From Photos to Graphic Art
as i previously explained, i’m in desperate need of wall art for my house back in Atlanta. i’ve been playing around with some pictures in photoshop trying to make them look more graphic. the ideal image is black and white with no grays, and then i would print it, cut it out, mount it on colored cardstock, and frame it. here’s one of my cats that turned out well, people are harder because you tend to lose the faces when you up the contrast.
from this…
…to this
the basic process is this:
1. open the image in photoshop
2. convert it to grayscale
3. try to white-out most of the background (how much you leave will determine how thick the lines around your image is)
4. increase the contrast to about 50%
5. gaussian blur about 2 pixels (this gives you cleaner shapes instead of pixelated ones)
6. repeat steps 4 & 5 until you are happy with the result
7. print and enjoy
if that’s too hard, you can always make a cartoon with befunky.com. the downside is that the image is small and consequently not good for printing. here’s what the same photo looks like:
Etsy Suggestions?
Does anyone know of Etsy sellers who sell prints of their works for cheap? Preferably bold graphic stuff. I’ve been browsing and found a few things I like, but there are so many sellers.
I have a bunch of Ikea Nyttja frames and I need something to put in them. Of course I have about a million ideas: doodles, paper cutouts, art prints (Matisse cutouts maybe), magazine clippings, Marimekko postcards, Warhol-ized photos of my friends and family, scrapbook paper, scrap fabric, collages, etc. I also have quite a collection of band posters, but now that I’m not in a dorm anymore I don’t really want to plaster my walls with them. When I have too many ideas it usually ends up with none of them being put into action.
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