Award Winning Digital Painting and Retouching Available to Photographers

[Etherielle]

Award Winning Digital Artist, Etherielle, is offering professional photographers digital retouching, restoration, and painted interpretations at wholesale prices. Please see www.etherielle.com for more details. Email heather@etherielle.com for more information.

Mention this ad and receive $15 toward your first order.*


*Order must be $30 or more.

[emarts]

Interesting site Heather. I was considering doing something similar. Are you getting alot of work? Who owns the copyright to the image, you or the photographer?

[Etherielle]

Emarts,

Yes, I get much work from all over the country. I'm fortunate that I get to do what I love for a living . The photographer owns the copyright. I have to get written permission to use the painted finals as samples for my website, or promotions just like when you ask a photographer for permission to use an image in a magazine. The copyright ownership doesn't change. Both parties are happy.
Heather

[emarts]

Mind sharing a little of your technique? I'm not quite as good as you are. My art looks a bit cheap. A couple of links:

http://www.em-arts.com/alyssa.htm
http://www.em-arts.com/at_the_park2.htm

I start the portraits by tracing the photo, then I hand paint from there. I could do it without tracing but I get paid so little that I need to save the time in order to still make it worth the effort. And it takes me a long time to do these.

Are you using Photoshop or Painter? I bought Painter 9 but I'm so intimidated by the interface, I've not really used it much.

[vidanse]

Beautiful work. Where in North Carolina do you live? My fiance and I are flying back October 20th to visit his daughter who is opening a store in Asheville.

I work for a local studio www.atomatisphotography.com and do all of their retouching. Have been learning Painter and love it. I have my own web page but it is not quite finished. I still have some blanks to fill in. Too busy retouching high school senior faces at the moment. Your watercolor gallery link isn't working for me.

Love your work!
Vicki

[Etherielle]

Sorry I hadn't replied. I haven't been to this forum in ages. Emarts, I basically prep the image in Photoshop CS 2, and then take it in Painter 9 (which is COMPLETELY WORTH THE UPGRADE!) and make a blank layer above the background. I never work on the background as a rule of thumb. From there, I use tons of various brushes starting with the background space, and save the faces for last since it's my favorite part to paint. I change the brushes, opacities and sizes often, and regularly "step back from the painting" to keep fresh and in perspective. I like your style, by the way emarts. Very clean and fresh. Jeremy Sutton and Helen Yancy have awesome DVDs on Painter and they are both excellent teachers. Painter's interface is definitely intimidating. I am only familiar with the actual painting
aspect of it, as I do everything else in Photoshop.


Thanks, Vicki,
Asheville is such a gorgeous part of NC. If you ever get a chance, you have to visit Biltmore estate. They have several original paintings by John Singer Sargeant. I'm in Charlotte, Nascar country. The watercolor gallery is not posted. I'm hoping to update the entire site in the next month. I'd love to see your webpage when you're finished. What's the link?

Good luck painting! Enjoy!
Heather

[vidanse]

Asheville is beautiful, I loved it. If I were ever to move from California I would consider that town. We did go to the Biltmore Estate. Gorgeous place but very long lines to get in.

I'm almost finished with the web page I just have two blank spaces on my portrait page and need to add content to the news page or change it to something else. I use Dream Weaver to work on it.

http://vwilliamsdesign.com

Another good DVD for Painter is one by Jane Conner-ziser called "Painter and PhotoShop - Watercolor Plus expanded Portrait techniques" from Software Cinema. They also offer day long seminars around the country that are worth attending if you live near or in one of the cities. She is going to be in San Francisco this month. The charge for the day is usually $49.

Vicki