[DannyRaphael]

Diane:

A wonderful trio of Impressionist images. Well done. I especially like the butterfly.

Thanks for sharing your creativity. Keep 'em coming!

~Danny~

[Diane]

Photo is mine. I don't remember every step for this, I was just playing around with Impressionist. Opened image, duped it, find edges, inverted, blend mode was pin light, merged, impressionist: crayon short choppy strokes, rought bleached fresco, last thing I think was reducing opacity to 21 %.
I liked the final result tho it probably could be a little lighter.

[Janet Petty]

Diane, regarding your comment about the picture being a little lighter...
I for one like the dark just the way it is. Sure pics are great when the sun is shining brightly; but the color saturation is poor when that happens and things end up looking washed out. Your flowers really pop the way they are.
Your technique is good. I like the slightly blurred edges; yet one can tell what kind of flowers they are and feel the exuberance of so many of them clustered together. The only thing I might add to the Black Eyed Susans is their black "eye". I'm missing the dark centers.

[Janet Petty]

Cheryl, the image of the cart is stupendous. I know we aren't supposed to just say WOW and let things go; but I can't add anything else. So WOW! Keep up the good work. I'm going to try that particular combination and see what I can come up with.

Danny, your work is inspiring as well. I'm definitely going to have to learn to use painter (in another thread) so that I can achieve some of your special effects. So far, the learning curve is more than I've been willing to tackle this summer. Oh, and p.s. I especially liked your screen shots of your actual layers.

Great job guys.

[Cheryl H]

Thanks Janet. My presets are available for download. You can find the link in this thread http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8328
It's the third post down.

[Janet Petty]

I'm very much still learning about painting. I know what I like when I see it; but I can't duplicate it onto paper. I'm so glad to be learning about extracurricular photoshop capabilities. I might even learn how to paint someday. Here is one of my first tries at "painting" the photoshop way.

The entire description is listed in the screenshot.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Janet Petty

I'm very much still learning about painting. I know what I like when I see it; but I can't duplicate it onto paper. I'm so glad to be learning about extracurricular photoshop capabilities. I might even learn how to paint someday. Here is one of my first tries at "painting" the photoshop way.

The entire description is listed in the screenshot.

Good for you, Janet! This is just how you learn. Experiment with various styles and combinations and stop when you get something you like!

Over time I think you'll appreciate having named layers as you go as a creative roadmap/reminder. Speaking from experience, it's real frustrating to look at something you created six months ago, wanting to achieve similar results on another image and not remembering how you created the original.

Well done. Keep 'em coming.

~Danny~

[Tiger_Steve]

I've just started playing with Impressionist (thx Danny) and thought I'd share my first serious attempt with the RetouchPRO community. The steps taken were as follows...

• Duplicated background four times, then from the bottom of the stack upwards...
• Impressionist - Pencil Sketch: Soft Detailed (layer opacity reduced to 80%).
• Impressionist - #djrOil24 (Hard Light blend mode).
• Smart Blur (High Quality/Edges Only) - Inverted - Stylize/Diffuse/Anisotropic (Multiply blend mode & layer opacity reduced to 80%).
• Created a Merged Visible layer.
• Applied Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
• Applied creative border.
• Then, finally, I flattened the image, converted the profile & saved for web.

Hope you like the result.

[Tiger_Steve]

Number 2. This is based on the early B&W Edges stage of Danny's above post (#10), with Impressionist: djrOil24 (modified: Brush Size 100, Coverage 100, Pressure 100). The B&W Edges layer was placed above the Impressionist layer and the blend mode was changed to multiply and then the layer opacity was reduced to 50%. Finally a 3px stroke was applied to a blank layer and Gaussian Blurred (2.0), before flattening and saving.

Hope you like it.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Tiger_Steve

...I thought I'd share my first serious attempt...

You mean your other posted pics haven't been serious? LOL (I'm just jerking your chain.)

I'd say you're off to a great start, Steve. The more you use this plugin, the more your eyes will open to its possibilities. The fun has just begun.

Thanks for sharing your breakthrough creation & steps. Here's to many more in the future.

~Danny~

[Neve]

I don't get much chance to play with the Impressionist Plugin and now have a new dig cam too. DH bought me some flowers for our 41st anniversary on Tuesday so I took a shot or two of them. It is quite clear I'll never be a good photographer so I'm entirely thankful we can transform a bad photo into something which is more pleasant to view...!

PSP8.01 and Impressionist

Duped BG Layer
L2 – Screen Mode 50%/Merged
AIM/USM
Duped Layer Twice
L2 – Impressionist/Watercolour/Damp Transluscent Wash
BG =Image/Brush=137%/Cover=84%/Press=70%
Layer Blend Normal 100%
L3 – Impressionist/As above
BG=Image/Brush=400%/Cover=100%/Press=70%
Layer Blend Luminance (L) 82%
Merged all
AIM/USM
Duped Bottom Layer
Edge Dilate-LayerBlend Soft Light 62%
Merged all.
Resized for upload.
Paint Shop Pro/USM twice. 5/25/5

[Neve]

PPS8.01 and Impressionist No. 2

Auto Contrast to Lighten
AIM/USM - Duped bottom layer
L2 - Impressionist/Conte Faithful/ 200/78/100
Mode Luminance (L)/Merged layers/Duped Layer
L2 - AIM/USM Mode Normal 50%/Merged layers
Duped layer
L2 - Mode Screen 25% - Merged all.

[jaykita]

The image is taken from http://gal.mvc.ru/gallery/ as shown below.
The impr plug-in settings were as follows:
Style - waterchalk smudged modified.
General - Backgr - image, brush size 100%, coverage 90, pressure 100.
Brush - watr5a modified (i g'blurred the image), smudge 10, pressure 100.
Placement random-90%
Size - No. of sizes 3, width min 4, max 12, ht 2.04, 6.13, distribution about even.
Color- stroke color-image, Jitter H-0,S-8,B-5, brightness 50, contr 50.
Using a layer mask and fill layer white, isolated the 2 flowers, and used the impr plugin, then the text, lastly the border.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by jaykita

The image is taken from http://gal.mvc.ru/gallery/ as shown below.
The impr plug-in settings were as follows:
Style - waterchalk smudged modified.
General - Backgr - image, brush size 100%, coverage 90, pressure 100.
Brush - watr5a modified (i g'blurred the image), smudge 10, pressure 100.
Placement random-90%
Size - No. of sizes 3, width min 4, max 12, ht 2.04, 6.13, distribution about even.
Color- stroke color-image, Jitter H-0,S-8,B-5, brightness 50, contr 50.
Using a layer mask and fill layer white, isolated the 2 flowers, and used the impr plugin, then the text, lastly the border.

Wow... This is exceptional.

On the settings...
* "waterchalk smudged modified" = Your name for the modified style, correct?

If so can I ask another favor?
* In the Impressionist dialog choose this style, as though you're going to apply it
* Click Save (Category name=#jaykita, variant name=waterchalk, file name=jaykita waterchalk.set)
* Go to the Impressionist \User Settings folder and Zip file "jaykita waterchalk.set"
* Add a post to this thread and upload the .zip.

This is a really neat style.

~Danny~

[jaykita]

Hello Danny. Thank you for the appreciation.
I'd also like to tell you that I MUST GIVE CREDIT where credit is due. Originally the "waterchalk smudged" style was taken from "Fluffbutt All Settings.set" which i downloaded from the "Impressionist plugin: Custom styles (member posted)" thread. Those are very good.
Of course, the change that i made was to modify the brush, like i said.
So if you still want me to upload the zip file with my name on it, i sure will, gladly. Please let me know.