Paper Portraits: John Lennon and Steven Tyler

I had a few requests last week. Let me know what you think. As always, if you have any suggestions or requests let me know and I will see what I can do.

ruthgillis_ID2936

I was one who requested Steven Tyler -you did an absolutely AMAZING job! It is just FABULOUS! You REALLY need to consider doing a tutorial on how you do this - would love to do on some family type photos! You are so talented!!!!!!

ssmith

awesome work, love looking at all your posts.

Calgalcr8s

Greg, as always, very creative and wonderful work. =D>

nomem

Two of my favorites!

karen3912

Wow, two of my favourite people too! Steven Tyler sings on my i-phone every time it rings.

Maxine

so cool. would love to see one of Janis

paperkutz

No problem, I have been wanting to do a Janis Joplin for a while. I will see if I can get it done for next week.

PoeticLicense

Wow! Love these. I get how to posterize my print...but how in the world do you get it to cut?

Suzan

All I can say is wow

DarleneI

I love these too but will have to admit I am going to go google to see what Steven Tyler sings...boy I'm old!

DarleneI

Never Mind! I know Aerosmith just didn't recognize the name! He's older than me...makes me feel better!

paperkutz

In the next couple months, I want to have a series of videos done to teach everyone how to make their own paper portraits. It is not an easy process, but can be taught with someone who has patience to learn it.

K_lee

Well I have patience and lots of time, lol, thanks paperkutz for going to do that, just so long as we can cut it out using MTC and not by hand!!!!!!!

paperkutz

You kidding. I currently have a 12" cutter and I'm ready to go big! That's why I want a 24' inch Cougar. My goal is to raise the funds to afford one and make large scale art pieces. I have all ready started learning how to make my own homemade paper so I can have custom colors to fit a 24" mat.

Calgalcr8s

Greg, you are thinking big. Good for you. I'm like K_lee, just want to learn the process so I can do some of my family. Thank you for considering teaching us how to do it. It will be so great if it can be cut with MTC.

Calgal

paperkutz

Using MTC to cut is not the issue. It is designing it for MTC users. You create vector images right in the Pazzles Inspiration software. MTC users have to use other software to do this. From what I can tell from the forums, people use Inkscape for this feature. So, I have to look into the Inkscape software. Hopefully, it won't be that hard to learn.

shirltop

paperkutz, I have a question. This is a picture of my granddaughter. Is this a good candidate to do a paper portrait with?

cmargm

What a wonderful process. I also am keen to learn how to do this. Your portraits are fantastic!

SydneysMom

Fabulous portraits! I too would love to learn.

Shirltop- your grand daughter is way too cute!

kckid68

I love these. I can't wait to learn this. I only have a baby bug but hoping to get an expression soon.

shirltop

Thank you Newbie! She is adorable....I may be prejudiced! :)

Vkruzin

Absolutely amazing! I have always wanted to do a picture of my grandson and you now have shown me it is possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Renea

Wow thats just Amazing I love them both !!!

rachellann_ID714

here is the file image of my Daughter I have cut it and layered it need to photo it yet ,it is six layers when finished

Thyme

Amazing!

paperkutz

Awesome. I can't wait to see it finished.

paperkutz

Shirltop, I took the liberty of posterizing the image of your granddaughter. I have it set at 5 layers. This is just an example of what it could look like without editing the image before hand. A little tinkering with it could improve the quality before preparing the vector files for cutting.

ruthgillis_ID2936

Wow - Gorgeous Paperkutz - you made Shirltop's grandaughter's pic look SUPER!! How exciting!!

shirltop

That is great Paperkutz! Thank you for showing me!

paperkutz

I'm glad you liked it. It is set to be an 8x10. Here are the individual layers. Consider it a belated Xmas gift. Start with layer5 and work up to layer1. All you have to do now is pixel trace in MTC and your ready to go. I recommend using Bazzill Monochromatic packs. It will make choosing your paper simple. The only tricky layer will be layer2. Overall, I kept it simple to use it as a demonstration on how the process works. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. If you make it, upload the image. I would love to see it completed.

I hope this helps everyone understand my process of making Paper Portraits. I plan on making the training tutorials in the next month or two.

Maxine

AWESOME papercutz, cant wait for your tuts. How is Janis coming along?

paperkutz

I will finish her up today and can post it tomorrow.

