PHOTO ART: Mini-Challenge #01 - Mountain Man

[DannyRaphael]

This is the first “mini-challenge” in the Photo-based Art category.

Unlike “official challenges” for this forum posted here, this one will be self-contained within this thread. It is intended as a souce of amusement until the next official challenge is posted.

Rules are the same:
* It’s a challenge, not a contest -- intended to sharpen skills and to share techniques.
* Everyone who participates is a winner.

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#1 – Mountain Man

This image was originally posted in the Technique > Critiques/Opinions/Help requested forum by one of our regulars, Fugitive (aka: Greg), who graciously approved using it here for this purpose.

Guidelines:
1. Convert this image to “art.”

2. Use any style or format you like, e.g., oil, watercolor, sketch, stick figure, whatever. Makes no difference which application(s) and/or plugin(s) and/or filters you use. Want to hand paint it? Go for it. Wanna add a frame? Why not?

3. Have fun.

4. When done, reply to this thread and attach your work (don’t forget the 100K size limit).

5. For this particular thread, focus on the result, not the technique. If you did something unusual or discovered something really cool, by all means report it. If other members are exceptionally interested in the blow-by-blow steps or other details, they will ask.

Bottom line: Just do it.

6. Have fun

7. Did I mention, “Have fun”?

OK. Recess starts now.

~DannyR~

[Wanda Schwind]

OK, here goes. I had a lot of fun. So here it is for everyone to amuse over I wasn't trying to create a master piece, just had a lot of fun with the pallete knife. Looks more like a wildman than a mountain man when I got through Great idea, Danny, for those of us who can't pull ourselves away from the computer

wanda

[fugitive]

That looks good, but who's palette knife did you use?

[Wanda Schwind]

I used Painter Classic. Oval in Deluxe. Thanks, I really had fun, nice not to have to write down procedure

Wanda

[DannyRaphael]

OK. Wanda. I made up the rules. I can change them!

Generally speaking, how did you do this! Photoshop? Painter?

Do you use a tablet? (If not, add 500 to the 'amazing results' column.)

~Danny~

[Wanda Schwind]

You better not change the rules Generally speaking, I used Painter Classic, brushes, pallete knife. Used just a little airbrush on the cheeks. Yes, I have a tablet that I just learned to use. Can't say how much i love it Couldn't live without it!! I selected with the lasso tool, used paintbucket to change the bk/grnd. And then......Well that's it.

Wanda

[Blacknight]

Here he is looking like a new man!

[Jakaleena]

Cool idea, Danny! But if you keep it up, I'll never get any REAL work done... LOL

Anyway, here's my contribution....

[fugitive]

The tablet is mightier than the mouse! Glad you love it.

BTW, If anyone wants my Painter Classic, they can have it.

[etienne]

Voila

[Jakaleena]

I love that texture, Phil. How did you make it?

[PixelMover]

Mr Mountain man

Done with Painter 7.0, Photoshop 6.0 and a Wacom Intuos 2

[DannyRaphael]

Wow!

Mt. Man probably never looked or felt so good. Some great intrepretations so far.

Etienne:
EXCELLENT WORK! Welcome to RetouchPro. Glad you jumped right in to join us. Hope we see more of your terrific creations in the future.

Pixelmover:
Sure glad you got over the Painter 7 hump. Exceptional job on this one. Did you print the orig & freehand your rendition or... ??? Give us a hint.

Phil:
Ditto Jak's comment about the texture. Very cool. Looks like he's ready for a night on the town!

Jak:
Background really adds flavor! It's right out of my past life. I can hear "Purple Haze" playing in the background.

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Gosh... looks like everybody else is having fun. It's OK for me to jump in the pool, too, right? ("Heck yeah! I'm the moderator!" LOL)

Here's one in which I used a couple effects (Cezanne, Pencil Sketch) from a not well know application called Professor Franklin's Instant Photo Effects. Pulled the results into PS 5.5 and tuned them up a bit.

Kind of the wind blown look, ya think?

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Keep those entries coming. (No expiration on this).

Already submitted one? Wanna do another? GO AHEAD!

But most of all, "Keep having fun!"

~DannyR~

[PixelMover]

Originally posted by DannyRaphael
...<snip>...
Pixelmover:
Sure glad you got over the Painter 7 hump. Exceptional job on this one. Did you print the orig & freehand your rendition or... ??? Give us a hint ...<snip>...

~DannyR~ [/B]

hint... hmm..asking for a hint rather than a full step-by-step description, eh?

ok, here you go.

Used the palette knife in painter with my Wacom, dragged it back to photosop to give it some unsharp masking and lighting effects, back to painter to add some highlights/shadows with a normal brush, then smear a bit more until statisfied..repeat as necessary.

[Jakaleena]

That's funny, Danny!

My original intention was to make one of those kind of '60s psychadelic posters and the background was originally just a radial gradient in some pretty bizzarre colors, but I slingshotted past '60s psych and ended up somewhere completely different - never bothered to remove the background though...

[Jakaleena]

Yes, Etienne! Great job. And welcome to the frey!

I posted a comment earlier about yours, but it must have gotten lost in cyberspace

(hey, wasn't that the name of an old TV show??? )

Anyway, I've been trying to figure out how to turn a photo into a cartoon for ages and can't seem to get it to look like yours does.

