[tutumon]

My very first try..WHat do you folks think? ANy suggestions/tips welcome.

Picture

[rab3rd]

Good first go. Think about this, most of the oil paintings that you look at will be soft on the details. Its hard to get super crisp edges when you paint with real oils and brushes. Pay a little less attention to detail and dont be afraid to really smudge it up. Your not trying to maintain the photo detail, your trying to create a painting and a painting will almost never look as sharp and detail as a photo. Also things like necklaces make it harder to acheive the painted look. I have seen some that are REALLY good at pull it off but most will clone out such small detail items before they start, it just makes life easier. Also start with the best photo you can. Do all your PP corrections like color corrections and levels before you start. It makes all the difference. When you smudge follow the contours on the clothes and such. Also follow the contours of the face. Study oil paintings close up and see how the artist uses the strokes and try to emulate the same thing.

Good luck and keep at it. The more you do the better you get....

Rob

[Swampy]

I'm with Rab. The painting and smudging are very nice and the details are well done, but my eye gets confused. Is this supposed to be a photo or a painting? If you are going to do a painting (oil) then the whole image should look painted. JMHO. Other wise great work.

[DannyRaphael]

Upon first look at your work here, I came to the same conclusions as Rob and Dee Dee (aka Swampy). I didn't realize it was > 30"x40" @ 72 ppi until I started messing with it in Photoshop to see if I could come up with any hot ideas. It was then that I said, "Wow." When one is able to see the detail of a smudge painting (either by close inspection and/or the image is big enough), the results can indeed be breath taking.

The problem comes with viewing distance and or colors.

The resuts of smudging alone (IMO) can look too photo-like -- perfect colors, wonderful eyes (like the ones in this portrait that demand attention), life-like shadows and highlights, etc. An easy way to quickly overcome these characteristics is is to duplicate the final smudged layer and then apply a huge amount of sharpening. Optional: Edit > Fade > Luminosity to keep original colors in tact. From there, smudge on or leave as is.

Another method is to manually paint in highlights and shadows, something I don't do well at all. :-)

The second example (sharpening on top of sharpening) would need to be further smudged, but these's no way the final result would ever be mistaken for a photo regardless of viewing distance.

Keep up the good work. You're off to a great start.

[tutumon]

Thanks everybody..

[palms1]

Originally Posted by DannyRaphael

Upon first look at your work here, I came to the same conclusions as Rob and Dee Dee (aka Swampy). I didn't realize it was > 30"x40" @ 72 ppi until I started messing with it in Photoshop to see if I could come up with any hot ideas. It was then that I said, "Wow." When one is able to see the detail of a smudge painting (either by close inspection and/or the image is big enough), the results can indeed be breath taking.

The problem comes with viewing distance and or colors.

The resuts of smudging alone (IMO) can look too photo-like -- perfect colors, wonderful eyes (like the ones in this portrait that demand attention), life-like shadows and highlights, etc. An easy way to quickly overcome these characteristics is is to duplicate the final smudged layer and then apply a huge amount of sharpening. Optional: Edit > Fade > Luminosity to keep original colors in tact. From there, smudge on or leave as is.

Another method is to manually paint in highlights and shadows, something I don't do well at all. :-)

The second example (sharpening on top of sharpening) would need to be further smudged, but these's no way the final result would ever be mistaken for a photo regardless of viewing distance.

Keep up the good work. You're off to a great start.

You are right Danny a lot of smudge painting goes unnoticed due to viewing size, I do have problems when it comes to printing out, Once i spent 4 hours smudging a portrait and i was really pleased with it but when printed or viewed on screen it looked just like a photo

Brad Buttry whos style tutumon seems to of used , gives some advice here ( i havent got his dvds yet still not sure wether too)
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php? p=3496838#post3496838
#776
Scott deardoff Also recommends smudging again after sharpening ( he tends to use paint daubs & aniso for this )

Palms


Tutumon great first painting


Palms