Beautiful creature photographed in Florida by G. Lewis.

Happy creating!
~Danny~

I will stop here!
Manju

That's really neat. Any helpful hints??
kiska

I wasnt happy with my earlier creation (its the one on the right), I like this one better.

i'd call my try "find the bird"... if i didn't know it's there, i wouldn't see it ;) :D

3 layers (copies of background)
bottom - Impressionist->Paint->Fluorescent Palette Knife 63, 98, 90
middle - Impressionist->Pencil Sketch->Detailed Mono 100, 90, 98, blend-Hard Light
top - blend-Color

Hi:
Well since you all talk about impressionist plugin I thought I would go back and try again.
1. Used three layers
2. Left original alone as the background, this was for adding in details where needed.
3. Layer 1 buzzed the Heron and masked in some from the background
4. Layer 2 used impressionist WC spotty on rough for the greenery in the background. Masked in layer 1 Heron.
5. Flatten the image and used the muslin canvas and put the light to the lower left.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Bob

Hi:
Well since you all talk about impressionist plugin I thought I would go back and try again.
1. Used three layers
2. Left original alone as the background, this was for adding in details where needed.
3. Layer 1 buzzed the Heron and masked in some from the background
4. Layer 2 used impressionist WC spotty on rough for the greenery in the background. Masked in layer 1 Heron.
5. Flatten the image and used the muslin canvas and put the light to the lower left.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Bob

Bob:

Nice job using various tools at your disposal. I found it took awhile to get my arms around the possibilities of Impressionist. Glad you dusted it off and gave it another chance.

~Danny~

I had a lot of fun doing this -- and found it a very satisfying experience! Plenty of fills, sketch layer, layer blending, changed hue and saturation in a few places, no brush strokes at all!! Photo-paint, ps7, virtual-painter gouache.