This is the first “mini-challenge” in the Photo-based Art category.

Unlike “official challenges” for this forum posted here (http://www.retouchpro.com/challenge/art/index.html), this one will be self-contained within this thread. It is intended as a souce of amusement until the next official challenge is posted.

Rules are the same:
* It’s a challenge, not a contest -- intended to sharpen skills and to share techniques.
* Everyone who participates is a winner.

- - - - - - - - - - -

#1 – Mountain Man

This image was originally posted in the Technique > Critiques/Opinions/Help requested forum (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3134) by one of our regulars, Fugitive (aka: Greg), who graciously approved using it here for this purpose.

Guidelines:
1. Convert this image to “art.”

2. Use any style or format you like, e.g., oil, watercolor, sketch, stick figure, whatever. Makes no difference which application(s) and/or plugin(s) and/or filters you use. Want to hand paint it? Go for it. Wanna add a frame? Why not?

3. Have fun.

4. When done, reply to this thread and attach your work (don’t forget the 100K size limit).

5. For this particular thread, focus on the result, not the technique. If you did something unusual or discovered something really cool, by all means report it. If other members are exceptionally interested in the blow-by-blow steps or other details, they will ask.

Bottom line: Just do it.

6. Have fun

7. Did I mention, “Have fun”?

OK. Recess starts now.

~DannyR~

:)

OK, here goes. I had a lot of fun. So here it is for everyone to amuse over:) I wasn't trying to create a master piece, just had a lot of fun with the pallete knife. Looks more like a wildman than a mountain man when I got through:) Great idea, Danny, for those of us who can't pull ourselves away from the computer:)

wanda

That looks good, but who's palette knife did you use?

:)

I used Painter Classic. Oval in Deluxe. Thanks, I really had fun, nice not to have to write down procedure:)

Wanda

OK. Wanda. I made up the rules. I can change them! :)

Generally speaking, how did you do this! Photoshop? Painter?

Do you use a tablet? (If not, add 500 to the 'amazing results' column.)

~Danny~

:)

You better not change the rules:D Generally speaking, I used Painter Classic, brushes, pallete knife. Used just a little airbrush on the cheeks. Yes, I have a tablet that I just learned to use. Can't say how much i love it:) Couldn't live without it!! I selected with the lasso tool, used paintbucket to change the bk/grnd. And then......Well that's it.

Wanda

Here he is looking like a new man!
:wavey:

Cool idea, Danny! But if you keep it up, I'll never get any REAL work done... LOL

Anyway, here's my contribution....

The tablet is mightier than the mouse! Glad you love it.

BTW, If anyone wants my Painter Classic, they can have it.

Voila:D

I love that texture, Phil. How did you make it?

Mr Mountain man

Done with Painter 7.0, Photoshop 6.0 and a Wacom Intuos 2

Wow!

Mt. Man probably never looked or felt so good. Some great intrepretations so far.

Etienne:
EXCELLENT WORK! Welcome to RetouchPro. Glad you jumped right in to join us. Hope we see more of your terrific creations in the future.

Pixelmover:
Sure glad you got over the Painter 7 hump. Exceptional job on this one. Did you print the orig & freehand your rendition or... ??? Give us a hint.

Phil:
Ditto Jak's comment about the texture. Very cool. Looks like he's ready for a night on the town!

Jak:
Background really adds flavor! It's right out of my past life. I can hear "Purple Haze" playing in the background. :)

- - - - - - - -

Gosh... looks like everybody else is having fun. It's OK for me to jump in the pool, too, right? ("Heck yeah! I'm the moderator!" LOL)

Here's one in which I used a couple effects (Cezanne, Pencil Sketch) from a not well know application called Professor Franklin's Instant Photo Effects. Pulled the results into Photoshop 5.5 and tuned them up a bit.

Kind of the wind blown look, ya think? :)

- - - - - - - -

Keep those entries coming. (No expiration on this).

Already submitted one? Wanna do another? GO AHEAD!

But most of all, "Keep having fun!"

~DannyR~

Originally posted by DannyRaphael
...<snip>...
Pixelmover:
Sure glad you got over the Painter 7 hump. Exceptional job on this one. Did you print the orig & freehand your rendition or... ??? Give us a hint ...<snip>...

~DannyR~ [/B]

hint... hmm..asking for a hint rather than a full step-by-step description, eh? :tongue:

ok, here you go.

Used the palette knife in painter with my Wacom, dragged it back to photosop to give it some unsharp masking and lighting effects, back to painter to add some highlights/shadows with a normal brush, then smear a bit more until statisfied..repeat as necessary.

