Any programs or techniques to turn a painting into a woodcut etching?

[Victor Osaka]

I am thinking Gustave Dore or Durer in style. Any thoughts?

[D Akey]

I am thinking Gustave Dore or Durer in style. Any thoughts?

Oh gosh, Photoshop had a filter or plug-in that was commercially available. I haven't gone down that road in a long time and can't remember what it was called. Do searches for Photoshop 3rd party filters or plug-ins. The thing was, by doing several passes spliced together you would get a higher end image owing to the lines following particular contours where the numeric settings favored one area over another. You set the parameters, ran it, and observed the results. It was sort of hit and miss, though if you did it enough, you probably knew how to get where you were going right off. . . wish I could remember the name of it. But if they are still in business, you could probably find it easily enough.

Engravings and wood cuts are pretty different. When I think engravings, I'm thinking fine work. And wood cuts are from an older era reflected in looking up the respective time periods of Dore and Durer. The one I'm thinking of does more of a woodcut. I'm suspecting you're looking for a general thing for your own vision and not to replicate something in particular, so you can perhaps find something beyond either that you like. . . or not. Dunno what you're after.

I would think things like that are commercially useful, especially when printing product pics in newspapers, so I would think somebody still has something like that. I was seeing those kinds of newspaper ads for a while, though I haven't seen it used in a long time.

Good luck. Maybe this thread will yield something. Meanwhile look up woodcut and engraving plug-ins and filters.

Might also want to explore screens.

[Rondo]

How to make woodcut from a photo in photoshop video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgC-...Ux2X0h3m5PRILA

[D Akey]

How to make woodcut from a photo in photoshop video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgC-...Ux2X0h3m5PRILA

Interesting. I would have done it slightly differently, but it's good to learn a couple new tricks. Makes my head spin listening to all the steps that I never think about anymore. Hahah.

Wondering what Victor will think of it, whether it is what he's looking to do or not. But it's a really cool project.

[Rondo]

ye i wonder also,but even so, it has some good bits and pieces

[D Akey]

Can play with this if you have PS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh6HBJg7IDs

[Henry Stahle]

I am thinking Gustave Dore or Durer in style. Any thoughts?

The only way I get a good looking digital woodcut or linocut is to make it by hand. I have been using both Painter and ArtRage for that. In Painter I use the Scratchboard tool, in ArtRage the pen tool wit the square head setting. On a Multiply layer filled with black colour I make the "cuts" in white to reveal the canvas. The canvas can be painted on in a colourfu way just like Chet Philips does: http://chetart.com/ Chet also got two videos in his Portfolio that explosions how he works Making digital woodcuts.

Here are two versions of a "cut" I have made using ArtRage. The whole image has an overlay paper texture to make it look less artificial. Chet Philips uses that too. It looks nice to me. Still it does not look like Dürer or Doré. They made much finer lines, more like gravure or xylographie, wich came close to the metal cutting tech. The expressionist movement in early 1900, especially in Germany, developed the modern looks of the wood- or lino cutting. That is what I like the most.

[Victor Osaka]

Hey, that's pretty cool! Not what I am trying to do. But, I really like that process and the results. Bookmarking that one.

How to make woodcut from a photo in photoshop video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgC-...Ux2X0h3m5PRILA

[Victor Osaka]

This guy sells an action that comes closer to what I want. But, I suspect that there is no way to do this via plugins. Here is the link to his YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2SRdDUtov4

I collect antiquarian books. In particular, I study Gustave Doré and own incredible first editions of his engraved folios. I have to figure a way to digitize them but don't want to stress the bindings too much.

Here are a couple zoomed in views of his technique that I grabbed from the web.

[hildee]

Dore does stunning etchings. I grew up with his pictures, some of them in Bibles - so much more emotive and dramatic than the kitsch childish religious coloured illustrations used later. There is something so satisfying leafing through a Dore book with plates of his work. Another world altogether.