Faster Way to Clean Background in Photo / Vector Image?

[rich2005]

@TechnicGeek

Playing around with your image, and really I think it is quicker to use it as a template and either paint in a new layer for conversion to a vector, or go straight to using the Gimp paths tool.

I can not see any easy way using either basic Gimp or added plug-ins, to get a decent result.
It can be simplified (after removing background) using the threshold filter, a blur and threshold again but the original is too 'busy' to get a decent outline.

It is so small that for printing on a t-shirt you will need something like a vector image to get it up to suitable size.

[rich2005]

Hate to be beat.

As an example, (attached) a quick redraw. Background removed using g'mic but not the only way, you could just use the eraser tool.

The bit of hatching might defeat you initially, I have a few patterns handy but you see how these are on their own layer. Use as many layers as required, makes editing easier. I am sure you can do better, I am no artist.

This converts to an svg in inkscape (attached). Opens in Gimp and scales to a size suitable for printing. At this stage you can always add more detail/colour.

[TechnicGeek]

It worked! I just added new path in "Preferences" to G-MIC directory. The path is exactly as path shown in install.