That's funny, Danny!

My original intention was to make one of those kind of '60s psychadelic posters and the background was originally just a radial gradient in some pretty bizzarre colors, but I slingshotted past '60s psych and ended up somewhere completely different - never bothered to remove the background though...

:)

Yes, Etienne! Great job. And welcome to the frey!

I posted a comment earlier about yours, but it must have gotten lost in cyberspace

(hey, wasn't that the name of an old TV show??? :) )

Anyway, I've been trying to figure out how to turn a photo into a cartoon for ages and can't seem to get it to look like yours does.

Care to share how you did that?

Here's mine. I used the image to try Katrin's method of masking the hair. At some point I did modify her course, but I was relatively happy with the outcome.

I pictured the "Mountain Man" as being a fugitive, hiding behind foilage. So I took a shot of my wife's garden, and combined the two. But I don't really remember *exactly* what I did. :) I used the dry brush to finish up, with brush size 3, detail 8, and texture 2. But I had fun. Thanks Danny. Very cool idea!

Ed

I actually used illustrator to do this one;) . Don't know if any of you has used it much but it certainly has its place.

I basically just traced the different elements of his face using the pen tool. I ended up with a bunch of different shapes that I color filled and stroked. For the shirt texture I made a 100 px square approximation of MMs' shirt which illustrator allowed me to load up as a swatch. Then it was simply a matter of filling the shape with the swatch.

I've only been using Illustrator for a couple of months but it definitely has it's place. At the moment I'm going through a game of Illustrator tennis w/ a friend who knows his way around the program. The deal his my buddy created a piece which he sent to me in layers. I then took elements that I liked and created my own piece which I "volleyed" back to him. Lots of fun and a good way to learn.

You know I'm thinking you could do something similar here. I've seen it done many times w/ photoshop and its totally cool to see how the intial serve metamorphasize into something completely different.

Whoa got a little OT there heh. But if any one is interested in trying something like this let me know, cuz I'm there.

Cheers,
Etienne

P.S. If anyone is interested in checking out some wicked cool illustrator art, check out http://www.rinzen.com

I used two actions from this place somewhere...one was the sketch one and the other was the efx_painter. With that one I used the efx painter image, inversed, and blurred with gaussian blur to suit. The blend modes I played with and don't remember. The original background image I did a lot of hue/sat on. The texture is one OhThatGirl (forgot her name) used and is part of the SPLAT! filter oddities painterly set. Hope that helps.
:wavey:

Ed:

Your "Mountain Man - Hiding" is inspired! I can almost hear Johnny Rivers playing, "Secret Agent Man" in the background. :) Appreciate you jumping into the fray for a little frolic and fun.

Herewith is another churning from me to wind this one up for the moment.

Future contributions always welcome!

~DannyR~

Last post was 7-1 so imnot sure if anyone is still reading this thread, buuuuuut here is mu quick 15 mini entry.

this was done in Paint Shop Pro 7.04.

Took the image and median filtered it, fur filtered it, added some noise, copied layer, hot waxed it, and blended luminance at 50%.

The median filter gives the water color look, and the noise with the hotwax gives the canvas texture texture.

The "mini's" have no expiration either, so though it's been a while since this thread was active your contribution now is fine.

I've got Paint Shop Pro 7.0x and until now hadn't seen a use for the Hot Wax effect. You've inspired me to take another look. Pretty cool.

Glad you've found us and appreciate your contributions.

Keep having fun!

Danny

Just fiddling while waiting for some files to download.

Looks like somebody got creative with their trowel.

Cool Stuff!
-e

Very creative, Doug! Given your hectic schedule, glad you choose to spend a few 'on hold' minutes on this one. Please fiddle (or flute or oboe) here anytime!

Give us a few hints on how you did this. I have not a clue about your method...among other things! :)

~Danny~

Hmm...as I recall, I duped the layer, applied a huge USM, used that goofy difference filter :), flattened, deleted green and blue channels, ran threshold, embossed, ran threshold again, used black for color range selection, ran Dreamsuite's liquid metal filter, put new blank layer under main layer, set main layer to linear light blend mode, used diamond-shaped flesh-to-brown gradient on new layer, then went in and hand-painted a few places.

I like how his shirt came out, best.

To quote a reviewer on this site for whom I have the highest respect: "YIKES!" :bow:

Glad that download was long. What an inspired and creative combination of steps and tools. Without a few crumbs along the path, few could possibly imagine, let alone duplicate it.

