This is the starting image - a photo of all of us at Family Camp (Lake Sequoia in the background).

The first step was to apply a "photocopy" filter to the original photograph in Photoshop. I then increased the contrast and lightened the image to create a cartoony (coloring-book) effect. I up-sampled this image to something like 45"x60", then exported to Illustrator. I adjusted the document format to tile the image onto 40 sheets of paper, and then printed directly from Illustrator onto card stock. We then passed the pages around the family, with the instructions to be a little creative. After they were all colored (or painted, etc.), I scanned them back into Photoshop and reassembled the image.

This is the finished product - all 40 pictures after reassembly in Photoshop.

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Our cats Jake (left) and Keiko (right) had to figure into this somehow. Elena is our resident cat artist. She did this in pencil and colored pencil (and maybe a bit of crayon).

Crayon and watercolor painting, from Emily.

Shelly cut these trees (and the sky) from a bunch of fabric swatches she had left over from a school project, and pasted them onto the page.

Christmas trees! Done in crayon and watercolor.

Shelly channels Van Gogh - done with crayon and colored pencil.

Shelly interjected this leaping fish into the scene - modeled after a Northwest Indian print we have in our home. It was sketched in pencil and marker, scanned into Photoshop, and painted using colors meant to approximate those used in the traditional form.

Crayon.

A stained glass panel - with a fat mallard added to the scene. This was sketched in pencil and sharpie, then scanned into photoshop and painted digitally.

Elena sketched her little fishes in pencil and marker, then painted them in Photoshop.

Another stained glass panel, imagining a sleepy frog struggling up the bank. The lake was loaded with frogs, and the kids "hunted" them at night (armed with flashlights and nets). This was sketched in pencil, inked with sharpie, painted in photoshop.

Some alien rocks appeared at our feet. This was done with crayon and watercolor pastels and paint.

At some point we decided that our family pets needed to be included. Here is one of our lizards, modeled after the Southwest Indian art of our New Mexican past (and several bits of pottery in our house). Done in colored pencil.

A palm tree at Kings Canyon? This was done with watercolor pastel.

A geometric pattern done in crayon.

Watercolor/pastel.

Watercolor painting.

Crayon and watercolor.

Shelly's experimental abstractionism - done in the sink at school.

Watercolor pastel.

Watercolor painting and spattering.

Crayon, watercolor and colored pencil. One of those multimedia deals.

Crayon.

Crayon. That rock to the left holds special meaning - Elena went there every day with a fishing net, and pefected the art of netting little fishies.

Watercolor.

Crayon.

This is soft pastel.

Watercolor pastel and crayon.

Colored pencil and crayon.

Watercolor pastel.

Crayon and watercolor paints.

Shelly apparently studied the Impressionist Masters at some point. This was done in crayon.

This was done with felt-tip markers.

Crayon.

Here is our other lizard. Yes, this one was cloned from the last, in Photoshop, and pasted onto the background (done separately in watercolor).

Crayon.

Watercolor and crayon.

Crayon.

Crayon.

Colored pencil. Look closely - Shelly labored over this one. It was one of those Zen experiences, I think...