PHOTO ART: Mini-challenge #64 – Jake and Joey

[DannyRaphael]

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

- - - - - - - - - - -

PHOTO ART: Mini-challenge #64 – Jake and Joey

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!


= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Considering how much folks seemed to enjoy working on Colby the dog earlier this week, I'm sure you have just as much fun with these two, courtesy of Art Hill. "Thanks, Art!"

Have fun.

~DannyR~

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

LEGAL VERBIAGE
Art Hill 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.

- - - - - - - - - - -
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

[d_kendal]

here's my try at this one, it was all just filters and blending modes:
1. on original layer - Stylize>Diffuse>Anisotropic

2. new layer - Stylize >Find Edges Overlay mode. 75% opacity

3. new layer - Stylize> Solarize in Linear dodge mode
90% opacity

4. new layer again - Artistic> Watercolor Normal mode,
40% opacity

- David

[phili1]

Nice touch David, I like the effect.

Well mines is a combo of Oil Painting and History brush.

[phili1]

They are so cute I could not resist.

I call this photo enhancement tech. I came from a girla named Lisa from Dp Review and the thing I like about it is that you can do it in B & W as well as color. It has a dramatic effect, great for portrait conversion.

[pstewart]

David, nice watercolor look.

Phili, wow, in the first pic they look like they overdid the catnip!
Nice work on that second one...like the b/w sketchy look.

Phyllis

[DannyRaphael]

David:

Really like the results you got. Appreciate the detailed "how-to" steps, too.

- - - - - - -
Phil:

The Shan sketch is very nice. I liked general direction with the color version, but like Phyllis said, maybe you went a little too far. I know you won't let that stop you from experimenting further.

~Danny~

[Snoleoprd]

David and phili great stuff, I too appreciate the step by step procedures.

Here is my entry, cropped, sharpened, applied a mosaic filter, the sharpened again. the applied a dry brush filter.

Alan

[d_kendal]

Phili, Phyllis, Danny, Alan - thanks, all of you. When I do photo art now, I do any filters on a new layer and name the layer after the filter so I can actually remeber what I did
Alan - I really like your mosaic effect, I haven't tried playing with that filter yet.

- David

[Blacknight]

I started trying a watercolor effect, but didn'[t like it. Threw a copy of the original on the top of all the watercolor-ish layers and played with different blend modes and got this. I'm sure I could eliminate half the layers and get the same effect.

[jeaniesa]

Oh, COOL Phil!! Any chance you can look back through your layers and give us some clue how you achieved that effect? It works so well for this image!!

Jeanie

[phili1]

Here is the system I used. I got from DPreview a girl named Lisa. YOu can use it for color as well just leave out the B&W conversion. I use Digi Daans conversion to B7W.

Have fun with it.

[CJ Swartz]

Blacknight - that effect combo really enhances the look of fur! Wonderful lighting also. I'm trying to recreate it, but no luck so far --- any hints? Graphic pen doesn't seem to do it...

[jeaniesa]

Thanks, Phili!

Blacknight, I'm curious about your process too...

Jeanie

[Blacknight]

I didn't keep that particular PS file, but I have a pretty good idea what I did, basically. The basis was Schwartzie's watercolor "explanation". which I have been trying to figure out - not very successfully. Anyway, I'll see if I can make it do it again...

[pstewart]

Blacknight, wow! I love that gray and orange pic! Excellent!

David, thanks for a great idea on keeping track of filters! Hope I can remember to use it!

Phyllis

[Ka-El]

Hi, im new here, and i like to post my version of the cats, can I???

Thanks

[Blacknight]

No - you have to have been here for at least a year before they let you post anything.

ANYONE can post, as long as they are a member. Down at the bottom of the screen you see when you either generate a new thread or reply, there is a box that says "BROWSE" in the "ATTACH FILE" row. Click on that find your picture. It HAS to have a 100k file size or less and be of the file type that is listed also in that ATTACH FILE row, but other than that it's all done for you when you hit reply.

One thing I have noticed that seems to be a quirk in the software or something is if you hit PREVIEW REPLY instead of SUBMIT REPLY it often doesn't put up the image. Just hit SUBMIT REPLY, and if you discover any spelling errors or want to add something you can always hit the EDIT button on your post and change it then.

