GIMP Tutorial: How To Turn A Photograph Into Pop Art

First blog, yo! Well, anyway, let's get to the point. I'm sure ya'll are familiar with pop art. If not, check out some examples here and here.  The picture I'll be working with is:

Which can be found here.
We're going to make it look  like this:

'Course, you can add your own little touches to your image to make it unique, but since I'm already here, let's get started! 

Firstly, and like in all image manipulation programs, open the picture you wish to edit(File>Open, or you can open a picture from the web with "Open Location").

 
Next, I'm going to adjust this image a little using a few Color tools: Brightness-Contrast, Hue-Saturation, and Curves (located on the upper toolbar, next to "Layer").

Now that I'm happy with the colors, I'm going to render the image using the Fuzzy Select Tool and the Free Select Tool. I'm going to add an alpha channel to the layer(to make it erase to transparency) and click on the white surrounding his head to select it.
However, you will notice that I kind of got part of his hand and shirt in the selection. Using the Free Select Tool, I'll set the mode to "Subtract from the current selection" and select the parts I do not want to be deleted.


With the "marching ants" applied, press the DELETE button to delete it. Quit the selection by pressing Ctrl+Shift+A(or going to Select>None). Rename this layer "Vic" or whatever to make it easily distinguishable. 

 This is where the real action begins. Set your foreground color to vibrant blue, or whatever color suits your fancy. I used the color ood7ff. Create a new layer(Shift+Ctrl+N) with the foreground color. Set this layer under the Vic layer. Experiment with the layer modes(they do amazing things, I tell you) 'til you get something you like. I set mine to "Hard Light."

 

 Duplicate the "Vic" layer. Rename this copy "Newsprint" and set it as the top layer. Desaturate its colors (Colors>Desaturate) and set its mode to "Normal." With this layer selected, go to Filters>Distorts and choose "Newsprint..."
Keep the default settings and experiment with the Cell Size. I put mine on 6.
Your picture should look like this now:

 To let the color show, I'm going to go to Colors>Color to Alpha... with the Newsprint layer selected. Make sure you are converting the right shade of white (ffffff) and click OK.
The transparent areas are going to leak through and show all the colors of his skin, shirt, etc.

Set the "Newsprint" layer mode to Overlay. Duplicate this layer and set its mode to "Screen."


FOR THE LAST STEP on this part select the "Vic" layer and go to Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur... Set both the horizontal and vertical to 5.0 and Click OK.

Flatten the image(Right click, Flatten Image). Now, go to Image>Canvas Size and set the canvas as to fit four Vics.
Duplicate the Vic layer and set your foreground color to a vivid red. Make a new layer out of this color and set it above the Vic copy. Set its mode to "Multiply" and merge it together with the duplicate. You should have something like this:

Woah xO Do this again two more times with different color layers until you got the whole canvas filled with colorful Vics.  Try inverting the colors and colorizing.


Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, our final result: 

Mess around with all the tool and mode options you got, and be sure to check out the GIMP plug-in registry for more scripts and layer modes. Hope this tutorial helped somewhat and ask if you have any questions. 



Have a nice day ~^^~