Basic Outline Tutorial

Posted on Jan 12, 2014 | 0 comments

This is a technique that I learned many years ago and appeared in the forum at Innographx (aka The Inn) run by Phyllis Stewart. It is often used as one layer or stepping stone in more complex artwork.

1. Duplicate the layer you’re starting with to preserve your original (Layer A).
2. Desaturate the layer to black and white. Adjust the brightness and contrast to get some detail in large darker areas, if necessary.
3. Duplicate Layer A and Invert it (Image|Adjustments|Invert). This will be Layer B.
4. Set the blend mode of Layer B to Color Dodge.
5. If there are any black blotches, open the Levels adjustment and set the left box on Output Levels from 0 to 1. The blotches should go away.
6. Apply a Gaussian Blur to Layer B. The amount depends on the effect you’re after. Just a little and you get outlines. A bit more and you start to get a sketch look.
7. With Layer B selected, perform a Stamp Visible (For PC -> Shift+Ctrl+Alt+E, For Mac -> Shift+Command+Option+E) to put the effect on a new layer (Layer C).
8. You can adjust Layer C using Levels or Brightness/Contrast or by duplicating one or more time using the Multiply blend mode. If you use multiple layers, perform a Stamp Visible to get the final result on its own layer.
9. You can delete the non-visible layers if you don’t expect to go back and make changes.

There are many variations to the above method that you can use to yield differing results. Instead of Gaussian Blur in Step 6, try a different blur type or Filter|Other|Minimum. You can also apply filters or adjustments like Filter|Stylize|Diffuse set to Darken Only for a rough pencil look or Anisotropic for a smoother look.

I often use a blending mode of Multiply with an opacity of around 60% when I’m using the result to add outlines to other artwork layers.

I hope you find this useful and enjoy playing around with this technique.