diff --git a/labelme/utils.py b/labelme/utils.py
index 93bba2d5c..091719219 100644
--- a/labelme/utils.py
+++ b/labelme/utils.py
@@ -3,16 +3,16 @@
     import io
 except ImportError:
     import io as io
+import warnings
 
 import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 import numpy as np
 import PIL.Image
 import PIL.ImageDraw
 import scipy.misc
-import skimage.color
 
 
-def labelcolormap(N=256):
+def label_colormap(N=256):
 
     def bitget(byteval, idx):
         return ((byteval & (1 << idx)) != 0)
@@ -33,6 +33,33 @@ def bitget(byteval, idx):
     return cmap
 
 
+def labelcolormap(N=256):
+    warnings.warn('labelcolormap is deprecated. Please use label_colormap.')
+    return label_colormap(N=N)
+
+
+# similar function as skimage.color.label2rgb
+def label2rgb(lbl, img=None, n_labels=None, alpha=0.3, thresh_suppress=0):
+    if n_labels is None:
+        n_labels = len(np.unique(lbl))
+
+    cmap = label_colormap(n_labels)
+    cmap = (cmap * 255).astype(np.uint8)
+
+    lbl_viz = cmap[lbl]
+    lbl_viz[lbl == -1] = (0, 0, 0)  # unlabeled
+
+    if img is not None:
+        img_gray = PIL.Image.fromarray(img).convert('LA')
+        img_gray = np.asarray(img_gray.convert('RGB'))
+        # img_gray = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_RGB2GRAY)
+        # img_gray = cv2.cvtColor(img_gray, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2RGB)
+        lbl_viz = alpha * lbl_viz + (1 - alpha) * img_gray
+        lbl_viz = lbl_viz.astype(np.uint8)
+
+    return lbl_viz
+
+
 def img_b64_to_array(img_b64):
     f = io.BytesIO()
     f.write(base64.b64decode(img_b64))
@@ -57,10 +84,9 @@ def draw_label(label, img, label_names, colormap=None):
     plt.gca().yaxis.set_major_locator(plt.NullLocator())
 
     if colormap is None:
-        colormap = labelcolormap(len(label_names))
+        colormap = label_colormap(len(label_names))
 
-    label_viz = skimage.color.label2rgb(
-        label, img, colors=colormap[1:], bg_label=0, bg_color=colormap[0])
+    label_viz = label2rgb(label, img, n_labels=len(label_names))
     plt.imshow(label_viz)
     plt.axis('off')
 
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..83160ed46
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+[flake8]
+exclude = .anaconda2/*,labelme/*
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index f33445045..113ab82de 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -67,7 +67,6 @@ def run(self):
         'matplotlib',
         'Pillow>=2.8.0',
         'scipy',
-        'scikit-image',
         'six',
         'PyYAML',
     ],