PHOTO ART: Mini-Challenge #25 - Tiger the Cat

[DannyRaphael]

FIRST MINI-CHALLENGE?
See below for "Information and Guidelines."

Here’s another “mini-challenge” to play with in the Photo-based Art category until the next offical challenge is posted here.

- - - - - - - - - - -
PHOTO ART: Mini-Challenge #25 - Tiger the Cat

This gorgeous kitty pics was donated by RetouchPro regular, Gary Landguth (gland). I can hear the purring right through the screen!

Maybe somebody ought to introduce Tiger to Sophie (from mini-challenge # 17)!

Meow and enjoy.

~DannyR~

- - - - - - - - - - -
INFORMATION AND GUIDELINES

Unlike “official challenges” for this forum which can be found here, this one will be self-contained within this thread. It is intended as an opportunity to engage in this artform until the next official challenge is posted.

The rules are more-or-less the same:
* It’s a challenge, not a contest -- intended to provide opportunities to experiment, share methods and/or techniques and, most importantly, have FUN.
* Everyone who participates is a winner.
* There’s no expiration date.

GUIDELINES:
1. Use any method, application(s), style(s) you like:
. * Convert to sketch, grayscale, abstract, watercolor, oil painting, pen-and-ink, Conte crayon, impasto, van Gogh or any style of your choosing
. * Add elements from other images (collage) or replace the background
. * Hand painting? Tracing? Freehand? You bet. Always appreciate entries of this nature.
. * Apply filters from your favorite application(s) or tweak it with 3rd party plug-ins
. * Feeling animated? Eyes opening and closing? Tail twitching?
. * Any or all of the above

Bottom line:
How you create this masterpiece makes no difference. Whatever floats your boat as long as you follow guideline #4 in the process.

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

Note: Multiple entries OK if you’re so inspired.

3. By all means include some verbiage on how you achieved your masterpiece so others will benefit from your skills and experience. Make it as descriptive as you like. Grammar and spelling will not be graded. Priority given to content, not how it is written.

4. Have fun.

[mama alligator]

Here's Tiger, rolling on cloud 14 ( 5 levels beyond cloud 9) as only a contented cat can. My own 2 cats will be 18 years old next month so this is for them :-)
I used Dry Brush on Tiger, toned down the floral print b.g. then did a radial blur of the b.g. I selected parts of it then added a fill pattern that I made. Highlighted it on the lower section. Used Lighting Effects which added a nice curve.
Thanks for the lovely picture to work with.

[CJ Swartz]

Mama Alligator, Tiger is obviously enjoying his visit to cloud 14 -- very cool effects! It makes Tiger look like Oliver the cat in the Marshmallow (bunny) book I first read as a child and still love because the illustrations are so wonderful.

I'll have to experiment with Dry Brush more -- one of my cats turns 18 in January, and I bet that she'd like a trip to cloud 14.

[VisualEyes]

Another clouded kitty.

[Leah]

Careful masking; kept shadows as I was planning white background anyway.

Two duplicate layers; applied pastel effects to one, rotated image 90% and applied other pastel effects to the other.

Played around with opacity of the various layers and did some retouching with paintbrushes.

Then spent a couple of hours producing really complicated layers and effects that I ended up deleting because I liked it better at this stage... maybe I'm just a "less is more" kind of gal...

This also had the important psychological effect of making me feel like I'd put lots of blood, sweat and tears into the finished image, even though now I write it down it looks kind of wussy.

In fact... yeah! I was just kidding about the blended pastel layers thing! REALLY I ran a really complicated series of about 500 layers and some fancy actions. It just LOOKS simple... Am I convincing anyone here?

Anyway, I'm learning from you guys all the time just by being inspired to play around...

[DannyRaphael]

LEAH:

You're so right. Sometimes less = more and I believe in this case following your instincts was the right thing to do. Glad to hear that you're finding that "playing" can be educational as well as fun. That's a grand perspective!

- - - - - - - -
VE:

Talk about 'Cat on Cloud 9'! Very impressive integration of those cottony clouds with our sleepy feline.

- - - - - - - -
MA:

Seems this would have been an ideal opportunity to apply the "mittens"!

Textures are wonderful; very painterly. Subtle, but effective use of lighting adds depth and interest.

[pstewart]

VE, you made that little kitty kat look HUGE! What a bizarre effect with the cat lying on such a large patch of clouds. Almost scary, but very effective!

Phyllis

[gland]

These are all great. My entire family has this thread bookmarked.

Phyllis that cat IS huge. He weighs 18 pounds. No small kitty here.

[pstewart]

I once tried something called "crewel" embroidery, which is done with wool yarn. This sort of looked like that project, which I never finished due to the agonizing monotony of it. Digital crewel is much less cruel than the regular kind!

To get the needlework look, I used anisotropic diffuse after adding lighting texture. I have been experimenting with the layer styles options and decided to add a "calico" mat in a wooden frame. The fabric mat design was the result of colored pencil + dry brush + anisotropic diffuse + color adjustments to make it coordinate with the flowers on the original picture.

Phyllis
www.innographx.com

[siodhach]

9 1//2

I did so much just playing around … but I think you get the gist of were I was going when I title it 9 ½.

Don

[pstewart]

Don, that is a masterpiece! Absolutely precious!

Phyllis (huge Eeyore fan!)

[siodhach]

Thanks Phyllis ... it was a lot of fun.

Don

[mama alligator]

Phyllis - it really does look like embroidery.
I remember doing a tabby cat embroidery piece years ago that reminds me very much of yours.
Nice.

[LidoBlu]

I have four of these lovely creatures so I couldn't resist playing with this baby. I'm not exactly pleased with the results as it still has that 'it needs something else look'.
I used a soft pastel sketch action first to get a drawing and then brush, dodge, clone in different modes and opacities.

Blu

http://whynotme.free.fr/LidoBlu/cat.jpg

[Diane]

I used Pixia software, then used Filter's Unlimited for the frame.
I tried to get a tapestry look.