[Peter S]

Its long past time that I posted one of my own pics.
This one taken when on a walk along the Thames.
My attempt was done with Art history and took me ages.

Peter

[byRo]

Peter, that is just beautiful - really caught the mood.

Looks like you enhanced the strokes a little, just the right amount.

Rô

[Peter S]

Originally Posted by byRo

Peter, that is just beautiful - really caught the mood.

Looks like you enhanced the strokes a little, just the right amount.

Rô

Ro thank you very much. You being the master of the brush stroke, I would love to see your go at this. That is if you do one of course (no pressure) (honest)

Peter

[Tom K]

Peter,
Not being a regular here, but seeing your artwork I just had to tell you
that your 'painting' is really great.... Tom

[Peter S]

Originally Posted by Tom K

Peter,
Not being a regular here, but seeing your artwork I just had to tell you
that your 'painting' is really great.... Tom

Thank you Tom

This is just the type of feedback I love

Please be a more regular visitor I would really like to see some of your stuff, as I do with everyone's.

Peter

[palms1]

Brings on memories of a nice summers day down the canals aah bliss

Palms

[Ziaphra]

I love your rendition Peter...is there an AHB tut around? Do you need special brushes and can it be done in Paint Shop Pro? Sorry...just really eager to learn!

[Swampy]

Peter

Great painting. I've never been able to get anything pleasing out of the Art History Brush and it's something we seldom see info on.

I know there are settings for the AHB (tight, loose, dab etc.) and pixel coverage etc. I would love to know what your basic settings were and which "brush" you might have used along with those settings.

Here's all the further I can seem to get with the AHB.

[Peter S]

Originally Posted by Swampy

Peter

Great painting. I've never been able to get anything pleasing out of the Art History Brush and it's something we seldom see info on.

I know there are settings for the AHB (tight, loose, dab etc.) and pixel coverage etc. I would love to know what your basic settings were and which "brush" you might have used along with those settings.

Here's all the further I can seem to get with the AHB.

Swampy you should have seen my first goes at it, I wouldn't post them!!
This aint that bad.
The brush I used for this was one of Trimoon's, watercolour one (I know it doesn't look like a watercolour - artistic license), I think. He has several for download at his site.
Right a quick start (thanks to Palms).
Open your picture (Duh obvious isn't it)
Make any improvements you want, levels etc (I've been tending to start without lately).
If you make any changes create a new history point using merged layers, and point your history to this point.
Create two new blank layers call one background colour (middle one) and the other (top one) art.
Pick a colour from the picture with the eyedropper tool, and fill the background colour layer with it.
Change the blend mode of the art layer to Hard light (you can play with that later if you want).
Choose the Art history brush from the tool box (I know you know where this is)
Go to the tool pre set menu and choose a pre-set.
I think that the default ones are all set to 100% opacity, I've been lowering that to about 35-40% so as to build up brush strokes. (plus thats what I've noticed others have done with their stuff).
Start painting over the art layer, and see what comes out.
If you want more detail lower the brush size, good for facial details.
This can take some time to do its not always a quick style, especially with small brush sizes.
Depending on what you want cover the whole canvas or not, it's up to you.
When your satisfied with the look of it, what I've been doing is, duping the art layer, and passing it through Redfields Bas-Relief filter, (an outstanding plug-in, knocks spots off Photoshop's), though Emboss will give similar results. I usually overdo this, so fade the opacity of this layer a little.
Then I create a hue and sat AJ just above the background colour level and tweak the colours a little.
Some times if needed, which is most of the time of course,I run USM on a merged layer, just to bring out the brush strokes a little more.
A texture layer can be placed at the top of the layer stack, easy to overdo so I fade it slightly.

Hope this helps, and I hope it all makes sense, and I hope I haven't left out anything important.

My this has been a long reply from me, I'm not used to this maybe there should be an Art History forum here, as you said you have to search for info on it.

I think I need a drink now

Peter

[Swampy]

Thank you so much, Peter! A great explanation. I think I was worrying too much about the AHB settings -- Tight curl, dab etc, but I can see with a small brush how you can get more detail. I was just getting big spatters. And I never gave a thought to see what Adobe had set up in the tool Presets for the AHB. Doh!

Again, much thanks for taking the time. :-)

[Peter S]

Originally Posted by Swampy

Thank you so much, Peter! A great explanation. I think I was worrying too much about the AHB settings -- Tight curl, dab etc, but I can see with a small brush how you can get more detail. I was just getting big spatters. And I never gave a thought to see what Adobe had set up in the tool Presets for the AHB. Doh!

Again, much thanks for taking the time. :-)

Just thought maybe do a Google for pre sets. If you do, I think they go into the tools folder not the brushes.

Peter

[Swampy]

Good idea, Peter.

I did the "Face with Character" poitrait Here

It's still awkward, but I see what you mean about keeping the brush size small and lowering the opacity.

Thanks for the help! :-)

[Peter S]

Originally Posted by Swampy

Good idea, Peter.

I did the "Face with Character" poitrait Here

It's still awkward, but I see what you mean about keeping the brush size small and lowering the opacity.

Thanks for the help! :-)

I keep telling then size IS everything. (they still laugh)

Peter

[Janet Petty]

Swampy (and others) Here are a couple of wonderful tutorials on using the AHB.

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=164

http://retouchpro.com/tutorials/?m=show&id=3

Hope these help,

Janet

[dkcoats]

I consider this:

http://martindigital.com/AH_Ballet_Tut/

the definitive tutorial on the Art History Brush. It changed my AHB life. The author, Joe Martin, is an AHB deity and a first-rate artist whose work is remarkable for its profound sensitivity to the subject matter. The tute includes some of his nifty brushes.

I can't recommend this tutorial highly enough. Really.