Smudging resources

[sylvia1065]

Excellent, Palms!
Sylvia

[Joeven]

Pretty cool Palms. Care to share how you got that lighting effect on the leaves?

Joe

[Kraellin]

that's beautiful, palms! now i know where that blackberry image came from in the other thread or at least what it was a part of

[palms1]

Originally Posted by 0lBaldy

That smudge is so sharp I got a sticker in my finger just looking at it!
Fantastic Skills!

Thank you ( I have plenty of plasters if needed )

Palms

[palms1]

I am so sorry guys but i have only just seen that i missed a page after replying to ol baldy

Sylvia thank you

Joe the "lighting effect " just happened but aided with a bit of dodge

Craig you got it the other post was photo's i took incase i needed them for this, although on this one i took the photo on a plainer background for ease

Palms

[Kraellin]

i had fun with this image. i just painted. well, there was some setup first, but that was days ago and i had forgotten all about it. today, i saw this thread again and pulled up my prep work image and decided, 'let's paint.' so, that's what i did.

in fact, before i started, i made a new brush to do what i wanted with this. it's a sort of crosshatch with lots of transparent parts to get some good strokes showing up.

i used only the push brush from this point on, using the new brush. (though i did sneak in a final usm at the very end ).

i also realized something i've realized in other disciplines. tutorials are fine, documentation is fine, helpful friends are fine, teachers are fine and so on and so forth, but, if you want to learn to paint... pick up a brush and start painting. if you want to sing, start singing. if you want to be a great writer, start writing. it's that simple. sure, read up on stuff, listen to helps and all that, but seriously, if you want to be a great painter.... start painting!

and THAT is the zen of any art, any discipline of this nature.

[palms1]

Very nice art work as well Craig great to see one done in psp

and i agree with your philosophy

Palms

[Kraellin]

thanks, palms

it's fun to just paint sometimes

[palms1]

I found this in another forum today (post#5)

smudge

it has to be the simplest of explanations for smudging ever, any way i gave it a whirl and see what you think. warning though you have to be very careful around the edges at this strength as you pick colours up very easy (as you can see especially round the roses. Change your brush size (i used linda's) regularly, for the background i upped the opacity to 90%

i used usm at 388,2.3,0 not magic numbers, each image will be different, more than this and i was getting green halo's

I hope you dont mind me using the photo of your granddaughter Gunner

I lightened the second one

Palms

[amica999]

Looks very, very nice, Palms. I guess this technique is quite suitable for portraits. Haven't tried, but sure will give it a go sometime later

[palms1]

Originally Posted by amica999

Looks very, very nice, Palms. I guess this technique is quite suitable for portraits. Haven't tried, but sure will give it a go sometime later

I haven't tried it on any thing other than this portrait but i think you are right it would suit portraits better, but i thought it would be a ideal starting point for beginners to get the feel of smudging before they go onto the more intricate techniques ( plus it is a mighty fast technique compared to some of the others ) the main thing that impressed me though was the simplicity of the post when we have all spent hours and hours studying

Palms

[tuku]

After studying a lot of websites and reading some tutorials I finally tried a painting myself.
Photo of a Wasco Indian. Original image - Library of Congress

Smudge painting of Wasco Indian

Greetings,
Kurt

[palms1]

Hello and welcome Kurt

that is a superb painting and colouring well done, will look forward to seeing more of your work

Palms

[tuku]

Hi Palms,
thanks for your kind words. Coloring + painting took more than 3 hours, but I'm quite satisfied with the outcome.

Greetings from Austria,
Kurt

[sylvia1065]

Beautiful, Kurt!
Sylvia

[Sweetlight]