OK. That's twice in week I've been shown a "useful" use for the Difference blend mode. Thanks for gracefully opening up that door to new possibilities. I guess I'll have to upgrade it from "Goofy" to "Occasionally Useful." :)

Perhaps a thread on that subject would be in order... I'll noodle on that and get something going, perhaps today.

~Danny~

I had fun with this one. I chose to keep it
photographic and turn him into a mountainman.
I cut a squirel pic I had for the hat, added a
Colorado background and photographed my
fringed jacket for his toggs.

Woody

Woody:

It didn't take long at all for you "to catch the spirit." My wife wanted to know if you could clone some hair on my chest like you did for Mountain Man! (I told her you'd be able to in about 30 seconds if you had a pic of me to work with, but we won't go there!)

Welcome to the Sandbox and keep having FUN!

~DannyR~

First time I've managed find time to visit this particular forum and am amazed at some of the MMs.

Wanda's version looks extraordinarily like BigAl himself (another wild man!).

finally, I've found some time and inspriation to tackle one of these mini challenges.
Here's my mountain man.

Thanks Danny. This whole site will put "hair on your chest" :) I am enjoying it very much
since I joined last week. I'm retired so I have lots
of time to "diddle" with Photoshop :) I hope at some
point though, to make a little $$ on the side
with it :)

Woody

:)

Woody, I love it, VERY creative:) Now he looks like a genuine Mountain Man. To COOOOOOOL:cool:

Wanda

Thanks Wanda. Is this a great site or what?

Woody

:)

Woody, you're welcome:) Wonderful site indeed, so many avenues to express ones artistic inclinations, whatever they may be. I know I'm having a blast, and it doesn't seem I'm alone:D

wanda

I thought I would try my hand at one of the mini challenges. I have been really impresed with all the entries.

I used Photoshop 7 and played around with the history brush at various settings. Then I applied the cutout filter to it.

-T

T Paul:

Combining Cutout filter + History brush turned out quite well!

Glad to see your contributions among the mini challenges (this is the first I've seen; look forward to seeing the others). Mt. Man is definitely looking better and better!

=========

I was playing around (again) with Paint Engine. This is an application of the Impression 1 preset, using the Intensity 2 setting on a layer previously rendered with Photoshop's Colored Pencil filter.

~Danny~

I tried to keep it looking like a photo. I figured a true "mountain man" would be weatherbeaten and leathery, and would certainly not have such a clean white shirt!

I used the method described here to make the impasto effect. (Please remind me who gave us this tip so I can thank him/her!) Recall that it's done by using render-->lighting effects-->directional light on the blue channel.

Next I used stylize-->diffuse-->anisotropic to turn the zillions of lumps and bumps I got into connected wrinkles, then blended the two layers. Also cleaned the bumps off the background to smooth it to emphasize the wrinkled face.

Those were the main operations, but of course there was fine tuning with other functions as well. Among other things I adjusted contrast and color, and gave him even more unkempt hair.

Phyllis
www.innographx.com

I also did a "painting" of Mt. Man. To make the "photo" posted earlier, I blended this particular layer with the really bumpy one underneath to make wrinkles, but I like this layer by itself as well.

Tip: Turns out that when you use the stylize-->diffuse-->anisotropic filter after making a picture rough with the impasto process, you get these neat swirls all over it. I like the look and hope I can find a better use for it in the future. Hmmm...maybe an underwater scene? And...it certainly does great things for hair!

Phyllis
www.innographx.com

:bigthmb:
Phylis,
Are we having fun yet? All it takes is just the first step. There's more than one way to skin a cat as you have found out.
Lovely pictures Keep them coming.
angue

<<Are we having fun yet? All it takes is just the first step. There's more than one way to skin a cat as you have found out.>>

Yes, Angue, for sure! However there is a downside...there are TOO MANY WAYS! I just got Painter 7.0 yesterday and have barely slept since. It has soooo many permutations of effects-brushes-settings-etc-etc-etc that the possibilities are truly endless, and unfortunately there are only 24 short hours in a day. But my unsympathetic family has the nerve to expect me to cook...my needy students expect me to be there to teach them...my bossy dog insists on being walked and fed...my stubborn garden refuses to water itself...sigh...

So many possibilities...so little time. :(

Phyllis
www.innographx.com

I let it go a little weird. But I had fun.
Debbie

Hey, you met rule #4 ("Have fun") and that's what counts.

Welcome to RetouchPRO, Debbie. Hope you participate in some of the other challenges.

~DannyR~

These entries are all amazing!

Sanda, how did you do that texture over the whole thing??

