A short tutorial referring to some illustrations i did for the LAFKON VektorDB. I was searching for a different way to vectorize pixelgraphic. As classical printing processes are normally two-colored (one-color+paper) I tried a way to do shading with one color as you do on e.g. woodcuts. Gif-Images were a opportunity to automatically reducing colors while producing a special aesthetic, so I started to experiment with the patterning during gif exporting.
Find yourself an image you would like to use
After you’ve found the one you love, edit it in your favourite pixel-editor e.g. photoshop
After that you have to save it as a gif-image. Here it’s done with photoshop’s save for web utility, but you can basically use any program and each will produce a different result.
You can change the pattern of the exported gif by playing around with the parameters
To get the image stripped your layer has to have an opacity of 50% and the gif-export-configuration ought to be something like this »»»»»»»>
After playing around you get a pattern that pleases you and now you have to vectorize the bitmap
To convert the image to a vector graphic you have to trace the bitmap
That’s kind of the most important point. you have to convert the bitmap EXACT PIXEL FOR PIXEL