Poinsettia (Graphic Novel filter)

I really like the cartoonishness of the Graphic Novel filter. The subject looks like a drawing, and there is something in this that I find appealing. 

In this particular image, I made the HDR photo from several different exposures merged together in Photomatix. While Photomatix is capable of composing an HDR from a single image, using multiple images provides a better depth (imo). I like to use HDR images for these Photoshop filters, because there's something in the HDR that the filters are better able to "grab on to" than in the unprocessed image. Maybe it has better darks and lights?

For the final image, I will often layer the original color back into the filtered image, which usually comes out black and white, and you see the result in the second image below. 

Thanks for stopping by and looking at my pictures! :)