PHOTO ART: Mini-Challenge #14 - Gazing Model

[fugitive]

wOW, some really nice entries here this time. My kinda subject too.
Phyllis: you can keep your whole image if you just compress it in jpg. I do it on all of mine.
Phyllis, good work in Painter, it's a blast huh?
Wanda, nice colors and presintation.
Lisa, I like the light airiness, and the WC look of the colors.
Wish I had time to join in.

[pstewart]

Fugitive: "Phyllis: you can keep your whole image if you just compress it in jpg."

Ya, but I really hate what too much compression does to a jpeg. I'd rather have less picture of better quality than more picture of less quality. With the increase in disk storage and speed these days you'd think over-compressed jpegs (on the web in particular) would be a thing of the past, but not so. Folks still seem to want to pack all those pixels into 8K so it opens in an instant! I'd rather wait a while to see a pic on the web than to see a blotchy blurry mess. Just a condition of today's "world in a rush" I guess. Maybe I'm just too old.

Phyllis

[tom c]

Lisa ;nice warm colored pencil look.

Chiquitita; Wow! great update.

Wanda ; right out of Elle or any fashion mag.





I didn't have a clue as to what to do so ...



opened photo in Photoimpact v6

1.Click edit...mask mode

2.Select paint particle brush grey 145...0 transp
...soft edge 90
various sizes,

3.Went over selected areas of the image.

4.Edit...mask mode

5.Selection...convert to object...copy ...paste as new image

6.Duplicate rt. click...select all objects

7.rt. click...merge as single object.

8.rt.click...convert to object.

9.Click edit fill...gradient 2 color circular fill
(tried many I think these might be the ones)
R G B R G B
213...157...167.....255...120...241

10. Eye dropper... selected colors from image and
filled small areas... small brush sizes.

tom clegg

[fugitive]

Originally posted by pstewart
Fugitive: "Phyllis: you can keep your whole image if you just compress it in jpg."

Ya, but I really hate what too much compression does to a jpeg. I'd rather have less picture of better quality than more picture of less quality. With the increase in disk storage and speed these days you'd think over-compressed jpegs (on the web in particular) would be a thing of the past, but not so. Folks still seem to want to pack all those pixels into 8K so it opens in an instant! I'd rather wait a while to see a pic on the web than to see a blotchy blurry mess. Just a condition of today's "world in a rush" I guess. Maybe I'm just too old.

Phyllis

I'm interested in Quality more than most. I just smash the ones for posting here or another 1 or 2 forums, but they are not used for the archive or even saved for very long. Do mine look bad, or over smushed?

[pstewart]

Originally posted by fugitive


I'm interested in Quality more than most. I just smash the ones for posting here or another 1 or 2 forums, but they are not used for the archive or even saved for very long. Do mine look bad, or over smushed?

No, not that I've noticed. But then your paintings tend to be soft, pastel, more "smeary" (because they are painted, of course) and not very contrasty --all very appropriate for your subject matter. Pics with more contrast are the ones most affected by compression, with those annoying blotchy patches at the edges of bright and dark areas, and the worst blotches tend to occur in saturated and darker areas. Your pics avoid both, so you don't lose that much by compression.

Phyllis

[Wanda Schwind]

Phyllis: Thank you so much for your encouraging words. I am VERY impressed with your rendition. The clone tool sounds wonderful. I'm very glad you "got up the nerve" to try Painter 7. You have Painter - I'm jealous I can't wait to see more. It's really hard to believe it's your first with Painter. WOW!!!

Angue: You accomplished exactly what you set out to do, water color/oil. I really like it, it's always to our credit if we can accomplish what we're aiming for.

Lisa: Just wonderful, I'm trying to perfect your technique I love it so much. Have to admit I'm not doing too well

Chiquita: Fantastic manipulation! No one would ever know - except the model.

