Playing around while following some of the great tutorials here, I came up with this:

BG (A simple, color portrait in this case. I reduced contrast some.)
A=copy BG, desaturate (e.g. via ColorMixer)
B=new layer. fill with pattern (Gouache Light on Watercolor in my example). blend mode to ColorDodge.
C=merge visible (A,B)
D=copy C, SmartBlur(44,75,high,normal)
F =copy BG. Blend mode to Color.

That's it!. But, you can refine from here. For example:

E=New layer between D & F. Darken mode. Paint black w/ 'heavy scatter flow' brush to bring out the background color (in my example) & any other washed out areas. Lower opacity &/or paint w/ white to mute the result.
G=New layer in overlay mode. Fill with texture (canvas for example), and lower opacity. (I used 5%.)
H=a 'pencil sketch' (for example, a ColorDodge mode, inverted & blurred copy of layer A above layer A). Stylize->Diffuse (lighten only). Blend mode darken, and lower opacity. Erase or mask areas where the added line drawing is unwanted.

My result (using all the refinements - except layer G - oops :blush: ) is attached. Comments appreciated.
-Mark

This is based on a photo http://www.photo.net/photo/pcd1313/portrait-15 from http://philip.greenspun.com.

Hi there, Mark,

Welcome in!

I've seen your posts, and it seems that you have a lot to share with us. As I myself am a bit of a S.W.Engineer I too see the endless possibilities in the PS tool box. It always seems the problem is when to stop and not how to start!

I had a look at your sequence, and tried to follow but got detoured, as always. Along the way had one of those happy accidents (attachment) which I liked better than the final result.

Just a nitpick, in layer A you said ....
desaturate (e.g. via ColorMixer)
..although it depends on the settings of that Mixer, for me, a better way would be to separate the luminosity. (Put in a white layer as color and merge).

Another point, as they say "an image is worth a thousand words" , so when the layer sequence gets complicated a shot of the layer palette can really help out. (Print Screen, New Image, Paste, Crop and Trim - save as .gif)

Keep 'em comin and most important have fun.

Rô

Rô:

Some excellent suggestions, esp. the Layers Palette snapshot idea. A+.

BTW: Did you know if you Alt + Ctrl + Print Screen, the active dialog box or palette (only) gets copied to the clipboard, not the entire screen? That eliminates the cropping/trimming. (Sometimes you have to click on a layer name to get this to work.)

- - - - - - - -

Mark:

For a first shot, this is a super accomplishment. Take a well deserved bow. :bow:

Please keep creating, having fun and sharing your discoveries with us. Can't wait for the next one.

~Danny~

Did you know if you Alt + Ctrl + Print Screen, the active dialog box or palette (only) gets copied to the clipboard, not the entire screen? That eliminates the cropping/trimming. (Sometimes you have to click on a layer name to get this to work.)

I had tried that a couple of times, but didn't work - thought it was a XP thing. OK got it now.
Thanks, Danny

Rô

Rô & Danny,

Thanks for the encouragement & suggestions, but don't expect too much, :blush: as I'm legitimately posting here in the 101 forum.

It's interesting how much the outcome differs in the choice of texture / pattern in the ColorDodge layer. The Gouache L on WC I used was pretty unpleasant by itself, but inspired my smoothing out with good results. The Burlap that Rho used was interesting on its own. But blurring it, as I just tried, didn't give much. So, there's lots of opportunity to see what different starting textures generate and how they might interact with different modes of blurring.

In case its useful for someone, I've posted the layers palette for the work I started this thread with. (With layer G still accidently turned off :tongue: )

-Mark