PHOTO ART: Mini-Challenge #09

Here’s another “mini-challenge” to play with in the Photo-based Art category.

Unlike “official challenges” for this forum which can be found here (http://www.retouchpro.com/challenge/index.html), this one will be self-contained within this thread. It is intended as an opportunity to engage in this artform until the next official challenge is posted.

The rules are more-or-less the same:
* It’s a challenge, not a contest -- intended to provide opportunities to experiment, share methods and/or techniques.
* Everyone who participates is a winner.
* There’s no expiration date.

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#09 – Mother's Day Tea

Given the popularity of "birthday boy" in Mini-challenge #7, thought I'd throw out another portrait for consideration.

Suppose this mother came to you and said something like, "Grandma and Grandpa's 50th wedding anniversary is coming up. I'd like to do something special and artistic for them using this photo taken at our recent Mother's Day Tea."

How would you do it?

NOTE: I'm going to be off the net until Sunday 8/3, so don't take "no response" from me until then as a sign of disinterest!

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Guidelines:
1. Use any method, application(s), style(s) you like:
. * Convert to sketch, grayscale, abstract, watercolor, oil painting, pen-and-ink, Conte crayon, impasto, van Gogh or any style of your choosing
. * Add elements from other images (collage)
. * Wanna add animation? Maybe not a good idea for this one, but I'm open.
. * Hand painting? Tracing? Freehand? You bet. Always appreciate entries of this nature.
. * Apply filters from your favorite application(s)
. * Tweek it with 3rd party plug-ins

Bottom line:
How you create this masterpiece makes no difference. Whatever floats your boat as long as you follow guideline #4 in the process.

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

Note: Multiple entries OK if you’re so inspired.

3. By all means include some verbiage on how you achieved your masterpiece so others will benefit from your skills and experience. Make it as descriptive as you like. Grammar and spelling will not be graded. Priority given to content, not how it is written.

4. Have fun.

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Let those creative juices flow. Let's see if you can bring a tear to Grandma's eye.

Have fun. See ya next week. Keep having FUN!

~DannyR~

Let the pary begin!

Used a flaming pear solar filter and set the mode to exclusion. Then did an invert to make them "normal" and removed the "sun" from the center. Caslon open face text.
:wavey:

Greeting cards by Retouch PRO.

:)

Gland, this is just too cooooool:) It looks so professional, very creative. Geez, who can top that:D

Wanda

Thanks Wanda. :)
I was thinking of making a real greeting card with the text on the inside folder but didn't want to take the time.

Gary

Blacknight, I love what you did with the picture...the stripes on the girl's shirt go perfectly with the effect you chose. Beautiful!

Phyllis :)

I wanted to try making a line drawing since I'd never done that before. I am a total newbie at "photoart" on the computer, and always admire what others here come up with in the art challenges. Actually it wasn't too hard, and was a lot of fun, but I'd have a hard time telling you HOW I did this since I did a lot of experimenting!

Mainly, I used the method I learned here (from sandi) to find the edges...where in grayscale you make a dupe layer then invert it then set the layer to color dodge then do a gaussian blur to bring out edges, then keep duping and using multiply till you get it as dark as you want.

I experimented with some of the artistic filters to get the flat shadow areas I wanted. Then I added color by painting sloppily on a dupe layer then combining the two with the "color" setting.

I also made it into an anniversary card by adding wording then bordering it with blue with a narrow gold-foil border inside. The gold border turned out really cool...looked just like foil, but made the file size twice as big as allowed here. So I guess I'll save my gold foil look for a regular challenge where the allowable size is bigger. :( Sniff

Phyllis :)

That's odd...my pic didn't upload. I will try again here.

Phyllis

Well, I tried making it smaller and lower resolution, so here is the "anniversary card" I had in mind with the above picture.

Phyllis (third time's the charm!)

That turned out really nice, pstewart ! Would like to have seen the foil one at full size. Put it in the gallery, maybe (200 k size there, I think)?
:wavey:

Here's my version of an anniversary card.

I love all these cards especially those line art drawings.
Phyllis, can we have a brief description on the gold foil trim?
Nice .

Took a break to play with this one...

