Creating a sketch from a photograph

It would be really nice if there was an easy way of creating a line drawing from a photograph. I have downloaded filters, used various filters in Photoshop and have tried many stand alone programs that aim to create line drawings.
Here is my photograph.

an here is the line drawing from the best of the downloaded programs I have tried - this one called "Fotosketcher"

The results are not brilliant - the colour sketch was impressive but was not the line drawing I was after.
So, I resolved to create a sketch that I could give to my grandchildren to colour-in.

 This is the sketch that I made from the photograph.
Here are the steps I took to do that.
To begin with I created a blank layer above the original photograph. (Ctrl+J in Photoshop  Elements)
With a smooth edged brush and a contrasting RED as the foreground colour I zoomed in on the picture and started to draw around the edges of the horses.

Using red it is so much easier to see where I had been - I started out using black but soon gave up because the black was lost in the black areas of the shadows.
I use a graphic tablet so drawing around the horses was not as difficult as if I were using my track-ball mouse. I soon found that I could start the line exactly where I wanted it to start with no hovering about to see where the cursor was. The secret is to zoom in very close.
Once the outlines and harness details had been drawn I then clicked on the background and filled it with white. (Edit>Fill Layer>White )

I found that I had missed out the detail of the bit on the white horse so had to click "Undo" to remove the white and fix the problem. Once done I could fill the background with white once again.
Of course I did not want a red sketch, I wanted a black and right sketch.
I clicked on Layer 1 - the red sketch - and from the Menu bar clicked on Enhance>Convert to Black and White.

There are a few options to choose from - I found "Portrait" to give me the blackest lines.
The very last thing I did was again to go to the Menu Bar, click on Layers>Flatten image.
So now I feel I know how to create my sketches without the use of filters or special programs! DIY.
AJ

New toy from the Internet

I love to play with my photos and today I decided on adding a sketch to a perfectly good picture. I spent hours using a filter to create a line drawing from this photo.

To do so I converted to black and white and increased the contrast then brought into use a filter from "Image Skill" called "Outliner". This did a very good job of creating the outline - but outlined all the ripples in the water and leaves on the trees - so I had to spend more time removing all the black from the places I did not want outlines. I was pretty happy with the final image once I had put it over the original image and used "multiply". Then I decided to do a search for other sketch software and downloaded a freebie called FotoSketcher. It does wonderful things and I will show you.

These are two of the effects you can get by using the presets for watercolor and for vintage and further adjustments can be made by sliding the sliders and changing textures. But I digress! I wanted to do a line sketch and put that over the top of a photo. I will show you the sketch and the result.

I wish I could draw as good as this and as fast as this was done!
Next up I copied this "drawing" and pasted it onto the original photo and clicked on "Multiply" in the layers blending options. I found I needed to increase the midtones brightness in the photograph because the black from the drawing in the trees and water made the picture too dark. Here is the result.

The effect of putting a sketch over something with defined edges makes quite a statement. I quite like the effect. It isn't something you would do for every picture but it works really well on photos of architecture. This program does a good job in a fraction of the time it took me with the filter.

There is a downside though. Somehow the program has also managed to hijack my browser and although I de-activated the Fotosketcher tool bar , the web page suddenly sprang back up while I was writing this blog. I will have to so some work on it! Grrr!