Stipple/hedcut portraits

K1TesseraEna · **Joined:** Sep 22, 2012 **Posts:** 2089 **Location:** US

Any idea on how to do portraits like this?

More stipple works from Noli Novak here

Does she make them by hand? Too perfect, imo. Must be some groundwork done before - halftone, perhaps?

lylejk · **Joined:** Sep 24, 2010 **Posts:** 12658

I've tried, over the years, to emulate this look K1Te, but really only had partial success. You can use Voronoi Stippler and filters like Amphisoft's Xylograph filter to help. Still, only a real stippler artist can do this right I'm afraid.

ofnuts · **Joined:** Oct 25, 2010 **Posts:** 4811

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=9266

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9311

RobA · **Joined:** Jul 14, 2010 **Posts:** 697

K1TesseraEna, sorry to say Noli Novak's work is all done by hand in ink, tracing over a photo.
There is an article about her: http://www.nolinovak.com/AmericanWaySM.pdf

-Rob A>

K1TesseraEna · **Joined:** Sep 22, 2012 **Posts:** 2089 **Location:** US

Yeah, that was my first impression - all done by hand.
Dots/lines are so precise and follow the natural curves of the faces.
No script is intelligent enough to do this.
However, the stippling is almost perfect, i'm not sure you can trace a regular photo to such a perfection
without prior treatment, e.g. Dragan effect or freaky details to outline hidden curves and edges.
Quality halftone could be used as a reference image for tracing too.
That's what I'm trying to find out. Perhaps, to get the right answer I need to ask her directly. :roll:

ek22 · **Posted:** Thu Sep 18, 2014 12:07 am **(#6)**

No idea how to recreate this sort of thing digitally, but I thought I'd drop off this link to Nicolas Jolly's website. He's an artist that does amazing things with just a black pen and fine lines. Kind of like stippling but not dots. It's at least something cool to look at while you ponder this conundrum. http://nicolasjolly.net/

K1TesseraEna · **Joined:** Sep 22, 2012 **Posts:** 2089 **Location:** US

Impressive technique EK, thanks for the link. His Fingerprint – Stairway (3rd row, 2nd column) is quite interesting.

After I saw Obama hedcut portrait made by Noli Novak it reminded me of this http://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/frank ... 20bill.jpg :hehe

patdavid · **Posted:** Thu Sep 18, 2014 4:10 pm **(#8)**

Oh man, that is too funny. I literally just finished writing this:

patdavid.net: Woodcut/Hedcut(ish) effect in GIMP

I didn't get there, and I don't think it's something that can be achieved programatically. I did manage to stumble into an interesting result, I think (detailed in the post). Basically, I was able to get this:

and this:

I know it's not quite the same thing, but maybe it'll be a start to help?

ek22 · **Posted:** Thu Sep 18, 2014 5:24 pm **(#9)**

Even if it's not exactly on target, it's optically very satisfying.

wbool63 · **Posted:** Fri Sep 19, 2014 6:59 am **(#10)**

Best I can come up with is this. Duplicate Image. Filter, newsprint, rgb , line function, all colors aligned to 0 degrees, oversampling 4.
Then tone down the normal undistorted image so that the filter, map, displacement of the newsprint is not severe. Only displace the vertical (y) by about 4-5
Multiply the displaced newsprint over the normal downtoned image and experiment. with multiplying a new from visible layer. Still not what you are after K1te but I found it an interesting exercise.
Image by David Bailey

molly · **Joined:** Apr 07, 2010 **Posts:** 14182

Very nice job wbool, I thought that maybe you would post in this one.

YAFU · **Joined:** Nov 09, 2011 **Posts:** 726

I can see that the lines in the Noli Novak designs follow a similar path as horizontal lines in common topology used in 3D designs:
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ ... d22a8f.jpg
http://img471.imageshack.us/img471/9708/headcompwd4.jpg

K1TesseraEna · **Joined:** Sep 22, 2012 **Posts:** 2089 **Location:** US

Patrick and wbool, thank you both!
@patdavid I've tried engrave before I started this topic but certainly did not do it in such sophisticated way.
I will try it once more following your tutorial.

@wbool Very interesting, I have not considered a displacement, I like the outcome very much, soft lines, very close to the
target. I should give it a try.

@ YAFU - anatomy rules!

Also found this rendering by Oregonian in Op-art thread started by ofnuts viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1409&hilit=hedcut&start=20#p17167

She used Rob's script and that gave the similar result to what I've achieved so far using Flaming Pear IndianInk (basketweave).
(this PS plugin works in gimp via pspi plugin)
I think it's good enough to trace for hedcut dash-lines. Like how the suit and fabric folds came out.

lylejk · **Joined:** Sep 24, 2010 **Posts:** 12658

India Ink's one of my favorites too K1Te. One of the decent plugins that still is PSPI friendly too.

K1TesseraEna · **Joined:** Sep 22, 2012 **Posts:** 2089 **Location:** US

I've come to love it too Lyle. Had it for a long time but rarely used before.

lylejk · **Joined:** Sep 24, 2010 **Posts:** 12658

Yeah; purchased both India Ink and Mr. Contrast nearly a decade ago but don't use these nearly as often anymore.

Graechan · **Posted:** Fri Sep 19, 2014 6:38 pm **(#17)**

I think I can come close using 'Grid' and 'Displace'

Graechan · **Posted:** Fri Sep 19, 2014 9:39 pm **(#18)**

This is my script result so far

Rod · **Joined:** May 16, 2010 **Posts:** 15555

I like using the blurred grid technique. Some pretty cool looking results in different modes.
This is
Original image de saturated with luminosity.
New top layer black with 1x4 grid all white.
Blurred by 1
burn mode.

K1TesseraEna · **Joined:** Sep 22, 2012 **Posts:** 2089 **Location:** US

This is how it can be done in Illustrator in few minutes using newest AG plugin.
And yeah, it's 100% vector! Perfect outcome.