Abstract: Non-photorealistic rendering techniques usually produce abstracted images. Most existing methods consider local rendering primitives, and global structures may be easily obscured. Inspired by artists, we propose a novel image abstraction method that considers preserving or even enhancing global structures in the input images. Linear structures are particularly considered due to their wide existence and the availability of techniques for their reliable detection. Based on various computer vision techniques, the algorithm is fully automatic. As demonstrated in the paper, artistic looking results are obtained for various types of images. The technique is orthogonal to many non-photorealistic rendering techniques and can be combined with them.