PHOTO ART: Mini-Challenge #08 - Red Rock Canyon, NV

[gland]

Blacknight the water reflection is really nice.

[Blacknight]

The beautiful part for me is also the ease with which it is accomplished. Just adjust the horizon line for the water and it does all the hard work. Beats hauling it into Bryce and waiting for a render, then retouching in PS (which is what I used to do). You can also vary the waviness and put in a little "fish splash" set of ring ripples if you want. A nice filter for making anything instant "poolside".

[Woody]

PS 7: I used difference cloud and emboss to get this strange Carlos Castenida effect.

[Wanda Schwind]

what beautiful entries on this one An absolutely wonderful Photo, I've never been that far west These are the filters I used, Blur, Cut Out, Emboss, Note Paper, Smudge Stick, High Pass, blendmode, color Dodge, I ran Rough Pastels twice. One, direction bottom, and direction top right. I can't remember the blend modes for each filter or the opacity, sorry. The frame, PhotoImpact. Thank you everyone for your wonderful entries, and Danny for this forum

wanda

[Cheryl H]

Great photo and some awesome submissions.

Danny thanks again for sharing your test process--I like the results.

[Cheryl H]

Wow Don--that was certainly worth the effort. It looks great.

[catia]

Nice version Cheryl.

I decided to crop into a panorama and then do a watercolor.

Catia

Sorry, I forgot the "tell" part. Done in PSP8. First cropped. Then an edge preserving smooth (setting = 30) followed by a brush strokes filter. Settings in the filter were Angle = 311, Bristles = 256, Color = black, Density = 26, Length = 15, Opacity = 0, Softness = 1, Width = 6.

[MoonFizz]

This one is screen applied in painter then express texture (faded).
Airbrushed the sky blue and added a lens flare in ps.
Back in painter added a a cloud with the image hose on 50%opacity then frame, text in ps.

...Gary

[jch71566]

Catia and MoonFizz's postings brought this to my attention. These are all beautiful!!!!

Mine was done using Edge-Preserving Smooth, Microsoft Impressionist, followed by Dry-Brush. Had to treat the sky different from the mountains and fore-ground to get the right effect.

-Jeff

[ahutton]

Didn't think I'd like working this, but it was cool. I brightened it up and did a quick VP gouache. Then I applied PSP8 effect Rough Leather Custom #1 with a dark teal green as the leather color and softened the entire image. I like the effect in the foreground.

Amy

[DannyRaphael]

Well done, Amy. A nice blend of detail with rough shapes.

~Danny~

[Janet Petty]

Living in the Ozarks of Arkansas offers rich, lush vegetation, lots of water, and a myriad of other things. One thing it does not offer is a view that only stops when your eyes fall off the edge of the world while looking for the horizon in the blurred haze of the desert's warmth. These red rocks and harsh environment offer their own beauty. I thought it was about time to revive an old thread and offer it another place of honor in our artistic quests.

Since I'm an old desert rat, I punched the colors to reflect a more true representation of reds, yellows, and oranges. Other than that, this is just a desert painting...Done in Painter and tweaked in Photoshop.

Janet

[SWEngineer]

Wonderful Janet. What brush(es) did you use on this? It turned out super.

I like how the sky looks in this one. The dirt and a few of the shrubs turned out ok too. The rest needs help, but I'm not sure what to do with it. Mostly hand painted so that's likely the source of the ills. Done with a mix of Painter8 sumi-e brushes. These are tricky to work with. I cut way back on the brush opacity settings & added color variability in most cases.

-Mark

[jaykita]

One layer of impressionist (modified) setting, others using layer masks and default paintbrush in ps7. Selective color adj.

[Janet Petty]

Mark, I'm late to the party and just noticed your desert scene. I really like the Van Gogh feel to your piece. It is bold and harsh, just like the desert itself. Good going.

You are right when you say the red hills were difficult to paint. I think I did them three times before I got one I liked. I also added a cactus in the corner to help balance the picture.

You asked what brushes I used...I almost always use either regular pastels or oil pastels. They seem to deliver the look I'm trying for the best.

Jaykita, yours rocks as usual. Your real time painting talent stands you in good stead as your paint in the virtual world.

Your comments about people not appreciating what you do on the computer is heard in my corner as well. At the very least, we all band together in this forum for a pat on the back or two and learn from each other in the bargain. I think that is wonderful in and of itself. I couldn't find a "smilie" for patting; so I'll settle for the humble little

Janet