Hi all. The mailman just left and my watercolor tutorial has arrived. Heading to the computer room to take a look. Thanks Steve!

Bob

I just got mine as well! Can't wait to check it out.

~T

:) :) :)

I got mine too, but I am unable to work the tutorial in such a way as to get the beautiful watercolor images that Trimoon has posted. I am now trying yet another image...I have already tried on 4 different images with mixed results.....but none of them look like water colors. :(

Any hints?? Any help???

Cricket

Cricket:
I posted hopefully some information that might help you at your post at dpreview. Steve

Cricket,

I was able to get a pretty decent watercolor version of the Little Blue Heron image that came with the CD. Then I tried one of my own images and it doesn't look nearly as nice. I don't know if it's the image I chose or if I'm doing something wrong. I think it's going to take me a lot more practice before I can create the images that Trimoon does. Unfortunately, I don't have much free time on my hands right now. :(

I guess that's the long way of saying I don't have any great advice for you - but you're not alone in your repeated attempts to get a good watercolor!! If you want to post one of your "failed attempts", I might be able to suggest something, but I can't promise anything.

Here's one of my "questionable" attempts.

Jeanie

Jeanie:
Thanks. I think you did a wonderful job. Even when I do an image, it's hard for me to be consistent. I can do the same iage several times, but I have not the patience nor the discipline to stay the course. I want to always wander and see what else I can come up with. The tutorial was always meant to give direction and to teach the techniques that I use. I've noticed several people have been able to do the blue heron and have been able to come up with almost the exact look as I did and I don't know how they do it. I tend to stray too much.
Steve

Thanks for the feedback Steve. I think the background is what I like the least in this image. I've seen some people that have just created a hint of color - kind of like a "fog" for the background. Perhaps that would work better for this image.

My other problem is that I almost never like anything I've created at the time I declare it done. Looking at this image a day after I finished it, I guess it doesn't look too bad. ;)

I know what you mean about not being consistent. I never can be either!

Jeanie

Jeaniesa, I think the owl came out great! Much better then my attemps at Helga. I'm not giving up though. The tutorial is great. It's me that needs the work.

Bob

Thanks for the nice comments Bob. I think (like Steve said), the technique is meant to be flexible - but that usually means it takes practice to really learn it. Just wish I had more time to play! :(

:lol: If it's you that needs the work, perhaps you should attempt a self-portrait? :rolleyes: ;)

Jeanie

I can't. My vest is at the cleaners. I spilled egg salad on it at a picnic.

Bob

Bummer Bob!! :D

OK, I tried a different background with the owl and I'm much happier with this one. Turns out I just needed to experiment a bit more with all of the brushes the Steve provided. That about fills up my play time for this evening. :( I guess an hour a day is better than nothing.

Jeanie

Ok, I agree with you. The second background is better. It makes the owl jump out. Still like the first one though.

Bob

Jeaniesa, after looking again I have a teenie, tiny, little itty bittie comment. On the bottom of the owl the edge seems a little ragged. Maybe a little blur or softening might look nice.

Bob

Yes, I noticed that too Bob, but being more concerned about the background, I ignored it. You're right of course, it doesn't look like watercolor at all! Thanks for noticing it.

Jeanie

These are some observations I've made since the first release of the tutorial.

You can work on an image at 72 dpi. However, if you're going to print it out, it will look terrible when you apply any textures, or anything that would be dependent on a higher dpi. The solution to this would be, before applying a texture, increase the dpi of the image. This way you will get a much tighter and more realistic texture.

I also noticed that, as you work, your history builds up. It would not hurt to delete or clear your history on a regular basis.

In the future, I will make my brushes smaller because they tend to overwhelm the lower dpi images. The size of the brush has never been really important. I highly recommend sizing the brush to be proportionate with the image.

For those of you who have not noticed, most of my presets come with the color pallete already chosen (such as magenta, purple, etc.). You can change these to whatever color you like. I always recommend picking a color from the image on which you're working.

