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# 39 – Jazz Guitar

Jack Zucker, a frequent participant in the DPReview Retouching forum, graciously granted permission to use this provocative photo. Jack, of course, retains the copyright © and unauthorized distribution or use without his permission is prohibited. Check out his personal gallery at http://www.jackzucker.com/.

Let the music begin. Good luck and have fun.

~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? Some automated strummin'?
. * 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.

I wanted to give it an old country look as well as add some vibration lines, which I did with KPT fiber optix filter.

Phyllis

Phyllis:

Really like the effect of this filter. Which KPT collection does it live in?

~Danny~

Nice job, Phyllis.:)

I thought I would try this as an abstract. Is it abstract enough?

Jennifer

I'm beginning to see the value of KPT filters. Nice approach.

Originally posted by pstewart
I wanted to give it an old country look as well as add some vibration lines, which I did with KPT fiber optix filter.

Phyllis

Thought I'd just warm it up in the afternoon sun...

experimenting with filters again..

- David :)

Jennifer, you did a fantastic job on the abstract interpretation! It's "just right!" What program and what brushes and techniques did you use?

CJ, that's beautiful...rustic yet bright. Love the textures and the sun's glare on the metal! I see you also used some wavy lines...what program or filter did you use to get the lines?

Now I hate to have to report you two to Chief Raphael, but you both know we're supposed to explain at least a little about how we get our results, so FESS UP! :)

Phyllis

Originally posted by DannyRaphael
Phyllis:

Really like the effect of this filter. Which KPT collection does it live in?

~Danny~

It's in KPT5.

Go to www.andromeda.com and see the special package offer that I bought last week. As it says on the page:

"Andromeda Techtures, AutoFX's DreamSuite Series Two &_the entire KPT product line for_$199 (a $750 value)._You get 60 plug-ins in a once-in-a-lifetime bundle deal from Andromeda, Auto FX & Procreate."

This really is a great deal! I got KPT 3 and 5 on one CD, KPT6 on another, and KPT Effects on a third. Plus they include an overpriced Dreamsuite CD (which runs slowly and is a pain, though some of its effects are nice) and another disk of features from Andromeda which I haven't even installed yet! They are not kidding about the full price value of these, since I have shopped online for pieces of this package and the individual prices really do come to over $700!

I mainly wanted the KPT disks, since I have got so much use from my old KPT2.1 (which is no longer available).

This offer is only good for another couple of weeks, so if you want it, better order it now!

I have started a forum in Software to announce this offer to folks who might be interested.

Phyllis

With the accent on Jazz for this challenge, I expect that most people will be taking either a "modern" or an artistic approach to this challenge.

I thought that I would try something more traditional for my effort.

WOW!! how did you do that?! it's great.

- David :)

I thought that I would try something more traditional for my effort. -- Toad

:D Ummm, just what world did that tradition come from?

I think I like it. (I've got to sit down for a while to get over my initial dizzy spell) ;)

Phyllis, thanks. I used PShop Artistic->Rough Pastels for texture, and then used the Distort->Twirl at about 50 on the masked guitar surfaces.

Oops, sorry Phyllis. The abstract interpretation was done in PS6 with the art history brush (I like the art history brush:) ). I used three different types:
Texture size 60 Dab style
Charcoal size ~60 Loose long style
Stipple size ~30 Tight medium style

I just experimented around with each one until I came up with something that I liked!

The last thing I did was change the blending mode to Luminosity set at 100% opacity.

Jennifer

Thanks David.

It was dead simple really...:wink:

- Cutout (8, 0, 3) on the original
- "Old World Color" action by Randall Smith.
- Underpainting - faded back to about 38%
- Filter->Render->Lens flare to create white circle at back of photo
- Filter->Blur->Glass (Tiny lens texture) - fade to 17%
- Levels to contract dynamic range
- Curves to taste
- Filter->Distort->Polar (polar to rectangular) - Difference mode - faded against original to 42%
- Plastic Wrap - fade to 21%

I was quite happy with it, although I think most will not like it. Thanks for the "wow".

Toad- I think it's great! I love all the colors. It's something I could see hanging in my office.:)

Jennifer

Why thank you very much, JLC. Do you work in a fun house?:D

You could call it that!:clown:

Rob:

RE: "Dead simple"?
I'd say exceptionally creative, myself. Really appreciate the detailed how-to.

