This real-time video shows how to use the nice 'Engrave' filter, introduced in the latest version (1.6.1.0) of the G'MIC plug-in for GIMP, to convert photographs into comics-style pictures.
We apply it on two different photographs.

The conversion consists of several steps, basically:

1. We resize the image so that its resolution is not too big (a height of 800-1000 usually gives good results).

2. We first extract the foreground object to stylize from the background. This is quickly done through the G'MIC filter 'Contours / Foreground extraction'. The filter generates two layers (one for the foreground, one for the background), and we keep only the foreground one.

3. Then, we apply the filter 'Black & White / Engrave', to stylize our extracted foreground. The filter has been designed originally to create engraving pictures, so we have to tweak the parameters a little bit to have something that looks more like a comics. In particular, we have to lower the parameter 'Density' to achieve this.

4. We also activate the 'Add color background' option of the filter, that generates a color layer associated to the layer containing the black strokes on a white background. This decomposition is really useful because we can then work separately on the color or stroke layers after the filter application.

As you can see, it doesn't take too long to get fun results from real photographs!

Get the latest stable version (at least 1.6.1.0) of the G'MIC plug-in for GIMP at : http://gmic.eu/gimp.shtml

Credits:
- Image of the tiger by William Warby (https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwarby/7188591096/), distributed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
- Portrait of Mairi, by Patrick David (http://blog.patdavid.net/).
- Music: "Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss (taken from https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music).