To get an idea as to how the final image is going to look, I sometimes, in the middle of working, will apply a texture, just to see who it will look and then I'll undo it and go on. It is at this point that I'll sometimes check to see if my colors are the way I want them.

In the future, I will be using only PDF files along with the video so that there won't be any confusion about opening html files (which by the way open very easily in your browsher, but this is the thing I've gotten the most e-mail about). Also, in the PDF files will be a complete script along with screen shots describing every detail of the video. So, if you don't want to watch the video, you will have the PDF to read.

I am now in the process of completing two new tutorials: one is on portraits and the other is on pencil sketching. I know I've posted the pencil sketch tutorial in the past year freely on the web. The new one will be an update that goes into a lot more detail. The portrait one will have some pencil techniques but will also have oil and watercolor techniques. I will post examples prior to the release and the examples will be the exact images used in the tutorial.

Thanks for letting me ramble on.
Steve
www.trimoon.com

Steve, Thanks for the additional info. I think I observed just about everything you mentioned - except that I've been working on larger images, so haven't run into the issues with 72 dpi.

No pressure, but I'm really looking forward to your tutorial on portraits. Portraits are definitely the most difficult "subject" for me and I need all the help I can get! :)

Jeanie

I found time to try one other image late last night. This is another bird. The picture I started with had the wings clipped, so it wasn't the greatest, but I just had to try it since it's the only one I took like this.

I think I'll try a flower for my next attempt - I just have to find the right image to start with!

Thanks again Steve - this is fun!

Jeanie

And just because I think the transformation of this picture is pretty remarkable, I'm including the original I started with.

Background - this picture of a ferruginous hawk was taken at a "fair" in our local park. It is not a "wild" hawk per se. It is an educational outreach bird for the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program (http://www.fortnet.org/RMRP/). The hawk was brought in because it was injured, but it is also "human-imprinted", which means it's not afraid of humans and if released would think nothing of (literally) diving in and "joining" a picnic - making it a danger both to humans and itself. So, instead of euthanizing the bird, the RMRP has made it an educational bird and brings it to schools and other outreach events. My mother volunteers for the RMRP and loves the personality of this bird, so while she was working at the booth during the celebration, I was taking pictures. In this particular picture, the hawk was about to "bait", meaning dive head first under his perch. Since I wasn't expecting it and had the camera zoomed in too close, I didn't get the full wing span. :bawling:

Jeanie

I got an image I like. This is a male night heron.

The difference between this one and the other failures was an image with less stuff in the background (I think)

Beautiful colors in that one Cricket! Very nice! :)

Backgrounds are really tough! As you can see in my image above, I just deleted the background that was there and filled it in with the colorwash. I like this technique best on images with strong subjects, perhaps because distracting backgrounds can just be removed. But, Steve has a beautiful landscape watercolor on his site that just amazes me. I'm still working on that style of image.

Jeanie

Cricket

Try the attached Photoshop Action on the above "Attachment" Watercolor Night Heron.

Steve

Cricket, Did you try it? I wrote this action for your above post
Steve

I hope I'm not boring all of you with my attempts. I have been procrastinating in a major way. Unfortunately, I'll be paying for it tomorrow! :(

Here's a flower I tried. Not the best one to try b/c it had white petals - difficult to differentiate from the background! I kind of like the look I achieved though.

Jeanie

What is the link for the Trimoon CD?

Cheers!

http://www.trimoon.com

I believe, however, that the link to the action he speaks of is gone. I hope this helps.

Janet

Thank you Janet! :)

Too bad the action is gone.
Cheers!

Thank you Janet! :)

Too bad the action is gone.
Cheers!

I went back to one of Trimoon's posts in this thread (Cricket Try This Watercolor Action on the above "Attachment"), downloaded the linked file and saved it to my desktop. Then I moved it into my Actions folder and it worked. See if it will work for you.

Many Thanks!