Thought we needed some new fodder for our hungry art appetites.

This one is form Morguefile.com

Amy

Nice choice, Amy. A classic.

I though I would try the new Impressionist brush set on this one to see how it does on portraits. (Click here (http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showpost.php?p=83550&postcount=13).) I used all three settings to render layers (G, F & E) with high, medium and low detail.

The new Xero > Caravaggio effect (http://www.xero-graphics.co.uk/) was used in layer H. Photoshop's Dry Brush would have worked, too.

Adjustment layers K, L and M were used to add contrast to the hat, tone down the colors in the background (I thought they were distracting) and lighten her face a little.

When I was examining I noticed that her right eye (left side of image) looked wrong. It was because the white of the other eye was visible. So I:
* Positioned horizontal and vertical at the intersection of the bad eye
* Used the Lasso to drag around the good eye
* Ctrl + J to create a new layer consisting only of the selected eye
* Ctrl + click on the eye-only layer, to load the selection (marching ants)
* Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal (get it going in the right direction)
* Edit > Free Transform to drag and rotate the replacement eye into position using the guides as, well, guides (press Enter to accept the transformation and ctrl + D to Select > None)
* Added a Hide All layer mask and airbrushed to make that eye look a little more balanced.

For those more ambition than I was this morning, something like this could be opened in Painter for additional painterly effects, but I gotta run.

Anyway, it was fun.

~Danny~

I recall this photo from Morgue File, it'll be fun to work on. Thanks Amy.

Fabulous result Danny, thanks for the steps taken, will try later this month and for the new set of Impressionist brushes too. :bigthmb:

For better or for worse I'm posting this anyway, the strokes are rough and not entirely following contours. Without any better tutorials yet for doing portraits I continue to experiment.

Painter 8.1

Oils/Thick Wet Oils 10 – all over face and some hair.
Blenders/Grainy Blender 10 – Over face
Cloners/Wet Oils Cloner 10 – 33% Opacity
Size 2.9 (Outlining eyes and wrinkles)
Blenders/Oil Blender – Over wrinkles at Low Opacity
Gouache/Fine Round Gouache – Hat
Oils/Wet Oils on Clothing, earrings and pigtail.

P.S. Just looked at this compressed, it's not the same at all. Printed better.

Here is a different take on this one...... :dizzy:

As always duplicate layer.
I made a rectangular selection 1/9 the size of the image.
Applied smuge stick.
Adjusted color balance.
Repeated 8 more times.
Create new layer and draw grid.
Increased stoke to 2 px.
Flatten image.

Painter8 Digital Watercolor. This was almost too easy. (Did I really say that??). I like the oil look ( :thumbsup: Neve), but they're hard (esp. portraits). The simplicity of watercolor certainly has much to recommend it.

6) a light sandstone texture added in Elements
5) 2B PencilSketch layer (Gel, very low opacity)
4) DigH2O PointedSimpleWater + PureWaterBristle to diffuse a bit. (The woman) (Gel, full opacity)
3) FineMopBrush (The woman). (Gel, Reduced opacity)
2) DigH2O CourseWater + FineMopBrush (Background) (Gel, full opacity)
1) White canvas

-Mark

Mark, I like your painting very much.

Corel Painter 8, digital water color cloning with fine tip wc brush, various sizes and opacities.

Judy, I'm glad you like the picture. You've been very supportive & encouraging of my (typically amaturish) efforts. I really apprecitate it.

Your's is just the fine tip brush?? That's very impressive. I've only used it for small details. Guess I'll have to experiment some.

Regards. - Mark

My first post in too long. She was such an intriguing subject, I couldn't resist.

Cloned in Painter with Pastels and Oil Pastels.
Tweaked and lighted in Photoshop.

Since there's so many classic painter work here, this is with PS

Distrote>pola>Rect to pola>angled strokes>Pola
This time Pola to rect> erazed edges, eyes,mouth and nose
Select all> copy merged>paste
duplicate copy. Render>lighting effects
Negative on 48
Tex channel>blue
white is high (hight 66)

Manju

Manju -- Great Look!

Thank you for showing new ways we can mix filters -- I've always loved the Polar distortions, but could only use them on non-human subjects because I never considered running another filter and then un-doing the distortion! Now there are so many more combinations to try!

