First post for a new process I am trying to figure out

http://jja.image.pbase.com/u15/dick707/large/38831108.bishop8abc.jpg

and the gallery
http://www.pbase.com/dick707/photo_paintings

Hi Dick:

Welecome to RetouchPRO. Glad to see you stopped in.

Photography-wise, you do some very nice work.

Photo-art wise the ones I especially like are:
http://www.pbase.com/dick707/image/38545582
http://www.pbase.com/dick707/image/38611224
http://www.pbase.com/dick707/image/38750658

This one has a lot of potential...
http://www.pbase.com/dick707/image/38854840
Looks like a heavy dose of PS Dry Brush, which is a good place to start, but the mottled texturing on the skin (to me) is a little distracting.

I took the liberty of further manipulating your pic to give you an alternate perspective. (Done in Photoshop with the Impressionist plugin. E-mail me via my profile for details if you're interested.)

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I'm on board with "what is (and isn't) art is in the eye of the beholder." That said to me the final result of a photo-to-painting conversion needs to have been sufficiently manipulated so there's no mistaking it with a not-so-well taken photo. That and $3 will buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

In focus and properly exposed photos capture a lot of detail and every single color. What usually distinguishes paintings is a simplified (not so detailed) image and a limited color palette.

You're off to a great start. May you have continued success with your photography and developing your own artistic manipulation style.

~Danny~

One things for sure, you have a great eye for photography.........some fantastic shots.