Wanted to take a try on an Amerindian children's face (they got lovely faces). Curious to see what you, so imaginative and talented people, can do with this pic.

Not good enough to draw a face yet so started from a photo I took of Kelly-Anne (one of my students) and worked in Painter 7.

Used the Clone to get the contours. For the background, used Smeary Flat with white, low opacity and various Feature settings. For the hairs, took the Round Camel Hair with Variability V set to 6-12 % and different colors going from olive to dark browns and black. For the face, created a new Color set from some of the colors of the original and worked with Round Camel hair, Smeary Flat and Opaque Flat, again with variability set to 6-12 %. For the eyes, I just cloned them with the Camel Oil Cloner. For the sweater, used different original colors mixed with 'picked-up' colors (from the colors wheel) with Smeary Flat, Variable Round and Variable Flat and, still, Variability V in the 6-12 %. Saved in TIFF. In PS7, boosted the Saturation a bit and added Canvas texture.

From what is 'hand made' : the hairs are not bad I think ; I've missed the eyebrows, the contours of the eyes, and the nose. I kinda like the mouth. And the overall look, I think, is not so bad. What do you think ?

Thought I'd try a painted portrait of this youngster..This was done in ps7 using Phyllis's newest painting technique..

Mik..Your Painter potrait is really nice..I am still struggling with that program..I saw the painting that you did from scratch on dpreview..Really excellent..

Jerry :D

Here's my attempt at this beautiful girl .

Thanks, Jerry. If you're struggling with Painter, you're definitely not struggling with PS7. You made a nicer portrait a so short time. I worked about 8 hours to do mine ! I'll have to learn Phyllis's newest painting technique.

Sanda,
and she's still beautiful on your image. Nice work.

Wanted to create an old style look... Used one layer of palette knife, and another of glowing edges.

Well, spending more time actually doing now than reading about how to do.

Anyhow, I used David Rowley's Hollywood Bowl action, played around with Saturation, Hue a bit. Worked with one layer (Find Edges I believe) setting the Blend Mode to Darken.

Added a tiny highlight back into her eyes (not sure I like em...but, let me know).

Added the vignette, and Viola!

Pretty quick and easy...but it allows for me to see how others wrote actions and then what changes I can make with those.

Some curves and blend modes and sharpen and history brush work.
:wavey:

Such a great photo! Thanks for letting us use it.

Mikl--I really like the strong graphic feel to this one. great texture and flow.

Jerry--This is lovely! I was practicing Phyllis' technique this afternoon and found it very difficult to acheive smooth results. Everyone I did came out looking like they had lizard skin. You did a great job on this!

Sandra--Wonderful job! She's lovely!

CJ--I think you did a terrific job of capturing the American Indian spirit here. This almost feels like it's one step away from being a sand painting.

JR--I like what you did to her eyes. Good call!

BK--I always enjoy the direction you take your images. I'm afraid I'm not quite that brave! You consistently turn out wonderful images.

I did my usual portraity thing. I'm still trying to find the best background color for my blend modes, though. I just can't get the depth of color and lighting that I'm after. Can't quiiiiittte reach it. Maybe I need to start using Painter....

Very creative and beautiful entries so far.

I'm still working on my portrait technique...


Pam

Thanks for the great image to work on! Got any more student portraits? Could always use more great faces for the minis: pstewart@innographx.com --hint hint. :)

Mikl, wow...you are really painting in Painter! You ought to see what you can do with a brush and canvas and oils instead of pen, slate and pixels!

Jerry, great job. Love the hair...what brush did you use?

Sanda, the soft simple coloration and the coal black hair is very effective.

CJ, looks like you bought this in a southwest souvenir shop...the colored outlining is daring but works with the subject.

Eye highlights look good to me. I especially like the effect the fine outlining had on her eyebrows, mouth and shirt.

BK, you’ve made her shimmer and shine...like her hair is made of tiny glass beads!

Amanda, what a look! Like she’s painted on soft velvety satin...wow!

