Had a chance to visit Alcatraz a few weeks ago.

It was a beautiful day - warm and sunny with blue skies and blue water with a mild wind and no fog. WAIT, Alcatraz is supposed to be in San Francisco Bay - usually foggy, cool, gray and very windy. We must have been there on the "first/last" day of summer.

In the 1850's a fort was built on Alcatraz Island to protect the Bay Area from Confederate Raiders (altho I don't think any ever came) - evolved into a fort with a military prison and eventually into a Federal prison. Alcatraz Island is about 1 and 1/4 mile from the mainland at it's closest point.

Great self-guided tour - but, lots of walking - seemed like all uphill.

3 photos for you to try Have fun.

Regards
Bob Mc

Great my favorite kind of thread,with History & geography thrown in :knockedou ( looks nothing like i was expecting )

Tried out Mike Warrens revised sketch action ( sure is good fun) hopefully back tomorrow for a look at the other two

Palms

Good one Palms

Mike does some great actions - I was actually going to try the sketch one also - but ya beat me to it

I was trying to post some pics done in Paint Shop Pro 9 but for some reason I'm getting an error message and can't see any explanation that goes with it

I'll try again later

Regards

Bob Mc

Bob plenty of scope with the sketch action for another
I gave the ahb a whirl on this one

Palms

Bob plenty of scope with the sketch action for another
I gave the ahb a whirl on this one

PalmsYour AHB work is simply outstanding and continues to amaze me...

Could I twist your arm to write up a detailed step-by-step "how I did this transformation" (when you get time) along with "in progress" images, brush & setting details, etc. You get the most pleasing results out of AHB than anyone I've seen before. Really.

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Nice pics, Bob. Glad your visit was as a 'tourist.' :) Thanks for the informative commentary, too.

Yeah, I second Danny's idea of a write-up.

That particular building that you used had a really nice patina on the roof that your ahb version really shows off.

Danny,
I tried to get overnight accomodations - but all they had were 20 to life rooms

Regards
Bob Mc

Here's a couple of my trys done in Paint Shop Pro 9.

Sorta Sketchy Chalky thingies - clearly technical terminology

Another (and last) factoid about Alcatraz

The army was afraid the Civil (?) war would come to the Bay Area so they deployed canons at Alcrataz and at at least one additional area around San Francisco Bay. There were 111 canons on Alcatraz Island some of which shot 440 pound cannonballs up to three miles. From a photo it looks like the cannons were about 10 to 12 feet tall and the barrels maybe 15 to 20 feet long with a 15 inch bore.

(I lied) This is the absolutely last fact - Did you know that the Marines (our Marines) actually shelled Alcatraz during a prison riot and hostage situation. There's still a hole in the roof of one of the cell blocks as well as damage to the floor.

I was messing around some older graphics programs looking at sketch type effects.

Used version 6 (2001) of Microsoft Picture-It software which gives a lot of effects that are somewhat similar to the Impressionist plug-in.

Many default effects, but you can choose to dig deeper and vary 4 or 5 settings and brushes - lots less than Impressionist.

Here are some pencil effects

Regards

Bob Mc

Eyeballed perspective correction (goodbye flagpole) and using Flaming Pear's Mr. Contrast in creative ways for the watercolor; sort of Neimanesque). :)