FIRST MINI-CHALLENGE -or- NEW TO PHOTO-ART?
Click here (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4977) for "Information and Guidelines."

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PHOTO ART: Mini-challenge #105 – Catarina

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

The base image can be downloaded by clicking the link below the photo description.

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Thanks to Alex for sharing this lovely picture of Catarina with us. What a sweetheart! I just love that red hair!

Phyllis

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LEGAL VERBIAGE
Alex retains the U.S. and international copyright © not only for the original image, but also for any photo-art versions of it. Unauthorized distribution or use of this image without permission are prohibited.

Here I used KPT6 equalizer to sharpen the details, like the eyes and hair (compare with original to see a big difference...with KPT filter you can see individual hairs!) while giving the skin a soft focus look.

I wouldn't call this "art" though...more like an enhanced portrait.

Phyllis

Very pretty picture to work with! Wonderful smile and eyes.

Used Art History Brush with Dry Media Brush 5. Added layer on top of original and added texture brought opacity down.

What a pretty model to work with..I'm hooked on working on these portraits..

Phyllis..Very nice filter work..The combination of sparkle and soft skin texture is really appealling..

Jill..nice texture and frame application..I like it..

I started with Phyllis's smudge painting technique.. And applied one of Bud's oval frame treatments..Then played with the frame layers to adjust the colors accordingly..

Jerry :D

I used photoshop with a crosshatch filter an gaussian blur. Then added a wooden frame.

All great contributions, as always!

Here's a slight variation on my normal method.

JERRY - I can't bring myself to even START anything with this picture after seeing your version. It's just PERFECT.

Phyllis - a beautiful pic to begin with - thanks for sharing. I like your 'enhanced' look.
Jill - good job on the texture and frame.
Jerry - yes, a tough act to follow on this one....very nice and I like the matte/frame
Herman and Amanda - nice painterly looks
Here's my rendition....sepia tone....painted some of the detail/color back in the eyes/lips....blur
Bill C

Bill C, I hope you post a tutorial on how you did yours, it's amazing.

Here's my version.

Ken

Jill, Jerry, Amanda, all nice paintings...all different styles, but all lovely.

Bill C, I just love the simplicity and softness you achieved! By the way, this pic was from Alex, so he deserves your thanks. Psst...you really have to start reading the blurbs that accompany the mini challenge originals. :)

Ken, the party colors and the twinkle in her eye express the personality she shows even more...very imaginative and effective.

Phyllis

Phyllis - I guess I was in too much of a rush to get to the digital darkroom! Thanks for reminding me to get the 'whole story'.
Alex - yes, a beautiful girl - a beautiful picture! Thanks for sharing with us!
With kind regards,
Bill C

Well, I am not a he, but a she.
My name is Alexandra Macedo.
This is a photo I took from my 4 year old cousin.
I am not an artist and only am learning photoshop
on free time (not much) for a month or two.
I am trying to make a nice rendition for this one too, but could not make one I like till now.
There is a bigger photo in my gallery.

Thanks to everyone for your artistic renditions.

Thank you for the image, Alexandra. She is a beautiful girl and you have captured it all!
Beautiful work by everone here on this! I sought to emphasize the eyes. If ever a real girl had Renoir eyes, she does! So that's the way I went, with some romantic, soft color; some spray strokes, and a lot of curves detail

All of these are so beautiful!

Bill C, she looks wrapped in cotton or in fog! She's so pretty and soft. :)

Bill M, I love the textures and muted colors.

Amanda, your oil rendition is wonderful.

For this one, I played with the dodge/negative layer, only used a soft filter at its highest settings, making a soft colored outline. Merged this layer, made one layer at multiply mode, another at normal mode but low opacity. Then I added a light texture.

Tyeise

Here's my version of an oil painting of her.

Tyeise

with Painter 7

Emboss, Paint Daubs, an action called Contrast Mask, some curves and hue/sat playing.

Hello Everyone!

Great work.. I especially like Bills. The lighting.. and her eyes.. Wow!

Here is mine. I was just playing with layers and masks. I first made a sketch using the Gausian Blur, and put a crosshatch filter on it. I then duplicated the original layer and ran a watercolor filter on it. I masked that layer and painted in the background. I then created another layer from the original and played with the saturation, masked it out, and painted in her face very lightly.

Added a few highlights.. ANd that was it.

I thought she would look good with some fowers on the hair

Then run Mike Finn Oil actions on it and
added a brush pattern as it says in this retouchPro tutorial
http://www.retouchpro.com/tutorials/photo-art1/index.html

Alexandra...excellent job placing the flowers in her hair. They look like they were photographed that way.

