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 #31 – Yellow-pink Rose

This is another image courtesy of www.FreeImage.com. See NOTE below for details; if you have not visited this site before, by all means check it out.

I thought this was a compelling picture to inspire another round of creative energy. If you close you eyes and concentrate a few seconds, I’ll bet you'll start to 'smell' the incredible fragrance.

Enjoy the trip…

~DannyR~

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NOTE:
Use of this image is subject to conditions set forth at www.FreeFoto.com and is copyrighted © by Ian Britton, site owner / administrator. Ian has graciously authorized use of images from his site for our mini-challenges.


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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? Put away those pruning sheers!
. * 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.

Pastel rendition after Degas.

Most of Degas' pastel has green undertones so I put a green underpaint and then used "pastel brush" and "chalk brush" using art history brush and history tool brush.

Degas would be pleased with this rendition, Tony. Another nice one and great way to get this thread started.

~Danny~

Don’t ask! I don’t know how I did this:(
Yellow Pink Rose (http://www.trimoon.com/Yellow_Pink_Rose/yellow_pink_rose.html)

angue; That is so cool, the color and that underpainting is just right.

Steve:

How the heck did you do that? (Oh... never mind! - I didn't really ask that! :D )

Just incredible, regardless of how you did it.

When you get time, check the e-mail I sent earlier today. Need some 'tutorial' tech info from you.

Thx.

~Danny~

Steve,
What can I say that has not been said already. As a matter of fact, I look forward to every new mini-challenges hoping to see your contribution. And I am never disappointed.

I like this rendition because of the pencil and wet-on-wet watercolor technique. Just a hint please on how you did it.

Tony

I like to use polar coordinates distortion to make "polar vases", so this seemed like the right time to place a flower in one.


Tony and Steve -- beautiful artistic pieces. I play around with Pshop, you both create works of art. I like that!

Tony, that is gorgeous! How did you do that? (ducking) :)

CJ, WOW! Thanks for reminding me that polar filter exists...never found much use for it. You ought to put this tip in the forum called "photoshop filters: new uses...etc" or something like that.

Phyllis

CJ:
That is such a cool effect. Very creative use of Polar. (Nice to find useful application of some of the more obscure filters.) What did you use as a base image for the "vase"? (A vase, by chance? :) )

Phyllis:
Hope you ducked fast enough! BTW: Did you get my plea for "need pix again"; 3-horses was the only one in the group I could open.

~Danny~

Here's my try.

Sarted by using Image/Adjustments/Replace Color and selecting the black area of the background and lightening it to grey then using the hue and Fuzziness slider to created the background coloration. I then switched to PhotoArtMaster for the watercolor effect.

Jim

Had trouble with the attachment. Will try again.

Second try with the attachment.

Wow Gorgeous!

I'm impressed with all the entries. They are just awesome. :)

Everyone beautiful as usual:) Here's my small contribution. The first thing I did was to apply smart blur, dry brush, watercolor.
Duplicated, Image adjustment invert. Linear dodge, gaussian blur. Used eraser to erase and bring back some of the color. Several layer masks with different colors, taking off with wet media brushes. I hope this makes sense:)

Wanda

Wanda

That is really impressive . I really enjoy looking at all of the entries. Thanks for giving us a hint at what it takes to create this type of entry..

Jerry :D

Phyllis,
If you're getting the hang of oil painting as you posted in "Bambi", then you'll have no problem doing this.

The technique is the same except you choose a different brush style and don't use brush dynamics because it is pastel.

Tony

Wanda,
I like your rendition. Soft like a watercolor wash.

CJ - Nice combination of artistic flower and graphic background.

JBCaffrey - Can you enlighten me on PhotoArtMaster? Is it a separate program or a plug-in for Photoshop?

Here is my humble try.

JBCaffrey I'd like to know something about PhotoArtMaster too.

WANDA!! So very delicate and beautiful! The background is as lovely as the bloom.