This is a stand out (in the good sense) image.

~Danny~

T Paul -- oooooooooooo, pretty!!:)

I decided to try out Trimoon's sketching technique adding a little linear burn and color.

~T

nice, T! I think that could look really good as a B&W too.

- David :)

This one was easy...lots of luck involved initially, just needed some tweaking. I used Flaming Pear's ornament filter to twist it, and KPT6's Equalize filter to adjust individual areas of focus and add depth. I'm really happy with the result.

Phyllis

Thanks David and CJ. I really like the sketch technique and plan on experimenting with it more.


~T

Phyllis,
I really like the filter you used on your first image. The results are really quite arty. It’s almost like you dry brushed black paint over the image. I like the feel to it…lots of movement. Great job!

Jennifer,
Nice job on the abstract guitar. It has a nice painterly feel to it.

C.J.
I really like the warmth you added to the guitar and the added flare. Nicely done!

David,
I like the new colors on the guitar and the paper texture. Filters are so much fun to experiment with. Sometimes you just get the most amazing results…results you would have never expected.

Toad,
WOW! This could be a poster advertising some music festival or artist. Outstanding work! I love the bright colors and the abstract nature of it.

~T

thanks T! very true about the filters.

- David :)

Love the posts that have already been posted. there is some really feeling here - the musical vibes have been flowing well.

Heres mine,

Just had fun with the levels and filters. Text overlay with the liquify tool - My kind of jazz - experimental

Clare

Phyllis, I love your first image - You can just feel the wood and the tune comes flowing out of your fingers

Clare,

Well done! It looks like your jazz experiment was a success! I love the bold, vibrant colors against the stark black background. This one could be a poster for a jazz festival or artist as well. Perhaps even a CD cover.

~T

Clare -- love it! I can feel and SEE the music! :)

I’m work on a good Water Color technique and this is a start.

One more try

Steve, I prefer your first watercolor...not as textured as the second...smoother and softer. Nice look.

Clare, using note font was brilliant! And the colors are brilliant too...wild effect...makes me wanna dance!

Speaking of wild effects, I have been playing some more with my new KPT stuff and came up with two new guitar pics. Here is the first.

Phyllis

And one for Lawrence Welk fans! :)

Did this with KPT Orb-It applied after recolorization and a motion blur.

Phyllis

Phyllis, I prefer your second one... WoW!

And a Pencil Sketch

Talent, Talent, Talent and more Talent..WHat a Thread!!!

Great job everybody..I've been too busy with goats and sailors to see what was happening here..

Jerry :D

Trimoon,
Got to love your sketches! I really like the first watercolor guitar. It has a very soft texture and those bold colors just pop out. Nicely done! After seeing the first one, the second one’s edges just kill the softness and freedom that I know are possible, because I saw it in your first guitar submission.

Phyllis…A.K.A. Ms Filters
I love the “guitarglow”…those sparkling lights are so cool! You also sold me on the KPT deal as I am now waiting for my order so I can play with filters too!

As for “country dance”, I love the bold colors on the guitar and the bubbles just create a great sense of movement. Great job as usual!

~T

Originally posted by T Paul

Phyllis…A.K.A. Ms Filters
I love the “guitarglow”…those sparkling lights are so cool! You also sold me on the KPT deal as I am now waiting for my order so I can play with filters too![/B]

Thanks, but I hope you aren't expecting too much from your package. Those sparkling lights are not a filter effect as such, but were made by applying layer blending modes to a fractal pattern generated by KPT. As you know, a lot of "new" effects can be created just by blending existing layers. Once in a while you get a nice surprise, as when that fractal turned into diamond shaped lights...Never could have planned that one! So, have fun playing with your new filter pack!

Phyllis

So sorry - so far behind on my feedback - so many photos to review....

What a great challenge:

Phyllis: how do you do so many different, and all interesting renditions? Vibrations and Guitar Glow are works of art. Vibrations says "country" to me in capital letters, and GuitarGlow is magical - simply brilliant. ...and Lawrence Welk? - on acid maybe.. Twisted also very...well, twisted.

Clare: this has to be one of my favorites - the color, black background, and the musical notes make me hear as well as see this one.

David: your use of color and textures grabbed me and wouldn't let go. Well done, and very cool.

T: this is a classic - love the buttery smooth feel of the guitar wood.

