FIRST MINI-CHALLENGE -or- NEW TO PHOTO-ART?

New guidelines (subject to fine tuning):
* For each mini-challenge, post up to two (2) interpretations with attached images of your interpretation(s). ## SEE BELOW.

* For each include enough step-by-step detail to give someone a reasonable chance to recreate (or approximate) your results. That way all of us can learn from each other. Obviously it’s impossible to explain things like “individual brush strokes,” but do include such details as filters used, plugins used, blend mode detail, etc.

* Preferred format: 1), 2), 3), etc. on individual steps vs. writing it out in paragraphs. Step-by-step is easier for newbies to follow.

* If you used a technique described elsewhere, include a link to the thread or tutorial.

* You may include an additional post with a screenshot of your Layers Palette if that’s easier than writing out the details.

* If you used one or more Photoshop actions, you can .zip the action set and attach in an additional post or refer to the download site, with the applicable action set name.

Focus on quality, not quantity – and sharing your techniques. Unique and/or creative writeups will be preserved and noted in the "Best of Photo-art" forum.

In addition...
* Questions about technical matters or method clarification are welcome.

* Compliment works you truly admire. Don't feel complelled to comment on (or guilty about not commenting on) every single image.


## If you would like to do more interpretations, here’s how to do that:
- Post them at a public site, such as www.pbase.com and include as many links IN A SINGLE POST as you would like.
- If you create subsequent versions and want to include them, you can edit your own posts to add/change/delete links to outside galleries. It's not necessary to add additional posts to the thread for each link to a gallery site.

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PHOTO ART: Mini-challenge #136 – Kid in a Cowboy Hat

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 legal verbiage.

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You'll like this one. "Ride 'em Cowboy!"

Danny

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LEGAL VERBIAGE
Paula Garner 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.

Cute Kid:)

Chuck--I like the way you pull the image down to strong, simple lines combined with strong color. Painting the eyes back in really added to the end result.

I'm going to leave my directions semi-vague. I've played with this on several images and the settings for the sliders vary widely with the type of image. I used mild intensity on all the settings for this picture.

1. Make at least 5 duplicates of the image.
2. On the bottom copy, run artistic-dry brush then run brush strokes--spatter. Fade spatter (around 60%)
3. On the next layer up, run artistic--cut out then run texture--grain--speckle. Change opacity to around 30-50%
4. On the next layer up, run palette knife then run texture--grain--speckle. Change blending mode to soft light and opacity to 30-70%
5. On the remaining upper layers, run different sketch styles--your choice. Reduce opacity to around 30-40% and play with the blending modes.
6. Make hue/saturation adjustments and add texture.

1 Dup image
2 Filter, artistic, cutout (max level and low edge)
3 hard light blend then erased eyes of layer #2
4 cropped and re colored background, removed items of BG
5 added texture and faded to 20%
6 saved for web

A+ on all the detailed steps in the replies so far. Your support is awesome and is greatly appreciated.

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This version yielded similar results to Cheryl's method but got there in a different way. Don't you like that Photoshop versitility.

See the next post for the Layers Palette snapshot.

Here's some commentary on things I though were worthy of noting:

Layers A, B and C:
Each of these layers were created by duplicating the Background. Each was modified by using different blend and/or filter combinations. Layer A, for example, is a duplicate of the Background with blend mode set to Screen at 100% opacity.

Layer E:
This adjustment layer was grouped with the layer below (D) so the Levels effect only applies to the D layer. These setting were selected because they retained important lines while removing a lot of the “noise.”

Layer F:
The combination of layers A-C created a bright blue line around he brim of the hat. This layer was created so I could airbrush black to cover up the blue.

I also airbrushed white to cover up the extraneous line on the right side of the image just above his shoulder.

Finally part of the line that represented the top edge of his shirt on the right side of the image got lost in the manipulation. I used the clone (stamp) tool (with all layers visible selected) to extend and join the two edges.

Layer G:
The middle slider in this Levels adjustment layer was set to 2.54, which lightened the image considerably.

Then I inverted the layer (CTRL + I), “turning off” the lightness.

With foreground color set to white, I airbrushed over the top of the hat, lowering its brightness a bit which (hopefully) had the effect of distinguishing that portion of the hat from the brim.

Layer H:
This duplicate of the background was created to provide a source for restoring detail.

When filters like watercolor, dry brush, palette knife, etc. are applied to images of faces, it’s not uncommon for important eye and mouth detail to be rendered nearly useless.

With a “hide all” layer mask in place, detail can be restored via this layer using an airbrush and painting with white.

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Again, multiple layers rendered with different filters blended together using my favorite weapon, layer masks.

Hope this was useful.

~Danny~

Layers palette for the prevous post illustrating the relationship between layers.

Lovely job everyone, they're all my favorites:)

Who can resist this adorable little guy!!!!