Chuck, wonderful! I especially like the first since it looks like a genuine old photo. And there is certainly nothing “incorrect” politically or otherwise in showing ethnic ancestry. I would think any Native American would be proud of their heritage.

Pam, that’s terrific...looks like a magazine illustration. I’d love to know how you did that. Please tell...please? :)

Originally posted by themanda
I was practicing Phyllis' technique this afternoon and found it very difficult to acheive smooth results. Everyone I did came out looking like they had lizard skin. You did a great job on this!

If you got "lizard skin" perhaps your brush was too small or strokes too short? I don't know what size Jerry used, but I used a rather large brush and fairly long strokes. I also "scrubbed" the brush back and forth in many places to get smoother blending. Also, check the blend mode settings for the brush and see if a different setting will help with certain areas.

Phyllis

Very nice work everybody, lots of originality, as usual.

Chuck, you're not incorrect at all. That's a nice work. I like the color one cause she looks great (we wouldn't know she's only 7) but, as Phyllis, I prefer the first one for the old photo look.

Phyllis, ya, sure I've got lots of photos of 'my' kids. Will send you some as soon as I've got time, and their permission.

Again, a marvelous group of intrepretations everyone. Well done.

On this one, I took a pretty basic route for openers. These are the general steps. I did some tweaking not detailed here, but this is pretty close.:
* Duplicated BG, desaturated
* Duplicated the desaturated layer, changed blend mode to color dodge, inverted the image and applied Gaussian blur, set opacity to about 90%
* Added a Levels adjustment layer to tweak contrast
* Added a Brightness / Contrast adjustment layer to control color tone (next step)
* Added a new layer onto which color was restored using the History brush; tweaked color tone with BC adjustment layer above.
* Flattened and duplicated resulting BG; applied Colored Pencil filter and blended at about 50% Normal.

Good start, but not quite "rugged enough." So...
* Flattened and duplicated resulting BG and applied David Rowley Cardiff Bay technique to this layer. Blended with layer below with a layer mask.
* Flattened again and duplicated the resulting layer. Ran Emboss filter against it and set blend mode to Overlay. Then tried numerous texture generating filters, e.g., Ocean Ripple, Dry Brush, Palette Knife, Sprayed Strokes, etc., to "rough this one up" a bit, giving it some texture character.
* Flattened and applied the frame.

Cheers...
~DannyR~

Originally posted by jerry
Thought I'd try a painted portrait of this youngster..This was done in ps7 using Phyllis's newest painting technique..

THAT is the face I had in my mind. I liked what I did except I couldn't get THAt face. Where is Phyllis's newest painting technique?

Originally posted by Blacknight
Where is Phyllis's newest painting technique?

In mini challenge #85 - Prison Guard:

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5146&perpage=20&pagenumber=2

The post is the one that accompanies the picture named painting.jpg.

Phyllis :)

Boy you folks have really made some nice entries of this pretty young lady since I checked in yesterday..Top notch everyone..

Phyllis
The brush that I used with your technique is simply called "dry brush 39". I used it at approx 50% opacity and varied the size depending on the detail..Like you, I used a fairly large brush for most of it approx. 40 to 50 pixels.. I varied opacities from 50 to 6 percent depending on how I was blending..The intuos makes blending pretty easy with pressure control..I would simply rub harder to blend harder..The technique works really well..I found the canvas texture to really compliment this technique..

Have fun
Jerry :D

Thanks everyone for the nice comments..

I've been working on that style of "smudge painting" this afternoon. Far less lizard skin!! While I'm still not thrilled with the results, I'm much happier. Just need to practice some more. I must say, though, that the way it renders fabric and hair is PERFECTION. I'm amazed that something as simple as the smudge tool gives such terrific...and consistent...results.

Thanks for sharing this one Phyllis!!!

Very attractive little one. :)

I'm still playing with "PaintEngine" . I used this in conjunction with PS7 filters (a bunch of them), and some Nik contrast filters to bring out the color.