Trimoon: another repeat offender - 3 entries! I like the second color one best - the texture really adds to the impact of the first.
B&W also very sweet.

Jennifer - the abstract works very well. The distortion has that jazz club - late at night feeling all over it.

CJ: love the flare - that really sets off the sunny effect beautifully.


So much talent - how to do adequate feedback - not possible. Great work everyone.

Toad asks, "Phyllis: how do you do so many different, and all interesting renditions?"

Thanks for the compliments...glad you liked the variations. As for how I do it, the answer is more in WHY I do it. I just like to make something different. I like to learn techniques for this or that, but find that I don't really enjoy doing the same thing over and over, so when I am playing and not working, I prefer to live on the edge! Speaking of something different, get a load of what KPT can do to a guitar...

In KPT3 that came with my goodies package is a wonderful filter called TWIRL. It turns anything into tons of different kaleidoscope variations. I used it first on the daisy challenge (results posted there) then tried it on this guitar pic.

By adjusting the preview I was able to produce a version showing the song title repeated over and over. I then blended it together with its own inversion to create a glow in the center, then blended those layers with another kaleidoscope result to get the cool center design and an inner border made from the guitar's edge.

I just love KPT! Remember, you can get four different KPT's really cheap for two more weeks at www.andromeda.com. :)

Phyllis

Thanks for your kind thoughts on my image - I had loads of fun with this one :D

When I do these type of challenges I try not to look at everyone elses images until I have completed mine - that way the image still hopefully has a raw 'my vision' feel.

Now I have a bit of time I thought I would add some input to some of the other fantastic images that have been posted

Phyllis,
I love your first image - the subtleness of its wood effect and sepia colour - wow!
All the others are great - you filter demon :devil:

CJ,
Love the light effect on the fret board.

David,
I like the way you mixed your filters

Toad,
"Traditional guitar" I just love this and don't know where to start

TPaul,
Smooth :cool:

Timoon,
I like the softness of your first image - but I like the frame of your second - Pencil sketch was lovely - You changed the name on the sheet music nice touch - I personally would have choosen a more jazz feel font - Love the images though

The one thing that stricks me is that everyone has produced there own musical feel, each individual and each very beautiful - I know I will be visiting these images again - for the inspiration

Phyllis I love your kaleido-guitar. You create some fascinating images with filters!

~T

:wavey: Well, here's my try at the guitar. I offen find it very difficult to describe what I have done, as I do a little this and that, then try that, don't like it, go back and try some of this, put a little bit of something on and so on :o:

But, I'll try;

I converted it to greyscale, then did a bit of tweeking in the Selective colors tool, where I tweeked just the white and the grey, to make the image "cleaner". Then I went over the photo with the erasor, making it even cleaner by taking away the grey areas on the guitar.

Used the "variations" tool to give it the blueish tone. Gave it some "Diffuse glow" and ran a soft action(called Walrus Fantasy Focus), but only on the guitar.

Then I ran a strong USM (50,50,0) which makes for high contrasts.

Finally I ran another action called "Walrus cowhidetexture" on parts of the guitar, to give it the countryfeel.

So, this kind of bacame "Cowboys meets AHA in Take on Me" :D :rolleyes:

Trine:

Very, very nice work, here. And WELCOME! It's a pleasure to have you join us.

If I'm not mistaken, I've seen the Walrus .atn's collection at Adobe Studio Exchange. [Just checked - yep. They are there. Did you download them from that site?] A couple are quite good.

For the benefit of those not familar with this registration-required site:
* http://share.studio.adobe.com/Default.asp
* Click Advanced Find
* Item name: Walrus
* Product: select photoshop from the dropdown
* Click OK

All the Walrus .atns will be displayed.

Thanks for posting and sharing your creativity. Glad you found us and hope to see more of your creative efforts in the near future!

Cheers...
~DannyR~

Trine, I love your version...the lines and simple cool colors are very effective!

Phyllis

Thank you Danny and Phyllis.

Yes, Danny you are right about where I got the action(and most of my Photoshop artifacts ;)
Thank you for giving out the link and the procedure for others to find it, I should have thought about that too.

