FIRST MINI-CHALLENGE?
See below for "Information and Guidelines."

Here’s another “mini-challenge” to play with in the Photo-based Art category until the next offical challenge is posted here (http://www.retouchpro.com/challenge/index.html).

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PHOTO ART: Mini-Challenge #25 - Tiger the Cat

This gorgeous kitty pics was donated by RetouchPro regular, Gary Landguth (gland). I can hear the purring right through the screen!

Maybe somebody ought to introduce Tiger to Sophie (from mini-challenge # 17)!

Meow and enjoy.

~DannyR~

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INFORMATION AND GUIDELINES

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 and, most importantly, have FUN.
* Everyone who participates is a winner.
* There’s no expiration date.

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) or replace the background
. * Hand painting? Tracing? Freehand? You bet. Always appreciate entries of this nature.
. * Apply filters from your favorite application(s) or tweak it with 3rd party plug-ins
. * Feeling animated? Eyes opening and closing? Tail twitching?
. * Any or all of the above

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.

Here's Tiger, rolling on cloud 14 ( 5 levels beyond cloud 9) as only a contented cat can. My own 2 cats will be 18 years old next month so this is for them :-)
I used Dry Brush on Tiger, toned down the floral print b.g. then did a radial blur of the b.g. I selected parts of it then added a fill pattern that I made. Highlighted it on the lower section. Used Lighting Effects which added a nice curve.
Thanks for the lovely picture to work with.

Mama Alligator, Tiger is obviously enjoying his visit to cloud 14 -- very cool effects! It makes Tiger look like Oliver the cat in the Marshmallow (bunny) book I first read as a child and still love because the illustrations are so wonderful.

I'll have to experiment with Dry Brush more -- one of my cats turns 18 in January, and I bet that she'd like a trip to cloud 14. :)

Another clouded kitty.

Careful masking; kept shadows as I was planning white background anyway.

Two duplicate layers; applied pastel effects to one, rotated image 90% and applied other pastel effects to the other.

Played around with opacity of the various layers and did some retouching with paintbrushes.

Then spent a couple of hours producing really complicated layers and effects that I ended up deleting because I liked it better at this stage... maybe I'm just a "less is more" kind of gal... :)

This also had the important psychological effect of making me feel like I'd put lots of blood, sweat and tears into the finished image, even though now I write it down it looks kind of wussy.

In fact... yeah! I was just kidding about the blended pastel layers thing! REALLY I ran a really complicated series of about 500 layers and some fancy actions. It just LOOKS simple... Am I convincing anyone here? :devious:

Anyway, I'm learning from you guys all the time just by being inspired to play around...

LEAH:

You're so right. Sometimes less = more and I believe in this case following your instincts was the right thing to do. Glad to hear that you're finding that "playing" can be educational as well as fun. That's a grand perspective!

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VE:

Talk about 'Cat on Cloud 9'! Very impressive integration of those cottony clouds with our sleepy feline.

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MA:

Seems this would have been an ideal opportunity to apply the "mittens"! :D

Textures are wonderful; very painterly. Subtle, but effective use of lighting adds depth and interest.

VE, you made that little kitty kat look HUGE! What a bizarre effect with the cat lying on such a large patch of clouds. Almost scary, but very effective!

Phyllis

These are all great. My entire family has this thread bookmarked. :)

Phyllis that cat IS huge. He weighs 18 pounds. No small kitty here.

I once tried something called "crewel" embroidery, which is done with wool yarn. This sort of looked like that project, which I never finished due to the agonizing monotony of it. Digital crewel is much less cruel than the regular kind! :)

To get the needlework look, I used anisotropic diffuse after adding lighting texture. I have been experimenting with the layer styles options and decided to add a "calico" mat in a wooden frame. The fabric mat design was the result of colored pencil + dry brush + anisotropic diffuse + color adjustments to make it coordinate with the flowers on the original picture.

Phyllis
www.innographx.com

9 1//2

I did so much just playing around … but I think you get the gist of were I was going when I title it 9 ½.

Don

Don, that is a masterpiece! Absolutely precious!

Phyllis (huge Eeyore fan!) :)

Thanks Phyllis ... it was a lot of fun.

Don

Phyllis - it really does look like embroidery.
I remember doing a tabby cat embroidery piece years ago that reminds me very much of yours.
Nice.

I have four of these lovely creatures so I couldn't resist playing with this baby. I'm not exactly pleased with the results as it still has that 'it needs something else look'.
I used a soft pastel sketch action first to get a drawing and then brush, dodge, clone in different modes and opacities.

Blu

http://whynotme.free.fr/LidoBlu/cat.jpg

I used Pixia software, then used Filter's Unlimited for the frame.
I tried to get a tapestry look.

trying again

My picture looks awful here and yet it looked good in Pixia. :(

Done in Paint Shop Pro, Xero filters

Paint Shop Pro, same image as last one but added emboss from Filters Unlimted.

Diane:

Welcome back. "Tiger" would be proud to have been artified by you! :)

Look forward to seeing more of your creations.

~Danny~

I hope to participate more , if life doesn't get in the way.
;)

saturation
edge effect-enhance more
neat image
lights
blinds
lens distortion

This looks just like my cat....in her favorite pose.