:)

Phyllis, I love it:) This really turned out beautiful, I'm also very impressed with the bordered card. Looks VERY professional. I really like the vignette:) Thanks for your procedure, very helpful!!

wanda

:)

Sanda, REALLY great:) I like how you made a colored vignette, makes it look very nice. I'm partial to sketching, and you really made this mini look beautiful:)

Wanda

:)

Chiquitita, hey, hey, hey, this is really cooooooool.:) Love the sepia, and watercolor effect. I'm glad you "took a break to play with this one":D

wanda

Angue asks:
>Phyllis, can we have a brief description on the gold foil trim?

Sure. Using a medium drab gold, make a rectangle then remove a smaller rectangle to leave a frame. Dupe this layer and set it so the empty parts aren't affected, then swipe over it with a "black-->nothing" gradient in the direction you want the shadow. Add another diagonal swipe from the lower opposite corner as well. Now adjust the opacity of this layer so it looks right, and combine layers. Go to brightness/contrast and raise the contrast till it looks golden.

Now dupe this layer and go to the sketch filter and select graphic pen. Set to maximum stroke length with balance low, maybe 3 or so. Then dupe the layer again and rotate it 180 deg and repeat the pen.

Combine the two pen layers. Then use "overlay" blending mode to add it to the gold frame below, lowering the opacity of the layer to make the lines more subtle. You can use other textures as well, of course, for fancy effects. Experiment and have fun!

Phyllis :)
www.innographx.com

What fun to come back from a week off the net to find so many wonderful efforts!!! I'm sure Grandma and Grandpa would be THRILLED with this collection.

The concept of adding text and/or adding the "Hallmark" dimension never occurred to me. My compliments on the creativity.

A+ gang. Ya done GR-EAT!

~DannyR~

"Then dupe the layer again and rotate it 180 deg and repeat the pen. "

Oops! That's not what I meant to say. Rotate it just 90 degrees. The idea is to make the pen sketch in the opposite direction.

Sorry bout that.

Phyllis

Thanks for the info.

Thanks Phyllis, I'll try that.

Here is my contribution, be that what it may. I used PhotoShop 7 and Painter Classic. I loved working on these BEAUTIFUL ladies. Thanks again, Danny, for this opportunity:)

Wanda

Positively stunning, Wnada. So glad you're starting to get more time for fun stuff.

Anniversary

Duplicate

Selected Layer > New > Adjustment > levels. Adjusted to 22,1.33, 212.

Selected Filter > Artistic > Dry Brush, Brush Size - 2, Brush Detail - 8 and Texture - 2.

Selected Elliptical Marquee and sized to image.

Opened a new file and moved image into the new file and cropped it to 5” X 7”.

Selected the oval with the Magic Wand, inverted the selection and filled with color.

Selected Filter > Noise > Add Noise - 96.

Deselected

Used the Type Tool and Free Transform to position type.

Flattened.

Don

Having trouble figuring out the new message board, so I hope this comes through.

I did this in PSP8. I did a one-step photo enhancement, then ran Paint Engine's Poster 7 at about half strength. Then I did PSP8's adjust>sohttp://www.fractographics.com/braidgirl.jpg ften>soft focus, and I liked it so much I stopped right there.

AmyHutton

Having trouble figuring out the new message board, so I hope this comes through.

I did this in PSP8. I did a one-step photo enhancement, then ran Paint Engine's Poster 7 at about half strength. Then I did PSP8's adjust>sohttp://www.fractographics.com/braidgirl.jpg ften>soft focus, and I liked it so much I stopped right there.

AmyHutton

This turned out lovely, Amy. Sometimes a little bit is just the right amount. I wish I knew when to quit sometimes! :)

RE: The new way to post images
Click the button labeled "Manage Attachments"
Then it's a 3-step process:
1. Browse to your pic
2. Click upload (and wait)
3. Click OK when pic uploaded

It's taken me a bit of time to get used to it... I keep leaving out step 2. :)

~Danny~

This is just a Gradient Map with texture brush..

This is just a Gradient Map with texture brush..

Vijay:

You have once again demonstrated the method does not have to be complex to get very favorable results.

Nicely done.

~Danny~

Danny, So many thanks for that very nice words.......

vijayan

Hope you all like; went crazy with Impressionist, so don't ask the steps. :)

Sorry I didn't make a card out of this.

I was messing with this one with smart blur when I noticed some banding, like you get with some gradients. I left them there and duped the layer then put the dupe through Redfield's Bas relief (oh no not again). I then changed the blend mode to overlay and the result you can see. I think it looks very like brush stokes, not perfect but a lot quicker than impressionist is at times. With a few tweaks it could be useful.
Maybe someone wants to experiment as well?

peter