Puku,
First let me say what a wonderful job you did on that painting, all the way down to the finest detail.
I know we have all done this before but I think we all owe Palm a huge thank you and pat on the back for without her I never would have found this wonderful technique that has added a great technique to the rest of my abilities as well as an equally large number of increased print orders in all the arenas and from all of my clients. As most of you know I only do weddings for the closest of friends and started my career doing high end ad work years ago and have managed to hold on to the majority of those clients over the years (most of them are friends as well now). I also do high end fashion but for about the last 7 or 8 years have managed to make it to a place in my life and career where I can pick and choose my clients and assignments - therefore allowing me to mix all of the things I love the most = photography, fishing, travel work and bed and breakfast trips. With this technique I recently landed a web page/brochure for a great B and B out in Montana that wants me to do the whole brochure in smudge painting. Thanks Palms, you are never selfish with your help, always offer great advice and you have been a great inspiration to me. I would be proud to help any of you that I can, whenever I can. It's great because when I am home I adjunct instruct at the local college teaching Photoshop and the very last technique I share with them is smudging and it leaves them with a feeling as if they can do anything they put their minds too. We all owe her a debt of gratitude.

Namaste,
c

[palms1]

Thank you Sweetlight even though you have made me blush

If just one person learns and enjoys smudging/painting through this resources post ( or any of my others ) then it has been worthwhile

And a thank you to retouchpro for putting up with me

Palms

[palms1]

A strange way to use the smudge brush

after seeing tuku's post it reminded me of this, it is something i found out by accident, it may have been written about before but i havent seen it, and i havent "mastered it" it has a few peculiarities so if any one works anything else out please do post a workflow and results

open you image

new layer> fill with white > reduce opacity to about 75% ( this is a must as it wont work with out the reduction in opacity )

tick the use all layers box in the top task bar

select the smudge tool with a roughish brush ( i used the rough round bristle, but dry brush works as well ) set the strength to about 35%

on the white layer paint over the image altering brush size to fit details ( this is not like the usual smudging techniques, a lot easier to do and is more like painting )

to see the full effect move the opacity back up to 100% (not forgetting if you want to go and do more, reduce it again or the smuge brush will just smear what you have already done )

when you have finished you can up the opacity to 100% again and flatten or leave it at about 75% to combine some of the image underneath .

well i told you it was strange the type of brush you use determines the effect and not all work very well, but if you want to experiment and post your results please do

original photo from geek philosopher

[tuku]

Hi palms,
interesting technique.
Think I'll give it a try when I have time...

-kurt

[palms1]

another option ?

smudged,then topaz adjust added, and faded to taste.

Palms

[sylvia1065]

Beautiful, Palms!
Sylvia

[amica999]

Lovely Palms, that is how I did the flowers in your Bribe thread :-)

[palms1]

Thank you Sylvia and Amica i am now heading back to the flowers to look at the effect

Palms

[Peter S]

I don't know about you,but I have trouble smudging hair or fur etc.
So I decided at last to try and make a smudging brush for these that might act like a comb of sorts.
The result is the attached preset file, if you want it, place it in your tools folder in PS, then choose them from the preset menu for each tool.
It consists of 3 presets based on the same brush.
1 for Smudging
2 for Dodging
3 for Burning

The D&B tools I've set to 10% opacity but you can change this to what you like.
If you find these useful let me know, or if you can improve them let us know.

Peter

[palms1]

Originally Posted by Peter S

I don't know about you,but I have trouble smudging hair or fur etc.
So I decided at last to try and make a smudging brush for these that might act like a comb of sorts.
The result is the attached preset file, if you want it, place it in your tools folder in PS, then choose them from the preset menu for each tool.
It consists of 3 presets based on the same brush.
1 for Smudging
2 for Dodging
3 for Burning

The D&B tools I've set to 10% opacity but you can change this to what you like.
If you find these useful let me know, or if you can improve them let us know.

Peter

Thank you Peter i have added them to the first post

Palms

[palms1]

I have added another link found at flikr It has been compiled for beginners in psp hopefully it will be of some use, i know tuts in smudging with psp are rare


http://www.flickr.com/groups/smudgep...7615681223476/

Palms

[palms1]

I have added a link for converting photoshop brushes for use in psp here


Thank you to Graham5 for this

Palms

[palms1]

here is the link to Scott Deardoff's new web site, it looks great not had time to read it though

Palms

[Peter S]

Originally Posted by palms1

here is the link to Scott Deardoff's new web site, it looks great not had time to read it though

Palms

Looks OK, shame it's all Flash stuff, but that's it nowadays.
Did you know he has a Pbase Gallery Here, easier to look at as well.

Peter