Fugitive: Thank you for taking the time. It certainly is your "kind of subject"

Tom C: Thank you for your kind comment. For someone who didn't have a "clue as what to do" you certainly came up with something very creative and wonderful. But then you always do, I always enjoy your submissions so much.

Wanda

[DannyRaphael]

Another group of terrific entries so far. Another week of outdoing yourself!

Since it's way, way past my bedtime (yawn...) and I've some other things to do yet, I'll post a couple of my swipes at this one now, and provide some method verbiage, plus comments on the individual entries tomorrow.

eya later...

~Danny~

[DannyRaphael]

Here's #2. I kinda liked the way this one came out.

[pstewart]

Danny, I like both of them, but I am partial to the first because of the color. It's really beautiful!

Phyllis

[DannyRaphael]

My .02...

PHIL: The added depth due to the textures is a definite improvement and a real mood maker. Glad to see you're maintaining your high standard of creativity.

PHYLLIS: Wow. This is your first swipe at using Painter 7? Thunderous applause. And just to think this just the beginning. Congrats on busting through that initial reluctance due to Painter's (some might say, way too) many options.

ANTONIO: Very creative: Oils meet Watercolor. I really like this combination of styles. Nicely done.

LISA: This is an interesting twist on the tried and true method. Like what you did here; more depth to the colors.

CHAQUITA: You're scaring me! This is gonna be my 6-year-old daughter in about 6-7 years. Guess I should start getting used to it now. Great job of manipulation.

TOM: You threw me a curve. When I opened the image, I was expecting her to blow up or an alien to bust out of her stomach! Glad neither happened. Very moody image. Appreciate the detail, especially for the PhotoImpact enthusiasts.

JEANIE: BTW - The clone functionality in Painter is similar in concept to the PS Art History Brush, cept Painter's got more options that you can imagine. If you're interested in the very cool functionality w/o wanting to drop a couple hundred for Painter 7, consider getting a Painter v5... Functionality present; selling for $25-$60 on eBay at the moment.

- - - - - - - - - - -
Comments on my entries...

The first is based on the sketchy technique Lisa posted sometime back, but I twisted it a bit. See the screenshot of the layers palette in the attachment.

The major departure was applying the colored pencil filter (for some texture) followed by a final pass with that lovely Paint Engine plugin (faded by 50%).

The second image started out with a cropped version of the first. As you'll see in the attachment, messing with blend modes yielded some interesting textures in her face. Restored a little color via History Brush.

Twas all in fun.

~Danny~

[Bob Cronin]

Here is my vision of the gazing model. I was taken by the bright light and soft colors of the model (as well as her "model" build).

I used George's Gouach Painting Filter, with the resulting layer set to Luminosity. Another copy set to Multiply came close, requiring adjustment by Levels, Hue/Saturation, and Selective color to set the color and light/dark tones. I could have played with it all day, but I like the results as it is.

[DannyRaphael]

Hey Bob:

I liked your interpretation on this one. The overall effect (colors, textures, etc.) works well.

Welcome to the Photo-Art forum. Hope you have time to tackle some more of these mini's, as well as share some of your favorite techniques.

~DannyR~

[Trimoon]

I love the job bob did, but I have to say I like them all
So here is my watercolor vision of the gazing model. Hope you like

[Wanda Schwind]

Trimoon, this is REALLY beautiful I just love it, one of my favorite techniques is the fading out of a composition. Unfortunately I don't know how to do it I have tried in my amateur way, but have never come up with anything acceptable yet. This is a wonderful job, VERY pleasing to the eye!!

Wanda

[pstewart]

Wanda, you asked about fading. I use an oval selection (can use rectangular too for different look) larger than the picture I want to keep, then feather it a lot...gotta do 16 (the max) MANY times. Then invert the selection and delete. If you want to keep a hint of the background, put the original in a layer above this one and fade the opacity.

I'm sure there are other ways, and I hope someone will tell us.

Phyllis