I'm really very happy about finding this place. I am a member of many photosites, but felt there was something missing. Most of them are more occupied with fighting over points :confused: , or patting eachothers backs :rolleyes: , and the learningprosess has almost died :dead: . Here I found a breath of fresh air, great challenges :bigthmb: with lots of talented people :bow: , and an oportunity to learn and grow.
:pleased: (And yes, I go balistic when I see so many smileys to choose from :blush: )

Trine
Very nice work.. I visted you website and really enjoyed looking at your work..You will be a greatly appreciated addition to RetouchPRO and I am looking forward to seeing more of your work..

Jerry :D

Welcome Trine :grin:

Love the guitar image - the lighting effects that you produced by knocking the guitar colour back really give the image a punch :knockedou

Just visted your web pages - fantastic - :bigthmb: You create some beautiful images

Clare

I've been playing with the custom filter and found it's good for making light things into dark things without creating a negative look. First I turned pale Wally into a dark horse, and now tried to make this shiny tan guitar look like an old well-worn brown one.

Phyllis

Phyllis

Neat effect - I just had to go back and look at the original to get the total picture. This filter certainly has some uses.

Floating Music

Been in a pop-art mood lately. Thanks for tolerating (been bomblasted on other forums for the use of Van Gogh's name for the preset; I'm glad they don't visit this forum often since they would find other's who name their preset Van Gogh also and bomblast them as well); don't want to offend anyone. Think this one is neutral enough. :)

lk,
very nice.
i must also say i appreciate you digging up these threads and letting us all take a fresh look and go at them again :)

my rendition. just a quickie plugin preset from paint engine with a noise reduction added on.

craig

and here's another from virtual photographer. the preset is 'shoebox'.

craig

Ikroll, great job, I like it a lot :bigthmb:
and let me echo craig's thoughts, thanks for digging these up!

craig I also want to thank you, I've had virtual photographer for ages and only used a few of the presets, never even noticed shoebox. great effects!

Ikroll
Thanks for tolerating you ? As i have said before everyday when i come on this forum i look to see what you have done, might not always like everything but always look (whatever you call them ) by the way i do like this one.
And Craig is that a bit of ikroll i can see creeping in ? nice

Used the Ahb Brush ( remember Craig ? ) again I think i will have to practice and experiment using this brush more .

palms

lk,
very nice.
i must also say i appreciate you digging up these threads and letting us all take a fresh look and go at them again :)

my rendition. just a quickie plugin preset from paint engine with a noise reduction added on.

craig


I like the strokes of this piece Craig. What paint engine preset did you use (I know it's not Artic). Please pass on it if you would. Thanks. :)


And to Palms, that's fantastic. I don't believe I'll ever compete with hand stroke on tablet, but I'll keep trying (you know me). :)

garazon,

you're welcome. it's a nice little plugin. i hadnt used it in a while either and was just thumbing through all the presets and found that one again and it just fit this picture perfectly.

palms,
lkroll doesnt rub off on folks. he's smudge proof ;)

Used the Ahb Brush ( remember Craig ? ) again I think i will have to practice and experiment using this brush more . yes, i remember craig, but what's that got to do with anything? ;) ahb....?.... aviation history buff? ant hill burning? arctic hail barrage? alcoholic heaving and burping? :devil: ;)

lk,
sorry mate, but i just called one up random and then didnt save it. i said it wrong in the earlier post. it wasnt a preset per se, unless you call the 'randomize' a preset. so, i really dont know the settings :( i went back and tried to duplicate it later, but only had moderate success.

craig

Here what I came up with for this challenge. I first made a selection of the guitar and promoted it to its own layer. Next I open a blank layer and filled with a brown color and set the blind mode to multiple made a dup of this and changed the blind mode to overlay. Now I went back to the top layer of the guitar and lowered the saturation and merged visible. Once I had this I ran a script I made for color sketch next I applied a watercolor effect and made the matte.

TwoLaidBack

tlb,

i like that. it reminds me of the old LIFE magazine pics.

craig

Crag,

Thanks I was trying for an old world kind of feel to it. Guess I must have come close.

TwoLaidBack

tlb,

yup. is good :)

craig

Color corrected, note paper filter applyed for the background.

Lots of interesting work in this thread.

I ran Dave's Simplifier, put the guitar on its own layer, darkened/warmed the background with a gradient layer in multiply, then merged and ran Impressionist>paint, then Virtual Photographer>saturate, smart blur/edges only to get the outlines, then Impressionist again on a merged copy to put more brushstrokes into it.

dc

I guess this comes under the heading of not knowing when to leave well enough alone.