Did a Sharpen-Diffuse, then Palette Knife between the Polar distortions and added your lighting recipe and faded a bit to my taste.

Tried a new approach with art history brush, pattern tool and layer style-satin.

A real mix..

the first version..using a woodcut version, painted it in Painter & also added a layer of a watercolor done in Painter 6... all blended in Photoshop

the second was painted in Painter, custom brushes... impressionist detail mono from Pencils... then used the woodcut plug in in Painter 8... then painted, textured.

Gold Coin, I like both versions but i ESPECIALLY like the 2nd. Thanks for the woodcut details.

A real mix..

the first version..using a woodcut version, painted it in Painter & also added a layer of a watercolor done in Painter 6... all blended in Photoshop

the second was painted in Painter, custom brushes... impressionist detail mono from Pencils... then used the woodcut plug in in Painter 8... then painted, textured.Your combinations of effects are simply marvelous.

If I don't get anything done today, it's your fault: I'm gonna start checking out that Woodcut effect! :lmao: Really appreciated the screenshot on that one.

First, I duplicated the layer and ran DCSpecials Outliner4 filter set to colorbook. I then blur the base layer with a setting of 12 (still in GIMP by the way). I then set the top layer to Value and flatten. I port the whole thing into PS and duplicate the layer. I ran Flaming Pear's Pixel Trash on top layer and set it to Luminosity. I flatten and duplicated the layer again. I ran Impressionist Colored Pencil preset and adjust the opacity to 67%. Flatten. Done (well, I did autocontrast and increased the saturation a bit). :)

Oh yah; I added canvas texture too. :wink:

Nice image. Great colors that add nicely to manipulations.

Jolly looking lady too.

Steve

My other hobby is converting photos to b/w. One technique that I've been perfecting has been dubbed Metallic b/w (dubbed on another forum by another member). I use GIMP Retinex filter for the effect. I changed it up some from my original method. What I did was duplicate for a total of three layers, run Retinex on the top layer (set to low setting), Set layer property to Grain Extract and merge down. Invert the colors of this layer and set to Overlay. I then flatten, duplicate the layer and run GIMP's Gradient Map conversion to convert to Greyscale (using a PseudoGrey preset that I wish I knew where I got it from, but lost the original link). I set the top layer to Hue (returns the b/w gradients back; you have to do this step, otherwide the image will be standard 256 tones instead of over 1000). Flatten and save (well, I did brighten it up some more). Let me know what you think of it. The overall effect tends to equalize (in a good way, I believe) the overall contrast of an image. :)

.....(well, I did brighten it up some more). Let me know what you think of it. The overall effect tends to equalize (in a good way, I believe) the overall contrast of an image. :)
I agree with you Ikroll, overall image contrast looks very nice this way! Looks like a winner, I don't have Gimp, and had never heard of Retinex til this post. I did a little searching and was impressed with many of the examples using the filter.

But what I'm more impressed with is how many people share so much info here at RP, and how much can be learned by experimenting. I honestly believe I've learned more about blending layers, and the resulting effects, in the last couple of weeks, than I have in the last few years. Amazes me, the talent here.

I just about threw everything at this photo to many to not only list but remember !

Palms

Mainly thanks to Impressionist. Also added a hint of the original too (used the previous rendering that I submitted to start out with). :)

lkroll, I really, really like what you have done with Impressionist in creating the hand-stitched look. Hat's off to you for being persistent and making it look real.

Janet

hi!
DannyRaphael, thanks for Caravago - very interesting plug-in!
my variant:
1. duplicate background layer and use filter Underpainting;
2. duplicate layer, use Caravago;
3. Unsharpen Mask for this layer;
4. opacity for Caravago layer = about 40%
5. use Level for brightness and contrast.
and it's all!!!!

A little pencil sketch interpretation.

Steve

An oil painting using impressionist djroil24 twice with modification.
Alan

lkroll, I really, really like what you have done with Impressionist in creating the hand-stitched look. Hat's off to you for being persistent and making it look real.