Margaret

Here's a rendition using Phyllis Stewart's favorite Anisotropic Diffuse filter and the freeware Simplifier filter (http://photoshop.msk.ru/as/simplifier.html).

And here's the procedure I used (for them that wonders :) )

Truman, I love the effect of that simplifier filter...makes it look like a comic book illustration. Thanks for the info on how to get it.

Phyllis

A great total package, Truman...
* Image
* Screenshot with detailed layer descriptions (especially easy to follow, for me, anyway)
* Link to no cost plugin

A+

I cloned his glasses out and cloned hair to face and chest. Then Liquified nose , eyes and mouth. then use a couple of filters and used fresno filter

I went for the pre historic look.

Is it me or is there a slight resemblance to former Beatle Ringo Starr?

Glad to see Mt. Man come back to life, Phil. He's been dormant for too long!

Wow, Phil, your prehistoric man is WONDERFUL! Verrrry clever and creative and well done!

Phyllis

Nothing clever attempted here, still feeling my way around. :)
It's like being one's first day at school. Can't wait to get home and tell mum.:tongue:

Nice soft touch. You don't want to anger the Headmaster on Day One! :D

Tell mum you did very, very well your first day and that you may come back tomorrow!

Hi Everyone,

This was fun, have been playing around with indirect lighting. So decided to try it on this effort.....

Hey, Goldcoin:

Nice to have you pop in and take a swipe at this one. I like the backlit / windswept look you achieved.

Hope to see more of your creations in the future. Welcome back.

~DannyR~

Thanks, Danny

This was the first one I tried.....

Omeyas, nice effect. Like a sketch painted with water colors.

Goldcoin, love your brushstrokes...and the blue lighting. What program did you do the painting with?

Phyllis

Thank you ...Phyllis

It was different, and amusing to play around in this program. Have had it for awhile, but just left it "High & Dry" for Photoshop....

It's Corel Photo-Paint version 9. The brush did all of the work, it was named "a soft wet oil blend."

Not sure how many enties, one can submit, but this will be my last for the Mountain_Man.

really neat lighting effects, Goldcoin!! looks great :thumbsup:

- David :)

P.S. there's no limit on how many times you can post for these mini challenges (as long as it's a reasonable number) we love to see any work you come up with.

Apologies for the formal names, I'm not sure who is who yet! :)
Enjoyed your version of the mountain man, plus the tutorial is a good idea, very graphic.

I thought I'd send Mountain Man on a trip to Antarctica.
I hope he makes it back ok :D

- Gary

LOL! Great manipulation...you'd never know it isn't him. In fact, are you sure those aren't his mountains in the background?

Phyllis

A woodcarving built with PSP7 for the tree spirit challenge (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4446#post37426).

Al, that's really excellent...looks like it's actually carved on the tree.

Phyllis

Big ditto from me, Al. That is very impressive.

That is really great Al. Can it translate to photoshop?
Debbie

Thanx for kind words guys.

Debbie, I'm not sure what I did :blush:, but I'm almost certain I used a Paint Shop Pro default filter. I'll look into it later today and let you know. (FWIW, I think Paint Shop Pro is better for Photo Art than Photoshop.)

Here are the steps I used in PSP7:

As the grain on the wood was horizontal, I first rotated MM thru 90°.

Effects> Texture Effects> Sculpture and then used the drift wood preset. (see what I mean about Paint Shop Pro having filters that make things much easier!)

If you look at my earlier pic (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/attachment.php?s=&postid=37427), you'll notice a black edge on the right and top of his head which looks rather out of place. That's because I was too lazy to fiddle with the light direction. I then went and rotated the drift wood bitmap and ran the filter without rotating MM, and I'm sure you'll agree this one looks much better.

Sorry peeps, saw this and just had to do it. No offence is meant, it's jst a bit of fun :D

Yeah, I know it's not accurate, but you get the idea . . .

Collin, you got the WRONG MAN! And we're gonna prove it in court!

Here he is feeling abstract.

Phyllis

After reading Danny's excellent tutorial in Photo Art 101, "Combining Dry Brush and Cross Hatch Filters", I had to dig this great image up and play...

Many, many creative and very well done renditions here. This is one of the most varied threads I've seen so far. Amazing what can be done to one photo!

A big thanks to Visual Eyes' (wherever he is :)) for his graphic tutorial, very informative.

Throwing in my version, kind of a tribute to one of my favorite artists here, Trimoon.

I started with Danny's tut, then just kept going.


Pam

Glad the Photo-art 101 tutorial gave you some inspiration.
Thanks for bringing "Mountain Main" back to life, Pam. You sure made him look better than he started.

