Apr/May 2012 Contest Discussion

[T Paul]

Add your comments, questions or general discussion about the contest entries here. This is also a great place to share your techniques or ask others about theirs.

Most members are eager to hear comments/suggestions about their entries, so please take the time to help each other out.

[T Paul]

This contest challenges you to transform the provided photo into an artistic white on black chalk sketch. Working with white on black takes some practice, but can produces some wonderful results. The stronger entries will mimic the chalk texture as well as balance what details to highlight.

The below link provides some excellent examples: white on black chalk sketches

[CaptainObvious]

I got stuck into this challenge and really enjoyed this one.

I used many, many layers to achieve the final effect, and sadly, the 100kb upload limit destroys a lot of the detail, but I think the final effect is acceptable. I have used a smudging effect for a lot of the image and overlayed the detail afterwards, just as you can do when using chalks. It was fun.

[Crapaud]

Originally Posted by CaptainObvious

I got stuck into this challenge and really enjoyed this one.

I used many, many layers to achieve the final effect, and sadly, the 100kb upload limit destroys a lot of the detail, but I think the final effect is acceptable. I have used a smudging effect for a lot of the image and overlayed the detail afterwards, just as you can do when using chalks. It was fun.

Did you work on the pic at full size and crop at the end, Cap'n? I find that resizeing then artifying works - then you only have to worry about the file compression.

Originally Posted by TPaul

... The stronger entries will mimic the chalk texture ...

Can you link to a bigger pic, TPaul? It's difficult to see the effect on the small pics you've linked to.

[T Paul]

Links will not be accepted for entries. The link I provided for ideas is just that. You can Google white on black chalk sketches and see what you turn up.

Have Fun!

[CaptainObvious]

Originally Posted by Crapaud

Did you work on the pic at full size and crop at the end, Cap'n? I find that resizing then artifying works - then you only have to worry about the file compression.

as a matter of rule, I always work with the full size image. I'm just used to it because of the retouching work I do.

However, I did resize one layer, make some adjustments and then enlarge it again, in order to get some of the chalk texture right, a process I've not used before, but which worked pretty well on this project.

[Janet Petty]

edbayani, you need to resize your image to 800 pixels by 600 pixels. It is too good of an entry to be disqualified because of the size requirements needed for a final entry.

Janet

[CaptainObvious]

Originally Posted by Janet Petty

edbayani, you need to resize your image to 800 pixels by 600 pixels. It is too good of an entry to be disqualified because of the size requirements needed for a final entry.

Janet

That was my thoughts exactly. I was coming here to raise the same point.

+1

[Crapaud]

It's after 1am here and either I'm tired or having one of my thick moments. I'm having difficulty replacing my entry with a newer version, but when I click 'edit' I only seem to be able to edit the text. Could someone give me a pointer on how to change it?

Ta.

[Crapaud]

As you were! Thick moment over; new version uploaded.

[Crapaud]

<hint> I thought that the voting thread would have been unlocked by now (it being the 26th). </hint>

[Joeven]

I was wondering the same thing.

Joe

[T Paul]

My bad...thread is open now and you have 2 extra days to votes.

[T Paul]

I hope everyone had a good time with this contest and that there will be some sharing of techniques in the discussion forum (hint, hint).

Congratulations goes to....Bill Frey for winning the Apr/May 2012 Contest!!

Top 5:
Bill Frey - 43
Janet Petty - 30
Crapaud - 28
Cupcake - 18
Joeven - 14

[Joeven]

Congratulations Bill. Nice job.

Joe