Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 12/3/2008

Question
I'm an intarsia artist and want to be able to start making my own patterns.  I need to learn to take a photo and convert it to 5 or 6 grayscale shades and then outline each of those segments.  

Attached are a couple of examples:  

http://www.intarsia.com/Free.Santa.Bear.pdf  

Answer
Hi Jerry,

You can take your photo and create a grayscale image in Photoshop and posterize it using the filters (this will also allow you to create a 5-6 color palette). However, the outlining you have for examples is done by hand using the pen tool. There is no automated feature that will do this skill level for you with any kind of viable results.

Thanks

Kevin