RE: Visual Eyes
Sure miss his his work. He's a very talented artist.

I wasn't going to submit anything for this one as I'm getting into the thread so late, but I needed my daily 'fix' of work in the Digital Darkroom....so, here's my rendition.
Regards,
Bill C

Bill C, I like yours, I think it is original,
it looks like a mixture of hand drawn and computer image.
Did you use a sketch action for it?



Pam, yours look like a real painting, what did you do it
after Danny's Tut ?

Bill:

Nice to see you tackled one of my fav's, "Mountain Man." Glad you bounced him back to the top.

Very interesting effect... almost looks like there's a piece of glass between the outline and the texture background.

~Danny~

Originally posted by alex
Pam, yours look like a real painting, what did you do it
after Danny's Tut ?
Hi Alex,

Danny's tutorial got me started playing with the dry brush filter and using layer masks to preserve detail. That playing around spun off into finding a quick method to preserve detail while adding a brushed look by using a luminance layer. But basically the "painted" effect comes from a standard technique of "hiding" the image with a white layer, then revealing it by painting black on a layer mask. Here are my steps:

1 Dupe the original layer

2 Run Filter>Artistic>Dry Brush (or filter of your choice) on the top layer

3 Activate the first layer (original image), and hit Ctrl + Alt + ~ (tilde), then Ctrl + J. This will load the luminance (basically all the lighter parts of the image) as a new layer. Move this new layer on top of the dry brush copy. This will add some detail back and leave the glasses with a cleaner line. You can adjust this effect overall by lowering opacity or selectively by using a layer mask. You now have 3 layers:

The bottom, original photo layer
The second, dry brushed layer
The luminance layer

4 I then added a sandstone texture layer, set to overlay mode

5 Open a pattern adjustment layer, choose "Parchment", set to overlay mode, about 30% opacity. I scaled this at 70%

6 Open another pattern adjustment layer, choose "Stucco 2", set to overlay mode, about 30% opacity. I scaled this pattern at about 550%

7 Open a new layer, fill with white. Add a layer mask. Paint black on this mask at a low opacity to reveal the image beneath. I used the "Heavy Scatter Flow" brush that can be found under "Wet Media" brushes

There are many more uses for the luminance layer. One is to increase saturation. Adding a hue/sat adjustment to the luminance layer allows you to saturate colors well beyond what is possible when using hue/sat directly on the image itself. You can also add filter effects to the luminance layer itself. This will contain the effects to the lighter areas of the image.

Also, when you hit Ctrl + Alt + ~, you are making a selection. This can then be used as a mask by clicking on the "add layer mask" button. Effects applied to this layer will affect the lighter portions of the image. Try inverting the mask to apply the layer effects to the darker areas of the image. The layer mask itself can also be manipulated. For example, blurring it or adjusting the contrast, etc.

This image ("Mountain Man") seemed to work well with multiple, rough type textures. You might want to discard some texture layers or use softer, more subtle textures with other images.

Whew! This response seems to have turned into a luminance layer tutorial. Probably more than you wanted to know ;)


Let me know if this works for you...
Pam

Thanks Pam, for the detailed explanation, I will try that.

cautiously gazes out at the civilization he intended to leave behind, and he wonders.......

"Is it really too late to duck and cover?"



(sorry, I couldn't resist :-)

This one is done with Flaming Pear's Wavy Color filter, an Infra-Red action, and a bit of tweaking in Photoshop.

I know this is an old thread, but Pam..... your painting is beautiful! Thanks for the great how-to. I love this place.



Sharon

Well here is my first.
New to RetouchPRO and have had Photoshop about 4 months.
I’ve been lurking for some time and have learned a lot from you guys.
What a great web site and software.

Sharon:

Glad you got this thread going again. It's a great pic with which to work. Your interpretation is one of the best/most creative that I have seen.

- - - - - - - -

Hey, John:

Congrats on your first pic. For only having had Photoshop for a few months, you're doing a heck of a lot better than most folks. Very creative and well done.

By all means continue to tackle any of these older threads. No time limit on having fun and being creative.:)

~Danny~

1. convert to CYMK
2. duplicate black channel. turn all channels back on except the new black copy
3. convert back to RGB
4. load black channel as a slection
5. impressionist (custom setting paint swirls)
6. paint engine fade 65
7. deselect
8. create new layer. flood with dark brown. texturize
9. add layer mask to brown layer and paint image back in.

This was fun....

Sketch fun....
Joy

Painter 8.1

As a newbie to this marvellous program I'll continue to "clone" for a while to come.....

