The wow-europe servers have been down all day so I've had a bit of time going spare - thought I'd post up the result

Nice bit of smudging NancyJ, I especially like the eye lashes
John

That is beautiful NancyJ. I love the hair. and the color, blues are my favorites.

Nancy...very very nice...how bout a tutorial? I didn't think you were a smugger?

Nancy, great work! I agree with Skydog, a tutorial would be great :wink:

Marsha

Nancy...

This is just beautiful....love it!!!

Patricia.... :classic:

What? No WoW?! Now that's harsh! :depressed
Nice work, especially with the nice glow to her skin and your treatment of her hair- exquisite. There is a patch of hair near where it parts that looks a bit over smudged/softened to me, it just needs a little more texture.
Hmm yeah...tutorial? :wink:

Based on Nancy's original post about "servers" maybe she is not currently available. I really would like to keep this post open for some discussion because I do like what she has created. Do you feel this was done in a combination of photoshop and painter or just photoshop? I would agree that it looks like smudge was used. Any thoughts about the brush? I've been reading posts for sometime now and have not seen something like this from Nancy before...it appears she has been expanding. I wonder what you have been reading, studing...any guidance would be nice....

Hehehe Skydog... WoW-europe is a World of Warcraft server, so I'd say Nancy is still very much online and probably going through withdrawls by now if the server is still down lol! :cry:

Based on Nancy's original post about "servers" maybe she is not currently available. I really would like to keep this post open for some discussion because I do like what she has created. Do you feel this was done in a combination of photoshop and painter or just photoshop? I would agree that it looks like smudge was used. Any thoughts about the brush? I've been reading posts for sometime now and have not seen something like this from Nancy before...it appears she has been expanding. I wonder what you have been reading, studing...any guidance would be nice....

Sorry I didnt reply sooner - been feeding my addiction - only 30 levels to heh ;)

In regard to answering those questions - I could, but then there wouldnt be much discussion then ;)
Since you all asked so nicely, I've been working on an in depth tutorial but until I'm done, I'd love to watch the discussion play out.

Okay...I took a shot...
Cleaned up my photo with levels, and a little shapening.
I created a layer..added some blue and yellow and smudged it around.
Then created mask to bring ou the pic from below.
Then tried a little smudging of the photo.
I think if I have the right brush, the right pressure, the right stroke, and a little more time and practice..I'd have something, but I still definitely like YOURS!

i like the hair, background, clothing, love the eyes, and like the lips/teeth and ears.

i dont like the shading at the sides of her forehead... too strong. dont like the shading over her lip/under her nose....just a bit too strong. and especially dont like the cheeks... too pink. also have lost a bit of depth with the cheeks to the eyes by removing the shadows, but this is almost irrelevant to this piece.

so, this is just what i like and dont like about it, not whether it's 'good' or 'bad'.