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Pat David: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) Eect https://patdavid.net/2014/09/woodcuthedcutish-ef...

PAT DAVID
ABOUT ARCHIVE

September 18, 2014

WOODCUT/HEDCUT(ISH) EFFECT

Rolf as a woodcut/hedcut

I was working on the About page over on PIXLS.US the other night. I was
including some headshots of myself and one of Rolf Steinort when I got
pulled o onto yet another tangent (this happens oen to me).

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Pat David: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) Eect https://patdavid.net/2014/09/woodcuthedcutish-ef...

This time I was thinking of those awesome hand-painted(!) portraits used


by the Wall Street Journal by the artist Randy Glass.

Of course, the problem was that I had neither the time or skill to hand

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Pat David: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) Eect https://patdavid.net/2014/09/woodcuthedcutish-ef...

paint a portrait in this style.

What I did have was a rudimentary understanding of a general eect that I


thought would look neat. So I started playing around. I nally got to
something that I thought looked neat (see lede image), but I didnt take
very good notes while I was playing.

This meant that I had to go back and re-trace my steps and settings a
couple of times before I could describe exactly what it was I did.

So aer some trial and error, here is what I did to create the eect you see.

Desaturate
Starting with your base image, desaturate using a method you like. Im
going to use an old favorite of mine, Mairi:

The base image, desaturated.

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Pat David: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) Eect https://patdavid.net/2014/09/woodcuthedcutish-ef...

Duplicate this layer, and on the duplicate run the GMIC lter, Graphic
Novel by Photocomix.

Filters GMIC

Artistic Graphic Novel

Check the box to Skip this step for Apply Local Normalization, and
adjust the Pencil amplitude to taste (I ended up at about 66). This gives
me this result:

Aer running GMIC/Graphic Novel

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Pat David: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) Eect https://patdavid.net/2014/09/woodcuthedcutish-ef...

I then adjusted the opacity to taste on the GMIC layer, reducing it to about
75%. Then create a new layer from visible (Right-click layer, New from
visible).

Here is what I have so far:

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Pat David: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) Eect https://patdavid.net/2014/09/woodcuthedcutish-ef...

On this new new layer (should be called Visible by default), run the
GIMP lter:

Filters Artistic Engrave

If you dont have the lter, you can nd the .scm at the registry here.

The only settings I change are the Line width, which I set to about 1/100
of the image height, and make sure the Line type is set to Black on
bottom. Oh, and I set the Blur radius to 1.

This leaves me with a top layer looking like this:

Aer running Engrave

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Pat David: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) Eect https://patdavid.net/2014/09/woodcuthedcutish-ef...

(If you want to see something cool, step back a few feet from your monitor
and look at this image - the Engrave plugin is neat).

Now on this layer, I will run the GMIC deformation lter random to give
some variety to the lines:

GMIC Deformations Random

I used an amplitude of about 2.35 in my image. We are looking to just add


some random waviness to the engrave lines. Adjust to taste.

I ended up with:

Results aer applying GMIC/Random deformation to the engrave layer.

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Pat David: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) Eect https://patdavid.net/2014/09/woodcuthedcutish-ef...

At this point I will apply a layer mask to the layer. I will then copy the
starting desaturated layer and paste it into the layer mask.

I added a layer mask to the engraved layer (Right-click the layer, Add
layer mask - initialize it to white). I then selected the lowest layer, copied
it (Ctrl/Cmd + C), selected the layer mask and pasted (Ctrl/Cmd + V). Once
pasted, anchor the selection to apply it to the mask.

This is what it looks like with the layer mask applied:

The engrave layer with the mask applied

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Pat David: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) Eect https://patdavid.net/2014/09/woodcuthedcutish-ef...

At this point I will use a brush and paint over the background with black to
mask more of the eect, particularly from the background and edges of
her face and hair. Once Im done, Im le with this:

Aer cleaning up the edges of the mask with black

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Pat David: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) Eect https://patdavid.net/2014/09/woodcuthedcutish-ef...

Ill now set the layer blending mode to Darken Only, and create a new
layer from visible again.

Add a layer mask to the new visible layer (should be the top layer), copy
the layer mask from the layer below it (the engrave layer), and paste it into
the top layer mask:

Now adjust the levels of the top layer (not the mask!), by selecting it, and
opening the levels dialog:

Colors Levels

Adjust to taste. In my image I pulled the white point down to about 175.

At this point, my image looks like this:

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Pat David: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) Eect https://patdavid.net/2014/09/woodcuthedcutish-ef...

Aer adjusting levels to brighten up the face a bit

At this point, create a new layer from visible again.

Now make sure that your background color is white.

On this new layer, Ill run a strange lter that Ive never used before:

Filters Distorts Erase Every Other Row

In the dialog, Ill set it to use Columns, and Fill with BG. Once its done
running, set the layer mode to Overlay. This leaves me with this:

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Pat David: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) Eect https://patdavid.net/2014/09/woodcuthedcutish-ef...

Aer running Erase Every Other Row

At this point, all thats le is to do any touchups you may want to do. I like
to paint with white and a low opacity in a similar way to dodging an image.
That is, Ill paint white with a so brush on areas of highlights to
accentuate them.

Here is my nal result aer doing this:

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Pat David: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) Eect https://patdavid.net/2014/09/woodcuthedcutish-ef...

Id recommend playing with each of the steps to suit your images. On


some images, it helps to modify the parameters of the Graphic Novel
lter to get a good eect. Aer youve tried it a couple of times through
you should get a good feel for how the dierent steps change the nal
outcome.

As always, have fun and share your results! :)

Summary
There seems to be many steps, but its not so bad once youve done it. In a
nutshell:

1. Desaturate the image, and create a duplicate of the layer.

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Pat David: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) Eect https://patdavid.net/2014/09/woodcuthedcutish-ef...

2. Run GMIC/Graphic Novel lter, skip local normalization. Set layer


opacity to about 40-60% (experiment).
3. Create new layer from visible.
A. Run Filters Artistic Engrave (not Filters Distorts
Engrave!).
Set the Line Height ~ 1/100 of image height, black on bottom
B. On the same engrave layer, run GMIC Deformation Random
Set amplitude to taste
C. Change layer mode to Darken only
D. Add a layer mask, use the original desaturated layer for the mask
4. Create new layer from visible
A. Add a layer mask, using the original desaturated layer for mask
again (or the mask from previous layer)
B. Adjust levels of layer to brighten it up a bit
5. Create (another) new layer from visible
A. Set background color to white
B. Run Filters Distorts Erase Every Other Row
Set to columns, and ll with BG color
C. Set layer blend mode to Overlay

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Pat David: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) Eect https://patdavid.net/2014/09/woodcuthedcutish-ef...

PAT DAVID
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