Jim -- lovely rendition! I like the color contrast.

Gary (gland) -- that is an entrancing combination of hard/soft textures. Very neat effect!

Danny -- I just used a dupe of the original image -- inverted it first to get contrasting colors.

Here is my try.. I used a lot of Wanda's steps. Then experimented with blending modes and overlayed layers with noise added and flower removed with soft brush.

Jerry :D

Originally posted by angue


Can you enlighten me on PhotoArtMaster? Is it a separate program or a plug-in for Photoshop?

It is a stand alone program. It takes a couple of hours to get comfortable enough with the interface to begin to use it effectively. One drawback is that you can only save your work in jpeg. Unlike a plug-in like Paint Engine, you have considerable creative control over the final result. They have a very limited trial version available on their website http://www.fo2pix.com/.

I have had it about a week and enjoy using it. It costs about $70.00 U.S. when you include the shipping from the UK.

Jim

JB - Thanks for the info.
gland - The rose looks like it's above a frosted glass. Nice effect.

Thank you everyone:) This was such a beautiful image to begin with!! Using the colored version entry I checked out the channels.
Clicked on split channels. Discovered that there was an acceptable pencil sketch. Using the burn tool to darken some shadows and adjusting the contrast I think it looks somewhat like a pencel sketch?

Jerry, did you check out your channels, I bet you've got a nice pencil sketch:) Again, thanks everyone:)

Wanda

Then I went a little crazy:D Why not, right! Using the pencil sketch I duplicated, new layer, filled with a deep red, blend mode, color. Adjusted opacity until I had the color I liked. Mask, brushed off the leaves. Flattened. Duplicated again, new layer, filled with a teal color, opacity 80%. Mask, brushed off with wet media brushes. Ok, I'll stop boring you guys. Besides I'm having too much fun:D

Wanda

One more try

One More Rose (http://www.trimoon.com/Yellow_Pink_Rose/Rose/rose.html)

Just tried to make it look like a watercolor and added a little canvas texture.

Don

Wanda, I love your two new roses, especially the soft pencil sketch... umm...make that the dark red one... no, the pencil sketch...uhhh ...or the dark red one... or... I CAN'T PICK ONE, THEY ARE BOTH TOO GOOD! You'd better not make another one or I will have to be medicated.

Phyllis :)

I used the green channel only since the other two had lots of flaws. Colored it with the red/green gradient in oval shape, then overlaid the original over that in color mode and blended some of that color back into it. Then used 'find edges' with lowered opacity, then made just the rose into a new layer. Last step was plastic wrap on rose layer and again on background, with a bit of tweaking and increased contrast and saturation.

Phyllis

Wanda

Your last two entries are just great..I will peek into my channels tonight when I get home..thanks for the direction.

Trimoon and Phylis both really beautiful..

Jerry:D

Wanda & Phyllis -
Great ideas on using a clean channel. This is the kind of stuff that makes this site such a pleasure to follow. Thanks!

I've been messing with this on & off for a couple of days now. Not sure what all I did though. More like mindless art therapy for to relieve stress - I just "fiddled" with it and didn't keep track of what I was doing... :)

You all who are over here in the Art forum are so good at this stuff. All of the images you posted are really beautiful. I really like your watercolor, Trimoon. Couldn't for the life of me get one to look like that though. Oh well...

Anyway, here's what I came up with.

Wanda, I took your suggestion when I got home. I ran Danny's split channel action. There were several channels that could have been used as pencil sketches. There were also several that really had a charcoal look to them. I used cymk mode (yellow channel).

Used selective dodge and burn and applied small noise.

Attached is charcoal rose.

Jerry :D

Jerry, I love both of your roses. Nice texture!

Phyllis

Oooooo, Jak! What a lovely effect! Looks like an antique velvet rose. How did you do that? Pleeeeeeeeeez tell!

Phyllis

I haven't a clue, Phyllis...

I was just playing with it here and there in my spare time for a few days and lost track of everything I did.

