First attempt at 'art' - porcelain

[Adrian_K]

hi all,
I think I've exaggerated this version too much, but there's a couple more version in my gallery.
And I'm also not happy with the edges. I've tried all sort of things, with smart blur it just ends up a bit blocky - find edges doesn't give the control. Any more suggestions?

fire away!
cheers
Adrian

[DannyRaphael]

Welcome, Adrian!

Here's my 2 cents...

I would soften the edges using Stylize > Diffuse > Anisotropic. The result is different than just applying a blur filter. After applying the filter, you can fiddle with the intensity using the Edit > Fade command. You can always apply a little Unsharp Mask or a Levels adjustment to give the edges a little more crispness after the Ansio treatment.

Besides softening the hard edges, I think I'd erase (or hide via layer mask) some of the extraneous noise rendered by Smart Blur/Edge only. To me that can be a distraction.

Here’s an example to illustrate what I mean. For my taste I overdid the edge softening a bit, but that can be remedied as noted previously.

I like the solid color you choose for the porcelain look. For something a little different, you could try adding a Gradient layer (pick or create your own gradient), set to blend mode = Color. That will apply the colors w/o taking away from the line detail.

Good luck as you fine tune this technique. It has a LOT of promise.

~Danny~

[GeoM]

For me it's about color and tone.

[Adrian_K]

I've found that applying a small gaussian blur as the first step will also reduce some of the extraneous detail.

Danny, I like your suggestion of the gradient layer, I was trying something similar with the history brush.

cheers,
Adrian

more attempts here:
http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/...ian_K/General/