SBryanW

Paperkutz, With the way you do the posterizing, it is relatively easy to do pixel traces in MTC for each layer without having to split the picture into individual layer images first - especially because of the way the final paper piecing is assembled (lightest layer on the bottom). Last night I took your test9.jpg image you posted above and did a pixel trace on it five times, setting the threshold level different for each. It took only a couple of minutes to do the whole thing. If you always used the same levels of gray when posterizing and recorded which threshold level went with each color, it would go even faster. Here is the resulting MTC file I came up with (I enlarged it once I got it into MTC, but you can see the layers are pretty close to the layerN.jpg images above).

Bryan

rachellann_ID714

That what i do is is piuxel trace it in layers for mine only thing i did out side the program was make it a grey scale

shirltop

Wow you guys! These are amazing! Thank you Paperkutz for the late Christmas present! Thank you Paperkutz, Bryan and Rachellann for all the help! Now to find the time to get this cut and see how I do! Thank you, thank you, thank you again and again! :)

paperkutz

Bryan, excellent work. I haven't compared threshold levels on a range of portraits, but your theory of standard threshold levels on the same gray scale posterizing sounds solid. I will experiment with this. When I create the video tutorial, I will make sure to incorporate turning the picture gray scale before posterizing and then the standard threshold levels we predetermined will make this a super simple process.

Rachellann, your correct, but I choose to posterize before going to MTC. This allows for better control of the detail in the image. I'm still experimenting with light, dark and midtone settings to create the best posterized image before going to MTC for the cut files to be created.

debz

Greg,

The cadlink software that comes with the Klic N Kut will do those things you are looking for. It has a pretty powerful scanning tool and editing capabilities. I can import low resolution images from the web and get a pretty clean scan, as well as posterizing the image as necessary.

MTC will also run the KNK. I am using both with it now.

Your images are incredible. Nice work!

shawsmith

i think paperkutz or rachellann should do a webinar or video on how to use a photo on make the cut for a cutting file i really enjoy the work you 2 do

twiggy

Wow - these are awesome! Dang! I feel not worthly of this forum - I am so far behind! I have been gone for WAY to long!

Keep up the great work!
Debi

rachellann_ID714

i posted the cut of the file on my shuttercal calander http://www.shuttercal.com/calendar/Photomerach/

paperkutz

Rachellann, Great job! I can't wait to see more of them.

pamelaj55

I am totally amazed and so confused! But I'm waiting for the tut on this--can't wait to try it! :)

rachellann_ID714

paperkutz said:

Rachellann, Great job! I can't wait to see more of them.

Thank you the colors were not what i wanted but finding the ones i wanted and had on hand was two different thingsI really wanted to do it by using papers that were two to three shades darker than the next.

paperkutz

I know what you mean... I have difficulties trying to find the shades I envision the portrait to be in.

rachellann_ID714

Oh i forgot to say Thank you for inspiring me to try something different than i would of thought on my own.

paperkutz

No problem. Hopefully, we can inspire more people to make portraits.

SydneysMom

I love your paper portraits. I tried to do one of my daughter and I brought the photo into Photo Shop Elements 9 and I used the magic lasso to cut out her image. Then I turned it into a black and white image and then posterized it. After that I can't figure out how to separate the layers into different shades. Do I just save the image and then trace it into MTC? Thank you. Also my posterized image is quite as detailed as yours or Bryan's.

paperkutz

Yes, save it and take the image to MTC. You will start with the lightest (farthest) back layer and pixel trace. The next layer you adjust your threshold to select the next shade and so on. Good thinking with the magic lasso. Sometimes the background is way too busy to use and you need a clean background.

Since your using Elements, you may want to clean up the image after posterizing. Use the eye dropper to select the color and paint over certain areas that need adjusting before going to MTC to make your cut files.

Can't wait to see your daughter all finished.

curly girl

Amazing work on the portraits!!! I am really wanting to learn this so I can do it too!!! Can't wait for webinar on this; please make sure you send me info when you do this. Don't want to miss out! This is one of my favorite things I want to be able to do. My grand-daughter and niece would love to have the two guys from Twilight(I think their movie names are Edward and Jake); they'd think they were in heaven. Puppy love they are 10 and 11.

SydneysMom

Okay I thought that I understood the process but obviously not. Here's my attempt at creating a cutfile of my daughter. It looks neat but not the same effect. Okay I will have to wait for the tutorial.