In a nutshell, I took the result of an ink wash action by David Jaseck and basically tortured it until it cried for mercy.

dc

A lot of fantastic renditions !

Here is my colorful one done in Painter 9.

Chance

on air,

i like that, especially the strings. the overall has a sort of seen under a black light look to it. very nice.

i'm also somewhat surprised that i've never seen a 'black light' plugin/filter or effect anywhere. anyone know of one?

craig

on air,

i like that, especially the strings. the overall has a sort of seen under a black light look to it. very nice.

i'm also somewhat surprised that i've never seen a 'black light' plugin/filter or effect anywhere. anyone know of one?

craig

Thank you very much, Kraellin. I haven't seen any 'black light' plugin also. What I did - I put strings on a different layer and applyed blue outside glow effect, same as on text below.

on air,

well, it's a cool effect. it also sort of reminds me of the movie 'Tron'.

craig

OnAir,

I to like the effect you've gotten on the strings. Like Crag it reminds me of a black light or neon effect. :bigthmb:

playing with new plugins (new for me). these are some of the medhi plugins, which i think i'm going to like, plus one tubes.

craig

hi!!!
i'm newcomer here, i hope you like my variant. it was made in photoshop.

a couple more.

craig

I just found this forum today. I like these challenges a lot. There are a lot of nice images that come out of them.

Here is my addition?

http://www.jereme.com/clients/challenge39.jpg

Cool music there Jereme. Welcome to RetouchPRO. It is a very nice place to hang out, try your hand at a lot of different techniques, learn a lot about digital pictures, and most of all to meet competent and very nice people.

Janet

very nice, jereme. and welcome to RetouchPRO :)

craig

I wanted to experiment with selective cross hatching in the shadow areas of this picture. I did not use any masks to paint out the cross hatching in the highlight areas. It's all done with Blend mode and BLENDING OPTIONS (which are located in the "styles" dialog box along with drop shadow, stroke, inner/outer glow etc.) By holding down the ALT/OPTION key you can split the "output if gray" sliders to fine tune what shades of gray in the underlying layer(s) are affected. A very powerful tool, but often overlooked.

PhotoSho CS

1. Duplicate and run Sketch->PhotoCopy filter-blend mode linear burn
2. New layer, fill with white and add noise then the run the cross hatch filter and set this layer blend mode to multiply. Set the BLENDING OPTIONS to 25/193 (white side split)
3. Duplicated the Cross hatch layer for a stronger emphasis.
4. Added a color layer filled with blue and set blend mode to Color.

I liked what I got with this, but wanted to take some of the blue out of the sheet music, so I did a SELECTIVE COLOR adjustment above the b/w photocopy layer and selected the whites. I then pulled all the sliders (except black) to -100%. (minus 100) This took all the blue fringing out of the paper and left it, for the most part pure white except in the shadow areas and around the musical notes.

See the layer stacking order.

very nice, dee dee. the crosshatching adds its own texture, so to speak.

craig

Swampy great effect, i have tried your workflow out and i am enjoying trying it on different photo's

Palms

Palms

I haven't tried this with any of the other Sketch stroke filters yet (up to my eyeballs around here and little time to play). If you try something other than cross hatch, I'd love to see the outcome.

Thanks, Craig :-)

I do find that not all illustrations or photos lend themselves to this technique. It seems to work best on photos with a definite subject that has lights and shadows and a very simple background.

The guitar photo was perfect.

I jazzed up this little guitar picture :lmao: (sorry) using filters.

I adjusted, using curves, to blow the brights and shadows out a bit.

Ran that layer through Harry's, Filters>warp>kamikazi

duped that layer and ran through chalkaholic

ran chalkaholic layer through harry's filters>artistic>atmospherizer. set to multiply at 90%

created a hue/saturation layer and decreased the saturation by 40%

easy but fun stuff.

Shades of Gene Autery, (Autry.)

Gene who???

Steve

careful there, steve; you're dating yourself....gene autry, tex ritter, roy rodgers and dale evans...black and white tv changed my life :)

craig

My dad used to tell me that William S. Hart was the best of the coyboy movie stars. At least I can truthfully say I never saw him in a movie. 8-)

Steve


careful there, steve; you're dating yourself....gene autry, tex ritter, roy rodgers and dale evans...black and white tv changed my life :)

craig