How To Use A Photoshop Filter
A Photoshop filter is one of the easiest and simplest ways to bring a dramatic change to your photograph, and create artistic photography.
To create a colored pencil effect for your photo:
Step 1: In Photoshop click on Filter at the top of your screen. Select Artistic from the pop-up menu (the left red circle in the screen shot on the left). A second menu will pop-up. Select Colored Pencil (the right red circle).
Experiment with Pencil Width, Stroke Pressure and Paper Brightness until you have the desired effect.
Click OK and VOILA! You have a colored pencil caricature of your photo!
You can also experiment with other Artistic options. You may prefer Watercolor, or my favorite, Dry Brush.
The burn and dodge tools are very useful, too, for emphasizing or de-emphasizing areas of your photo.
Another of my favorite Adjustments is Saturation which allows me to bump up the overall color of the picture.
Quick Photoshop Tip I often use a minimal amount of Dry Brush to slightly sharpen a face.