Water Color Fine Cloner - default - Face and Hair
Water Color Wash Cloner - default - shirt and face
New Layer - Soft Cloner - face

PSP8.1

Canvas Texture applied twice and sharpened.

Painter 8.1

As a newbie to this marvellous program I'll continue to "clone" for a while to come.....

Water Color Fine Cloner - default - Face and Hair
Water Color Wash Cloner - default - shirt and face
New Layer - Soft Cloner - face

PSP8.1

Canvas Texture applied twice and sharpened.
Great for you, Neve. You are making some remarkable progress with Painter. Well done.

As you know the brushes in the Cloner group are predefined to clone.

In case you haven't discovered it yet ANY brush variant can be turned into a cloner brush and used in the same way.

Here's how:
* Assuming you've opened your image and setup the clone source, you need to be able to get to the Colors palette, so be sure it's visible.
* Now choose a brush from any other category (your choice).
* On the Colors palette toward the bottom-left is a button that looks like a "stamp." (It's referred to as the "Clone color" button. It's icon looks like the one used for Photoshop's "Clone Tool.") When this option is in effect (click it) you're telling Painter to draw color from the underlying clone source image, not the currently selected foreground color.

This works in a fashion similar to Photoshop's "Pattern Stamp Tool" where the color source is the current pattern or the "History Brush" or "Art History Brush" where the color source is the active snapshot.

CAUTION:
It's really easy to forget to turn ON this option when selecting a non-cloner brush. By default it's OFF for all other brushes.

So, if you pick a brush and start painting away and get (say) all yellow or black or red strokes, it means you forgot to activate this option. Just "undo," click the button and clone away.

Have fun, keep experimenting and don't blame me if you get less sleep tonight! :lmao:

~Danny~

:wavey: You're a sweetheart Danny! Thank you for your encouragement and the tip especially....already printed it! I'm babysitting another grandson all of next week so there wont be much painting going on. It will be all outdoor activities instead!

Since Neve brought this thread back to the top, I though I may as well post a couple images I made several weeks ago. Basically, I was playing with the bandpass idea, running Highpass=6, GBlur = 1.5 on the orginal to greatly simplify the image. Than I ran every filter possible on separate copies of the bandpass to compare results. Here are a couple of these further refined / tweaked:

Image 1. Base image. Sketch>Plaster. Fooled around with some filtered noise and Hue/Sat to colorize to get an embossed hammered copperish thing.

Image 2. Base image. Other>Minimum. Image>Adj>Equalize. Artistic> Sponge.

-Mark

Two totally different and creative results Mark. :nod: Terrific. I especially like the Punched Copper effect!

Corel Painter 8, chalk.

Jaykita - :bow: as I said, you're an inspiration!

I have been dodging this one like the plague until i had got my teeth in Painter for while but had decided that today was the day for a little Painting.

Painter 9:

- Copied original image
- Cloner / Wet Oil Brush 10 Settings: Resat:32% Bleed:51% Feature:1.9

Gently going over the face and beard, changing size to suit and keeping with the contour and direction of features in order to create a nice flow ( pressing too hard will affect the bleed and therefore smear everything together, not good in this sample)
For the beard i made sure that i used a smaller brush setting and quick small strokes.

- Flat Impasto Cloner for the hair, Settings: Resat:71% Bleed:43% Feature:2.5 (this gives me a little detail to the stroke in order that hair looks as natural as possible wilst keeping it smooth-ish). Remembering to keep to the natural curls. I always start with the smaller distant curls and then overlap them with a bigger stronger curl to keep the depth.

Paint in the background with a stronger Impasto sized brush

Imported to Photoshop for some cosmetic correction
Applied a highpass filter to enhance detail

Voila !

For a better side by side comparison without compression issues Click Here (http://www.pbase.com/axleuk/image/38746849)

You got your teeth into this exceptionally well. Thank you for the details on your approach to this...!

Axel. Simply awesome Painter result. Can you comment why you set the brush parameters as shown? I'm still struggling to figure out what these do, especially the "feature" knob which I can't seem to find in the manual. Also, why did you switch to the Flat Impasto cloner for the hair? What does it do (or not do) compared to the WetOils cloner? Finally, did you do this in one pass or many while using or not using TracingPaper? I ask this latter Q because I struggle to see my strokes with TracingPaper on, but can't work (at least intially) without a reference.

Jaykita, I like your Painter chalk version too. Are you pretty comfortable with this program? (Your work suggests you are.) Got any tips to share?

-Mark

Jaykita - :bow: as I said, you're an inspiration!

Ditto what Neve said. This one "rocks."

