Have you ever wondered how you can possibly have your very own photo cartoon to use on social networks, your blog or your email signature? For those of us who are whizzes with Photoshop this might be easy as pie, but for the rest we are limited to either buying a cartoon software, or else pay somebody else to do it.

Before you rush out and spend your money though you can try to attempt this yourself using GIMP a free image software.

It is a 7 step process and even beginners should be able to walk through this without too many problems.

1. Before you even attempt to change your image to a cartoon image, do make a copy of the original and work with your copy only (just in case).
2. Scale the image down to the appropriate size. I think it goes without saying that you need a large image to start with. To scale go to Image – Scale.
3. Now you need to copy your background layer by clicking on Dialogs – Layers – Duplicate Layer.
4. Choose your filter (Gaussian Blur top layer) Filters – Blur – Gaussian Blur.
5. In this step we have to divide layers. Go to your Layers Dialog and under the Mode drop list select Divide.
6. Flatten your image by clicking on Layer – Merge Down
7. Go to Filters – Artistic – Cartoon and apply the choices until you are pleased with the result, then save by clicking on OK.

This might not return the perfect cartoon in terms of comparing it with an artist’s impression, but it will be a good start to get you in cartoon mode. Best of all, it’s free.