How to create coloring book pages from photos

[jeffreyd24723567]

Hi,

I'm trying to create coloring book pages from photos.  There seems to be a general technique online where a photo is copied, inverted, desaturated with a mode set to color dodge, then a Gaussian blur is applied.  I've seen other techniques just by applying a sketch filter.

I'm looking for a more advanced technique to generate better results.  Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Many thanks,

Jeff

[Nancy OShea · Accepted solution]

I think you'll get much better results if you use Illustrator and trace around the paths & shapes in your photo.  I assume you want to print your coloring book at some point, right?  Vector graphics are much cleaner for this type of work than bitmap images.

How to edit artwork in Illustrator using Image Trace

Nancy

[jeffreyd24723567]

Hi Nancy,

Thanks for the response.

Yes, I'm already in the process of printing my first adult coloring book with CreateSpace using real images and the method described above.  Just to be clear... adult in the sense of my target audience (not explicit content).  As such, one of the common complaints from adult consumers of other books is the hard outline around images making them look too simplistic.  That's why I'm pursuing using real images to allow for better shading and blending techniques for artists and colorists.

I'm also looking for techniques that are relatively quick which make me shy away from illustrator (aside from not owning the program or knowing how to use it plus the potential steep learning curve).  Each book has 40-50 images so I'm looking for an efficient work flow.

I'll check out the link you provided and really appreciate your time.

Kind regards,

Jeff