Hi Dee Dee,

You are very observant. I have been following a number of threads that have addressed the "Ilustrator" style of processing. A number of people posted they have been using LucisArt but still many others have been willing to share their process to achieve a similar look with much more control and sans the $160 for a plugin.

The process is lengthy, it involves a lot of shadow/highlights, high-pass sharpening, noise reduction, some 'simplifying' steps along with layer masking. I never approach any photo with a recipe but use whatever I think will work the best at the point I am am in the process.

Add onto all tose steps a little Paint with Light and some Orton and BAM(!) you end up with something like this.

If you do a search on dpreview/retouching forum for "Illustrator Style" and I think 'cspringer' was one of guys who was very helpful, you will get and idea of the direction I took.

Great fun and a time eater too!

Thanks,
Jeff