Janet


Thanks Janet. Hope you have some fun with it too; play with the family brush settings as well (I'm just using a single brush). Had some good results doing this too (haven't shown anyone yet). And, if you want to see a little bit of ugly, then click here (http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/8399/singlethread9rn.jpg) of one done on me. :lol:

I did this one a week or so ago but apparently forgot to upload it. If I remember correctly (which is by no means certain these days) I used the EricN watercolor action with some tweaking.

dc

Really nice guys.... Here's one done with a combination of Ro's chalk and Trimoon's watercolor ahb's...hope it's worth putting on, I'm really only experimenting....John

Hi John... Liked yours a lot so thought i would have a go...i really need to practice doing faces as i would like to do good ones.... :lmao:

Previous renditions of this lady in a hat are brilliant...well done all of you...

I also used Photoshop CS2....Same trimoons art history water color brushes, played around changing the sizes for a while...took it into Painter and just added water to the background...i then smudged a little on the face...action frame to finish...

Patricia... :wavey:

John,
Thank you for putting the picture back in the spotlight (Danny, thank you for finding the picture in the first place).

Painter, additional work in Photoshop (textures, background). Pavel

Pavel:---no problem, it's amazing what you can find on this site, it seems to be never ending!
Patricia:---like yours, it makes you wonder how even using the same brushes everyone comes up with a different take on the same pic. :bigthmb:
John

Nice one Pavel...like the soft colors...

John...Thanks for your nice comment...very new to doing faces and this one was good practice...infact you inspired me!

Patricia... :classic:

Patricia---I inspired you!!! I always thought it was the other way around!! :bow: ....

Just realized that, although I started this thread, I never got around to posting my own version. So here it is.

Amy

Tried a "boosted colors" version of my earlier posting. Pavel

MMMMMMMMM---Nice.......John :bigthmb:

I tried it in three way
Impressionist: PSCS Halftone Pattern,USM: PSCS AHB

Alex

I like the third one especially, minimalist but very effective.....John

I like the third one especially, minimalist but very effective.....John

Thank you John

Alex

Just realized that, although I started this thread, I never got around to posting my own version. So here it is.

Amy

Amy,
My apologies, it was you who started the thread. I assumed (by default) that it was Danny.

Alex... I vote for your first picture.

Pavel

Just found this thread with such an interesting face. I did an ink sketch in Painter.
MargaretM

Great photo. So much character.

rusty thoughts

Ah!...a lady from out of the past, (threads that is).

OK, here's another try, done with a lot of just playing around to see what came up.

Steve

I haven't posted in awhile. Here's my attempt at a pastel looking print. Hope everyone enjoys it! Let me know what you think! I loved painting it.

That is very good bbuttry and so is your stunning web site , makes me timid to post my image. I used about three photoshop filters before adding Impressionist Watercolor Damp Translucent.

That is very good bbuttry and so is your stunning web site.Agreed... very impressive work, Brad. The background work is especially impressive. Don't be a stranger here.

re: makes me timid to post my image.
Wait... give yourself some credit. I greatly admire people like you who jump right in. Most people who surf this forom "only look." There's definitely nothing wrong with having less experience than someone as accomplished as Brad.

If you like his style (and I do), Google "smudge painting" to get ideas on a method that will get you going in that direction.

re: I used about three photoshop filters before adding Impressionist Watercolor Damp Translucent
The fact you're using / combining multiple effects is a sign you're growing. Don't stop doing that! :)

=================

On mine I used layers rendered by:
* AKVIS Sketch for edges
* Impressionist Conte > Faithful - to mess with the colors
* Jeremy's Mish-mash brush in Painter

~Danny~

very nice Brad nice site as well hope you do stay around so we may learn something from you .
Jim Jam agree with Danny holeheartedly the best way to learn is read and join in, that way you get inspiration and inspire others, Although you can search "smudge painting" here there are a few threads on it with links.

Palms

Thank you Danny and palms1 for your encouragement. That is a very nice painterly textured effect Danny very good rendition.

What a beautiful woman!
Done mostly with the pattern stamp tool.
Sylvia

Sylvia, I like your approach to this. It is bright and refreshing. Very painterly. You also took about 15 years off her age. :)

Janet

Thank you, Janet! Yeah, it's true, I rejuvenated her a bit... :happy:
Sylvia

Isn't it funny how some pic really inspire you to keep pushing or try something new. This pix sure did it for me..
Made some new brushes in Painter 6, yesterday played with them in Painter 7 with a different pix...then today with Painter 8.

http://www.pbase.com/goldcoin/image/76407846/small.jpg (http://www.pbase.com/goldcoin/image/76407846/original)

Lovely, Goldcoin. I like your brushes.