Mikl, wonderful painting technique!

Phyllis

There are some really great photo edits on here.

Well, here's mine. Paint daubs, sandstone texture, and honestly i cant remember what else i did.
-Michelle

Here's one more i was messing around with. Now i better go on to the next challenge before I make 20 more variations on this.

So many beautifull variations!

Her's another attempt. I burned the image with BWorks, added a vignette and a frame in Photoshop.

A lot has been done with this lovely little girl since last I visited!

All are remarkable, but I must say how much I love the flowers in her hair! Excellent job!!

I thought my first entry could use some improvement...

Heeeeeeere sheep!!!

Another try, and this time, black&white attempt.

Tried something new for this one. Made two copies. One I did with Xero's lineart in monochrome, the other in VP color pencil, with everything turned to -5 except for focus. Merged them together and I liked the result so much I couldn't bare to reduce it to fit the max upload size. So I put it here: http://www.fractographics.com/catarina.jpg

AmyHutton

Tried something new for this one. Made two copies. One I did with Xero's lineart in monochrome, the other in VP color pencil, with everything turned to -5 except for focus. Merged them together and I liked the result so much I couldn't bare to reduce it to fit the max upload size. So I put it here: http://www.fractographics.com/catarina.jpg

AmyHutton

Amy,

Very nice! I am wondering about your statement "Merged them together". Did you layer them with the top set to 50% opacity, or what?

Thanks,
Jeff

Amy,

Very nice! I am wondering about your statement "Merged them together". Did you layer them with the top set to 50% opacity, or what?

Thanks,
Jeff

No, I took the lazy way out. PSP8 allows you to use an ARITHMETIC command which will add or subtract or multiply or average or do a bunch of other stuff when merging 2 images together. A lot less clicking thatn when you use layers.

AmyHutton

Sounds almost like the Photoshop Applied Image tool. That gives you a wide variety of choices with "merging" documents...including what you mentioned, Add/Subtract, etc.

I've been playing with this a bunch lately and have had some spectacular results. So maybe something to try Jeff.

During my recent "getaway," I was reading about Painter 8 (Painter 8 Creativity, by Jeremy Sutton. It's simply an excellent intro book, especially if you're into (or trying to be into) portrait-type photo art.) and wanted to try a couple things.

I decided to dredge up another Mini-challenge that's been idle for awhile...

The base image was prepared in Photoshop (Smart Blur/Normal, Posterize), then closed and opened in Painter 8 where brushstrokes were applied using Blender brushes. One of the things I picked up in Painter 8 Creativity was the concept of limiting the number of colors in a creation. One way to achieve that is to utilize the posterize command, a common function in many image editors. A Photoshop alternative is the Cutout filter.

I kind of liked how this turned out brush-texture-wise. Unfortunately the background got pretty muddled up and I wished way too late that I'd removed it at the beginning, but "Oh, well." Live and learn.

Anyway, it made for a fun afternoon.

~Danny~

This looks a bit tame after Danny's strong work of art

Barry

Hi Barry:

Welcome to RetouchPRO. Congrats on taking the leap and posting a pic. Give yourself a big HIGH 5 for that. The lurker to participant ratio for this forum is about 550 to 1 at last count.

Thanks for your kind words, but don't ever worry that your pics will be compared to mine or any one elses. While that may be the culture in some venues, it's not that way here. What's way more important is trying new techniques, experimenting, sharing ideas and methods, and having fun. Fun + learning = a great sport.

Don't ever feel that you need to apply X degrees of manipulation in order to meet minimum qualifications. In many cases "subtle" changes/manipulations are just right. You're the artist. You make the call.

In any event, glad you jumped in. Hope to see more of your creations in the future.

~Danny~

Catarina is certainly a charming subject - Here is my very much beginner's attempt . I *endeavoured* to follow Stephen LeQuier (aka Trimoon) excellent impressionist tutorial however I can't blame him for the outcome.

I had some difficulty getting an attachment to stick...Thanks to Danny for sorting me out.

Keith

Congratuations, Keith!

I know how hard you've been working to get Impressionist installed, plus working through the Trimoon tutorial and finally getting over the tech. glitch in order to get attachments working.

Well, I'd say for a first-time effort you've done a terrific job. I admire your creativity and determination.

Here's to many, many more in the future!

~Danny~

This is the first time I have posted a photo, hope I'm doing this right...

Catarina ia a doll...

