Hi Chuck, re; your Heron picture, I would not make a pattern from it to make the Intarsia; I would use the picture, right from the camera and print it out the size I wanted the Intarsia to be and use the print-out as my pattern. If there were areas where I couldn't define the feathers I'd take a black Sharpie and mark-up the so called pattern. I then use 1000H clearprint tracing paper to trace each individual piece and use Scotch Tape to fasten it to the area of the board where I want to cut. That saves all the work of making the pattern.
On rare occasions, where I'll make a pattern, I use the picture, in color, open it in Easy Draw, fade it to about 50% and using the drawing program trace the subject and draw in any extras. Then export it to Poster Print and print out the pattern any size I want, but that's an extra days work which is not necessary, in most cases.
Hope this helps.
