PART I: YOUR FACE
Step 05: Path Inking

We can now begin to create a nice, black outline version of our picture. We will work first on the long, unbroken lines in the image. We could simply draw our face freehand (and we will do some of this in the next step), but Photoshop has a built-in system that will create smooth, perfect lines for us. This is accomplished using Path Inking. Path inking can seem pretty intimidating at first. It can seem like a horrible, technical, time-consuming, and complicated process. But, once you get a good sense of how to use the Pen tool, it really is easy to work with, comes in handy, and the lines it makes are pretty much flawless.

Before we get started, let's make sure we have the correct layer selected.

  1. Open your Face file in Photoshop
  2. Make sure the Freehand, Backing, and Face layers are all locked...
  3. Make sure the Cartoon layer is selected (it should be highlighted in gray like in the image above)

DRAW ONLY ON THE CARTOON LAYER - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!

If your Face layer is unlocked and you draw your cartoon lines on it then the lines you draw will merge with the blue image and will be impossible to separate,

AND YOU WILL HAVE TO START OVER.

When working with Photoshop, be sure that all changes you make are being placed on the correct layer. By keeping our cartoon and photograph layers separate we can turn the visibility of our photo on and off as needed to see our progress and compare the cartoon we are making with our original image.

The two tools we'll be using are the Pen tool (about halfway up the Tools panel) and the Direct Selection tool (just under the Type tool). We'll be using the Pen tool to draw points and the Direct Selection tool to modify them.

When we create Paths, we are drawing temporary lines that Photoshop remembers which will serve as a guide for Photoshop to drop ink over. The really cool thing is that we can create, delete, or move points on these lines before we ink them, so we are able to make the lines look exactly the way we want before we add in the color. Think of it as using a string to create a shape on the floor, then moving the string around any way we want to create any shape we want. Once we have the string in a position we like, we use a can of spray paint to paint over the string to create a line (except Photoshop does the painting for us!).

We first need to set our brush to the correct size.

  1. Activate the Brush Tool...
    The resulting Option bar (at the top of the Photoshop window just below the Menu bar) will look similar to the one below...
  2. Make sure Mode, Opacity, and Flow are set to match the image above
  3. Click the drop-down arrow next to the Brush Preset picker (in the image above, the Brush Preset picker is currently set to 2)
  4. Change the amount in the Size box to 4, as indicated below (top red arrow)...

A BRUSH SIZE OF 4 IS CRUCIAL FOR YOUR CARTOON FACE TO COME OUT RIGHT.
MAKE SURE YOUR BRUSH IS SET TO 4.

  1. Select the brush indicated above (bottom red arrow) - you can tell which brush is selected because it will have a blue box around it

Let's begin creating the outline of your face.

  1. Select the Pen tool...
  2. Go up to the Pen Tool options bar, and look at the left side where you see this...

    We need to make sure the correct tools are activated or the changes we will be making to our graphic in the following steps will not work
  3. We want to make a path, so make sure the Pick tool mode selector is set to Path (notice the word Path in the above image - you want your screen to have the exact same selection)

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT - IF YOU DO NOT SELECT PATH ALL KINDS OF STRANGE THINGS WILL HAPPEN, SO FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY!

Let's start creating our paths just above your ear. When using the Pen tool, clicking the left mouse button places an anchor point. If you drag the mouse a little bit while holding the mouse button down, you can set its starting direction. You need to make sure that you ALWAYS set a starting direction because if you don't the path will just be a straight line to the next point you make and the curves it makes will stink. So the starting direction line is how you get Photoshop to make nice, pretty curves. If you look at the image below you will see a box with lines coming out the top and bottom with small dots at the end of them - the box is the anchor point that I dropped and the lines are the direction lines (when you drag the mouse, the direction lines are drawn an equal distance on each side of the anchor point). Remember that if you put an anchor in the wrong place, you can hit the Delete key to get rid of it.
  1. If you skipped the paragraph above, go back and READ IT as it contains important information you need to know about the Pen tool
  2. Make sure once again that you are on the correct layer - your Cartoon layer should currently be highlighted in blue and the other two layers should be locked
  3. Left click just above your ear and while holding down the mouse button drag it up a little bit in the direction you want the path to go (this will get the direction line to display) then release the mouse button
  4. You should now have something similar to the image below...

    If you just clicked and didn't drag, just delete that point and do it correctly - if you don't get the direction line it will be difficult to create nice, smooth lines
  5. Look at the layers in your Layers panel - check once more to make sure you are actually drawing paths on the Cartoon layer and that the other two layers are locked - if the Cartoon layer is not the active layer then click it to make it the active layer now (it should be highlighted in blue)
  6. Move about half way up the side of your face and click again then:
  7. Drag the mouse around until the line between the two points you created matches the curve of your face - note that at this point you can move the mouse up and down or left and right to get the line that Photoshop inserted between the two points to curve how you like it

If you do not have a line but instead have a strange shape that is filled in with
black, take a look at your Layers panel and see if it looks something like this...

If your Cartoon layer now has a strange shape on it,
then congratulations, you did it WRONG!

This is happening because you did not read and follow direction ELEVEN above.
To fix this problem press Ctrl+Alt+Z repeatedly until your
Cartoon layer returns to how it is supposed to look...

Now go back and actually follow the directions to redo it.
  1. Click at the top of your head and drag the mouse around until you have a nice curve...