Care to share how you did that?

[Ed_L]

Here's mine. I used the image to try Katrin's method of masking the hair. At some point I did modify her course, but I was relatively happy with the outcome.

I pictured the "Mountain Man" as being a fugitive, hiding behind foilage. So I took a shot of my wife's garden, and combined the two. But I don't really remember *exactly* what I did. I used the dry brush to finish up, with brush size 3, detail 8, and texture 2. But I had fun. Thanks Danny. Very cool idea!

Ed

[etienne]

I actually used illustrator to do this one . Don't know if any of you has used it much but it certainly has its place.

I basically just traced the different elements of his face using the pen tool. I ended up with a bunch of different shapes that I color filled and stroked. For the shirt texture I made a 100 px square approximation of MMs' shirt which illustrator allowed me to load up as a swatch. Then it was simply a matter of filling the shape with the swatch.

I've only been using Illustrator for a couple of months but it definitely has it's place. At the moment I'm going through a game of Illustrator tennis w/ a friend who knows his way around the program. The deal his my buddy created a piece which he sent to me in layers. I then took elements that I liked and created my own piece which I "volleyed" back to him. Lots of fun and a good way to learn.

You know I'm thinking you could do something similar here. I've seen it done many times w/ photoshop and its totally cool to see how the intial serve metamorphasize into something completely different.

Whoa got a little OT there heh. But if any one is interested in trying something like this let me know, cuz I'm there.

Cheers,
Etienne

P.S. If anyone is interested in checking out some wicked cool illustrator art, check out http://www.rinzen.com

[Blacknight]

I used two actions from this place somewhere...one was the sketch one and the other was the efx_painter. With that one I used the efx painter image, inversed, and blurred with gaussian blur to suit. The blend modes I played with and don't remember. The original background image I did a lot of hue/sat on. The texture is one OhThatGirl (forgot her name) used and is part of the SPLAT! filter oddities painterly set. Hope that helps.

[DannyRaphael]

Ed:

Your "Mountain Man - Hiding" is inspired! I can almost hear Johnny Rivers playing, "Secret Agent Man" in the background. Appreciate you jumping into the fray for a little frolic and fun.

Herewith is another churning from me to wind this one up for the moment.

Future contributions always welcome!

~DannyR~

[Appoloinus]

Last post was 7-1 so imnot sure if anyone is still reading this thread, buuuuuut here is mu quick 15 mini entry.

this was done in PSP 7.04.

Took the image and median filtered it, fur filtered it, added some noise, copied layer, hot waxed it, and blended luminance at 50%.

The median filter gives the water color look, and the noise with the hotwax gives the canvas texture texture.

[DannyRaphael]

The "mini's" have no expiration either, so though it's been a while since this thread was active your contribution now is fine.

I've got PSP 7.0x and until now hadn't seen a use for the Hot Wax effect. You've inspired me to take another look. Pretty cool.

Glad you've found us and appreciate your contributions.

Keep having fun!

Danny

[Doug Nelson]

Just fiddling while waiting for some files to download.

[etienne]

Looks like somebody got creative with their trowel.

Cool Stuff!
-e

[DannyRaphael]

Very creative, Doug! Given your hectic schedule, glad you choose to spend a few 'on hold' minutes on this one. Please fiddle (or flute or oboe) here anytime!

Give us a few hints on how you did this. I have not a clue about your method...among other things!

~Danny~

[Doug Nelson]

Hmm...as I recall, I duped the layer, applied a huge USM, used that goofy difference filter , flattened, deleted green and blue channels, ran threshold, embossed, ran threshold again, used black for color range selection, ran Dreamsuite's liquid metal filter, put new blank layer under main layer, set main layer to linear light blend mode, used diamond-shaped flesh-to-brown gradient on new layer, then went in and hand-painted a few places.

I like how his shirt came out, best.

[DannyRaphael]

To quote a reviewer on this site for whom I have the highest respect: "YIKES!"

Glad that download was long. What an inspired and creative combination of steps and tools. Without a few crumbs along the path, few could possibly imagine, let alone duplicate it.

OK. That's twice in week I've been shown a "useful" use for the Difference blend mode. Thanks for gracefully opening up that door to new possibilities. I guess I'll have to upgrade it from "Goofy" to "Occasionally Useful."

Perhaps a thread on that subject would be in order... I'll noodle on that and get something going, perhaps today.

~Danny~

[Woody]

I had fun with this one. I chose to keep it
photographic and turn him into a mountainman.
I cut a squirel pic I had for the hat, added a
Colorado background and photographed my
fringed jacket for his toggs.

Woody

[DannyRaphael]

Woody:

It didn't take long at all for you "to catch the spirit." My wife wanted to know if you could clone some hair on my chest like you did for Mountain Man! (I told her you'd be able to in about 30 seconds if you had a pic of me to work with, but we won't go there!)

Welcome to the Sandbox and keep having FUN!

~DannyR~

[BigAl]

First time I've managed find time to visit this particular forum and am amazed at some of the MMs.

Wanda's version looks extraordinarily like BigAl himself (another wild man!).