I have only discovered this sight about 1 week ago
This is a great site and everyone is so helpful -
I am not quite getting the correct effect and don't know what I am doing wrong - I am trying for a softer more colorful sketch

any suggestions

attachment

original picture

I quite like the effect you have got, but if you outline the steps you took we may be able to tell you what else to try.

Christine

http://www.trimoon.com/html/tm_sketching_tutorial.html
I was trying for something similar to this tutortial

Thanks

tmcclos2@optonline.net

tmcclos2:

Glad you found RetouchPRO and are finding it useful.

Regarding Trimoon's tutorial:
With a tutorial of so many steps and with each step building on the next, it is very difficult to say where in the process you need to make changes.

Something Stephen should have mentioned in dark print but did not is if you use the exact same filter settings as he specified in the tutorial, you are certain to get somewhat different results on YOUR image.

Why? Because the results generated by a filter depend on the image itself and its resolution. With most filters, using the same settings on two different images yields different results. This is especially true of Smart Blur / Edge Only and Lighting Effects. Try Colored Pencil on a high resolution image, say, 300 pixels per inch (ppi). Then reduce the image to 72 ppi and apply the same filter. Results look very different.

So, in the future as you get more into photo-art and try different tutorials, consider setting values to be guidelines or suggestions. You're free to adjust them in order to get better results. How you know to what degree you adjust them will come with experience.

The following might be helpful:
* http://www.Shanzcan.com. On the left click the button labeled "Shanzcan tutorials" and scroll down to #5. Shan's tutorial is quite good.
* http://www.AtnCentral.com - "Shari's sketch" action. With some images, it renders a very nice result.
* http://homepages.slingshot.co.nz/~mikefinn/action.html - Mike Finn actions. "Insta-sketch beta" (among the free ones) creates a similar look.

I hope you are not discouraged by the absence of suggestions. Without literally watching over your shoulder as you work, it's nearly impossible to give specific corrective action advice.

Do keep practicing and trying different tutorials and settings. The more you do this kind of thing, the better you will get at it.

Thanks for posting your question.

~Danny~

I was just rereading your original post. Here's something you could try:
* Duplicate the image as it now exists. We'll mess with the duplicate.
* On the duplicate, Layer > Flatten image
* Duplicate the background
* To soften the duplicate layer a bit, Blur > Gaussian Blur (not much)
* Layer > Add Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast (don't worry about the settings yet)
* From the [u]original[/i] image click on the Background
* Select > All
* Edit > Copy
* Click on the duplicate image
* Edit > Paste. This will create a new layer on top of the B/C adjustment layer.
* Change the blend mode for this layer from Normal to Color.
* Now, double-click on the B/C adjustment layer thumbnail to open the dialog. Experiment with B/C settings to get more enhanced colors.

Even if this does not turn out the way you hoped, you might learn something through experimenting.

- - - - - - -

Couldn't resist... Had to try a little handiwork of my own on this very cute pic. I wasn't really keeping track of the steps, but it is based on a combination of Trimoon's method and Shan'z tutorial (see links above). The point: You can take some of this tutorial and some of that tutorial and mix 'em up.

~Danny~

thanks for the reply - I will give it a try
I realize that you have to work with the photo and not
all are the same - I will keep experimenting

thanks,-- like what you did with the photo

:-)

I tried the trimoon tut too, with photoshop 7 and mouse.

Trimoon cd coming soon, my friend in USA paid for the cd and its on its way to me...woohooo