When working with paths, we want to keep the lines simple and not too complicated. In the graphic above you can see that I am only using 3 points to create the curve and that I am only doing half of the top of his head. I could certainly do more of the head at once, but by using short, easy to work with lines I can make sure that I make an accurate outline.

A WORD OF WARNING AT THIS POINT:
 Do not drop too many points!
 If you have too many points your line will actually look more jagged than if you use few points and let Photoshop add in a nice curved line.

If your points look like this...

then your line will look like this...

Notice that the above line is not smooth at all, especially when compared to the one below...

which was created using only 3 points. Make sure your lines are smooth!

The Pen Tool is a difficult concept for some users to master, so don't worry too much if you have a hard time getting it to work correctly. Keep practicing and it will work. Using a Path means you will have very clean, very neat lines.

Once all the anchors of the line you want to create are in place, you can go back and fine-tune them. Keep in mind that your Path should NOT attempt to outline or draw too much of the image, as this will likely result in problems. Keep your pathing to easy, smooth lines you can work with.

Let's fine-tune our points.

  1. Click the Direct Selection Tool (this tool allows us to adjust the points we placed with our Pen Tool)...

    If you don't see the Direct Selection Tool it is because the Path Selection Tool is currently selected - right-click the Path Selection Tool and in the menu that pops up...

    Select the Direct Selection Tool
  2. Press and hold the Alt key then roll the mouse wheel up to zoom in so you can see the entire path and some of the area around it (basically what you see in direction 19 above) - keep in mind that you will want to see at least some of the surrounding area as this will help you when setting up your lines and curves
  3. Click to select any of the three points that need to be adjusted (when attempting to select a point, Photoshop may select the entire path when you first click on a point; you can correct this by clicking a little distance away from a point and dragging to draw a selection box around the point you want to select)
  4. You should now be able to move the anchor and both the ingoing and outgoing curve vectors (those lines coming off the point in each direction) - this method of curves is very flexible, so take your time and make sure your curve is perfect

Before we stroke our path, let's make sure that we are drawing with black ink.

  1. Locate the Default Foreground and Background Colors icon (red arrow below)...
  2. Click the icon - this will make Black your Foreground color and white your Background color (the keyboard shortcut for this is the D key)

When you have a curve you are happy with - and black as your color - it's time to ink the line.

  1. With either the Pen Tool or the Direct Selection Tool selected, Right-click your image - this will open a pop-up menu
  2. Click Stroke Path...

    If Stroke Path... is grayed out so you can not click it, be certain you do not have the Shape layer problem that was described in direction 18 and that the Cartoon layer is the active layer (your other layers should be locked so Photoshop should not allow you to edit them)
  3. The Stroke Path window will open...
  4. Make sure that Tool: is set to Brush, and Simulate Pressure is NOT checked
  5. Click OK

Photoshop should have just inked (dropped black ink on top of) the path you created and you should see something like this...

If your line is a color other than black or is too wide/thin, simply press Ctrl+Z on the keyboard to undo the inking and fix your issues using the above directions.

Once the line looks good we no longer need the path so we can get rid of it.

  1. Either click on the path and press the delete key, select Delete Path from the Path menu, or right-click your drawing and choosing Delete Path...

    Right-clicking and choosing Delete Path is the way most Photoshop users do it

You should now have something like this...

We are now ready to path ink the rest of your head.

  1. Be sure all previous paths you created have been deleted
  2. Start where your last path ended and click and drag to begin creating a new path - don't worry if the two ends of the paths do not line up exactly, we will worry about that later
  3. Create a path that goes from the top of your head to the other side of your head - remember, don't try to path ink too much at once
  4. Stroke the path - you should now have something similar to the image below...
  5. Ink the remainder of the outline of your head...

    Remember to ink it a piece at a time - perhaps do one cheek, then your chin, then the other cheek, then one ear, then the other ear

Keep in mind that while the Pen tool is good for the long, important lines, it should not be used for every line in the picture! It could be, but if your pictures have many small lines like this one, you would simply be driven insane. These small lines don't need the detail of the longer ones, so you would be better off drawing them freehand with the mouse (which we will do in the next step)

  1. Continue using the Pen tool to ink the remaining long lines of your face - you want to do the following parts:

When you finish the above step, you will have something like this...

Keep something very important in mind at this point - your cartoon needs to extend to the bottom of the image. This will be very important to us when we create our Backing layer in Step 08...


We need to be able to select all of the pinkish area at once

Notice that in the picture I'm using for this tutorial that the lines of the neck go all the way to the bottom of the image so that the entire head is one contained unit. This will allow me to quickly and easily select everything around my head with one click so that we are only left with our cartoon noggin. If you have long hair that extends out the bottom of the photo you can ink that, if not you will have to ink and add color to your clothes. Take a look at the two outlines below...

In the left image, her hair was long enough that it extended out the bottom of the image and thus no additional work on her clothes needed to be done. In the right image however, she had to add paths to her jacket and blouse so that the cartoon extended all the way to the bottom of the image. It does not matter at this point how you accomplish this, just make sure that your paths extend all the way to the bottom of the picture.

At this point our cartoon is not perfect - we are missing some important parts around the eyes and ears, but these are short lines that will take a long time to get in if we use paths, so we will simply freehand ink them in the next step.

  1. Save your Face file

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