Creative Effects Challenge No. 190 - Wood Cut Effect

[Tom]

My last Creative Effects Challenge was the Wood Burning Effect.  Generously, @billiejean sent me a link to a tutorial for creating a Woodcut Effect for consideration as a companion tutorial.  It is for Photoshop, but she showed me how to modify it to work for Elements.  We collaborated on it further, and not only was the process a delight, the result is a rather more efficient, fun, and easy distillation of the initial source.

Here is but one of several images I made using the written instructions below:

(Click image for full-size view)

1. Use a wood texture as your background layer (see links below)
   
2. Open an image you wish to convert into a woodcut
3. Make a selection of your subject (the quick selection tool usually works well, but see the note below)
   
4. Copy your selection to a new layer (Ctrl+J) and hide the original image layer
   
5. Click Photo Bin in the lower left corner
   
6. Click the wood texture, then drag your subject image onto it
   
7. Reposition and resize your subject using the Move tool (V)
   
8. Set the default colors (D)
   
9. Click Filter | Filter Gallery... | Sketch | Photocopy (I set the Detail and Darkness sliders to their max value)
   
10. Choose the Quick Selection Tool (A) and click inside a white area, then Click Select | Similar (this should select all the white)
    
11. Delete the selected white area (Del), leaving just the black regions
    
12. Set the blend mode to Soft light.  You can heighten the blend mode effect by duplicating the layer (Ctrl+J)
    
13. On the task bar click Styles, then Bevels from the drop-down menu and click the Simple Inner bevel
    
14. On the task bar click Layers, then the effects icon (fx) of the top layer.  Set the Direction of the bevel to Down and the Bevel Size to about 8
15. Lower the opacity of the layer beneath the top layer to make the effect more realistic
    

Tips & Tricks

In step 3, if you end up with a mask, Ctrl-click on the mask to make a selection of your subject, then continue on to step 4.

After creating the black on transparent image in step 11, I would sometimes simplify it by erasing some the busy parts to make a cleaner subject image.

After creating the black on transparent image in step 11, I would sometimes add a stroke to the selection to increase the black area (Edit | Stroke Selection).

Additional resources

Step 3 says to "make a selection of your subject", so here is a tutorial on how to make a selection.  It is overkill for this tutorial, as your selection needn't be very precise, but this skill is central to many projects: How You Can Use Photoshop Elements Selection Tools

Light wood texture: Light wood

Dark wood texture: Dark wood

I am looking eagerly looking forward to your results, and of course if you have any suggestions or questions I am all ears!

[Tom]

Thanks to everyone that tried out this challenge!  There were some fine results achieved.  I wanted to do a recap, giving an "executive summary" which hopefully will reveal its essence.  Perhaps seeing how simple it is will inspire some members to give it a try (or retry!)

The bottom line for this effect is this: after step 11 your subject is black on a transparent background.  After that put it over a wood texture, change the blend mode and add the bevel.  So, if your starting image is already a black on transparent image you begin at step 12, as in this example:

Original PNG image from Pixabay	Wood texture layer added below	Change blend mode and add bevel

The first 11 steps are used if your starting image is a photograph.  The first thing you need to do is extract the subject (which needn't be very precise).  The photocopy effect is used to make the image black & white, allowing you to then select and delete the white.  You now continue with step 12.

Original image from Pixabay	Black on transparent with frame	Add wood, blend mode and bevel