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

See below.

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PHOTO ART: Mini-challenge #151 – Cute Little Monkey

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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Okay: It's not a monkey, technically.

This is a shot of a duoc langur (native of Vietnam and Laos, taken at the San Diego Zoo by Alan Smallbone. Note: This was taken through glass and despite the fairly long expousre (around 1/25 of a second) the detail is quite sharp. (Nice job, Alan.)

Danny

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LEGAL VERBIAGE
Alan Smallbone 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.

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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 or tutorial described elsewhere, include a link to it if possible.

* 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 crafted and you would like to share them, .zip the action set and attach in an additional post or refer to the download site with the applicable action set name(s).

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 compelled to comment on (or feel 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.

Basically Danny did this one.. with slight modifications.

I ran Danny's work in progress action "Sponge Halftone".

I took the base copy layer from that and changed it to soft light.

I added another layer set the blending mode to overlay and painted in white where I wanted a little more detail as the action came out very dark.

Charity:

I only provide the toolbox; YOU do the hard work! :) Nice job of improving the results generated by the action.

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I used action ART-Oils via CNC-djr from the collection that can be downloaded here: http://www.geocities.com/kafuensis/. It looks a little more dry-brushed than oiled, but, "Oh well."

Added a little Ocean Ripple filter to selected areas of layer A and added 2-color stroke frame.

Anybody got a banana? :)

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Alan - thanks again for a cute pic.
~Danny~

What a cutie. I'm going to have to play more with him later.

Charity--that's one of my favorite actions to play with too! I love the results you got out of it. Unless I'm mistaken, there seems to be a lot of it hidden in Danny's new craq-difference tiles in the 7A action set (link in Danny's post).

Danny--that action should carry a warning label--it's addictive.

I've been back on virtual painter the last few days. Working from bottom to top, each number represents a duplicate layer.
(Note for Harry--this is vp4--you'll need to adjust the default settings).
I'm going to use this shorthand:
material= M, Rendering = R, Color = C, Deformation = D, Focus = F

1. Watercolor M 0, R +3, C -3, D 0, F -5
2. Pointillism M +5, C 0, D 0, F -5 (soft light)
3. Pastel M 0, R +5, C -3, D 0, F -5 (saturation)
4. Oil painting M +5, R -2, C -5, D 0, F -3 (color)
5. Gouache M +4, R 0, C -5, D 2, F -2 (luminosity)
6. Find Edges (saturation 50%)
7. Gaussian blur soft sketch (linear burn)
8. Original (soft light 55%)
9. Pattern fill layer in soft light for texture
10. Adjustment layer to lighten midtones.

Used Color Range to select each hue separately to its own layer, and ran Hue/Sat to emphasize the colors or change them a bit (bringing the eyes out of the black) while also using color dodge or overlay blending to enhance contrast of hues from original. Did some blurring, dry brushing, angled strokes to taste.

Nice job from everyone. Charity --- I especially like the look of your image -- it reminds me of a textile image.

CJ-How did you do the eyes? -- Don

Color Range selection of the dark color in the original, copied to its own layer (Ctrl-J) then used Hue/Saturation to increase saturation and Lightness until some color showed, and used the Hue slider to choose a color that fit. Used Color Dodge for the layer blend to make the color show.

Danny , thank you for this beautifully taken photograph given us to play..
very good submissions so far and are very defferent in thinking and in doing..

I did it by appling layer mode blending for colour changing and added Ink out lines and Diffuse...

thank you.
------
vijayan

To revive an old thread for 2005. Lets help preserve our threatened or endangered species.
For my image, here's what i did:
L1-original
L2-duplicate, adj levels and selective color, desat, colordodge blend, invert, g'blur.
L3- Select all, copy merged, paste. Turn off layer 2, luminosity blend.
L4- Select all........paste. Sketch - photocopy.
L5- Dup orig, opacity 80.
L6- Select all.....paste.
L7- Dup L4, multiply blend.
L8- Select all.....paste. Adj levels (brighten and sharper contrast)
L9- Dup, desat, colordodge, invert, opacity50.
L10- Select all, copymerged, paste.
Appy impressionist filter djr 01, pencil loose and denser ( i modified the brush size to a smaller one).
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The 2nd image is with the same filter with brush size 35%, coverage 75, pressure 115.

Here's one more from me. Same steps as in another thread called "street life" but without the sketch layer.

In order to acheive this result is did the following:

Copy image
Added Eyes from an external source ( my daughter, lol )
Colour dodge the iris
Hipass on the eyes then changed layer to soft light
Curves on Red, Blue and RGB
Selected Foliage and applyied channel corrections
Gausian blurred the backgroud slightly

Image can be found here as compression to required size has undesirable results.

Cure Little Monkey (http://www.pbase.com/axleuk/image/38413479)

This little cutie wants to wish you all a "Merry Christmas" and a "Happy Holiday Season"! He's decorated his abode in the colors of the season.

This little monkey looked almost 'sage' like, so I found him a staff and some glasses. Painted some of the picture in low opacity, hardlight blending mode, then painted some of the picture in low opacity, linear light mode. The rough pastel filter seemed to finish him off nicely.

