This week for the One Four Challenge, I decided to try to make my photo look like a drawing. I increased the saturation and then added a couple of layers to bring out the lines in the image… (for GIMP tutorial see below)…
What are you thoughts on this? Kind thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated.
I have joined a month-long photo post-processing challenge called One Four Challenge, hosted by Robyn at Captivate Me. “This challenge is about processing １ image in 4 different ways over 4 weeks.” Every Monday Robyn posts a new version of her photo and challenges us to do the same each week.
Graphic Illustration GIMP Tutorial
GIMP Helpful ShortcutsWindows->Single-Window Mode takes all the floating docks and puts them all in one window. Shift-Ctrl-J — sets the image zoom to ‘fit the window’. Shift-Ctrl-D –duplicates layer. Shift-Ctrl-S — To save in .xcf – the GIMP format (saves your layers), or you can go to File->Save As. Shift-Ctrl-E — To ‘save’ in a format other than .xcf (like .jpg or .png) or you can go to File->Export As. |
Graphic Illustration Tutorial – Quick Glance:
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Detailed Notes:
1. Duplicate the background layer. Click on the icon that looks likes two photos at the bottom of the layers dock. Alternatively, go to Layer->Duplicate Layer or key press Shift-Ctrl-D.
2. Rename the layer to saturation. Then make a Hue-Saturation adjustment… Colors->Hue-Saturation. Here you can adjust the hue/lightness/saturation. I set the overlap to 100, and then the Master saturation to 60. I then clicked on the radio button of each color and adjusted as needed to get the look I wanted.
3. Duplicate the saturation layer.
4. Rename to g.blur 80px +divide. Apply Gaussian blur Filters->Blur->Gaussian Blur, I used 80px (more pixels the more lines show up – which we want for it to look like a drawing).
Then set the blend mode to Divide.
5. Duplicate the blurred layer. 
Rename to g.blur 80px x2 +subtract_inverted.
Then apply the Gaussian blur again.
Set the blend mode to Subtract.
Then invert the Subtract layer, Colors->Invert. Voilà! Graphic Illustration.
*** I used the book The Hidden Power of Blend Modes by Scott Valentine for this effect. I translated the Photoshop directions into GIMP directions. ***
I hope you try out this technique on your images!
Until next time…
~nic
* The Subtract blend mode inverted translates into Photoshop’s Linear Burn blend mode.
Photography by Nic 
Hello Nic – made it – apologies for my lateness. Ive been having troble commenting this past week.
I really enjoy watching your work evolve and thanks for including a GIMP tute this time.
A few of our crew are trying GIMP.
I like this different approach – it definitely has a sketched feel 😃😃
Robyn, no worries, I’ve been having a heck of a week too and haven’t visited as many participants as I’ve wanted to either. Thanks, I’ve been working toward more GIMP tutorials to make my ideas helpful to a larger audience. Thanks for the compliment, I think this week (week 3) is a bit closer to that sketched feel… I’ve been working on some of the issues I had with this one. I will publish that one this evening I think. Love this challenge, btw. 😀
So great to hear that youre enjoying yourself Nic 😃
Your tutes and the effort it takes are appreciated!!
Thanks! It is a bit of an effort, but I learn more when I explain to others… it helps to solidify the concept in my own mind. 🙂
Yes I do understand Nic 😃
Again, thanks!
VERY nice …. some day I’ll get the hang of working in layers … bookmarked your tutorial for when I have time to try Gimp again 😉
Thanks, J! That made my morning to think that someone would bookmark one of my tutorials. 🙂 I really do hope you try it out.
When it happens I’ll keep you posted 🙂
All the best,
Jen
Ok 🙂 I’d like that. 🙂
Love the tutorial after the image (which is also lovely)! Might have to try this myself……
Thanks BWLE Travel! I do hope you try this tutorial! 🙂
Oooh it’s all dreamy! I can imagine this being the view of someone who’s just woke up on the forest (?) floor and hasn’t quite adjusted their eyes yet.
Thanks, Expressive Ponderer! I did take the photo in a forest of sorts, it was at Hoyt Arboretum in Portland,OR (we visited this past October), I’m pretty sure I crouched down to try to show just how tall those trees are… I think they are Redwoods. 🙂
I like the effects! Isn’t it great fun to play?
Thanks, TurtleMoon… it is a lot of fun to play 🙂
Oh it has all gone fuzzy! interesting effect, Nic.
Thanks, Chris! 🙂
Wonderful! I admire your proficiency with the post process. The image is great. I like the softness you’ve achieved without sacrificing the lines and contours of the original image. Good work!
Thanks Joanne!
*For some reason this comment was marked as spam… I’m not sure what the filter saw in your info, but I thought you should know. I just happened to skim my spam for legit comments and saw this. I’m glad I didn’t miss it! 🙂
You have definitely got the feel of a drawing in the picture. Although it is possibly the process I do find the black lines to strong. This could also be personal taste. Most certainly a workflow to play with.
Thanks for your input, Ben. I tinkered with it for awhile playing with different amounts of blur. I agree that up in the top part of the trees it might be a bit too dark. I tried sharpening it more after the process. I never really got it quite as liney up there as I’d like (but less dark), but overall I was happy with the effect.
Overall I think it is a neat effect and it will render differently depending upon your image.
I thought it would be different for image to image, maybe one with less detail would render the black less intense. Really is something to try.
Yeah, that might be it. I know I worked on it for some time trying 5px blur 40px blur… but always liked the 80px blur best. Then I tried unsharp mask after I finished and I still liked the previous best. Perhaps I could mask a layer that only worked with that top area… but honestly, I did so many versions of this and always liked this one best that I finally stopped tinkering. 🙂
It looks like a still out of an anime movie and I mean that in a good way 🙂
Thanks, Lensaddiction. Awesome! That is a great compliment. 🙂
Really like this effect – but it looks like a lot of work!
Thanks Albatz! It’s not really that much work it is only 3 layers, the software does all the work (i.e. I didn’t have to paint on the mask layer etc.)