I recently spent a lot of time scanning and repairing hundreds of 35mm slides taken by my dad in Europe in the 1950s. He had a wonderful eye and sense of composition. He spotted this cottage while driving along a road in Belgiun, stopped and just clicked it. Unfortunately it was an overcast day and very little light shining on the house. This picture definitely needs some colour corrections done to it before it can become art, but the cottage is so charming I just can't restist it!

So this is a double challenge in a way... I invite you to first brighted it up and then have some fun turning it into art. I would love to see what can be done with it!

I have never submitted to an art challenge (although I must admit I have been lurking occasionally:D)

I adjusted the levels and curves and then tried a watercolour technique. I did add some blue to the sky and greened up the front lawn beforehand.

well ok, seems the file did not attach. Let me try again....

Raven, welcome to photo art. What a wonderful first attempt! What watercolor technique did you use? It turned out great!

The picture is wonderful too. You say you have "hundreds" of pics? Hmm...wonder if you'd be willing to send me a few to use as mini-challenges? If so, email them to pstewart@innographx.com. :)

Phyllis

Hey Marie, that's a beautiful photo to work with! I started out with photoshop and did some layer masking to put blue into the sky so it wasn't so washed out and did a curves adjustment on the rest to bring up the contrast. then I went into painter classic and did a lot of painting using the oil cloner. then I went back to Photoshop to do a bit of final tweaking.

- David :)

just a quick reditiion of this beautiful cottage. All I did wa play with filters, not real work though. I adjusted the levels and curves then ran the xero illustrator plugin and added some canvas texture.

David, great oil brush look. Sanda, nice soft highlights. Chuck, the lighting change is great...nice rainbow too.

Here is my usual.

Phyllis

Raven.. great watercolor and picture to work with..

Dave and Sanda..both very nice..

Chuck..that is just awsome..You are becoming quite the artist..

This cottage looked like an etching to me..Hope it works..

Jerry :D

David, Sanda, Chuck, Phyllis, Jerry.. what can I say.. I love all of them! I'm astounded at the quality and variety of work on this forum. David, you are so adventurous with all these different technicques.. you're light years ahead of me. I used basically about what you had in your watercolour action you so generously shared... Im JUST starting.. gimmie a break. ok, I cheat :tongue:

Sanda, again.. love it. Reminds me of some of the illustration style of vintage chilren's books.. ala Rackham? (think that's his name) Anyway.. I love this look! Chuck.. mind blowing! so vibrant. The addition of a rainbow is perfect :D Phyllis, this is so exciting.. everytime I think I've seen the coolest thing, you come up with another one. Jerry.. fanastic.. it looks so authentic! I must learn that technique!

I confess I had stayed away from this forum only because I KNEW I would get hopelessly hooked and I just didn't have the time to commit.. but now that I've dived in.... (dove?) I'm afraid it's all over. I foresee some late late nights...

And here's a watercolor.

Phyllis

Phyllis..Just beautiful..I love that version

Raven..the engraving/stipple technique that Chuck and I used is an action that danny posted here at RetouchPRO..Here is the link..scroll down to Danny's post..http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2767&perpage=15&pagenumber=5

Jerry

:D

P.S. Check out some of the other actions that you might have missed..

Originally posted by ravenmd
David, Sanda, Chuck, Phyllis, Jerry.. what can I say.. I love all of them! I'm astounded at the quality and variety of work on this forum. David, you are so adventurous with all these different technicques.. you're light years ahead of me. I used basically about what you had in your watercolour action you so generously shared... Im JUST starting.. gimmie a break. ok, I cheat :tongue:

I confess I had stayed away from this forum only because I KNEW I would get hopelessly hooked and I just didn't have the time to commit.. but now that I've dived in.... (dove?) I'm afraid it's all over. I foresee some late late nights...

Thanks Marie! Well I'm not sure it's so much adventurous.. it's more just trying random things which keep working out quite well :D if you're experimenting with filters, actions etc., then you're at the same place I am! and hey. . there's nothing wrong with cheating, for photo art anyway! yes, this stuff is hopelessly addictive, and the late nights seem to be a side effect of the whole photo-art thing, there's been a couple occasions when I've been sitting there not noticing the time go by when suddenly I realize it's getting lighter and the birds are waking up and making noise :eek:

- David :)

Ravenmd.....What a storybook cottage.....Thank you for sharing it with all of us. Very nice watercolor....

