I developed this (super easy) technique for turning a photo into a glorified pixel-y type sketch while racking my brain for a new Facebook picture. It is partly inspired by the awesome Threadless shirt I’m wearing. This is something fun you can do quickly, and with one of your own pictures!

With Halloween coming up soon, consider creating one of this for your Ghost self.

Head on after the break for the full tutorial!

First you’ll need a picture. Don’t worry about the background, everything will be covered over in the end. Just make sure the photo you choose is large enough that you can zoom in to see the details (this photo is only at 50% of its actual size).

Grab the pencil tool and set it to 1px. Select a colour – I chose a light blue, but this can be changed in the end using a Colour Overlay, so don’t fret over it too much. There’ll be time for experimentation.

Create a new layer. I named mine ‘lines’. This is where you will begin sketching.

Start tracing your image. Be as precise or as messy as you want. Trace over most of the details or keep it simple. It’s all up to you!

Now here comes the fun part. Create a new layer below ‘lines’. Fill it with white.

That should wash out the background so you can see what your new line sketch looks like.

You can stop here, or add more to your picture. I’m going to add in some scratch lines, and play around with a few gradient options. Head on to page two to see how they are created.

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