Joy

This is the first time I have posted a photo, hope I'm doing this right...

Catarina ia a doll...

Joy

You did just perfect, Joy. Hope to see more of you in the future!

~Danny~

Joy,

I like what you've done. Care to share your technique?

-Jeff

Jeff, I'm not sure I can tell you exactly, but, I'll try to get close (I use PSP8).

First, I open the image and close the original. Then I duplicate, so, I have two or three copies (minimize the extras).

I make a pencil sketch of one, that will be the base layer.
I smudge the lines on the pencil sketch.
I wrote a Script that makes lines from the image (that's sort of like a Photoshop action).
I add the lines image as new layer (changing the opacity and smudging the lines, if needed). Some times the lines are added last, depending on the photo.
I do a lot of hand work, smudging/dodging/burning etc. (especially the hair).

Last, I copy one of the images (no changes other than any corrections that are needed) and paste it as the top layer.
Lower the opacity until it's as pale or colorful as you want.
Some times more hand work is needed.
Sharpen a little with USM, or, just sharpen the eyes with the Sharpen tool.

Some where, along the line, I softened the background with the soften tool.

The problem is, I do each one different and sort of as I go. I have trouble remembering the sequence or exactly what I did.

I posted one under Mountain-man, I used the lines on it too, but, as you can see, it came out much different.

I hope this helps...
Joy

Wow! This is a popular picture and what great renditions from everyone. I am always trying to improve the oil paint look and this is what I came up with:

Shari

One more from me.

A watercolor creation by me.

that's a great stuff, people! :nod:



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i guess i got something half way from palette knife to dry brush ;)

2 layers (copies of original)
bottom - Impressionist->Pencil Sketch->Detailed Col 100,100,86; USM 100,2.6,0
top - Amphisoft Simplifier, Ormente Fluorizer, Dry Brush 2,8,1; blend-hardlight

Jayikta...
I really like your posts of Catrina, especially the watercolor effect. Could you share how you did it? I've been lurking a while and am on the lookout for any help I can get with watercolor effects.

Thanks so much for sharing.

Jayikta...
I really like your posts of Catrina, especially the watercolor effect. Could you share how you did it? I've been lurking a while and am on the lookout for any help I can get with watercolor effects.

Thanks so much for sharing.

Welcome, Chipmonk...

Glad you jumped in with a question. Jaykita is very generous when it comes to sharing "how to." Stand by for a response.

~Danny~

Welcome, Chipmonk...

Glad you jumped in with a question. Jaykita is very generous when it comes to sharing "how to." Stand by for a response.

~Danny~

Well, well, well. Generous, eh?? Like they say...flattery will get you everywhere.... hey, just kidding!!! Very kind of you to say this of me esp. to a newcomer. Shall do my best.

Jayikta...
I really like your posts of Catrina, especially the watercolor effect. Could you share how you did it? I've been lurking a while and am on the lookout for any help I can get with watercolor effects.

Thanks so much for sharing.

Hi chipmunk, Thanks a ton for the appreciation. Danny has said such nice things about my generosity, so how can i not try to help! :wink: But its been so long since i posted those 2. Shall do my best.
For my first creation, in ps7 -level adjustments to brighten and soften image. Then I used lighting effects for a bit of texture and oil painted look. Filter-render-lighting effects-style default, light type directional, ambience +57, ht 50. I saved and used this image to work on in painter 4. In this remarkable software, in the color palette there is a little box that says "use clone colors" - if i click on that, any brush i use turns into a lovely little clone tool!! I learnt this little trick which i'd like to share with all of you here. The more recent corel painter 8 has a clone symbol in the tools palette, isnt that right? You can well imagine, the possibilities are endless !!
Re my 2nd creation, easier. I have used a fill layer first of all to give the original catarina a bit of color. You can color a new blank layer with low opac brushes and a variety of colors and use multiply blend. Also use levels to brighten and soften image. I did another sketch layer the usual way i.e. with color dodge and gaussian blur. Increased the blur so i got a stronger sketch. I also used this little jewel called "Oscar's watercolor filter" in photobrush as main layer. Then in painter using above method of cloning, i worked my way thro, and then used the sketch layer - darken blend.
I'm sorry, this is as much as i can remember since it's been a while. Hope some of this will help.

