Choose a favorite digital photograph. In this example, I have a picture of a little boy as shown below:

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Open this picture in Use Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer

Simple steps to turn it into a “sketch”:

1. Using the menu bar at the top, select Edit->select All
2. Now select ImageFilters->Sketch->Charcoal. A dialog appears that allows you to turn your photo into a charcoaled looking sketch. You can adjust the settings to change a few things such as charcoal thickness, charcoal color and others. In this example I played with the RGB values and chose an orange-ish color. You can play with the settings until you get it how you want.

3. Then just click OK to accept the previewed image. 

4. Now all you have to do is save your image.

Later, I will post how you can convert this image into vector data such that you can use path geometry to store it. Then you can open it in Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer for a host of other scenarios.