I know I made a layer mask and isolated the rose. I applied a lot of filters to it and made it very textured.

I remember cutting out the original rose and pasting it over the very textured version and adjusting the blending mode, contrast, hue & saturation.

And, I applied Paint Engine's glow wind somewhere in there.

There were a lot more things in there too, but I just can't remember what they were...

Jerry both of your roses are beautiful:) The Charcoal Rose really does look like a charcoal drawing. They both would look gorgeous in a frame hanging on anyone's wall:D Great work!

Wanda

Wanda and Phyllis, thanks for the nice comments. I am learning photo-based art on the fly by studying the things that you folks produce. Thanks for the help..

Jak..your antique rose is really cool..Really like it..

Thanks
Jerry :D

Here's my submission after days of just tryign different things with this image. First I cut the rose from the original background, added a new layer and filled it with a light yellow, painted some random brush strokes with leaves brush, white color. Activated the rose layer and used a bevel layer style and drop shadow. I think I also dropped the overall opacity of the rose layer. Resurfaced with alien skin splat and vignetted the rose.



Ken

Art history brush (chalk) on solid peachy-orange layer, played around with blending modes a bit, then finished with rough pastel filter set to add just a bit of texture so the "paper" shows through.

Phyllis

KenB, beautiful! I picture your creation in a victorian frame:)

Phyllis, gorgeous as usual, do you ever do anything half way:)

It certainly seems the rose is a big hit. Everyone has done such an outstanding job on this one. Love viewing them all. Thanks! And thank you Danny.

Wanda

This has turned into one of those special, positively an incredible threads. You guys and gals are just awesome.

Gotta confess that I struggle sometimes while engaged in the process of (hopefully) coming up with "interesting" base images, never knowing if a particular mini-challenge is going to "get any responses."

Guess maybe a single rose once in awhile might not be a bad idea! :) I'll queue one up down the road.

Again, thanks to everyone who takes the time and effort to not only post an image (or two or three), but to comment as well. Doing so makes these little endeavors fun, interesting and educational. Participation in whatever form it takes is always greatly appreciated.

~Danny~

Just playing around with the pic and found that inverted 'find edges' blended over the rose in soft light mode resulted in these colors, which reminded me of old slipcovers, so I added some fabric texture to finish the look.

Note: I have edited this with correct filter and mode types.

Phyllis

Phyllis, beautiful:) Makes you want to reach out and touch it!! It reminds me of slipcovers too. Thank you for sharing how you did this. This is REALLY wonderful:) I'm waiting for another entry:D

Wanda

This is the result of trying out the techniques in Antonio Geuvara's excellent Water Color Tutorial (www.retouchpro.com/tutorials/watercolor/index.html). If you haven't tried it, it's very much worth the effort.

After arriving at a "painterly" effect I decided the image needed more punch so I added an Overlay Layer of Find Edges. To add the brush stokes, I created a new layer, added "Bad Brush" from the Paint Engine Plug-in, saved that image as a texture file (psd), deleted the layer to which I had just applied Paint Engine, and then applied the texture file over my image with the texturizer.

I hope that makes sense.

Jim

Jim, I love your textured watercolor. The effect you achieved is almost like a palette knife painting...reminds me of one my mom had years ago in fact.
-------

For this attempt I placed the rose over a solid white layer and tried painting on a mask in black, white, gray with textured brushes instead of using the art history brush. I haven't decided which method is easier or better or if there's any difference. Does anyone with more experience in Photoshop painting have opinions on the pros and cons of either?

Anyhow, this looks like a cross between colored pencil and crayon on rough paper. I hope. :)

Phyllis

JBCaffrey - Nice results. Looks like pallete knife painting with loads of heavy pigment.

Phyllis - Great effect as colored pencil rendition. I'm no expert but it works for me. I also like drop shadow.

