How about this cutie submitted a while back by Janet?

On this one you can practice your retouching as well as your arty skills!

I bet Neve's Paint Alchemy technique would look good on this one.

~Danny~

How did I miss this picture. Hmmm. Must get to work on it right away since it is "mine". Giggle.

Also considering the temperature was 103 degrees the day I shot this, little Holly doesn't look too bad in the heat. Let's clean her up and make her Mama prouder than ever.

I extracted Holly and placed a radial gradient and clouds behind her, feathered out the hard edges of her little shirt and blended it all in. Cloning and a hue/sat adjustment cleaned up her heat rash.

The painted on version followed Trimoon's watercolor tutorial very nearly to the letter. I think I'm FINALLY getting the hang of the tricky Art History Brush...and I do mean FINALLY. The little beasty is a tricky one to learn (at least for me).

My new motto: Practice, Practice, Practice doesn't necessarily make perfect; but the process is fun.

Janet

I love the big eyes of this little cutey patooty! Just wanted to do a P. Stewart abstract effect.

Cheer
Dave

Chuch a chweet baby girl!

I used the healing brush, levels, lighting effect, vp fade, but i still feel i could have done better.

I rode on Jaykita's coat tails... working on the nicely done eyes fix and backgound replace. :)

* Applied the attached action.
* Turned off the Texture layer (not needed).
* Created a new layer at the top of the layer stack (named it "Painted") and Alt + Layer > Merge visible to merge all layers into it without collapsing the rest.
* Duplicated "Painted" and applied Impressionist custom setting djr#Oils24 (available in this thread (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=69472#)). Renamed this layer "Oils24."
* Duplicated "Painted" again. Renamed this layer "Charcoal Default" and applied Impressionist > Charcoal > Default (Background = Imae). Applied Hide All layer mask to this layer (Layer > Add Layer Mask > Hide all).
* Duplicated layer C and dragged to the top of the layer stack. Applied Photoshop Dry Brush filter and added a Hide All layer mask. Renamed this layer "Dry Brush"
* Clicked the layer mask of layer "Charcoal Default" and airbrushed white to tone down the edginess of the "Oils24" layer below.
* Clicked the layer mask of layer "Dry Brush" and airbrushed white around eyes and mouth to restore detail in these areas.
* Created a new layer at the top of the layer stack (named it "Merged Layers") and Alt + Layer > Merge visible to merge all layers into it without collapsing the rest.
* Applied Unsharp Mask to the top layer to give it a more painterly look.

Thanks, Janet, for letting us work over Holly and to you Jakita for doing all the hard work!

~Danny~

Danny, hope you enjoyed the ride, heehee!!
This one's more like a color sketch. Dont know what else to call it.

Janet your angel is beautiful! Thank you for allowing us to work with Holly our gorgeous model for today...

I have been collecting all the info on skin tones, Axleuk told me to use noise median of which i had never used before and that i have tried to do with this delightful picture.

One more for this little darling!
Brushwork with default paintbrush oval 45 pixel normal, crosshatch filter, texturizer.