This weeks' challenges graciously provided by James Geddes. A lovely touch of Autumn.

~Danny~

I've been experimenting with a new technique spurred by something in one of the other threads that got me thinking about art classes in high school. One of the techniques our teacher had us do all those years ago was to paint with acrylics, cover portions of the painting with rubber cement, then paint over the whole thing with india ink. There were often happy surprises as we peeled the rubber cement off our paintings. These leaves were perfect for trying my hand at scraping digital rubber cement off the painting underneath india ink.

The technique goes something like this:

1. Dupe background.
2. Apply a drastic unsharp mask to duped copy.
3. Apply Blur>Smart Blur>Edges Only (Experiment with settings)
4. Set to Multiply mode (Experiment with opacities.) In this I ended up duplicating the layer for added dimension.
5. Duplicate the background layer again if needed and place over the lined layer(s). Set mode to overlay. Adjust opacity if needed.
6. Add brightness/contrast to liven things up a bit.
7. Added hue/sat all the way to 100 (for this picture).
8. Merged layers and fiddled with brush strokes. For this picture I wanted it to appear as if it was on a black silk scarf. I used crosshatch and set it really high almost blowing out the whole picture. Immediately after using crosshatch, I went to edit>fade and fiddled with the settings and blending mode until I was satisfied.

It was a lot of fun creating a dramatic, arty, bold piece of art. Thanks Danny.

Janet

Thank YOU, Janet. for taking that experimental leap and sharing your steps and inspiring results.

I really like it when people "color outside the lines." :)

Inspired by Janet's experimenting, I went off on a long and undocumented tangent. Abstract at its best (or worst). :)

Way cool Danny. I really like it. It is bold and bright. I have a pic of a campfire; I think I'll try what you did on it...that is if you will post the how tos.

Janet

So pretty...I miss fall leaves. 19 years in South Florida...

I buzzed it, xero lithograph, ran PSP8 black pencil, light relief, sharpened it and added a "carpet" texture, and increased the sturation just a tad.

AmyHutton

So pretty...I miss fall leaves. 19 years in South Florida...

I buzzed it, xero lithograph, ran PSP8 black pencil, light relief, sharpened it and added a "carpet" texture, and increased the sturation just a tad.

AmyHutton

Excellent interpretation. I especially like the depth and texture effects.

Sorry, dont remember how i got this one...(wish i did), i started off with stylize, find edges, multiply, one layer vpainter airbrush, luminosity blend, got a metal foil effect, took off from there with image adj selective color... (lots of jugglery)
Feel quite guilty doing this to God's perfect design :aghast:

Jaykita: Your leaves give a whole new take on the word gold leafing. I'm impressed. Don't feel guilty. I'm sure that having perfection preserved for all time in gold would please.

ahutton: The depth and style of your interpretation are wonderful. It is peaceful, serene, and absolutely gorgeous.

Got my idea from this tutorial by Jacquelin Vanderwood ...
you'll find it at "http://www.designertoday.com/tabindex-16/tabId-19/itemid-1474/DesktopDefault.aspx"

Beautiful Card Jaykita! Delicately done and creative use of the leaves. Terrific results from everyone and varied as always.

Duped Bottom Layer
L2 - Paint Alchemy/Sketch Pencil
Merged. Inverted Image/Mode - Difference.
Merged and duped bottom layer again.
L2 - Buzz Simplifier
AIM/USM 193/27
PSP/Brushstrokes/Impressionist/default

Got my idea from this tutorial by Jacquelin Vanderwood ...
you'll find it at "http://www.designertoday.com/tabindex-16/tabId-19/itemid-1474/DesktopDefault.aspx"

Another home run on this one. Just marvelous.

Great site, too. I posted a couple links to tutorials there.

A great contribution!

~Danny~

Two version of this one. For the first, put the main leaves on their own layer, and ran Mike F.'s Pop filter. I then used the charcoal script in Paint Shop Pro 9 on the original, then went back to Photoshop 7. Copied the leaves layer to the charcoal layer, and set the blend mode - scrolled through to select one, didn't note which one.

For the second version, I ran Impressionist and Picasso's Last Word on the original, then copied the Pop (from the first version) layer back to the main image, blend mode set to color dodge, I think. Then ran Picasso's Last Word on that layer. Copied it a couple of times, changing the blend mode each time (I don't remember what I chose, just cycled through until I saw something I liked). Flattened and added the edges with AutoFx.

Hope I loaded the images in the right order, but if not I think it's probably obvious which is which. I never can figure out the order properly when attaching images! :dizzy:

Patricia

I couldn't pick between those two wonderful versions Patricia. Really super efforts. Well done.

This is my interpretation of the golden days of fall. Its all thanks to Nik filters.
Thanks
Bob

Photobrush - Watercolour - Glowing Edges - Emboss.

Christine

Fall leaves revisited. Yes, yes, in the heat of summer, I'm painting fall leaves. I wanted to see if I could layer different effects with the AHB and still have a believable painting. Lots of masking and some smudging later, here is the finished version.

Janet

Terrific renditions here! I wanted to give this a try and use the Impressionist plug-in, but I kept fooling around with it and some other different things that I don't know what I did anymore.

Question for anyone who uses the Impressionist plug-in, is "Charcoal" the only style available? I'm wondering if I didn't install it totally.

Combinations of Paint Engine, Buzz simp 1 and Pencil Pixel actions

2nd one is outside my normal comfort zone ... but, what the heck

Regards

Bob Mc

Janet I believe it :)

for mine I was just messing about with things and this came out.

Peter

Terrific renditions here! I wanted to give this a try and use the Impressionist plug-in, but I kept fooling around with it and some other different things that I don't know what I did anymore.

Question for anyone who uses the Impressionist plug-in, is "Charcoal" the only style available? I'm wondering if I didn't install it totally.

Susie have you clicked on the style button, if so then go here

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/photo-art-resources/

there might be a answer there if not Danny is the man


Palms

Hello there Palms! Thanks for replying to my question. Just by looking at your thumbnail, I now know that I did something wrong with the installation because I only have the one choice in the 'styles' drop-down menu :dizzy: . I'll check out the link that you referenced and go back and read the installation instructions (novel idea, eh?) :idea: . I'm sure that it's just a matter of moving files now. Thank you again!

My first try at using a brush rather than just filters etc. I'm not sure what all I did but used the smudge tool to paint, then added plain background, gradient and tree bark texture.

Ooh sharynideas beautiful color play, soft and dreamy. I like it very much.

Janet