Tony

Hey all,

This is attempt number two, seems I have a lot in common with Forest Gump. My goal with this picture was to give it a soft pastel effect, but not too soft. I started by duplicating the picture and masking out the flower to another layer. I then used the Art history brush in conjunction with some of the art filters in Photoshop 7. Between the flower mask and the background copy I inserted a blank layer and did a pastel gradient, from the bottom left to the top right. I used about a 40% opacity. To brighten up the background as well as the flower I used various Nik filters (sunshine, classical blur, skylight), and painted them in until I got the look I wanted. Some highlights were also painted in on the flower and shadows were enhanced as well. I added a small amount of noise (three maybe) to bring out some additonal detail. After I had the colors right I applied some sharpening with the Nik sharpener to certain areas of the flower (the setting recommended for printing injet), then I applied the same sharpening to the entire picture as a fill to enhance the contrast a bit. I forgot most of what I did, but I think the idea is somewhere in this message.

Looker, that is excellent. I love the subtle texture, especially along the edges of the petals--gives it a painted look without being too heavy handed.

Phyllis

Wow this challenge really took off. I love all this art stuff. I keep trying and trying and I know one day I'll make something like this too. I think in too many straight lines. great jobs all.
Debbie

This is supposed to be part of an old painting, perhaps a fresco on a wall? Anyway the old paint has crazed and cracked and is beginning to peel. After embossing and doing some other things, I used the distort-->displace filter with the crackle.psd texture (which I THINK came with it...dunno since I did add some of my own) to give it the cracked look.

Phyllis

I hope I posted to the right place this time.

1.copied and pasted rose
2. curves on copy
3. pencil 2 filter on copy
4. copied and pasted background
5. pencil 2 filter on background
6. on copies played with opacity
:o:

Phyllis ... that's an interesting effect, it looks like it belongs on a wall ... you might about something like that.


Don

Wow, PJB, that's a great effect you got with Steve's pencil2 filter! Glad you experimented with it...now we know it can do more than just pencil sketches.

Phyllis

Chuck, please upload a smaller picture instead of the big one so we can see it. It is so wide that it doesn't fit on the browser window and I can't see it all at once. I look forward to seeing it! :)

I tried earlier to upload a pic but it didn't open all the way, so I just deleted it and have another one I liked better anyhow. This was made half with distort-->displace filter variations and half with a mask. After adding displacement textures, I painted on a mask of the actual picture with black and white, using a brush that made blotchy strokes, with a white layer underneath, then blended that merged result over the displaced pic to get this "painting."

Phyllis

Thank you Phyllis for the comment . . . that's one in a row. :)

PHYLLIS:

Sure glad once wasn't enough for you on this mini-challenge. I've enjoyed your various takes, each unique in character. You set a great example of one whose creativity knows no bounds.

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PJB:

One can get some very interesting effects with the Lighting Effects filter -- and you've certainly achieved that here. Nicely done.

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CHUCK:

You obviously put a lot of time and work into this image and were rewarded by a very subtle and pleasing effect. My compliments on your diligence.

~Danny~

I am still finding new things in PS7, including the shapes menu. One group of shapes is picture frames, so I thought I'd frame the new painting I was working on. I applied bevel-emboss from layer styles to give the frame shape and texture. The picture itself was partly made with a Van Gogh texture I once made for a challenge here. I applied the texture through the distort-->displace filter.

Phyllis

Here's my rose!

Digidiva100

Digi-D:
I sure like this image. Your subtle changes inpired me to do another.

My encore version is based on an application of Smart Blur + Virtual Painter.

Chuck:

I have yet to cross the "mouse to tablet" bridge. Is this your first tablet? (In my case: no talent, no point.)

I understand after the initial learning curve most folks would never consider turning back.

Keep posting your experiments so we can see how you're progressing.

~Danny~

Very nice, Chuck. I love the neutral textured backgrounds you've been using lately.

Phyllis

Yep, I'm with Phyllis (again) on her assessment... A very effective subject / background combination.

