I am currently exploring the capabilities and the extents of the Newsprint Filter. I was hesitant to put this up, as I have recently shown some Len(n)a Photo manips using similar techniques. This is a manip of a photo of my grand daughter taken 6 years ago when she fell asleep in the car seat. With suitable lettering this will be made into a Birthday Card. From this

to this


BTW How long do you take to do a manip like this. Took me 4 hours with all the fluffing around to repeat and try again stuff. Critique and comments invited.

Very cute wooble, I am sure she will just love that.

no wbool, pls dont stop

keep them coming, its always inspiring to see what you do !

Your results are very good. It looks smooth.

I've been sucked into time consuming photo manips many times, especially restorations, which can many hours of work.

You can get a similar effect to what you have by using G'MIC. I duped the layer, applied halftone filter to top layer, set the mode and decreased the opacity.



I'm sure you can get much better results than this, with a little more time & effort, but this only took 5 minutes.

Have you tried using the newsprint filter to make a mask for your image layer? I think that will give you a more authentic effect, if that's what you are going for (JUST) coloured dots, instead of coloured dots over image.

I would like to see this done with flatter coloring, more like a real newsprint comics.

i agree with CRogers and 2-ton, the overall effect could be stronger but i can see how it can be difficult finding the balance between preserving the cuteness of the baby, while making the whole picture more "abstract" (posterized or vector-art-like)

Hi, Thank you All, for your replies.
GnuTux , I tried for about one hour to get a decent result. But I had trouble with banding ( see on your example , her arm) . The other problem I have with that filter is that it only allows for 45 degree dot angles, which I do not like . I believe a 20 or 15 degree looks better . That is just a personal opinion.
CR, I am not quite sure what you mean with a mask filter. I apply the filter, use it in Multiply mode and then apply a white layermask and mask off some dots . (I masked off some dots on the lips, the dress and the hair ). Is that what you mean?
2T, yes, flatter tones are an option but I tried to not turn it into a cartoon. I will experiment with flatter tones when I have the right picture. It is very hard to find the right image with relatively large flat areas.
Esper, as you say, the effect could be stronger , including the use of the Cartoon filter or the Photocopy filter to bring in some line art. I may still do that as I still have to do the lettering. I might have a look at some of your text effects for that. :-)

maybe something like a duotone effect could be used
or the Obey/Hope Obama poster effect ?

here is a tutorial for the duotone:
http://gimp-tutorials.net/GIMP-split-toning-tutorial/