SWEngineer, Neve, Once again, thanks for your comments, i have only been using Painter actively for about 2 weeks now, but have taken to it like a duck to water. My father used to do landscape oil and acrylic painting a la Boss Ross style and as a result of watching him for many years picked up on various techniques he used, with painter it very a very similiar process

Can you comment why you set the brush parameters as shown? I'm still struggling to figure out what these do, especially the "feature" knob which I can't seem to find in the manual.

- Cloner / Wet Oil Brush 10 Settings: Resat:32% Bleed:51% Feature:1.9:

Resat (Resaturation):The amount of the current colour the brush picks up, the lower the setting, the more paint from the previous stroke stays on the brush so when you apply the brush to the canvas and stroke across, the initial colour you had on the brush will blend across the canvas more, the higher the setting, then very little (if any) carries across the canvas. The best way to see this in action it to paint 1 thick black line of paint and 1 thick white line of paint under it and play with the RESAT settings but paint across the two lines in one stroke, you will understand the principle better.

Bleed: This is how much the paint bleeds when brushing a stroke, so a higher setting will cause the paint the be a bit more watery therefore causing it to bleed more than it would with a lower setting, so depending on your medium, adjust to best suit your need.

Feature: (Brush Hairs) The amount of brush hairs that are present, the lesser the number, the denser the brush, the higher the number then the brush starts to behave like a cheap artists brush and is wispy in application. If you imagine you have a brush with 100 bristles, the lowest setting will use all the bristles and the highest will have just 1 bristle.

why did you switch to the Flat Impasto cloner for the hair? What does it do (or not do) compared to the WetOils cloner?

Impasto is a technique used in painting where paint is laid on the canvas very thickly, usually thickly enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas.

I use this for the hair as in real life hair has many strands and this technique helps to keep that look in the painting, as the paint is thick the brush stroke are more dominant, of course, your setting can affect this, so experiment.

Finally, did you do this in one pass or many while using or not using TracingPaper?

I try to keep my technique as close to a real artist as possible, and you very rarely see an Oil artist make just one pass, he will always go back and rework the brush to either get a better blend or to change something. One thing I will mention is realism, and the fact that you want your work to be as realistic as possible, so if you make a mistake, dont immediately undo the action, try and paint out your mistake, it makes for a better finished product and adds to the overall effect, of course if your mistake is drastic then by all means undo it, but try to simulate the actions of a real artist and your work will come together.

Whilst i can work to a certain degree from reference, it takes a lot of time and patience, so for the time being i prefer the cloning method.

Play.Fiddle.Learn

Hope this helps, If anyone would like a little one on one guidance, why not contact me via email or messanger and we can work together on an image and i can explain a few techniques if it helps or better still open a new thread and do a step by step group effort.

Great feedback. :bow: I really like your idea of a group step-by-step thread. It sounds like a lot of fun and a great chance to learn, but I wonder if Danny would be ok with this? I'm up for it if so.

-Mark

Your explanation Axle is very much appreciated. Since I've not had a lick of experience re traditional art in any form I'm open to your suggestions/advice/assistance wholeheartedly. What a joy to have such talent in your father and naturally you would've learned a lot just by watching his methods.

I had already accepted that learning Painter will be a long process and needs commitment. So your idea of a step by step group effort has my wholehearted support. :bigthmb:

...So your idea of a step by step group effort has my wholehearted support. :bigthmb:For the 2nd time in just a few threads: Ditto what Neve said.

Go for it...

~Danny~

Thanks guys (and gal), I have just written a tutorial on my technique but am currently having problems uploading the images. As soon as i have that issue resolved will try to incorporate it into a step by step Group effort.

Update: !!

Tutorial can now be found here http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?p=79342#post79342

here's my attempt at Mountain Man and converting him to a sketch.

I duped the background layer applied threshold, played with the curves on the original layer, add a few sprayed stroke effects to the theshold layer. Then duplicated that layer again and set it to colour burn 40% and set the other threshold layer to multiply 35% and voila!

here's my attempt at Mountain Man and converting him to a sketch.

I duped the background layer applied threshold, played with the curves on the original layer, add a few sprayed stroke effects to the theshold layer. Then duplicated that layer again and set it to colour burn 40% and set the other threshold layer to multiply 35% and voila!

You've added a compelling interpretation to one of my favorite threads back to life, agentpict. I'm glad you gave this one a go.

Thanks for sharing your "how-to" steps.

