[cazubi]

Well, I have finally found my way to the art challenges. What fun. Everyone is so creative and there are so many ways to see a subject. I may do another because I had such a good time with it.

Cathy

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by cazubi

Well, I have finally found my way to the art challenges. What fun. Everyone is so creative and there are so many ways to see a subject. I may do another because I had such a good time with it.

Cathy

Very nice, Cathy. You've definitely earned your stripes in the dept. of creativity yourself. One of the things I like about the arty side of things is more creatove leeway and tolerance for "imperfection" -- (also known as artists' discretion!

Keep playing and having fun. It's good for the soul.

[Janet Petty]

Cathy, I think of all the renditions of this flower, yours is among my favorite.

Very nice work.

Janet

[cazubi]

Thanks Danny and Janet. I really had fun with it.

Cathy

[Kraellin]

select out and repair the main stem and flower.
black background layer
splotchy white layer
hand painting on the flower

Craig

[Kraellin]

alright, another animation. sadly, with the 100k limit, this comes out pretty poor here. and, on looking back on it, i shld have animated some of the leaves and parts at different degrees in the same frarme and maybe shld have bent some of the parts for more variety. nonetheless, a fun little animation.

if anyone wishes to see the full size, uncut version, i can post it on my shared space on another site.

oh, the technique here was to select out all the parts i wanted to use individually as new images. then, clean each of those up.

pull the background out and build in the now missing parts of it.

using the new background, make 5 more duplicate layers, giving 6 layers in all with this background.

taking the part that is most in the background in the original, place that in layer 1. rotate the image part 1 degree left and place it in the next layer, linig it up as closely as possible to the first layer. repeat for all other layers.

once all layers have all the parts i wanted, copy each layer out as a new image, giving me 6 new images, each of which has the parts one degree off from the last one.

load all 6 new images into animation shop in sequence in a new animation. add in some extra duplicate frames to give the back and forth.

save and optimize to get it down to 100k.

Craig

[MargaretM]

Here's my version. Basically just played around - first did glowing edges, then blended with soft light. Then messed with saturation and emboss.
Loved all the variations of this image.
Margaret.

[Kraellin]

marvelous, margaret. love the shades of green, the soft, darker light effect, and the dark reds of the flower itself. and that touch of blue just above the flower is perfect; just enough to distract the eye just a bit and add a bit of contrast.

Craig

[Neve]

Thank you for reviving this, it's one of those I never did see...

Impressionist/Conte

[cazubi]

Nice work Margaret and Neve. I love all of the ways that the simple flower can be interpreted.

Cathy

[MargaretM]

Thanks Kraellin and Cazubi. Your animations are a lot of fun Kraellin and everyone's renditions are so great and yet so different.
Margaret.

[Kraellin]

thanks, margaret they're fun to do.

besides working on my skills and learning all these programs, i find i have to work on my discipline also. one of the hardest things for me currently, is to do these things to the level i know they could be done. the hibiscus animation is a perfect example. i know it could have been better.

in fact, here's a question for anyone and everyone: when is good, good enough? when and where do you draw the line and say, 'ok, that's good enough.'?

Craig

[MargaretM]

in fact, here's a question for anyone and everyone: when is good, good enough? when and where do you draw the line and say, 'ok, that's good enough.'?

That's a tough one. It is possible to tweak an image over and over for months and still see many imperfections. I guess I feel I have to work to a certain level of efficiency as well as technical and sometimes artistic standards. In Photo restoration, if all technical steps have been taken(cloning, sharpening, level etc) and the image is pleasing to the eye it might be time to declare it done. For Photo art, if image is techically well executed and conveys the message intended might be time to walk away. In both cases, one could go on forever. However for me after a while an image loses its freshness and thus its interest for me, so I need to get them "done" and move on.
I wonder though how the great artists like Renoir, Picasso etc. decided that a particular work was done? If one was vastly talented, with an artistic temperament it would be doubly tough to say "done"!
Interesting question Kraellin.

Margaret M

[cazubi]

This is a good question. I tend to never feel it is "perfect" and if time permitted I would keep going back and and re-work over and over. When I say "done" is when I am tired of working on it, or like Margaret says it loses its "freshness" and I move on. I still go back and look at pieces and think that I could have improved the work in some area. I guess it is good to have deadlines.

Cathy

[Kraellin]

ok, i can see i'm surrounded by other compulsive folks here (other than myself).

i raised this issue again because when doing that animation i was more concerned with getting it out the door than with the quality of it. i knew i could have spent a lot more time doing things like bending the leaves and stems to make it more natural looking and adding more frames for a smoother animation, but i basically just wanted to communicate the animation of it and not so much the art of it. so, i suppose i'm answering my own question here a bit, but it would seem to me that purpose or purpose of the communication would also play a part. i wasnt going to try to sell this, or post it on an art gallery or anything; my purpose was more just to show off a little bit with a little animation. so, i guess i've achieved my purpose i may still go back and redo this a bit.

and that raises another question i've been wondering about lately. i can save a file like this one in .psd and it will save all the layers and command history and so on, which is great, but one thing i cant do in paint shop pro 7.xx is insert and extract commands from the command history. i can undo X number of commands, but let's say i wanted to JUST remove one command in the middle of the history and not everything else leading back to that one command. can Photoshop do this?

Craig