Tutorial: Art History Brush AHB - Palms method (Photoshop)

[palms]

Originally Posted by DannyRaphael

Your AHB work is simply outstanding and continues to amaze me...

Could I twist your arm to write up a detailed step-by-step "how I did this transformation" (when you get time) along with "in progress" images, brush & setting details, etc. You get the most pleasing results out of AHB than anyone I've seen before. Really.



.

Thank you Danny and Bob I will give it a twirl tomorrow as i will have a bit more time then.

Palms

sorry for the delay but the gremlins are at work and cant get images to upload will try again tomorrow

[palms]

How i do my ahb paintings

my way is not a "new" way and might not be the "proper "way to do it but it is the way i do them, and as i have received a few requests both in posts and pm's here we go


The brushes that i use the most are Trimoons art history spatter brush's which can be downloaded from here

http://www.trimoon.com/html/downloads.html

also Trimoons detail brush which can be downloaded in the set here

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/pho...w-brushes.html

One of the good things about Trimoons brushes is that you dont have to worry about opacity or style or anything else it is all automatically set when you select the brushes ( unless of course you want to alter them )

I have added more about using the brush in post #18

Now i open the image, > duplicate ( just to be on the safe side) > add a new layer and fill with a pale colour, like white, cream, pale grey, etc there is usualy a clue in the image

Add another layer select the art history brush, selecting the spatter brush 15, roughly paint across the whole layer roughly ( 1st pic) leaving a bit of white is ok although i dont like too much
You may have noticed that you cant see the layer underneath, well that's it i dont look at it, just paint away and see what appears ( it is fun honest )

Add another layer using the same brush reduce the size to about 25 and loosely paint in more
detail ( 2nd pic) but not over all the layer

Finaly open another new layer select the detail brush and pick out the finer detail, if needed going down to about 2 pixels, here i just let the brush pick out the details like in the shadows and highlights, around the edges of buildings etc again on this layer i dont go over the whole layer (3rd pic) I probably would check the original now to see if i had got all the detail i wanted/needed to into the image

By using the three layers all can be altered by adding more, taking some out ( eraser) or reducing opacity, i may do this more on the 3rd detail layer

when i am happy with the image i flatten the image
Now i do lots of different things
i will sharpen using the other > custom filter ( you get quite a cool effect from it )
adjust the black white and grey's using selective colour ( surprising the difference small amounts make) (4th pic)
On this image (5th pic )
I also tried out paint daubs filter settings 2,4 and simple
added a pattern layer set to soft light and reduced the opacity
lastly i added a bit of saturation

There are lots of other things that i either do or can be done like using a sketchlayer etc, i am hopeful that in the near future i will be able to expand on this but enough is enough for now

Well how have i done ? have you been able to follow, has it made any sense ? any problems or any more explaining needed please ask, Now that has been hard work for me ( writing/explaining is not one of my fave things to do ) so i'm of for a look around to see what you all have been doing today

[DannyRaphael]

Simply awesome. Many, many thanks...

[palms]

Originally Posted by DannyRaphael

Simply awesome. Many, many thanks...

Thank you Danny for prompting me also for all the support you and my other friends ( members ) here have given

Palms

[GerryB]

Thanks for the wonderful tutorial, Palms! I'm going to sit down and give it a try today.

[Bob Mc]

Thanks Palms
That was a good clear explanation

This may just be the weekend to try it. Gonna be about 100 degrees outside - again - so sitting at my pc will be a lot cooler

Regards

Bob Mc

[palms]

Thank you Gerry and Bob hope you have fun

I was going to add some about different brushes here but i sort of got sidetracked a bit, which is nothing unusual with the ahb, the possibilities are endless. and no two turn out the same, similar but not the same.
I started with a brush i had downloaded ( again endless possibilities) of a leaf done the usual over 3 layers using the detail brush on the last layer just on the face to give a bit of definition
You can use any brush but i have found that when you resize them they change quite a bit, So i tend to stick with brushes no bigger than 100 and idealy about 60 , opacity i keep to 35% if they go a bit wld ( pic 1) i will try altering the style ( but if you find a brush that you change and like SAVE it i always forget to do this )
If you wan to try something different , use Photoshop square brushes they give a good effect, and the smallest size doubles as a detail brush


after flattening , I used other > custom then repeated, other > custom ( i was in a what would happen if mood )
then added paint daubs not sure of the exact settings but usualy about 2 and 4 (pic 2)

Another action i run sometimes is the Velvia Action (pic 3) available from

http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm


And there you are a different look, maybe not to everyones taste, but most important I like it

If you (or me) arent getting to bored i will add some more in the week

[Bob Mc]

Hi Palms
I tried an AHB thing this afternoon. I call it a thing because it's my first. I'll post it tomorrow. I used some WOW Watercolor art history brushes on several layers getting smaller and smaller as I went. At the end tho - it just seemed too splotchy in places and I realized I didn't even cole close to covering all or the major parts of the picture - so it seems like I (had to)touch-up too many areas.

I actually used an old Wacom tablet - at least 6 or seven years old - with no updated drivers for a long time - but it worked.

I'll have to try some of Steven's brushes next time

Regards

Bob Mc

[GerryB]

I tried your AHB technique on the same picture and it was a success. I then tried it on the latest weekly challenge on the NAPP Battleground forum and got great results.

[palms]

Bob hope you will post later, stick with it you will get some where, and get used to both the ahb and your pen tool ( you can use a mouse for this ) if you are worried about not "seeing " you can always reduce the opacity of the fill layer
I have tried the wow brushes but tend to stick to others.

Gerry
Great well done, now you have the hang of it, it is onwards and upwards get experimenting ( when you get time of course ) there are loads of different brushes to try and then fiddling around with brush settings ! ! ! ! and different finishes

Palms

Palms

[Bob Mc]

Palms,

My first

Practice, practice, practice is what I need to do.

I realized after I finished that I didn't do the shapening nor adj the blacks and whites or any of the other tweaks you mentioned as finishing touches.

I put a border around it to hide the edges which came out poorly.

I can see that I'll gradually try more - especially with Steves brushes

Thanks for the explanation.

Regards

Bob Mc

[palms]

That is great Bob well done, dosent matter if you didnt do all the other tweaks so long as you are happy with the result that is what counts, Plus i get it to that stage duplicate it and then try the tweaks see what i like for that image toggling between the two, It is not set in stone
Do try Steve's brushes they are at a price not to be ignored (free) and do not take very long to download
Yep practice is a key so long as you relax and enjoy it

Palms

[amica999]

Thank you Palms, very nice and very clear. Unfortunately I can't seem to find that mentioned detail brush with a result that it looks washed out. Any suggestions, please?

[Bob Mc]

Thanks Palms

I appreciate your suggestions and encouragement.

I think I probably have Steve's brushes and presets already since I'm sort of a photoshop and painter collector junkie. If it's free I've almost certainly got it and if it's expensive I'm saving for it.

Regards

Bob Mc

[Bob Mc]

Amica999,

The second post from the top gives you Steve's (Trimoon) site where you can download brushes, presets etc.

REgards

Bob Mc