How To Transform A Photograph Into An Underdrawing

Our first step will be to use Adobe Camera Raw, then Photoshop, then Corel Painter to transform a photograph into an underdrawing.

Here are the steps we take:

1. Let us begin with this photograph. It is a digital photograph in Camera RAW format.
   
   
   
   
   This is a dark photograph the color of which might suggest Rembrandt while its atmosphere might suggest Reubens. But its low contrast inhibits our efforts to transform it into a drawing.
   
2. So we import it into Adobe Camera Raw, where we increase its fill light and its contrast to achieve the following picture:
   
   
   This transformation brings out many previously obscured details.
   
3. Now we import this photograph into Photoshop CS5, where we use the new HDR Toning to convert to greyscale. Click "Image/Adjustments/HDR Toning..." to open the HDR Toning dialog box. Reduce the saturation to its minimum level while raising the detail. Consider other adjustments that would make the picture sharper and punchier. Get the following result:
   
   
   Photoshop has other methods to transform color photos to black and white. You can experiment with those, but so far I have found them less sharp. And sharpness is good when you want to transform a photograph into a drawing.
   
4. Now we run our photograph through the High Pass filter to make it resemble an etching. Click "Filter/Other/High Pass..." to get the following result:
   
   
5. Then we add a Threshold adjustment layer to transform it into a black and white outline. Goto the layers panel, click on the adjustment layers icon and select "Threshold..." for the following result:
   
   
   
   Save the file in PNG, GIF, or JPEG format and exit Photoshop.
   
6. Now goto Corel Painter to color this drawing with burnt umber. Painter has an "Artists Oils" color set. Using this color set, you can manipulate most of the colors with which we are familiar when using physical media such as oils, acrylics, or water color: cadmium blue, permanent alizarin crimson, raw sienna, and so forth. It is a swatch panel preset with those colors which you already know. Burnt umber is one of them. To load, open your color panel with "Window/Color Panels/Color Sets." Then click on the triangle on the panel's upper right hand corner to get "Open Color Set..." A dialog box will appear warning you that the new color set will overwrite your old one. Ignore this warning and click "Load." Then select "Artists Oils Colors.colors" from your available options.
   
7. Then load burnt umber as your primary color. It is the swatch on the third row from the bottom and the third column from the left.
   
8. Add a new layer above your canvas. Open the Layers panel by clicking "Window/Layers." Then click the "New Layer" icon.
   
9. Fill this new layer with burnt umber. Click the layer to be sure it has been selected. Click "Edit/Fill.." to launch the Fill dialog box. Set it to fill with current color and set the opacity to 50 percent. You get the following:
   
   
10. This is too dark but can be corrected with a blending mode. Goto your layers panel and change the blending mode from "Default" to "Color." You get the following, which is our final result:
    
    
    Or rather, we have achieved an underdrawing upon which we can do some real painting.
    

This technique is not limited to portraits. For example, similar steps transformed this photograph of the lighthouse in Chania harbor, Crete:

into this underdrawing:

Our Basic Approach

The purpose of this blog is to take David Hockney's thesis that Old Masters achieved the photographic qualities of their paintings by projecting camera obscura techniques to project the image of their subject onto a painting's surface and to use this thesis as a basis for us to compose our own paintings.

Hockney sets forth his thesis in Secret Knowledge (New and Expanded Edition): Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters. According to the Amazon.com review:

British painter David Hockney, well known for his cool and lovely paintings of California pools, has taken on the new role of detective. For two years Hockney seriously investigated the painting techniques of the old masters, and like any admirable sleuth, compiled substantial evidence to support his revolutionary theory. Secret Knowledge is the fruit of this labor, an exhaustive treatise in pictures revealing clues that some of the world's most famous painters, Ingres, Velázquez, Caravaggio (just to mention a few) utilized optics and lenses in creating their masterpieces. Hockney's fascination with the subject is contagious, and the book feels almost like a game with each analysis a "How'd they do that?" instead of a whodunit. While some may find the technical revelation a disappointment in terms of the idea of genius, Hockney is quick to point out that the use of optics does not diminish the immensity of artistic achievement. He reminds the reader that a tool is just a tool, and it is still the artist's hand and creative vision that produce a work of art. (296 pages, 460 illustrations, 402 in color.) --J.P. Cohen --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Nowadays, we don't have to use camera obscura to achieve the sort of techniques that Hockney ascribes to the Old Masters. Rather, by using digital photographs, Adobe Photoshop, and Corel Painter, we can follow essentially the same steps.

In this blog, we shall adapt Old Master techniques into equivalent Photoshop or Painter techniques, thereby practicing what Hockney preaches.

Is Hockney historically accurate? I don't know and - frankly - who cares? What matters is that by using his thesis as a sounding board and combining it with available software, we ourselves can achieve interesting and worthwhile effects.

So let's go.