This is the original version of the image (from the great graphical novel series "Bone"):
To convert it to a 3-bit image (8 levels), I used the -depth switch with the convert command:
convert bone.jpg -colorspace gray -depth 3 bone3bit.jpg
And similarly, for black-and-white (1 bit image):
convert bone.jpg -colorspace gray -depth 1 bone1bit.jpg