Really nice work everyone!

LQQKER, I love what you did to her eyes!! Great job!

That's what I'm calling this technique for lack of a more glamourous term. I guess we could call it the Phyllis Special...but everything she does is so darn special that we'd be at a loss for what to call her next creation. Hmm...

Anyway, I've been playing with this and am finally at a place where I'm happy enough with my results to post them. I did some PE'ing on the background and added a lighting effect, but everything else is done with the good ole smudge tool.

LQQKER,

different, original and very nice. The eyes, the lips, the hairs... Ya, I like it a lot.

Amanda, a nice work with the smudge tool. Bravo.

Here's one that mixes oil painting technique with abstract sketch. Started with a much simplified abstract then painted it with smudge brush etc. Supposed to look like a quick oil paint sketch rather than a serious portrait.

Phyllis

Originally posted by jerry
The intuos makes blending pretty easy with pressure control..I would simply rub harder to blend harder..The technique works really well

Of course! That's what I'm missing here. My slate is offline temporarily waiting for hubby to install a new driver so I've been using a mouse all week. Painting with a mouse is not the easiest thing in the world, but it does help coordination. :)

Originally posted by Amanda

I must say, though, that the way it renders fabric and hair is PERFECTION. I'm amazed that something as simple as the smudge tool gives such terrific...and consistent...results.

Thanks for sharing this one Phyllis!!!

Glad you like it, but I'm really surprised that it sounds "new" to anyone. I used the smudge tool on the cover girl (http://www.retouchpro.com/challenge/retouching/challenge8/challengeRET8_stewart.jpg) in challenge #8 but didn't sharpen it. Now I wish I had. To me the "new discovery" here is adding unsharp mask to the process...it amazed me that something as simple as sharpening a smudged image could give it the look of a painting by bringing out the stroke detail as well as adding some shading and highlights.

Btw, Amanda, I like the intensity of your painting...daringly dark, and the bright highlights scattered through the hair really accent it. Lovely!

Phyllis

LOOK OUT !!!!! When Phyllis gets her tablet back, We are really going to see the paint fly..:D :D

Looker..Very nice effect.

Amanda..Now your getting the hang of this technique..Very nice..

Jerry

By the way Phyllis..that last simple painting is AWSOME.. Any more hints on how you simplified it first..PLEEEEZE (I'm always polite when I whine) :lol:

Lqqker -
That's beautiful! I love the colors and the way you handled her eyes.

Themanda -
Very nice job on the "Phyllis" technique. I'll have to try that...good work!

Phyllis -
Your quick oil sketch is wonderful. BTW, I'm trying to document the steps I took on my Kelly-Anne attempt for you but life is getting in the way at the moment :) I'll have it done ASAP.


Pam

Originally posted by jerry
By the way Phyllis..that last simple painting is AWSOME.. Any more hints on how you simplified it first...

Glad you liked it...thanks.

Before smudging it I blended a simplified version over the original and combined the two. You might also try "use all layers" setting.

To do the simplifed layer, I used my abstract method but simplified it even more by painting white over the little spots it left on the face. I may have also blended in a layer of the basic outline technique also with the facial speckles painted white...don't recall. There may be some hints in the next two I'm posting here, since they were made from these two simplified versions, abstract and outline to start with. Neither is smudge-painted so you can compare the lines.

On this first one, I blended a cutout version of the original over the abstract version.

Phyllis

Looker, just saw your pic...wow! Very intense...love how the eyes glow and the lips stand out, along with the bold highlights in the hair. And the red background works perfectly with that interesting mottled texture all over...great look!

This one was made from a basic outline with faded anisotropic diffuse to soften it slightly. It was also overlaid with an abstract layer at low opacity, as I can see from the wiggly dark spots on the shirt. Purpose was mainly to smooth out the dotted lines in the hair more left by the outline method. Blurring set to darken blend mode with faded opacity added some softness.

