I was going to make a few templates for carving pumpkins, painting on T-shirts and so on, when I thought: There are lots of sites out there with templates - why not show people how to make them? Carving pumpkins may be very crafty but surely doing everything from scratch has to be even better?

So that’s what I’m going to attempt. Understand, this isn’t for everyone; you’re going to need a good basic knowledge of computers and a good graphics application like PhotoShop or Paint Shop Pro (PSP). But you have the computer already or you wouldn’t be reading this - why not use it as the marvellous craft tool that it is?

Let’s begin by choosing a photograph. I selected a photo of Herman Munster as being suitably seasonal but you can use any full face picture, even one of yourself or a friend. Herman is particularly suitable, however, as his face is composed of very strong lines and shapes.

Open the photo file in your graphics package. I use PSP and trial versions of it can be downloaded from the net, so I’ll explain the steps from its point of view. They will be similar to Photoshop’s, however, and any differences will give you an excuse to learn how it does things (Help files are wonderful things if you use the Index). If the photograph is in color, go to Colors in the menu and select Grey Scale. This changes it to a black and white picture.

Now we need to simplify the outlines and this is easily done by choosing Colors again in the menu. Now select Adjust, followed by Brightness/Contrast. Make sure the Brightness is set to zero (so it will not change) and move the Contrast scale to its maximum, 100%. Click on OK and the picture will change to pure black and white with no shading.

We now have a photograph cut down to its essentials but it’s going to need more simplification before it can be used as a template. This is where the real skill and craft come in and I’m going to leave it for the next post, while you and I take a breather. If you really can’t wait, I should tell you that there are a number of ways to proceed from here so you could have a go at finding one of them. Remember, most good graphics programs have unlimited Undo these days, so you can always click back through changes if you make a mess.