How to change an image into an illustration

[alienmem]

Hi guys. By now some of you know I'm not a big fan of realistic photos just composited on the front covers. I'm a great fan of the old vhs covers where every cover(almost) was made with an illustration. I know there's a program called Adobe Illustrator, wich I know nothing about but my question is and I've seen this tutorial from this guy on youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwx0L59WjrY) but the guy used several external plugins wich i don't know if they're freeware or not.



Alas, here's my question to the designers here. I love illustration type posters. How can I achieve on photoshop a cover like this beginning with a clear cut image(photo)?

[attachment=33134:movie_1140611631.jpg]


Anyone know how?

Someone once told me to use a plugin called, but i don't remember well, I think it was the designer who made one flew over the cucoo's nest.

Topaz impression or some plugin with a similar name but never got around to using it.

[alienmem]

Add-on:

Itwas this cover by sorin88 I believe

http://www.hirescovers.net/gallery/display...amp;sortcode=na

[Kernie]

AKVIS Sketch and AKVIS Airbrush are two that I use sometimes. But unfortunately, you have to buy a license for them. Also, Topaz Clean can be useful here and there. I usually do a combination of several plug-ins when I'm going for an illustrated effect.

Adobe Illustrator is a vector art program and probably won't be very helpful to you in this case.

While plug-ins are great, the only true way to get an authentic "hand-drawn" look is to actually draw it. I tried an illustrated look on my Birdman cover and failed miserably. No matter what you do, including the example in the YouTube tutorial, plug-ins often create a very fake, artificial look that doesn't quite compare to a true drawing.

I have yet to find a plug-in that can be a worthy substitute for the illustration skills of a talented artist. But maybe someone else in the forums knows something I don't.

[Ron Zoso]

An easy program to use to turn photos into paintings is Fotosketcher. It's a free program:


http://www.fotosketcher.com/

[alienmem]

@Kernie Can you give me examples of artwork where you used those illustrations besides birdman?


@Ronzoso Dido?

BTW, do any of you use the plugin sorin used TOPAZ Impression?

[Kernie]

QUOTE (alienmem @ Feb 4 2016, 01:24 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

@Kernie Can you give me examples of artwork where you used those illustrations besides birdman?

On my own work: Hocus Pocus, Scream, Incredibles, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Cabin in the Woods, among many others.

View the covers at full size and you'll probably be able to see subtle (or sometimes not-so-subtle) sketch effects.

[alienmem]

QUOTE (Kernie @ Feb 4 2016, 06:33 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

On my own work: Hocus Pocus, Scream, Incredibles, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Cabin in the Woods, among many others.

View the covers at full size and you'll probably be able to see subtle (or sometimes not-so-subtle) sketch effects.

Oh yeah, you can tell defintely. On the Scream cover you used direcly one from the filter gallery right? On the faces of the persons?


Downloaded the program Ron said. Will download also if i can get a hand on the ones you said ,kernie and also topaz

[Ron Zoso]

I haven't used Topaz Impression, but looking at the website, Fotosketcher will give you pretty much the same thing without the $100.00 price tag.

A couple of images ran through Fotosketcher that started out as photos:

[Kernie]

QUOTE (alienmem @ Feb 4 2016, 01:37 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh yeah, you can tell defintely. On the Scream cover you used direcly one from the filter gallery right? On the faces of the persons?

I actually forget exactly what I did on the Scream cover. I believe I duplicated the original photo layer 3 or 4 times, applied different filters to each layer, and then adjusted blend modes and opacity on each layer until I got an effect that I liked.

Even on those covers, I don't feel like I've ever quite figured out a perfect way to make it look like a real drawing.

[alienmem]

are all these guys importable into photoshop or you can only use them as stand alone programs?

fotosketcher seems nice. an addition to the filter gallery in PS, with more choices. haven't see nthe AKVIS and TOPAZ yet but i got them here already. Just a matter of trying them out.