My favorite here is the one above, by VisualEyes.... putting the cat on a bed of clouds was such a great touch. I am learning so much from the ideas and explanations here. My try is just to make a painting, with a whitened background. So here goes......

* * * * * * *
(All is done in Photoshop CS.)

Open the cat image.

Use your favorite methods to touch-up the image before you start. (I used the Patch tool here to remove the distracting gold tag at the cat’s neck.)

Create a new blank layer and set it to Color blend mode. Using a soft brush, paint with black to desaturate the entire background around the cat, using white to correct any errors.

Control click on this layer in the layers palette to select. In the channels palette create an alpha channel from this selection, then choose the RGB channel and return to the layers palette. (Do not deselect yet.)

Next, flatten the image.

Image>Adjust>Levels….. drag the middle slider all the way to the left, click OK. Layer>New>Layer via Copy, and name this layer “White”.

Make background into a layer and then duplicate this layer. Name the bottom layer “Color” and name the duplicate layer “Ink”.

Make a new blank layer, drag it beneath the Color layer, and name it “Pink”. Fill with #CC9999.

In the INK layer, apply Flaming Pear’s India Ink filter (available for $15 at http://www.flamingpear.com/indiaink.html )
Style: arabesque
Scale: 2x
Line: normal
Gamma: invert light
Sharpen: 75
Diameter 28
Screen mode

In the Ink layer…. Multiply layer mode, 80% opacity.

In the Color layer…. Filter>Blur>Smart Blur…. Radius: 91.5, Threshold: 83.4, Quality: Low, Mode: Normal.

In the Color Layer… Linear Light layer mode, 60 % opacity.

Make a new blank layer just above Pink layer, name it “Details” and paint in white details on cat’s face, ears and claws.

Flatten image.

Add a little art paper texture.

* * * * * * *

Sharon

Bg from Twisted trunk and pasted it into that. Used USM and levels.

Bg from Twisted trunk and pasted it into that. Used USM and levels.

A very "twisted" idea. :) I admire your imagination and ability to visualize the final result. It helps that you have very good compositing skills, too!

Danny, very hearty thanks........

I was playing with the Painter8 FurryCloner brush. It made really nice fur for cat. But I thought it would be funny to make the background furry and Tiger not. So, a quick effort here with the cat cloned using Cloners>FineGouacheCloner15. Then I used magic wand to select the (still all white) background. On a new layer with the selection active, I painted everything else with The Cloner>FurryCloner brush. Sorry to the viewers if you were lookin' for something refined.

-Mark

A stroke of brilliance! :)

SW, That improvement you made in the forground is a greate Job. previously it was so flat. very good....

vijayan

nice picture.

Craig

How about "Revenge of the Cats"

Tigger doesn't look like much but she has some pretty influential friends and some connections at the State Department!

Increased eye size by 12%. EScrapper's sketch routine colorized mainly. Help from Flaming Pear's Mr. Contrast as well. Selective saturation in area's that needed it too. :)

Desaturated layer copy, Photoshop diffuse glow filter, history brush to bring back some color, angles brush strokes and a paper texture.

Cathy :nod:

cathy,

that's adorable. such soft textures.

Craig

One contented puddy. My cat is black and white and is a "Hemingway" cat with six toes. Incredibly intelligent and loving. She runs the household.

Nice work MargaretM.

Cathy :bigthmb:

i agree, cathy; nice textures, contrast and picture.

Craig

Thanks cazubi and Kraellin. I appreciate the feedback.

Messed round with several things here, including diffuse glow. Then I noticed it looked very like Cazubi's go at this. So I took it further by running it through impressionist and then fading back slightly.

Peter

Nice style again Peter, you have been very busy lately, hard to keep up with you :bigthmb: :lol: :lol: :lol: but i have tried ! ! ! ! !

Palms

Nice style again Peter, you have been very busy lately, hard to keep up with you :bigthmb: :lol: :lol: :lol: but i have tried ! ! ! ! !

Palms


I hope your not getting out of breath following me???

I think I have been very active because it helps me not to think about going into hospital to get one of my eyes fixed at the end of next month. Believe me I am petrified about it.

But (puts on brave face) life goes on.

Peter

Nice pic by the way.

I hope your not getting out of breath following me???

I think I have been very active because it helps me not to think about going into hospital to get one of my eyes fixed at the end of next month. Believe me I am petrified about it.

But (puts on brave face) life goes on.

Peter

Nice pic by the way.

Not quite breathless but almost ! !! !

I believe you because i would be petrified as well but when it is all over and done with will you be posting twice as much ?

Palms

I believe you because i would be petrified as well but when it is all over and done with will you be posting twice as much ?

Palms

Well they tell me they will correct my vision in that eye as well as remove all the clouds (see they're not all in my brain), I've also been told colours will be more vivid, so I won't be checking out my older posts just in case.

Posting twice as much! My day job would get in the way of that.

Peter

Posting twice as much! My day job would get in the way of that.

Peter

Poor excuse

By the way hope everything goes ok keep us posted although i expect we will guess when, no posts ! ! ! ! !

Palms

Poor excuse

By the way hope everything goes ok keep us posted although i expect we will guess when, no posts ! ! ! ! !

Palms


27th Feb - D Day

Peter