~Danny~

My mom has a little oval rug with leaves and flowers carved into the nap, and this reminds me of that.

I started with the "other-->custom" filter and set it to make sharp, bright edges and inverted colors, then faded it to luminosity and ran it again, etc. till it turned into a more diffused pixel pattern. Then I put the original on a layer above it set to overlay mode, textured it with render-->lighting set to 100 to give it depth. A bit of blending and color adjustment in there somewhere too.

Phyllis

Chuck, you say it needed some brightness/contrast to look like a rug on your monitor? Do you use Windows? I have had this problem all along...pics look perfect on my Mac (ViewSonic monitor) but look a lot darker on most Windows machines.

In my Photoshop "Proof Set Up" menu I now select Windows RGB when making pics for the web, since most folks do use Windows and, judging both from the darker-looking proof setting and from what folks (like you and others here) have said, there is a real difference in how we see the same picture. Evidently the proof setting does not compensate sufficiently on some pics, especially those that are darker to begin with, like this one.

I think I have finally found a way to overcome this problem once and for all, however. I want all of you to go out tomorrow and buy Macs with ViewSonic monitors. You will love the convenience of not fighting with Gates garbage, and you will see a much brighter picture too!

Phyllis :)

This is an effect I have tried before.

omeyas -- another clever idea well executed!

Originally posted by ugot2bkdng

I am using a Sony Trinitron 21" and a Dell workstation. I have to admit, it is not calibrated. Everytime I try to use the Photoshop gamma calibration, it "turns off" all the color. I have to remove it from the start up folder to get the color back. I was using a Viewsonic for a while and the same thing happened so I know it isn't some wierd thing with the monitor. [/B]

You should take this problem to the forum here that deals with such problems. Must be very annoying! Hope someone can suggest a remedy.

Since Photoshop seems to be the problem here, have you tried adjusting the gamma on the monitor controls instead of through Photoshop? Or perhaps reloading Photoshop would do the trick, since it is supposed to be able to talk to your monitor without getting nasty, so it may be messed up.

Phyllis

Rustic Rose

Thanks, Chuck. I appreciate your comments.

Yellow-Orange Rose.

Hi Andrew,

both of those are really nice! what did you to to get the effect on the photo?

- David :)

I did not keep good track of my steps, and now I wish I did. But in looking at layers, this is what I think I did.

Initial steps
1. buZZ demo Soft Colour Wash preset. Copied this layer 14 times, all set to multiply.
2. Then back to original image and buZZ demo using Pure Colour Wash preset. Put 3 of these set to multiply on top.
3. Placed a flattened version this set to linear burn, over a new layer filled with sky blue. Placed flattened version of this on top of the stack.
4. Made a tight oval selection around the rose. Copy to new layer. Moved this slightly up and left. Set layer to Hue blending mode.
5. Made a copy of the layer from which I selected the oval, and put this above the oval layer, and set it to hue. Placed a flattened version of this on top of the stack.
6. Andromeda Techtures filter. Under Bold Color, the second one down from the top left corner. (If you don't have this filter, just leave this out. The look will be slightly different, but you also won't have to do the Painter step later).

Rustic Rose
0. Started with result of initial steps.
1. Filled new layer light brown (RGB 199, 178, 153). Set to Hue. Reduced Opacity. Flatten.
2. In Procreate Painter 7 Trial Version, I used the Just Add Water brush and smooth the color noise created by Andromeda Techtures.
3. Back in Photoshop, did touchup and added some shading using clone tool.
4. New layer above filled with neutral gray. Photoshop Texturizer, Canvas.
5. Reduced opacity of gray layer with texture until I could only barely see canvas texture.

Yellow-Orange Rose
0. Started with result of initial steps.
1. In Procreate Painter 7 Trial Verison, I used the Just Add Water brush and smooth the color noise created by Andromeda Techtures.
2. Copied to two new layers, both set to screen.
3. Took flattened version of this. Made a copy to new layer, set to multiply.