Looking forward to seeing your cats, and welcome to Retouch PRO!

[Blacknight]

Too many Phil's here for me to know when you're "talking" to me or the other Phil. I answer to BK, even on the street (have had this "name" for years) so if you want to avoid confusion I can be BK (it saves typing out the whole word Blacknight - no sense wasting keystrokes, huh!)

ANYWAY, here's what I have been able to reproduce from the image I posted here. Grab a cup of coffee and make yourself comfortable...

Copy the original and do a smart blur (this is basically SCHWARTZIE's method, in case you have it in an action already or something) 3, 25, low, normal.

Copy THAT layer and run MEDIAN (4 pixels). Blend mode to PIN LIGHT.

Copy THAT layer and run the WATERCOLOR filter, 9,1,1. Blend mode to LINEAR LIGHT.

Copy the original and put it up at the top of the layer stack. Blend mode to LUMINOSITY.

NOW I PLAYED with the hue/sat on the background copy (if you did it like I spelled it out, your layers should be defaulted to background copy,2,3,4.) darkening it and desaturating it. This works best with all the layers turned on and going back and adjusting them this way, or at least it did for me.

Did the same with copy 3, except didn't darken. Almost a grayscale, with just a hint of color.

Copy 4, if you look at it by itself, is an orangey-red, carpet green, with hue/sat. Again, this works better with all turned on and looking at the one I posted here for reference.

I then ran KPT Equalizer's bounded sharpen on all layers with the sharpness all the way up and RGB tolerance at 2. If you don't have that filter, get it! I imagine you could come close with unsharp mask, but KPT is superior in this regard.

Flatten and play with levels and hue/sat and curves (I always do that just to see if it can be made any better as a last step). I think I may have run sharpen on it again at this point.

Hope this gets you in the ballpark. If not, let me know and I can show you the individual layer pictures and how they each look after being adjusted.

[Ka-El]

Well, here u have my cats

can you tell me what do u think about my work, thanx

[pjb]

I have 7 wonderful cats!!! one is 20 years old




on new layer put a border and put a wave filter
put a graphic pen filter on bells
pencil filter on cats and adjustested opacity

[DannyRaphael]

Ka-El:

Welcome! Congratulations on your first post at RetouchPRO. Hope to see many more in the future.

- - - - -
PJB:

Very cute!
- - - - -
David:

RE: Labeling layers with filters applied.
I do the same thing. In addition I've found that including the settings, e.g, Gblur(2.0) or Smart Blur(20,40,high) is helpful too, especially if I attempt to recreate the effect six months later.

Recording results you like as actions is another brain saver.

~Danny~

[phili1]

Ok Phyliss I read all the post and I did not see a reply from David, I would like to knoe that as well.

Black Night hey we have something in common our names, yours is Phil to. Well your Blacknight I am Phili1 so we should keep to that.

PJb Great post, nice effect and wow how did your cat live for 20 years, thats a record.

KA-el, your post is a good one, there are no bad effeorts, just different. This forum is made up of people with fantastic imagination and talent, Welcome to our family.

[BigAl]

Using PSP7, playing around with the chrome filter.

[d_kendal]

Phili - is this what you're looking for? re cat: well it's almost a record, my neighbor's cat just dies last year, at age 21!!

- David

[pstewart]

Welcome, Ka El, nice use of various filters on the cats...like the squiggly wiggly fur.

Wow, there are so many good renditions here that I can't go thru them all to give proper praise at 4 a.m.! What talent we have there, though...just gets better and better and soooo creative lately...love it!

I used flaming pear's India ink filter followed by a touch of PS7's anisotropic diffuse and just a smidgen of notecard filter.

Phyllis

[d_kendal]

cool phyllis! that's a really different effect.

- David

[collinf]

This gets easier every time! Well, a little anyway!

quite simply (ish) J Buchmann sketch effect.

Collin

[Ka-El]

Thanx to everyone to post your opinion about my work


PStewart that effect was very good. I like it

[DannyRaphael]

Collin:

That came out great. Well done!

[d_kendal]

excellent work Collin, that's my favorite type of sketch, and it works really nicely on this photo.

- David