Sketchbook page 2 - with Digital Baby steps.

Page 2 of my late night doodles, though I know my doodles become very finished drawings. What can I say? I am what I am. I had seen something on Facebook, I think, that looked like old master drawings on a tinted page, so I decided it would be fun to try and create that for these sketches. Here's the original drawing:

                                                                     


I found some free parchment texture online. I'm so sorry I didn't make note of where I got it. I should at least credit the source, but I haven't been able to find it again. At any rate, there's plenty out there if you do a search. Just be sure that there is no royalty and beware of the dpi. This one was 72 dpi - OK for what I wanted, but beware. If I were doing something that could potentially be sold, I'd create my own texture.  Coffee stains might be nice and the edges could be burned. I remember doing that in high school! Here's the one I found online. Believe it or not, this is what I started with:

                                                                       

When you drag the texture onto the Photoshop icon on your dock, it opens a new Photoshop document with the texture as the background.  Double clicking on this background layer turns it into layer 0. You can name it, if you like. You'll see a window like this:

                                                                           

Obviously, I wanted adjustments! So, with layer 0 selected, I then went to Image - Adjustments. First I adjusted with Levels. But then, with Image - Brightness/ Contrast and Hue/Saturation. Here are my Hue/Saturation adjustments below. Then, I opened the sketch in Photoshop and dragged it onto the document with the texture (2nd below):

                                                                                 

                                                                               

                                                                          

You can see the adjusted color and saturation of the parchment on the sides. It doesn't look like it worked though does it? Well, surprise, surprise - a bit more Photoshop magic and we'll get there! The sketch is now layer 2. So, all you need to do is select layer 2 and make it a multiply layer:

                                                                       


This (above) is the layers palette. You can see layer 2 (the sketch) behind the list of pull down options. It's selected, so it's blue. In the pull down options under normal, click multiply and that's when the sketch blends with the parchment, paper layer. A simple crop and that part was done.  No screen shot of it. Surprizing, since I'm crazy for screen shots. But, I don't think you needed that one - so you were spared! Basically, it's the image up top, without the darkened edges. That's next.

To darken the edges, go to the Layer Style window. Double click or control click on the layer and this window opens:

                                                                                           

                                                                             
                                                                     

Finally! The final step! To make the edges dark, look on the left side of the Layer Style window above. Choose Inner Shadow and you will see a window like this:

                             

                                                                           
                                                               
You can adjust the size and color of the shadow, the angle, and lots more. There are also many other options to play with in the styles listed on the left. Have fun, because pretty much everything can be undone - Command - z! Or, Edit - step backward. Or, just go back in the history palette.

I should also remind everyone, from time to time, that I am still working in CS3. And also say again that all work on this site is © Marion Eldridge. Thank you! Here's another look at the finish.