Too much monkey Business.

Steve

Monkey buzzed, texture, border, then some smudging and chalk drawing.

Cathy

Love this cute little fellow so smudged him

Palms

Desaturated, added angled brush strokes, paper texture, Nik filter for color, grunge brush on fill layer for border.

Cathy :nod:

palms,

i've missed your smudge work. nice job :)

Craig

Here's my first attempt posting. I like truthful opinions and am open to any suggestions. I only spent about 45 minutes on this so its not a masterpiece, just having fun.

First I made a quickmask in Photoshop and made the backgroung greyscale. I added a small amount of sepia toning. Opened it in painter essentials and did a quick clone. I used camel oil empasto and soft cloner and some strokes on the tablet. Lastly, I had to drop quality of jpeg to be able to upload it.

I first reduced the colors to just 16 with no dithering and then used Impressionist and Photoshop's Chrome filter to create this oil on canvas. I also used Cybia's Alphaworks's Eliminate Black to isolate just the light colors and created the canvas texture just on this layer. Finally, on the main base layer, I applied GIMP's bumpmap filter for further enhance the 3D texture. :)

First posterized this cute little fellow, then messed with the colors with a V curve. Then hung Christmas lights, then a levels adjustment.
Just seeing if you all are paying attention.
Seriously though, this was the order of things.
MargaretM

Thanks Craig
there are a few lurking about ( smudges that is ) but time and to much inspirations for other ideas keep getting in the way ! !

Palms

I love the range of ideas that you guys come up with when you work on an image -- this little guy has recently gained "a sage's" walking staff and glasses, and MargaretM's string of christmas lights (yes, we're watching ;) ). He's been smudged, painted with pastels, "monkey buzzed" (Cazubi -- :) ), chalked, grunge brushed, empasto-ed, chromed, and smudged again.
All that in just three days! Lots of good examples for folks who want to try new techniques. (I've yet to get a handle on smudging that looks good, my chalk work is variable, my chromes are unrecognizable, and I've never used empasto or grunge brushes -- so, Steve, it's NOT "too much monkey business" -- it's time for MORE monkey business!).

OK, this is my first post so please let me know if it is all right! :classic:

1. Duplicate layer
2. Simpifier 8,0,0,7
3. ctrl-alt-shift-e to new layer
4. smart blur 4.5 33 low edge only
5. invert
6. layer at soft light, 75% opacity
7. ctrl-alt-shift-e to new layer
8. paint engine, bad brush setting
9. brightness contrast layer at 17 & 27

Greg -- welcome to RetouchPro!

Glad this little guy got your attention! Your steps emphasized his fur, and make him stand out nicely from his background -- nice job!

Very nice Greg. Ditto what CJ said regarding the fur.
I am intersested in the "buzzing" of the monkey by Cazubi. I know this is a filter but any additional info would be appreciated.
MargaretM

For those too young to remember, that's an old rock 'n roll song by Chuck Berry.

And you are right there's always room for more of this kind of monkey business.

Steve

-- so, Steve, it's NOT "too much monkey business" -- it's time for MORE monkey business!).

MargaretM, there is some info on the Buzz filter on some threads here which is how I heard about it. You can download a free demo and read about it here: http://www.fo2pix.com. I love using it.

Cathy :nod:

I Done this with a free program that PatriciaKay recommended ( I have asked her to post the link for all to share ) i am quite pleased as i have been trying to do this sort of effect for long time and never been able to quite pull it off

Palms

Hello all..
the name of the program is TWISTED BRUSH and i downloaded from www.download.com .....check it out as they have many free programs...do try also PROJECT DOGWAFFLE..dont be put off by the name its a really cool program and has something magic in it called optipustics....now i bet you are all curious....let me know what you think about either!!!! :lmao:

Regards Patricia Kay........ :wavey:

Back again.....love all the monkeys...you are all so talented...will have a go when i have a minute...
palms i only sent the link a short time ago...you are super quick......
Regards Patricia Kay

Palms - love the effect. I will definitely try it out.
Cathy - thanks for the info. on the BUZZ. Deceptively simple interface. Who needs toys for CHristmas with all these cool filters to play with!
MargaretM

The only thing is MargretM is xmas needs to last about three months with no interuptions ! ! ! :bigthmb: :lol:

The only thing is MargretM is xmas needs to last about three months with no interuptions ! ! !
Hear, hear - as they say in the Houses of Parliament.

Just some addition experimenting with Impressionist. Playing with various brush strokes and color settings in Impressionist. :)

Ok here’s my try at this little monkey. I started off by using the smudge tool to paint him/her then applied the matte, made the shadow and added the sandstone texture. Walla there you go. I know it’s not much compared to ya’ll. Oh well!

TwoLaidBack

First one cropped then smoothed with noise reduction quite heavily, then Lucis then diffuse filter. A few other things as well but can't remember all steps.
Second carried on and applied cutout filter.

Peter

i like the first one. that technique definitely works well with some images.