What a gorgeous little girl! I did so much that was experimental (for me) That I can't recall the steps correctly. However, basically....PSP8.01

Adjusted Col Bal, B & C, etc. duped the original layer.
Smudged her hair.
Filter/Artistic Brushes and fiddled with one of my own settings/oil paint.
Erased this effect only to allow her face to show.
Merged both layers.
Face - Spent a lot of time experimenting with smudge tool (using different brushes, different sizes, different opacity etc). Also Lighten/Darken,
Hue/Sat tools. Tools I don't normally spend enough time trying out.
I still didn't like the Oil Paint Effect on her hair, so I smudged it to smooth once again. Decided to Buzz the final result a little too.

I wish! i wish! i wish i had a wacom pen and tablet!

I did the first one in Painter took it to photoshop and changed the curves, then the 2nd one i just added a smooth script to it cos i cannot work out how to get the nose straight...

Beautiful little girl she has adorable eyes...

I really like your second one Legacy. The first one is good but the second one just really looks like a painting to me.

I cannot wait till i get a tablet and pen cos the mouse only gives thick paint i feel and the nose is just not right...

I suppose one of the reasons I've lurked so long without posting is because I don't take as good notes as everyone else does--ie, I don't always remember what I did. Anyway...

Wonderful Sidis. I LOVE your style. And now I have to have a good laugh. hahahahah....notes.....hahahahah. What are they? Notes? Who me? Not me. I'm way to involved in the creative process to take notes. That's why I almost always use screenshots.

Keep up the good work.

Janet

This thread deserves another trip to the top...

Here's a Painter8 digital watercolor. The background was hand painted with the finer mop brush. Caterina was cloned mostly with the fine tip brush (trying a bit of Jaykita's method). I didn't like the texture I got in her skin, so I smoothed it out with the 'just-add-water' blender. I did most of the fly-away hair by hand to keep the background in tact. This started with a 2B pencil sketch outline (traced by hand) toned way down in the final result. I like painting/cloning with the pencil outline as a reference. The tracing paper function makes it too hard to see what you're doing in many cases. This one turned out good enough to frame, so I did that too. :wink:

-Mark

This thread deserves another trip to the top...

Here's a Painter8 digital watercolor. The background was hand painted with the finer mop brush. Caterina was cloned mostly with the fine tip brush (trying a bit of Jaykita's method). I didn't like the texture I got in her skin, so I smoothed it out with the 'just-add-water' blender. I did most of the fly-away hair by hand to keep the background in tact. This started with a 2B pencil sketch outline (traced by hand) toned way down in the final result. I like painting/cloning with the pencil outline as a reference. The tracing paper function makes it too hard to see what you're doing in many cases. This one turned out good enough to frame, so I did that too. :wink:

-MarkMark:

You sure are making GREAT strides with Painter. This one is a standout.

I know what you mean about Painter's Tracing Paper function. I prefer the flexibility of a duplicated layer which I can turn on/off and tweak opacity.

Keep 'em coming. You're getting nothing but better.

~Danny~

I was looking for a good image to practice oil painting on and found this cute little girl. I love the work that has been done on her by everyone. I used Painter and the various oil cloners and brushes. I did quite a bit of editing and color adjustments in Photoshop before I painted, and also the texture.

Cathy

:grin:

I was looking for a good image to practice oil painting on and found this cute little girl. I love the work that has been done on her by everyone. I used Painter and the various oil cloners and brushes. I did quite a bite on editing and color adjustments in Photoshop before I painted, and also the texture.

Cathy

:grin:I especially like the texture work you did on this one, Cathy. Nicely done.

Thanks Danny. I have made some custom texture that are a combination of canvas and paint strokes. I also like the textures that you use. Do you make your own?

Cathy

I also like the textures that you use. Do you make your own?
I haven't ventured into do-it-myself textures. I pretty much stick with ones included with Photoshop, Painter and ones Trimoon has graciously made available for download at his site, www.Trimoon.com.

I often use Painter's "Grainy Blender" brushes to which I apply a little Unsharp Mask to give the effect a little more personality. On occasion I apply the canvas effect via the Alian Skin "Splat" plugin, too.

Not everyone's "cup o' tea", but an impressionist interpretation.

Mostly Buzz and Impressionist and blend modes.

Steve

Hope I pulled it off. Used Impressionist along with a lot of color/saturation enhancements to create this effect. :)

cause she hes something angelic in her, i had to add some blue to this pic...
i think that i really, really like blue color. yeah, that would be it ;)

lkroll,
i like that. you really got that background work looking like shiney metal also.

thana,
blue's my favorite color also. interesting how that changed her features a bit.

Craig

blue magic :cool:

indeed :)

Craig

This little one has inspired so many awesome paintings! Here's my attempt done in Painter IX.

such a soft touch, cat. lovely.

Craig