David..... Yours has that foggy, early morning misty...... haunted, perhap, look. Like it.

Sanda.....Where have you been, great looking version.

Chuck.... can't decide which one was my favorite......Well, the Van Gogh version wins. Went back and had another look, maybe your third one. All were good.....you are getting really accomplished. Something to that practice, practice & praction.

Phyllis.... The colors were great, what was that overall pattern on your first one. Very nice water color..

Jerry..... Agree, the etching did set this pix off very well. Funny, how one actions work so well with one pix, but looks just awful with another...

I'm in my pattern & texture phase.... still can't find the brush that paints with pattern or texture..... It's not in the Edit , fill area??

here's what I came up with.....

Phyllis, your watercolor is outstanding! :D Did you use one of the techniques already shared on RetouchPRO, or did you come up with something new? I have a feeling that this technique was shared somewhere else, but I've been focused on other things lately and haven't been paying as much attention as I should. :blush:

Jeanie

Nice subject Marie!

A strange thing about this one, which didn't seem to bug anyone, is that the house seems to be leaning to the right. I fixed that and then played around with a couple of filters. I agree with Chuck in that the sky needs some mods, and he's already won with the rainbow ;)

Did a little texturing with a couple home-grown actions + recolored the roof walls (separate layers, blend=Color, and adjusted with hue/saturation adjustment layers).

The frame was generated with an action I'm beta testing for an associate. When it is fined tuned and he's ready, the action will be posted here at RetouchPRO.

- - - - - -
MARIE:

Glad to see you again. You've been missed.

Give in to the temptation. You NEED to be here! :) And you really don't need that much sleep, do you?

Great pic to inspire us.

- - - - - -
JERRY:

Especially like the etch effect. It came out especially well.

Photoshop:

Watercolor effect works great on this one.

CHUCK:

A rainbow! Inspired.
- - - - - -

- - - - - -

~Danny~

Jeanie, thanks. If you missed it, my watercolor (and oil) technique is here in the forums:

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4820

Originally posted by GOLDCOIN
I'm in my pattern & texture phase.... still can't find the brush that paints with pattern or texture..... It's not in the Edit , fill area??

First let me say that I love your heavy texture look! You could make use the edit>define brush to paint with a texture, or you can make a textured brush by going to window>brushes and editing an existing brush to add a texture/pattern to it. Then I would guess that you paint with the brush set to soft light or overlay, the modes you would use for a pattern overlay. Anyone know a better way?

Danny, great texture on yours too. This pic seems to ask for texture, doesn't it!

Al, I never noticed the house was leaning...maybe because it's old. :) Your treatment puts it into an English mist.

Phyllis

Thanks Phyllis. I knew I should have known you already posted that! ;)

Jeanie

Goldcoin...Very nice work..the texture works with this pic..

Big Al..Your soft rendition works with me.. the perspective problem that you spotted definately was missed by me..(and others I think)

Danny..Really impressive impasto look..Great texture really sets this pic off..LOVE THAT FRAME".. I know that many folks (on at least two forums) will be very happy to store that action on their computers..(myself included of course)..
Thanks for the effort..

Jerry :D

Still at it ;)

I was not happy with the perspective in my pic, so I added a vertical guide at the right wall and then deformed the picture until the wall was aligned with the guide. The tower now appears to lean to the left, but if one looks at the left of the tower coming thru the roof it leans to the right, so one gets the feeling that the tower has walls which slope inward as it gets higher.

In this pic I also added some clouds using Paint Shop Pro's picture tube (much the same as Painter's image hose). I then reduced the opacity of the cloud layer (to take your eye off them as the light is from the wrong direction :D).

Hi Al,

I do see a slight improvement in the orientation of the house in your 2nd picture. Funny, I had noticed that it was not straight before I ever posted it, but just ignored it.. now it's really bugging me too since you pointed it out :tongue:

I'm going to give a try at fixing it too.

Thought I'd get this one done before Palms finds it.

Peter

:eek: not found this one Peter ( although i have found a good one, just got to find some time to work on it )

Palms

Very nice , Palms, really like the rendition.

Pavel

Thak you Pavel it is a technique i like but need lots more practice at ! ! !

Palms

A dream cottage sketch.

Steve C.

A dream cottage sketch.

Steve C.

Looks like a dream of a sketch to Steve excellent

Palms

Looks like a dream of a sketch to Steve excellent

Palms

Thanks. My wife wants a house like that.

Steve C.