I want to do Julian Opie style pictures from photos

jap200

I would like to do some Julian Opie style pictures from photos of my family to give as gifts. You know - like the Blur album cover.

I could order some for £50 per picture from CanvasRus:
http://www.canvasrus.co.uk/your_personalised_art.html, but having done a bit of investigating, realised that I could save a bit of money by having a go myself.

I have found some instructions for creating the Opie style pictures online:
http://www.designandtech.com/fotoshop/tutorials/julianopie/julian_opie_tutorial.htm

but these require Photoshop, which I don't have. I did a quick search and came up with various places that I could download photoshop 6.0 for free - eg here:
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Multimedia_and_Graphics/Graphics_Editors/Adobe_Photoshop_Download.html

However, I would be very grateful if someone could tell me
firstly whether this download would be legal
secondly if this version would be suitable for what I want to do
thirdly is there a better cheap/free software to use

I would point out here that I have not used photo editing software before. I have looked at the article on free software, but am not sure which (if any) would be most suitable.

Thanks for any help

BillScarab

Well since a copy of Photoshop costs £600+ I'm guessing it's illegal, unless it's a trial version or they allow free downloads of previous versions.

There are free graphics programs around that are good. You could try GIMPshop which has been designed to feel similar to Photoshop. Another good alternative is Paint.NET.

EDIT: Having looked at it I think it is just a trial version. So may be of use if it has full functionality and you're quick with what you want to do.

foreign_correspondent

you could also do this yourelf on some canvas - buy some small cheap canvases from somewhere like to works or home bargains, some tracing paper, brushes and acrylic paints.
Trace the outlines and the features onto the canvas, much as you would if you would if you were following the photoshop instructions above, paint these in with black paint, and the flesh/clothes with the appropriate tones. If you need to scale up or down you could do this using a grid.
best wishes,
fc

jap200

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

you could also do this yourelf on some canvas - buy some small cheap canvases from somewhere like to works or home bargains, some tracing paper, brushes and acrylic paints.
Trace the outlines and the features onto the canvas, much as you would if you would if you were following the photoshop instructions above, paint these in with black paint, and the flesh/clothes with the appropriate tones. If you need to scale up or down you could do this using a grid.
best wishes,
fc

OK - I could, but I'm not good at that kind of thing, which is why I want to do it digitally. Thanks anyway for the suggestion.

geekgirl

You could get a version of Photoshop Elements which is the home users version of Photoshop cheap from ebay. Or if you want to download the 30 day trial go to the adobe website.

I didn't follow the tutorial, so I didn't see if it was possible to do what you wanted in Elements or not.

Red_Rose_Exile

You should be able to do this with the GIMP

Pop art is relatively easy to create with the Gimp, see this tutorial

thomas01155

I wouldn't download anything from freedownloadscenter.com http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/freedownloadscenter.com?ref=safesearch&client_ver=FF_26.6_6269&locale=en-US&premium=false&aff_id=0