Phyllis

Did this in Painter 7 then used Trimoon's pencil lighting effect to add some embossing and texture.

Jim

I was messing with Smart Blur / Edge Only filter. Normally running this filter yields white lines on black (or, when inverted, black lines on white). I wanted to see if I could extract the original colors from the image vs. just black.

After running the filter (NO CTRL + I to invert it as usual), I clicked the Channels tab, clicked one of the color layers (makes no difference which... they're all the same for this purpose), CTRL + Clicked the channel name, which "loads the selection" (marching ants). Optional: If desired, Select > Save Selection... could be done at this time if the selection might be used at another time.

Clicked the layers tab, clicked "off" the Smart Blur / Edge Only layer, revealing the original Background. CTRL + J to create a new layer based on the selection. Result: Colored edges.

Turned the BG layer off; inserted a new layer above it (and below the edges layer) and filled with white.

Colored lines layer: Duplicated and set blend mode to Multiply (to give color more "oomph"). Duplicated the layer again and, with Move tool selected, hit right arrow twice, down arrow twice to offset it a bit, adding a little more line character.

Tured off the all-white layer, merged all visible layers, added a layer mask to the consolidated edges layer and with forground set to black, airbrushed the layer mask to hide some unwanted spots and lines.

Duplicated original color Background and dragged to top of layer stack. Applied a layer mask and inverted it (CTRL + I). With foreground color set to white and a very wide brush, used airbrush setting (very low flow / opacity) to selectively restore eye color and a little to the face and neck areas.

Applied a border using the Edit > Stroke command.

The point here is not so much the resulting image, which falls into the so-so category in my book, it's the ability to get "colored edges" via Smart Blur / Edge Only.

Keep havin' fun!

~DannyR~

Danny, this is an excellent idea! I've been working on manipulating the lines for the past week myself...

I like your idea of moving the lines layer slightly out of register.

I've been experimenting with making the lines more sketch-like. Now they just look like technical pen work. To that end, I've been trying to work with Paint Engine. But that's taking forever...there are just SO many variables with that thing, and none of them seem very logical to me.

So until I can get a handle on Paint Engine, I've been messing them up a bit with Distort>Ripple. Just a tiny amount, 30-50 seems within reason. Then use a heavy, bumpy type texture or pattern to break up the lines and have them look more sketched.

Try it and let me know what you think...


Pam

Here's a quick example of the lines (with a photo by Babe in the DPReview Retouch forum)...

Pam

Ah, yes. Very nice, Pam.

In addition to Ripple, I've had varying degrees of success with giving a little character to "edge only" layers with Ocean Ripple, Spatter, Sprayed Strokes and Phyllis's favorite, Stylize > Diffuse > Anisotropic (usually backed off a little with a FADE command right after).

Another way to break up the lines is to load the selection (via the channels palette using any of the color channels) of the edges only layer, go back to the layers palette and apply a whole bunch of "noise" to the edges only layer via Noise > Add Noise, or grain or film grain filters.

While I'm rambling, once you breakup the lines via Ripple, Spatter, whatever, apply Emboss and change the blend to Overlay or Hard light against the original BG; this gives kind of a textured effect to image edges that can look pretty neat.

Ain't all this flexiblity and experimenting fun!
~Danny~

Danny, it sure looks fun to you but... how many months do you think it will take me to understand you ??? :confused:

Danny and Pam

Very interesting technique..Danny your results have a very muted tinted sketch look to them..(Tinted sketches are my favorite photoart)..

Thanks for sharing the technique..Will have to give it a try this weekend when things settle down..

Jerry :D

Mikl:

A very good point and noted for the record -- and I really (as in sincerely) appreciate your post indicating I drifted way too far into techno-babble land. Come to think of it this might be a good subject for a mini-tutorial in the new Photo Art 101 subforum.

With a little luck (and if I don't overkill it again), this will make sense to you (and hopefully others) within a week.

Thanks for the inspiration and the gentle nudge. I need that sort of feedback.

~Danny~