[Mig]

Very nice evm, especially the background

[evm]

thanks, i never bothered with the art history brush until a week ago when i found out it's quite neet. this is how i approached it:
(a more thorough explanation can be found in the "photoshop wow 6 or 7 book", quite a good book)

open image

new layer - fill with black - opacity 70-80% (lower if result is to dark)

make a snapshot

new layer again this will be the art brush painting area - change this layer to overlay (or dó it at a later stage)

select the art history brush, i used these settings:

an artsy brush 14-20 px, mode normal, opacity 85%, style tight short, fidelity 85%, area 50 px, spacing 3%, brush dynamics size:stylus, opacity:off

i just painted all over and then ran a smaller brush along facial lines etc.

change layer to overlay if you haven't done so, i think i used three layers with different brushes.

i also merged all layers, then ctrl+J and ctrl+shift+U, applied the emboss filter (height 1 pix, amount 400%), changed layer to overlay 20% opacity. after all this i applied the texturizer filter on two layers of 50% gray, one vertical & one horizontal, i think i changed them to softlight or overlay (can't remember, sorry) and lowered the opacity a whole lot.

hope this helps, i'm not that good at writing tutorials and especially not in english!

[siodhach]

Granddaughter


What an attractive little girl, however I don’t like the two black discs that her eyes have turned into … therefore I decided to give blue eyes (I don’t know what the real color of her eyes are). You will notice the change of feeling of the picture. I also decided to put her on a piece of canvas.

Duplicated image.

Selected the eyes individualy and put them on separate layers by Layer > New > Layer Via Copy. Went to color picker and selected the colors for the eyes and applied them with the Air Brush Tool at a pressure of 58 and a fade of 3, adjusted to opacity.

Selected Filter > Texturizer: Texture - Canvas, Scaling - 75%, Relief - 3 and Light Direction - Top Left.

Adjusted contrast with Layer > New > Adjustment > Curves.

Flattened.

Don

[DannyRaphael]

Don:

Glad to see you're nibbling away at the minis. Always good to get fresh perspectives on these.

RE: Eye tweaking
I like your intentions here. The improved eye appearance and application of the color is excellent; doesn't look "painted on" at all to me.

To me the resulting color is a little too light (blue-wise) and was mildly distracting.

You didn't mention it in your writeup (another nice job w/detail, btw), but here's another way to selectively apply color. If you haven't used it before, it affords considerable flexibility:
* Create a hue/saturation adjustment layer above the target layer; click the 'colorize' box (image will go sort of red-ish; not to worry)
* Adjust the hue, saturation and lightness sliders until you get approximately the eye color you're looking for; OK when done to close the dialog box.
* CTRL + I to invert the adjustment layer (thumbnail goes black; colorization disappears)
* With airbrush set to fairly low pressure (20%-30% or so) and foreground color of white, airbrush onto the adustment layer (eyes) to reveal the color. Switch to black to "undo" or correct.

You can then open the adjustment layer to further tweak the sliders for the final look.

Later when some fussy critic (or mother or whomever) says something like, "Hmmm. Blue is nice, but I really wish you would have done them in green," no sweat. Open the hue/sat adjustment layer, adjust sliders accordingly, and you're done (for the moment).

This method works whether or not you've modified the original (like you did here) to repair the eyes beforehand like you did this time to add back some iris area.

Anyway keep plowin' away. Glad to see you're experimenting and having fun.

~DannyR~

[siodhach]

DannyR

I appreiate you taking the time give me this tip ... as you have gathered I am new to this and I accept any help I can get.Thanks again.

Don

[VisualEyes]

This interpretation was a result of practicing techniques described in Friends of Ed's Photoshop Face to Face.

[DannyRaphael]

Beam me up, Truman! Very cosmic and as realistic as sci-fi images can be.

Too bad "real" cosmetic surgery can't be performed using these wonder tools! On second thought, maybe it's a blessing.

RE: Face to Face book.
I was a little disappointed at the overall (lack of) value to me, but maybe I'll give it a second read.

[VisualEyes]

Face to Face is definately a light read, but I find the images inspiring. Luckily I have a book budget at work , or I probably wouldn't have gone beyond flipping through it in the bookstore.

[pstewart]

Truman, that's an awesome image! I have saved it to my keeper file.

How did you make those wings?

Phyllis

[VisualEyes]

Phillis, here's how:

1. Create layer and fill with white, then sketch in the wing shape with black - filling the entire wing shapes with black. Blur significantly with Gaussian blur. Then refocus the blurred shape by tightening up the white and black points with the levels dialog box (this, of course, is an old Photoshop trick for creating smooth shapes).
2. Use a channel of the new layer as an alpha channel and create a selection.
3. Create a new layer for the wing's drop-shadows; set the layer fill to 0% and then fill with a solid color. This gives you a tranparent object with drop shadows. This really wasn't a necessity with this image since the background is so dark, but I thought it added a little something to it.
4. Create a new layer and fill the same selection with a solid color. This is the base layer for the wing. Set opacity REALLY LOW. I used 9%. Set blending mode to Stroke (center, white). This creates the edge highlights.
5. Create another layer and brush in wiggly white "veins" within the same selection. Blur slightly and add Outer Glow blending mode. Set opacity low (ie. 5%) and duplicate the layer for stronger effect.
6. Create another layer using same selection and handpaint thick blue and black streaks for the wing wrinkles/folds. Blur significantly and set blending mode to Soft Light. Adjust layer opacity to taste.
7. Create a final layer using the same selection for a depth cue. Fill the selection with a solid-to-transparent gradient, radiating from the base of the wings to the top. This will add the sense that the wings are more transparent as they get farther away from the body.

As I said in my original post, this was practicing techniques described in Friends of Ed's Photoshop Face to Face, specifically - Chapter 5, Fantasy, pp 122-131, Nalith-Fairy.

Truman

[jerry]

Truman
Your work is great and inspiring to look at.. I learned a lot just from looking at your screenshot of your layer pallet..My layer pallet looks like beef stew compared to your organized work..thanks for sharing..

I have been working on glazing techniques and thought I would try it on a portrait..Jim's beautiful grandaughter is a great subject. Here is first try at a portrait..

Jerry

[pstewart]

Jerry, that's lovely...perfect treatment for a young girl...bet she'll love it!

Phyllis

[Trine Sirnes]

Here's my try;

If you go and see my album I have used almost the same method her as I did on my Cold Blue. To give it that "Cold Blue-effect" I used "Selective Color" and tweeked neutral and white several times(after converting it to greyscale, then RGB). Used the erasertool on a small amount to take away those details in the face that wasn't neccesary. Turned up the contrast.

Then I wasn't satisfied with the lack of detail in the eyes, so I took a photo of one of my steph-sons and rubberstamped some detail from that photo's eyes to this photo.

Finally, I pasted the original photo in as a new layer, used the erasortool to get all the detail from the eyes showing through, and then tweeked the opasity of the original quite much to get that "clean" look". As usual, with these challenges I learned a bunch while working on it. I think it got almost a hand-colored feel to it. And this beautiful girl almost have a Mona Lisa dignety, don't you think?

Trine

[Trine Sirnes]

This is the layer I merged with the original

[VisualEyes]

Jerry - thanks for the organizational compliment. The ironic side of it is that I have a reputation at work for having the messiest office around.

Trine - I took a peek at your website. One word: gorgeous. You have an excellent eye for color and composition.

Truman