll need two copies of the background, so CTRL+A to select all, then from the Object menu click on New - Image Object Via Copy. Right-click on this new object and choose Duplicate. It will help to have the Layer Manager open, so click on the third tab from the left at the top of the Easy Palette.

2
As you can see in the Layer Manager, we now have two duplicate objects on top of our base image. Make sure the top object is selected. In the Effects menu, click on Blur & Sharpen and the Find Edges (not Emphasize Edges!) We want black lines on white for this, so from the Format menu click Invert. Now back at the Effects menu, choose Blur & Sharpen, then Gaussian Blur. Enter 3 for the Variance and click OK. Doesn't look like much, but hang in there.

3
On the Layer Manager, click on the eye icon next to the top object so we can see what we're doing to the object below. Select Object-1. From the same Blur & Sharpen menu, this time choose Emphasize Edges and enter 5 in the Level box. This isn't a bad effect just by itself, and it's better than Photoshop could do with one click. But it still doesn't look quite like a drawing. Reselect the top object and click the eye icon to make it visible again. Right click the object and choose Properties (CTRL+SHFT+ENTER). Click the General tab and then the drop down menu next to Merge. Change the Merge type to Lighting (not If Lighter) and click OK.

4
At this point, we want to merge the two objects into one. Shift-click Object-1 so that both are selected. Right-click either object and choose Merge As Single Object. You'll get a nasty warning box, but, yes, we really want to do this, so click OK. We now have an Object-3. Right-click and choose Properties and once again change the merge mode to Lighting. Choose Merge All from the Object menu, and there you are! For a slight improvement, use the Tone Map again, only this time change the Midtone slider to -25. Ready for watercolor? Go to Part 2.

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