Sketch / Painting Effect in photoshop

Basically, I wanted to find a way to create a sketched effect in Photoshop. It can be adapted in many ways toward the end to change the effect completely, so you'll hopefully find it quite versatile.This assumes a reasonable knowledge of PS. I use PS6


Step 1. Firstly duplicate the layer (right mouse click the layer and select 'Duplicate layer').
Step 2. Desaturate this new layer (Image > Adjust > Desaturate or Shift + CTRL + U) and rename it Desaturated.
Step 3. Duplicate the layer named Desaturated.
Step 4. Invert this new layer (Image > Adjust > Invert or CTRL + I) and rename it Desaturated & Inverted

 your layers should appear like this

Right mouse click the top layer titled Desaturated & Inverted and choose Blending Options. Change the Blend Mode to Color Dodge.
Your image should now appear to have almost nothing in it, like this

With the top layer titled Desaturated & Inverted selected, use the Gaussian Blur filter (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur).
I used a radius of around 2 pixels, but you'll need to play around until you find a level you like.

Merge the 2 top layers titled Desaturated and Desaturated & Inverted (CTRL + E will merge the layer you have selected plus the one below).Change the Blend mode of this new top layer to Luminosity

 This is where you can play around to find different effects. I used the Fresco filter (Filter > Artistic > Fresco)
but Cutout works well, as does Smudge Stick and Film Grain.Have fun with it.

Let me know if you find any nice variations

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