5 Steps To Create Caricature Sketch

May 23rd, 2007

We will take a photo of a nice sweet little kitten and convert it into MONSTER KILLER CAT in 5 easy steps.

All keyboard shortcuts are for PC. I don’t have a Mac, but as far as I know the main difference is use of the COMMAND key and OPTION key on a Mac instead of the CTRL key and the ALT key on a PC.

Here’s original image. Very nice kitten.

And after 5 minutes of “playing” with it:

Step 1. Duplicate the background.

Press CTRL-J to duplicate ‘Background’ layer. Rename new layer to ‘Caricature base’ (I prefer to give meaningful names to layers always, even if you have only 3 - 4 of them; and if you have 5-10 layers proper naming is “a must”).

Step 2. Use Filter - Liquify.

Liquify filter is a powerful tool to create caricature images. It’s very easy - use tools on the left and set parameters on the right.

Here are some tips for Liquify filter:

to change brush size quickly move your mouse over ‘Brush Size’ words (on the right) and drag
set Brush Rate to 40-80 to control speed of “static” changes when you hold mouse button and not moving your mouse (Bloat and Pucker tools)
set Brush Pressure to 40-50 to have more control over distortions when you move mouse
make a lot of short and gentle strokes, not long drags
CTRL-ALT-Z to undo, CTRL-SHIFT-Z to redo

Step 3. Duplicate liqufied layer.

Press CTRL-J to duplicate “Caricature Base” layer, then rename new layer to “Contours”.

Step 4. Create contours to make image look drawn.

The quickest way to create contours is Filter - Stylize - Find Edges. Then press CTRL-SHIFT-U to desaturate.

Step 5. Set Blending mode to Multiply.

The last step. Set blending mode of “Contours” layer to Multiply. Also try to change layer opacity to 60-90%.

One more example of using “caricature sketch” technique:

Posted in Photoshop Tutorials