Painter Classic, Photoshop

Opened in Photoshop desaturated a tad
l. opened in Painter Classic, painted on the photo with the just add water brush. Works somewhat like the smudge tool.
2. When painted opened in Photoshop adjusted color, Image adjustments, selective color, neutrals, absolute.
3. Opened a file of green wood I had. Selected the cowboy

Painted Sketch:

1.) Duplicate back ground
2.) On duplicated layer Image> Adjustments>Desaturate [then]
3.) Image> Adjustments> Curves> -- Input = 108 Output = 166 [then]
4.) Filter> Stylize> Find Edges [then]
5.) Select> Color Range - hold shift key and select light to med gray (to taste) [then]
6.) Edit> Fill> White - Opacity 100 % [then]
7.) History Brush 20% Opacity 86 % Flow --- paint in eyes and lightly on lips. [then]
8.) Image>Adjustments> Hue/Saturation ---- Saturation +68
9.) Duplicate layer (the one you have been working on) [then]
10.) Filter> Stylize> Diffuse> Anisotropic [then]
11.) Opacity = 67 % Fill = 62% [then]
12.) Crop – (optional) --- to taste
13.) Filter> GE Waterpaper (Old plug in) - Fiber = 15 Brightness = 60 Contrast = 80 [then]
14.) Filter> GE Film Grain (Old plug in) - Grain = 4 Highlight = 0 High Intensity = 10 [then]
15.) Opacity = 51% Fill = 49% [then]
16.) Flatten image – Duplicate Background image [on the duplicated background layer]
17.) Set color to R=255 B=220 G=177 Paint brush set at 21 Mode = Color paint in the skin on the face and neck. [then]
18.) Set color to R=244 B=217 G=12 Keep paint brush settings & Mode --- paint in the hair area.
19.) Dodge --- Brush = 38 Exposure = 48% set to Midtones – brush on hair and face (to taste) [then]
20.) Dodge – Brush = 124 Exposure = 48% set to Shadow – brush on hat – to taste [then]
21.) Duplicate layer [then on duplicated layer]
22.) Dodge - Brush = 38 Exposure=48% set to Highlights - brush on shirt area (to taste) [then]
23.) Opacity = 52% Fill =41% [then]
24.) Flatten image – Duplicate the background on duplicated layer
25.) Set color to R=134 B=4 B=0 Brush Size = 93 Mode=Normal --Paint cheeks.
26.) Flatten image [then]
27.) Magic wand Tolerance = 10 --- select the area outside of the hat, face, and shirt.
28.) Edit> Copy --- Edit>Paste On the new layer Select>Load Selection [then]
29.) Set foreground and Background colors (I used colors from his hair) [then]
30.) Filter>Render>Clouds ---- Smudge any “rough” areas (to taste) [then]
31.) Filters>GE Emboss (old plug in) Relief = 16 Light source= top right [then]
32.) Opacity = 73% Fill = 76% [then]
33.) Flatten image – make duplicate of background [then]
34.) Filter>Texture>Sandstone - Opacity = 50% Fill=64%
35.) Flatten Image --- Next steps are optional to get a softer look
36.) Duplicate background layer [then]
37.) Image>Adjustment> Desaturate - Opacity = 59% Fill = 81%
38.) Last Flatten – Filter>Sharpen>Unsharpen Mask --- Amount=195 Radius=1.5 Threshold=10

Lovely job everyone, they're all my favorites:)

Who can resist this adorable little guy!!!!

Painter Classic, Photoshop

Opened in Photoshop desaturated a tad
l. opened in Painter Classic, painted on the photo with the just add water brush. Works somewhat like the smudge tool.
2. When painted opened in Photoshop adjusted color, Image adjustments, selective color, neutrals, absolute.
3. Opened a file of green wood I had. Selected the cowboy, copy pasted onto the paneling. Erased the orignal bk/grnd.
4. With the green paneling active I used the eliptical marquee and made a vignette, edit, fill, forground color, 60%. Flattened
5. Frame, PhotoImpact.

I know I goofed up, it's been a long day:D

Dup org.
top copy artistic - cutout 6-3-2
copy cutout layer
reticalation - front color B7AOB5
background 92877F
layer mode darken
opacity 85%
dup twice cutout layer
first copy filter artistic poster edge 7-6-2
second copy image -adj-gradient map -pastel- dither-reverse
new layer - merge visable- multiply
Jean

Photomauler, thank you very much. I really enjoyed viewing yours also. Very nice! "I need some of that just add water stuff", You can find it in Painter:)

Wanda

saddleup
open

duplicate layers
find edges
desaturate
blending change
variations darker

duplicate layer
layer order
gaussian blur
amplisoft simplifier 79 light, 3
dry brush
blending change
variations darker
watercolor
grain soft

duplicated background tehn merge top 3

auto eye and history brushed eyes and mouth

Been returning to the genre that started me into renderings in the first place: Illustrated print. Not my best (definitely not Norman Rockwell), but I hope you like the result anyway. :)

messing round with Mike finn's popartist action again :nod:

Palms

Great photo!

1. Dupe Background
2. Pencil sketch on duplicate with this layer set to Luminacity
3. Dodge facial details

Softened image with noise reduction.
Applied poster edges filter to highlight the lines more.
Channel mixer to convert to grey scale.

Here's another interp of ole "tex."

Steve

Lots of smudging on the face, highlight/shadow, levels and curves. Also added different colors to the picture and over sharpened the eyes.
Sylvia

Highkey edge detect blend and vector simplication. :)

Well it's been around a year since I've submitted the Impressionist Thread presets. Learned a few new tricks since then by the way (not all Impressionist). Thought I would knock on the New Year's door by sewing.

SnapArt(trial) - 2 layers, one pastel and one watercolor.Masked and used watercolor for background. Sharpened. Intriguing plugin - expensive though.
MargaretM

Here my version of the cutie.

Applied a watercolor effect toned the color down a little and applied the textured effect.

TwoLaidBack