Andrew, sounds like you put a lot of work/steps into that picture. It paid off, too...looks great!

Phyllis

Thanks, Phyllis. It was one of those pictures where I wondered down one path, moved back, took a different path, moved back -- not sure which way to go. That's how I ended up with two pictures.

I was playing around with a tutorial (http://www.myjanee.com/tuts/spiral/spiral.htm) at myjanee.com (http://www.myjanee.com) and decided to try applying it to a photo. Seemed like this flower would be a good candidate.

So, I used the basic form, but applied it as a mask to the photo. Then continued with the steps to twirl and flip. I also added some bevel/emboss to each layer before flattening.

Jeanie

OOoooooo, Jeanie, I love it! I am a big fan of geometric art, as you can probably guess from my love of kaleidoscope images. :)

Isn't Janee's web page wonderful! She is so creative. I love the look of her web site...one of the best I've ever seen. It's so artistic, like everything else she does.

Phyllis

Thanks Phyllis. I love geometric art too. I recently started learning "unit origami", which is essentially building geometric forms out of folded papers, e.g. 30 pieces of paper are used to make a stellated icosahedron. Really neat stuff! Anyway, when I saw the tutorial for "spirals" on Janee's site, I just had to try it out! Of course then I had to figure out how I could apply it to a photo. ;) I think I'm going to try her snowflake tutorial next. ;)

Jeanie

Isn't Janee's web page wonderful! She is so creative. I love the look of her web site...one of the best I've ever seen. It's so artistic, like everything else she does.

Phyllis [/B][/QUOTE]

Yeh, she certainly seems popular. She's always hanging around in the newsgroups "alt.graphics.photoshop" and "comps.graphics.apps.photoshop". A very helpful lady!
Well worth a look for those that don't already read newsgroups.
Frank

Hi Jeanie. I think your picture looks great. I love the way the colors blend into the pattern.

Thanks Andrew! :)

Frank:

I'm with you on Janee's site. It was here site where I found (and took a first swipe at creating) some "photo-art." Guess you could say I got hooked. :)

Janee was an early mentor and posted one of my renditions on her site, my 1st pubic 'showing.'

She is a treasure.

www.myJanee.com for those who may have visited there yet.


\\\\\\\\\\\\

Jeanie:

Gorgeous results. It reminded me that I've been meaing to add the popular "Kalaidascope thread" to the "Best of Forum," the one where you crafted all the cool actions." I'll do that right now.

~DannyR~

Another flower one eh!
Well I can't remember all the steps, cos I decided to record an action for the frame.
Sorry

Peter

Too gorgeous!

Here's mine....chall-on-ge!


I blurred the background more --saturated slightly and used brushes with a slight glow style --then soft overlay...vola!
Paula
http://www.webspawner.com/users/photochanges/index.html

Heres two images as once again i couldn't make my mind up :blush: between the two roses

Palms

I like the first one better, though only because of the texture.
Tried this on again myself, fiddling with masks, brushes and a little texture.

Peter

I liked the textured one better as well interesting how the adaptive equalization worked over a smudge though

It looks like you have another new style going Peter, It is very nice :bigthmb:

Palms

Layers in Photoshop

1. New layer
2.Duplicate Background
3.Duplicate Bakground
4. Background

First, I turn off layers 1 and 2 so I can see what I am doing. Layer 3 Find edges, then desaturate, adjust brightness and contrast to get nice line drawing.

Then fill Layer 1 with white. Turn down opacity so I can see layer underneath and used a painterly brush, in this case, 27 pixel spatter brush and added in colour all over the place. Then returned to 100 % opacity and used watercolour filter.

Deleted layer 2.

Then Layer 1 darken and layer 2 overlay to bring in some colour from the original to "fill in the blanks" left by my painting.

Adjusted brightness/contrast to suit, and there it is =)

my painted rose, warm and contrast colors .. some textures, brushes and adjustment layers :D