How to Turn Any Image Into an Illustration in Photoshop

How to Turn Any Image Into an Illustration in Photoshop

Turning a regular photo into something that looks hand-drawn in chalk on a chalkboard means combining several advanced techniques: a custom chalk brush built from scratch, channels and selections used to simplify an image into a clean graphic shape, and that shape converted into a path that gets stroked with the chalk brush. This tutorial builds all of it step by step, finishing with hand-drawn detail and text that make the result look genuinely drawn rather than computer-generated.

Building a Chalk Brush With Shape Dynamics and Scattering

A regular round brush needs several Shape Dynamics settings layered together before it starts to look and paint like real chalk on a rough surface.

1. Set the Foreground Color to White

   Press D then X to set the default colors, making white the foreground color.

2. Turn On Size Jitter

   Open the Brush panel, go to Shape Dynamics, and turn on Size Jitter so brush marks vary in size, raising the minimum diameter so they don’t get too small.

3. Reduce Roundness

   In Brush Tip Shape, reduce Roundness to around 50% so the brush shape becomes slightly elongated rather than a perfect circle.

4. Turn On Angle Jitter

   Back in Shape Dynamics, turn on Angle Jitter so each mark lands at a different rotation, which only has a visible effect once Roundness is reduced.

5. Reduce Spacing and Add Scattering

   Lower Spacing so marks land close together, then add a small amount of Scattering for natural variation.

6. Add Opacity Jitter

   In Transfer, raise Opacity Jitter all the way up so some marks appear lighter and others darker, and set its Control to Pen Pressure so a light stroke paints lighter, mimicking how chalk pressure varies naturally. Flow Jitter is tried and set back to 0.

Saving the Finished Chalk Brush Preset

Saving the finished brush as a preset makes it reusable for both tracing the illustration later and writing free-hand text.

7. Save the New Brush Preset

   Click New Brush Preset and name it Chalk.

Simplifying the Image Into a Graphic Selection With Channels

Duplicating a color channel and pushing its Levels to extremes turns a photo into a simplified, high-contrast graphic shape, which is the foundation needed to trace it later.

8. Duplicate a Channel

   Open the Channels panel and duplicate one channel, such as Red, since the specific channel doesn’t matter much for a black-and-white subject.

9. Push the Black and White Points With Levels

   Press Cmd/Ctrl+L and drag the black point and white point sliders in toward each other until the image simplifies into a bold, graphic black-and-white shape.

10. Load the Channel as a Selection

    Hold Cmd/Ctrl and click the duplicated channel’s thumbnail to load it as a selection.

11. Invert the Selection

    Go to Select > Inverse so the darker areas of the simplified image, rather than the lighter ones, become the active selection.

Why Simplify With Levels Before Making a Selection

A selection based on the full range of tones in a normal photo would be far too complex and detailed to convert cleanly into a path that a brush stroke can follow. Pushing the black and white points to extremes first collapses the image into bold, simple shapes, which is what makes the resulting selection and path clean enough to trace convincingly.

Turning the Channel Selection Into a Clean, Marquee-Trimmed Selection

The channel-based selection usually includes unrelated background areas, so trimming it down with the Marquee tool leaves only the specific subject that should be drawn.

12. Subtract Unwanted Areas

    Select the Rectangular Marquee tool, hold Option/Alt, and drag over large areas that shouldn’t be part of the final selection to remove them.

13. Confirm the Selection With Quick Mask

    Press Q to preview the selection in Quick Mask mode, confirming that only the intended subject remains selected, then press Q again to return to a normal selection.

Converting the Selection Into a Pen Path

Any selection, not just one built from channels, can be converted directly into a pen path, which is what a brush stroke actually needs to follow.

14. Make a Work Path From the Selection

    Open the Paths panel and click Make Work Path From Selection.

Why Trim the Selection With the Marquee Tool Before Making a Path

Converting an untrimmed selection that includes unrelated background detail into a path would create an overly complex path with far more points and shapes than the actual subject needs. Trimming the selection down to just the intended subject first keeps the resulting path simple and focused, which is what allows the chalk brush to trace it cleanly in one pass.

