This document provides instructions for posterizing a photo in 7 steps: 1. Open a photo and duplicate the background layer, adjusting the brightness of the copy. 2. Duplicate the adjusted layer and modify the contrast and brightness, creating a "Contrast" layer. 3. Duplicate the "Contrast" layer and apply a posterize effect with 4 levels, creating a "Posterize" layer. 4. Save the photo as a PSD and open it in Illustrator, converting the layers to objects. 5. Create a new "Front" layer and lock the other layers. 6. Select a brush and trace over the image, following shapes and blocks of color.

1. Posterising an Image
Lottie

2. Introduction
I’m going to demonstrate how to create a posterised effect from a simple
photo, in a similar style to Eelco van den Berg’s work – often with a limited
colour palette.

3. Step 1:
Open the photo you’d like to edit.
• In the layers section, double click on
the Background layer to ‘unlock’ and
rename to something relevant – I’ve
called mine ‘Jo Background Layer’. ADD
SCREENSHOT
• From the Layer toolbar,
select Duplicate.
• Use Cmd/Ctrl + L to bring up
the Levels dialog, then use
the middle slider to make
the new layer a bit lighter,
so the subject stands out
better from the background.

4. ✗ ✓ ✗
Step 1:

5. Step 2:
• Now duplicate the ‘Jo Background Layer copy’ layer and name it ‘Contrast’.
• Modify the contrast and brightness of your image.
On mine I set the brightness to 25 and the contrast to 100.

6. Step 2:

7. Step 3:
• Now duplicate the ‘Contrast’ layer and name it ‘Posterise’.
• From the Image toolbar, Select Adjustments and then ‘Posterise’ with a Level of 4.

8. Step 3:
✗ ✓ ✗

9. Step 4:
• Now change the image resolution to 150dpi and the height
to a maximum of 25cm (this will make the subsequent
illustrator file smaller.
• Now save the image (make sure it’s a PSD).

10. • Close the file and now open the PSD
in Adobe Illustrator.
• A dialogue box will open. Click the
‘convert layers to objects’ option.
Now all your layers are in
Illustrator’s Layers panel.
Step 5:

11. Step 6:
• On ‘Document Setup’ set the
page as A4 portrait
(210mm x 297mm)
• Add a new layer and name it
‘Front’. This is the layer we are
going to work in. Put this layer on
top of your other layers. Lock the
others.

12. Step 7:
• In the Brushes panel, select New Brush.
• Select New Calligraphic Brush and name it ‘Basic Brush’. Set angle at 0 and
size at 1pt

13. Step 7:
• Trace over the image, following the
main shapes and blocks of colour.
• It will look a bit messy but keep going
as it works in the end!
• It’s up to you what level of detail you
go into. I have chosen to keep it quite
abstract but you could add more
facial features for a more realistic
look.

16. Final Outcome

17. Final Outcome

18. Do you have any questions?