•A simple but effective method for face sketch aging via PCA is proposed.•The method skips the time consuming process of collecting sketch aging sequences.•The method utilizes the photo aging sequences to conduct face sketch aging problem.•Performance of the proposed method is promising. Display omitted Face sketch aging (FSA) simulation has many practical applications. Most of researchers devote themselves into face photo aging problem. There are few works about face sketch aging. In this manuscript, a simple but effective method for face sketch aging is proposed. We assume that the aging principle of face sketch and photo is the same in the proposed method. Face sketches to be aged are first projected into the space spanned by aging photos via principal component analysis (PCA). Then the obtained coefficients of face sketches are evolved according to the regular of coefficients of aging photos. Finally, aged face sketches can by generated from evolved coefficients with PCA. The proposed method escapes the process of collecting sketch aging sequences elegantly. Experimental results validate that the proposed method is effective and promising.