[DannyRaphael]

FIRST MINI-CHALLENGE -or- NEW TO PHOTO-ART?
See below for "Information and Guidelines."

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PHOTO ART: Mini-challenge #63 – Produce Market

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

The base image can be downloaded by clicking the link near the bottom of this lengthy introduction!


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This weeks’ trio of base images are courtesy of Gladys S, whose work can be viewed HERE http://www.pbase.com/gladys.

Isn’t this an interesting shot of this product market? I can almost taste the tomatoes, but at $2.99 lb. I probably shouldn’t.

Bon appetite!

~DannyR~

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LEGAL VERBIAGE
Gladys S retains the U.S. and international copyright © not only for the original image, but also for any photo-art versions of it. Unauthorized distribution or use of this image without permission are prohibited.

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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 art form until the next major 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? Animated entries are definitely welcome. There have been some really funny ones submitted in the past. Fish jumping, leaves falling, wheels turning. You get the idea.
. * 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.


A special message to those who are new to Photo-art
… Who may be feeling a little uncomfortable about posting an entry.

If you’ve read this far, it means you’re at least curious. That’s a good sign.

But what if you’re feeling a little squeamish about posting your first image?

From time to time I hear from those who want to participate, but have considerable anxieties about posting their creations in these mini-challenge. “I’m just a beginner. My pictures don’t belong,” “I see the works of others and I know I’ll never get that good,” “How am I supposed to compete with those wonderful creations?” are typical expressions of concern.

To which I say: Put your fears to rest. This isn’t a competition. You will not be judged in the traditional “art critique” sense. Your honor isn’t on the line. This isn’t about who’s best.

Don’t hold back from participating and posting your creation because your initial attempts don’t measure up (in your own mind) to images generated by folks with more experience than you.

This is a no-fault, all-fun way to jump in the pool. Everyone started the same place: The beginning. Everyone who is more skilled and experienced than you got to that point by practicing, experimenting, asking questions, learning from others, and participating.

Can one learn without interacting with others? Sure. Can one learn as fast? Absolutely not.

When you participate, others get to know you. That makes it easier to ask them questions. Asking questions leads to learning from those with more experience than you. It just keeps getting better and better!

By all means give it a go. You’ll be glad you did.

The pep talk cheerfully brought to you by:

Danny Raphael
Photo-based Art Forum Moderator

[Blacknight]

To the trio of Gladys pictures, I have used the same basic effect (here) and varied the background layer color, texture and layer blend modes only.

[Snoleoprd]

Hi,

Here is my abstraction. I cut out the tomatoes in the foreground, repeated them all over the frame. I then applied a gaussian blur, then dry brushed, then added noise. I then stared at for awhile and then gave it a twirl. Why did I do all this? I haven't a clue.

Alan

[pstewart]

Chuck, love that pastel! Looks like sugar coated candy...yum! That'd make anyone eat their vegetables!

Alan, very clever idea and a great result...making tomato soup? I love turning pics into designs too!

Phyllis

[DannyRaphael]

PHIL:

Sure glad you're back with us on a regular basis. Innovative approach as usual.
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CHUCK:

The pastel version came out especially well. The oils version looks pretty authentic, too. Glad to see you got decent results out of Fresco. When I use it, the results are often very dark.
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ALAN:

I'm thinking, "Ah prune juice: I could'a had a V8!"

It's OK to be twisted here!
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More action shenanigans on my part:
* Copied BG and ran Mike Finn's Scribble.atn on it. Then ran Mike Finn's Scratchy.atn against the "Scribbled" layer. (Both actions available FREE (at the moment) as part of the "What Nots" collection. Check this site: http://homepages.slingshot.co.nz/~mikefinn/action.html
* Copied background put on top of layer stack. Ran Find Edges filter, set blend to Multiply and added a grouped Levels adjustment layer to filter out some noise.
* Added a Hue/Sat adjustment layer at top of layer stack to beef up the saturation a bit.
* Frame: Adobe's default Sprayed Strokes frame + EDIT / Stroke for the outside borders.

Phew. Took longer to write than to actually create!

~DannyR~

[pstewart]

Oil painting in frame. Frame made with flaming pear silver filter plus a slight texture. Painting used KPT pyramid filter with blur-dodge outline overlaid as well as angled strokes, spatter, and flaming pear twist filter.

The low jpeg quality necessary to upload the pic sort of hides the texture though. So next pic will show detail area.

Phyllis

[pstewart]

Here's a close up of the painting texture, larger size with less compression. You can see the detail now.

Phyllis

[pstewart]

This is a new discovery that I really like. I also tried it on minis #58 (fish) and #62 (flowers) if you want to see how it works on other pictures. Here are the steps.

1. Outline with 2-layer b/w blur-dodge method.
2. After merging the two layers from step 1, use multiply on a duplicate layer or use levels to darken the lines a bit and get more contrast if needed.
3. Adjustment-->equalize.
4. Filter-->stylize-->diffuse-->anisotropic.
5. Blend layer 4 over the original in vivid mode.
6. Filter-->artistic-->cutout set to medium values till you get the look you want. May have to adjust opacity of top layer or darken bottom layer if too many whitish areas appear.

It is less noticeble on this pic than it is on larger/simpler pics...compare with the others. Works both ways in my opinion.

Phyllis

[jerry]

Danny, Phyllis, Chuck and Snowlprd..nice entries for this photo. The bright colors allowed all of you to do some very different things..All different and interesting..

Here is a matted watercolor using one of Dannys matte actions.

Jerry

[platscha@cs.com]

Just catching up with reading threads, your effect is really wonderful, I saw it on #'s 58, 62 and 63, really nice.
On your instructions, what do you mean by "outline with 2 layer b/w blur dodge method" ?? I am sure it is explained in another thread but I have not run across it yet.
Thank you and have a Very Merry Christmas

[pstewart]

Originally posted by platscha@cs.com
Just catching up with reading threads, your effect is really wonderful, I saw it on #'s 58, 62 and 63, really nice.
On your instructions, what do you mean by "outline with 2 layer b/w blur dodge method" ?? I am sure it is explained in another thread but I have not run across it yet.

Thanks. That outline method has become a standard, so I didn't include the steps. It's probably here in the "best of photo art" techniques that Danny put together, but in case you can't find it, here's what you do to get the outline:

1. Dupe layer and make b/w...desaturate will do in this case.
2. Dupe b/w layer and invert.
3. Set blend mode on top layer to color dodge.
4. Gaussian blur top layer just slightly till outline shows up.
5. Merge two b/w layers.
6. Darken outline: Either dupe and set to multiply to darken outline, then merge, or use levels to darken.

There you have your outline. You can now use it to make a sketch or illustration or emphasized edges or as step one in my abstract style...many many uses for this basic outline.

Phyllis

[themanda]

I didn't think I could add anything to the original photo as it was presented. So many great submissions, I'd certainly just be repeating someone else's work.

So, I did a quick and dirty pineapple stencil on handmade paper. That's what I was going for, at least.

[DannyRaphael]

Pineapple works for me, Amanda...

Now all we need are a few Pina Coladas!

Did you hand-draw the fruit here or... ?

[themanda]

Oops, I should have said in my post. I isolated one of the pineapples from the upper right of the picture and used that. Blowing it up large enough to use blew out some of the detail, thus lending itself to this hand-drawn, stencilish look.

And a pina colada sounds great!!! Got any little paper umbrellas, or should we ask Phyllis to draw some for us?

[pstewart]

Amanda, love how you handled that pineapple! Great job! And good idea to use just PART of a pic...gotta remember that approach.

Phyllis