Stroking the Path With the Chalk Brush

Stroking the finished path with the custom chalk brush is what actually converts the simplified shape into something that looks drawn.

15. Create a New Layer

    Create a new layer to hold the stroked path.

16. Stroke the Path With the Chalk Brush

    Right-click the path in the Paths panel, choose Stroke Path, select the Chalk brush, and optionally enable Simulate Pressure.

Hand-Drawing Extra Detail to Break Up the Traced Look

Adding a few hand-drawn strokes with the same chalk brush on top of the stroked path fills in gaps and gives the final image a genuinely drawn feel.

17. Create a New Layer for Hand-Drawn Detail

    Create a new layer above the stroked path layer.

18. Draw Additional Detail With the Chalk Brush

    Use the same Chalk brush, rotating the canvas with the R tool if it helps, to add extra strokes and detail by hand around the traced shape.

Why Add Hand-Drawn Strokes After the Path Is Stroked

A path stroked purely by Photoshop tends to look mechanically perfect, missing the small inconsistencies that make an actual hand drawing convincing. Adding hand-drawn detail with the same brush afterward introduces those natural imperfections, and since the path-stroking step already did the bulk of the work, only a small amount of manual drawing is needed to finish the illustration.

Adding Chalk Text and Merging the Artwork

Writing directly with the chalk brush adds a text element that matches the illustration’s style, and merging every layer together simplifies the final finishing steps.

19. Write Text With the Chalk Brush

    Create a new layer and use the Chalk brush to hand-write text directly on the canvas.

20. Group and Merge the Finished Artwork

    Group all the illustration and text layers together, then duplicate and merge the group into a single layer.

Blending the Illustration Into the Chalkboard With Blur, Glow, and Texture

A small blur, an outer glow, and a masked pass with a wider-spaced version of the chalk brush make the finished illustration look like it’s actually sitting on the chalkboard’s surface.

21. Apply a Small Gaussian Blur

    Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and apply a very small amount, such as 1 pixel, so the illustration blends slightly into the chalkboard texture.

22. Add an Outer Glow

    Double-click the merged layer, add an Outer Glow, increase its size, and lower its opacity to create a subtle chalk bleed effect.

23. Mask With a Wider-Spaced Chalk Brush

    Add a layer mask, increase the chalk brush’s Spacing and Scattering further, and paint black over small areas so the chalk looks like it didn’t fully catch the board’s texture everywhere.

Why This Approach Works

Building the chalk brush’s randomness through Size Jitter, reduced Roundness, Angle Jitter, and Scattering together is what keeps every stroke from looking like an identical, obviously repeated stamp. Simplifying the image with channels and Levels before converting it into a selection and path is what makes it possible to trace something as complex as a photograph with a single brush stroke. Adding hand-drawn detail and text on top of the automatically stroked path is the final touch that turns a technically impressive trick into something that actually reads as a hand-drawn illustration.

Final Thoughts

This is one of the more advanced techniques covered here, combining custom brushes, channels, selections, and paths into a single workflow, but the payoff is a genuinely convincing illustration effect that would be extremely tedious to draw by hand from scratch. The same chalk-brush-and-path approach works on any image with clear enough contrast to simplify into a graphic shape, not just this particular photo.

Quick Reference: Keys, Menus and Settings

• Chalk brushD then X for white; Window > Brush: Size Jitter, Roundness 50%, Angle Jitter, low Spacing, a little Scattering, Opacity Jitter on Pen Pressure
• Simplify the imageChannels panel, duplicate Red; Cmd/Ctrl + L, black and white points in
• Select the shapeCmd/Ctrl-click the channel; Select > Inverse; Marquee with Alt/Option to subtract; Q to check
• Path and strokePaths panel: Make Work Path From Selection; new layer, right-click > Stroke Path, Brush, Simulate Pressure
• Draw by handSame chalk brush on a new layer; R to rotate the canvas
• MergeCmd/Ctrl + G, Cmd/Ctrl + J, Cmd/Ctrl + E
• Blend into the boardFilter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, 1 pixel; Outer Glow, larger size, low opacity; mask with a wide-spaced chalk brush

No AI, no generative credits.