Image Trace

So I was working on something special that needs to be printed on fabric… but I like working on paper more than digital… but when I work on paper I tend to use a lot more lines than is good for printing on fabric… so here is my current solution that both allows me to work on paper AND to reduce a drawing to its essential elements for printing on fabric. First, here is the original as I drew it with pen and ink (my favorite way to work):

With my continuing education in digital stuff, I can run the above image (which I am quite happy with) through adobe illustrator Image Trace utility, and, with some experimentation/fiddling, come out with this:

Which also looks pretty good to me in an Expressionist ‘woodcut’ sort of way. The second one is more suitable for printing in situations where the finer lines of the original won’t carry (like on fabric or one of those fancy gold foil print jobs).

Hint: if you are an Illustrator user and want to do something similar, not only experiment with the image trace utility, but play around with the resolution of the image you are converting. For the above illustration, I did several experiments and discovered that I liked it best  when I reduced the image to about 1/3rd of its original resolution.