[gormaymax]

I am new to this photo art but having been inspired by Shari Burns's work on http://www.pbase.com/shariwb I would very much like to get into it.

Does anyone know of specific tutorials by Shari, as her technique would very much suit my style of Photograpy, and living in Australia, I get to shoot some real colourful stuff that would look great as 'canvas'

Thanks All. Please post any links you may have
Have a good one.

[Leah]

She's a member here at RetouchPRO, so you can have a look at her posts here for a description of what she's done on some of the photo art images we've had on the forums.

[Edit: Oopsie! Used the wrong URL for the search. I've fixed it now, thanks to kiska for pointing it out]

[kiska]

I clicked "here" and it said-'sorry,no matches'. I'd like to see some of her tuts.
kiska
I found it. Went to member list>S>page#7>shariwb

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by gormaymax

I am new to this photo art but having been inspired by Shari Burns's work on http://www.pbase.com/shariwb I would very much like to get into it.

Does anyone know of specific tutorials by Shari, as her technique would very much suit my style of Photograpy, and living in Australia, I get to shoot some real colourful stuff that would look great as 'canvas'

Thanks All. Please post any links you may have
Have a good one.

Gorymax:

Welcome and thanks for posting your question. Shari does some inspiring work, that's for sure.

She hasn't posted any tutorials here at RetouchPRO, but if you post a couple example URLs from her pBase gallery of specific works that inspire you, I might be able to point you in the right direction technique-wise.

If she enabled contact by e-mail or private mail you could also contact her via the Member List link (above), click on "S" and navigate to page 7. Her login ID is Sheriwb. Then send her e-mail or private mail through her profile.

I hope this helps. I'll be happy to answer any other questions or help you in any way.

~Danny~

[gormaymax]

Thanks everyone, if it's advice I'm after, I've obviously come to the right place.
Danny, as requested here's a link to some of Shari's work, which I'd like to recreate http://www.pbase.com/shariwb/mauiphotoart
Especially, the textured background and realistic 'paint' effect.

Thanks again .... Andy.

[DannyRaphael]

Hi again, Andy:

I'm glad you checked back in. I'll see if I can help. Let's start with Textures. (I'm assuming you're using Photoshop. If not, the comments would apply generally to other programs.)

Textures through the Filter > Texture > Texturizer filter
Here's the most flexible way I have found to apply textures via Texturizer:
* Create a new layer
* Edit > Fill > 50% gray
* Change layer blend mode from Normal to Overlay
* Filter > Texture > Texturizer ... pick your texture and adjust settings, and apply it.

The advantages of this method is you can adjust the opacity of the texture layer and change the blend mode to (say) Soft Light or Hard Light, not to mention deleting the layer if you just don't like it. That's much more flexible than applying the texture effect directly to a layer.

Besides the textures installed with Photoshop, you can add your own textures. You can find gazillions of texture files to download on the Internet. The only requirements are the texture file must be Mode = Grayscale and in Photoshop file format (.psd). Beware many download textures are in .jpg format. You would need to open the .jpg, Image > Mode > Grayscale and File > Save as... (file format: Photoshop [.psd]).

It technically doesn't matter to Photoshop where custom texture files live. You could create a folder anywhere convenient, e.g., Mike's Textures, and Photoshop would be fine with that. It's probably a good idea to put the custom textures folder "outside of the Photoshop" file path. That why when you replace your current version of Photoshop in the future, you won't accidently wipe out your custom textures folder in the process.

In the Texturizer texture dropdown menu, choose "Load Texture...", navigate to the custom texture folder, choose the custom texture file and away you go.

Textures via a Pattern layer
If you have a fairly recent version of Photoshop (CS, 7 and I believe 6), you can apply textures through what's known as a Pattern layer. Here's how to create one:
* Among the controls at the bottom of the Layers Palette is a half-filled (at a diagonal) circle. Click it and from the menu choose Pattern...
* From the menu, choose a pattern and click OK.
* Change the blend mode from Normal to Overlay.
* Then double-click the pattern layer so you can fine tune the pattern characteristics.

The advantages of this method are similar to the one above, plus it's easy to change a pattern (or its characteristcs) to something else. With a little Internet searching, you can easily locate and download .pat files, too. Same comments apply as above regarding folder location (outside the Photoshop path) and name, e.g., \Mike's Patterns.

Textures via a Layer Mask
The brush referenced here is available in Photoshop 7 or later. If you have an earlier version, experiment with other brushes. The Layer Mask discussion applies to any Photoshop version.