~Danny~

i'm surprised no one else was curious... who's the man behind the hair? ;)

Craig

i'm surprised no one else was curious... who's the man behind the hair? ;)

CraigNice shave and a haircut... :wink:

re: The subject
Unknown. Just an image someone sent to me a couple years ago.

ah, in that case i shld have made him bald :) thanks danny.

Craig

ode to warhol....

-chalk and charcoal filter (different colors for foreground)
-different colored rectangels w/different blend modes

i always thought warhol was a bit over-rated, but nice duplication of style. very well done!

Craig

thanks craig

nice duplication of style. very well done!
I agree with Craig's assessment. Nice mix of colors with the shapes and frame.

Definitely an "outside the frame" approach.

thanks danny

Hi All,
I thought I would add my effort to this saga of excellent posts.

Paint Shop Pro

Ssoftcoloursketch Script.

Overlaid with a layer of ThredgeholderPro.
Ran Flaming pear Ghost to make the white parts transparent and leave the lines superimposed on the base layer. Set to Overlay.

Regards to all,
Mitch.

Hi All,
Still playing with the lines on transparent layers thing.

Paint Shop Pro

Ssoftcoloursketch script.

One layer of Little inkpot Thredgeholderpro. Then ranFlaming pear Ghost to make the layer transparent except for the lines.

Another layer with LittleInkPot Sketcher - NiceSketch. Then Ghost as above.

Promoted background and reduced slider to 30% to get the conte effect.

Vignetted and sandstone texture added.

Painted in highlights on glasses with white, and a little on eyes.

Addictive this isn't it.

Regards to all,
Mitch.

mitch,

horribly addictive :)

i like both of those, though the first one a bit more. great contrast sketch.

what is the ssoftcoloursketch script? is that a script action in Photoshop or something else?

Craig

Hi Craig,

Glad you liked them. Once you start trying to work out a method it really gets you.

The softcoloursketch script is one I use a lot, It's one I collected from sheilsoft when they were all free. They now charge £3.00 for 35 scripts, some useful -some wild. My one works on PSP8 which I seem to be using most, though when you buy them now they have different versions for PSP7,8 and 9. Very much a Paint Shop Pro script - Photoshop has the same thing but there called actions.

A link for it to check out -

Sheilsoft (www.sheilsoft.com/psp/sketch.htm)

Regards to all,
Mitch.

Outlined my technique here (http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=15820869) so I won't repeat. Still have some additional work to do, but you call can still feel free to critic. :)

lkroll,

how about removing his glasses before you do what you did? :D
why? cause his glasses are the one and only thing on that pic that include straight lines. everything else is wavy, or soft, or blurred, or something... what do you think?
but! even if you'll leave it as it is, i like it. quite much ;)

So concerned about the process that I didn't even think about the final look. One of those forest for the trees type oversights. I'm still trying to get the process to be more natural and hopfully will figure out how to do that soon. Glad you liked the overall effect anyway. :)

This my try using Studio Artist and CS2 Nik Filters.

This sketch illustration was easily done use a combination of Little Ink Pot's Chalkaholic filter and Impressionist. Some saturation adjustments as well. Hope you all like it. :)

dbuckle,

that's an interesting take on the subject. quite a different style from what we normally see here.

lkroll,

i definitely like this last one over the first.

Craig

Not the first time I had to do a makeup. :lol:


As a side note, this one took less then 10 minutes (would have been less then 2 if I didn't have to do a lot of tinkering; I sometimes am too much a perfectionist). Filters are wonderful. :)

Not the first time I had to do a makeup. well, you're in good company. my understanding of some of the impressionists is that they'd toss out dozens before arriving at what they wanted :)

Craig

Now I know how to get zebra striped effect. With a little tweaking, should be able to get "a le jeremy sutton"

Nice work going on here everyone. I used Lucis Klimpt filter and added texture and edge.

Cathy :)

An attempt from me.

Finished off with two runs through impressionist.

Peter

Mostly Buzz, Lucis Art, and Gertrudis. Threw in several layers and some USM.

Kind of a pot boil of a image.

Steve

Hard to believe this thread is going on five years old. Glad you gave it a shot, Peter, to bring it back to the top.

I found it interesting to consider how use of digital tools has evolved over the years. This one was done primarily with Akvis > Sketch and Impressionist > Charcoal > Default.

Hard to believe this thread is going on five years old. Glad you gave it a shot, Peter, to bring it back to the top.

I found it interesting to consider how use of digital tools has evolved over the years. This one was done primarily with Akvis > Sketch and Impressionist > Charcoal > Default.


No probs, I was thinking the same myself, to think they actually used PENCILS AND PAPER in those days!!!!! :eek:

Peter