Keep reading to learn how to convert an ordinary photo into a coloring sheet like this one!
How do all birthdays and holidays ALWAYS sneak up so fast?
I just realized today that my father-in-law's birthday AND father's day are coming up, and to mail it in time I pretty much needed to mail it, well, today. I always like to include something made by my kids, which can be a little difficult with a two year old and 5 month old. I usually make something involving painted handprints or fingerprints, but I wanted to try something a little different this time, especially since I was so short on time. So I thought... maybe I'll just have Millie color something, so I googled "grandpa coloring sheets" and all I could find were a bunch of pictures of balding old men. My father-in-law might find that a little offensive since he still has a full head of hair, he might think I'm trying to call him old! Then I suddenly remembered playing around in photoshop several months ago and discovering all of the fun and exciting filters. After a lot of trial and error, I finally figured out how to turn a photo into a coloring sheet using photoshop. As an afterthought, I'm sure I could have just googled it and found detailed instructions within seconds, but it's too late for that now!
Instructions:
Find or take a digital photograph with a simple background (most of mine were either a bare wall or a solid couch) with very few shadows on your subject's face.
Open the photo in photoshop and resize it to fit whatever size you're wanting to print (my coloring pages are all 8 1/2 x 11)
Go to Filter ->Sketch->Photocopy and adjust the detail and darkness settings to your liking. I kept most of mine both around 7. And don't worry, if you're not liking how it looks, remember we're not finished yet!
Click Layer->New Adjustment Layer->Levels
In the Adjustments tab under Levels, slide the arrows to adjust the different levels. There should be something that looks kind of like a graph, with three arrows underneath. The left arrow can be used to increase the shadow levels, this will give you darker, thicker lines. The right arrow can be used to decrease the highlight levels, which will clean up some of the noise in your picture. Play around with the levels until you're satisfied.
If you're a perfectionist like me, and want to clean up some of the background and a few splotchy areas, then just make sure that your photo layer is selected (not the level adjustments layer) and use a white brush to color over some of that unwanted noise.
Ta-da! You are finished! Hopefully your kids will have lots of fun coloring pictures of themselves, I know my daughter will!
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