One of my favorite Photoshop 7 brushes is "Chalk 36". It's among the brushes in the default brushes set. (Note: There are two brushes with this name. Choose the one closest to the bottom of the Brushes palette.)

This is an easy one to try:
* Open any image
* Image > Adjustments > Desaturate
* Layer > New > Layer. The name you assign makes no difference.
* Edit > Fill > White (covers up the Background)
* Layer > Add Layer Mask > Reveal all
* Choose your Chalk 36 brush
* Be sure the Foreground color is black (it should be at this point)
* Opacity: Set to about 20%. Same thing for the Flow option.
* Start "painting." This will will give the illusion that you've created a textured, pencil sketch.

Here are a couple very good layer mask tutorials (registration required):
#1, part 1: http://www.shootsmarter.com/infocenter/sa005.html
#1, part 2: http://www.shootsmarter.com/infocenter/sa006.html

#2: http://www.vrya.net/ts/photoshop7.php

#3: http://www.webreference.com/graphics/column23/

/////////////////////////

Realistic Paint Effects

Different people have different interpretations of "realistic." If you're into Photoshop actions for generating photo-art, you'll find this thread of interest:
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2653

In this regard I would highly recommend checking out the actions (mostly free) offered by Mike Finn:
http://homepages.slingshot.co.nz/~mikefinn/action.html

This one has a boatload of photo-art actions, too. Some pretty good, some so-so:
http://www.geocities.com/kafuensis/

In my opinion for the most part none of the most common image editing programs (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, PhotoPaint, etc.) have the ability to render painting-like effects by themselves.

Photoshop's Artistic > Dry Brush filter sometimes works. You can also create effects that sort of look like watercolor (kind of faded colors run together), but it's a stretch compared to "the real thing."

To get exceptionally realistic painting effects, the consensus program that has these capabilities is Corel Painter (www.Corel.com). This is a heavy hitter program that is most useful to folks who have real (as in traditional) painting or sketching experience. That's not to say it cannot be used by stick figure experts like myself (I have Painter and am able to leverage about 3% of it's capabilities), but it's a non-trivial investment.

There is hope, however, in 3rd party add-ons (plug-ins) to supplement the effects your image editor can produce:
* www.FantasticMachines.com - Paint Engine. This is now a "donate-ware" plugin that has about 75 presets to transform an image. (Do a forum search on "Paint Engine" for more threads.)
* www.Fo2Pix.com - Buzz is a very popular plugin. If you envision doing a lot of watercolor-like work, Buzz does a pretty decent job of simulating that. Do a forum search on "Buzz", too. You should get lots of hits.
* www.Vpainter.com: Virtual Painter. This plugin creates very unique effects, some very painterly. Note: If you're an eBay shopper, you can get either of these for about 40% less than what you would pay buying them directly from the vendor websites.
* My absolute favorite: The Microsoft Impressiost plugin. E-mail me via my profile more more information. It is also available on the CDs of Microsoft's Front Page program (97, 98, 2000). If you are an eBay shopper, auctions for Front Page are going on all the time.

Okay. That's all I have time for at the moment. Time to take my son to his T-ball game.

Hope this gives you some ideas and I also hope other members will share their thoughts in this regard.

~Danny~

[gormaymax]

Danny,

Thanks for that, what can I say ... how comprehensive is that?
Lots there to get me started, so it's a case of getting to practise these affects and see what woks best. Off down the beach now with my kids to get some more digi shots, as I've just got a sony 717 so my hard drive is slowly filling up with images to practice on.

Thanks again, and hopefully I'll post some pics up soon for you to have a look at how I'm getting on.

Speak soon.
Andy.

[Leah]

Another thing is that Shari uses a lot of the Buzz and Virtual Painter effects (See links above in Danny's post) combined with native Photoshop filters.

[andrea31419]

Is Virtual Painter a separate program or can it be used with Photoshop?

Andrea

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by andrea31419

Is Virtual Painter a separate program or can it be used with Photoshop?

Andrea

Starting with Virtual Painter 4.0, it can be both...
* Product #1 is a stand alone program and does not require Photoshop (or any other image editing program).
* Product #2 is a plugin that is invoked from the Filters menu. It will work with Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Paintshop PRO, Corel Painter, etc.
* Product #3 is a packing of both. I can't think of why one would need both, but is offered.

~Danny~

[Legacy~Art]

How absolutely gorgeous, now that is what i'd love to do too.