[jaykita]

Originally Posted by Janet Petty

Jaykita, you do such nice work. I'm always impressed.

Janet

(blush) Thank you Janet!

[Neve]

Lots of superb efforts and hard acts to follow

EPS 9 - Dupe this layer
L2 - Col. Foil 1/4/340/White
Mode Screen 100%
Merged and dupe
L3 - Paint Shop Pro/Brustrokes/WC
Mode Normal 58% - Dupe this layer
Merge top two layers.
L2 - erased for eyes, mouth, face and
around edges of face.
Merged all.

[vijayan]

It is a combination of custom+water colour and some play with levels...

[Helena]

I did a few versions of her. Each started out with the picture run through Unsharp Mask Filter, Stylize-Diffuse-Anisotropic, some lighting enhancements and a bit of smart blur. I did some blending of layers with overlay too.

With this as a base I made a pattern out of the picture then painted the picture back using the pattern stamp and a photoshop brush "Dry Brush" in various sizes.

[Helena]

Here is the second one starting with the same base as my previous version.
This one was done with the Artistic Filter rough pastels. I had to increase the resolution of the image before I ran the filter to get the kind of detail I wanted in the pastels. Then i downsampled again to the original file size.

[Helena]

one last version...
this one is a watercolour version. i added a greyscale scan of watercolour brushstrokes underneath the picture layer and then put the blend mode of the picture layer to overlay. I added a duplicate layer on top for darker colour (lowered the opacity until it looked OK).

the brushstrokes are a bit broad for a portrait but it looks interesting.

[Janet Petty]

All three of them are very interesting Helena. I like your style.

Janet

[DannyRaphael]

Welcome back, Helena...

I appreciate you sharing your methods. I like the watercolor look the best. The scanned brushstrokes converted to a brush is something I've wanted to try. They sure render a unique look.

What was the source of the brushstrokes you scanned?

[Helena]

The watercolour brushstrokes thing was NOT my idea. It was from an online tuturial. They showed the method and then you could download the files and try it. These broad brushstokes look really great with a less detail composition like flowers or a landscape.
If you want to see the tutorial (and some other nifty ones too) go to www.casmaran.com and click on the top button "Cricket's Tutorials".
I think this method would work really well to get a setch effect too. Scan in a hand drawn series of pencilled crosshatches and use it the same way I used the brush strokes. If anyone tries it - please post an example!

Helena

[Reason]

Microsoft picture it program:

1. opened original picture
2. effects, illusions, paint, dry brush
3. effects, illusions, pencil drawing
4. mask, cool edges, wavy torn paper with a light blue edge.
5. saved a copy and closed picture

psp7:

1. opened saved copy of picture
2.selected light blue edge of mask
3. added drop shadow, set at 4, both horizantal and vertical
4. selected white area of mask
5. floodfilled with color #578DAF
6. added drop shadow, set at 4, both horizantal and vertical
7. select none
8. effects, virtual painter, color pencil (or you could use effects, color pencil)
9. effects, noise, edge preserving smooth, set at 30.
10. do step 9 again.
11. effects, illumination, lights, floodlight, set at 88/89 on white color
12. effects, fm tile tools, blend emboss
13. added black border
14. added text with a drop shadow
15. save and close.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Reason

Microsoft picture it program:

1. opened original picture
2. effects, illusions, paint, dry brush
3. effects, illusions, pencil drawing
4. mask, cool edges, wavy torn paper with a light blue edge.
5. saved a copy and closed picture

psp7:

1. opened saved copy of picture
2.selected light blue edge of mask
3. added drop shadow, set at 4, both horizantal and vertical
4. selected white area of mask
5. floodfilled with color #578DAF
6. added drop shadow, set at 4, both horizantal and vertical
7. select none
8. effects, virtual painter, color pencil (or you could use effects, color pencil)
9. effects, noise, edge preserving smooth, set at 30.
10. do step 9 again.
11. effects, illumination, lights, floodlight, set at 88/89 on white color
12. effects, fm tile tools, blend emboss
13. added black border
14. added text with a drop shadow
15. save and close.

To my knowledge you are our only Picture It! / PaintShop Pro artist. You've certainly done a great job defining your steps in achieving a very unique result.

Well done, and pul-eeze do some more!

~Danny~

[Reason]

Thanks Danny, I will. I saw the one you did with the wine glass and books, that was really good.

[Reason]

Originally Posted by Helena

Here is the second one starting with the same base as my previous version.
This one was done with the Artistic Filter rough pastels. I had to increase the resolution of the image before I ran the filter to get the kind of detail I wanted in the pastels. Then i downsampled again to the original file size.

I like the detail of her hair. It came out very well

[Helena]

Originally Posted by Reason

I like the detail of her hair. It came out very well

Thanks Reason! I do pastels in "real life" (as opposed to digital) so I'm particularly fond of the pastel look in digital art. I'm always looking for new ways to get it looking more real. That's the great thing about these forums. I've learned so much from what other people have done.
So thanks for including all the detail in your explanation of what YOU did. It's hard to learn how to improve without some kind of hint on how a person got that "look" you like!

Helena

[lkroll]

Vector conversion techniques. Used Potrace for the conversion. If you have an SVG Viewer (get one free from Adobe or Inkscape), you can view the vector drawing by clicking here.