Smudge pretty blond

[CathyH]

Hi here is a smudge painting I just finished. What do you think?
Any suggestion would be appreciated.
Cathy

[hawkeye60]

I like it.

[palms]

Very nice Cathy, the only thing i would say is the hair on the left as you look at the screen seems a bit distracting (just under the chin the blonde bit on the darker hair) i might have cloned that bit out
but a very nice subtle smudge
may i ask which brush you used

Palms

[Gilbert]

very nice Kathy

[CathyH]

Thank you Hawkeye, Palms, and Gilbert.
It is subtle, I have tried them less but then they seem to distort the features of the face to much. I guess there is a fine line between too much and not enough.
Palms I used a set of brushes I got off the internet along time ago, I'm not sure but I think they are from here the link seems broken http://www.nikoncafe.com/vforums/showthread.php?t=84461[/URL]http://www.pbase.com/sunny713/profile
this is the ladies site http://www.nikoncafe.com/vforums/showthread.php?t=84461

[palms]

the link's on Lisa's post are broken now but i do have the brush's

Palms

[Kraellin]

very nice, cathy!

just a thought here and i dont mean this as a criticism, just an option depending on what you're after; if you're looking for a great retouch, like in glamour shots, then the smudge would be just a bit too 'clean' and i'd add some noise to the skin area. but if the object was a pure, 'clean' skin-smudge, then it looks really good

and i hope that you dont mind that i had a play with this. i used both the original and your smudge, some blend modes and a threshold to get that poster look. she looks like something straight out of a mickey spillane novel

[CathyH]

Craig, I don't mind at all, that looks really neat, I especially like the eyes.
Thanks for the comments, I was going for a smudge painting, but it doesn't look very much like a painting. I need to work on the brush stroke look.

[lkroll]

Cleaned stray hairs and distractions in the background and then ran GREYCstoration and ACE (and erased where I needed to) for this one. Well, I also did a brightening step prior to all the above.

[lkroll]

OK Cathy; hope you don't mind some additional play. I've been experimenting with Guilloche techniques very strongly the last few weeks and just wanted to do some more here. Just providing a link (around 500K).

Here's the link.

[CathyH]

lkroll, those are both really cool. I like what happened to the hair in the first one, maybe you could smooth out the side of the lips though. (just a thought).
The second one looks like it should be printing onto a dollar bill. Is Guilloche a plug in?

And I don't mind at all that you play, is sure is better than fighting.
keep them coming.

[lkroll]

Unfortunately, no one individual filter can do this. I used a technique that I outlined here and blended in DCSpecial's Nylon to it.

[CathyH]

Thanks lkroll, it looks like you are putting a lot of hard working into it. I was hoping for a quick filter.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by CathyH

...I was going for a smudge painting, but it doesn't look very much like a painting. I need to work on the brush stroke look.

Unless one is very close to the monitor or the art is blown up into a large print or canvas, one of the challenges of smudge paintings is creating something that "looks painted" especially if one stays faithful to the original colors and highlights.

Something that sometimes works is once you get to the "final result" [and assuming Photoshop] duplicate that layer and then apply a healthy dose of "over sharpening" to emphasize colors and textures. You can then use a layer mask and/or opacity setting to include/exclude as much of the effect as you like.

Here's an example to chew on...

Getting the "right look" (whatever That is) in smudge painting is definitely an art, not a science. Keep at it. Starting with a great photo like this one sure helps.

[CathyH]

Thanks Danny I will keep working on it, and I like yours too.
cathy

[Kraellin]

thanks, cathy

very cool, lyle!

and i especially like yours, danny!

[Peter S]

Had a go at this.
I need the practice, especially on hair.
Though I may have over done the eyelashes a bit.

Peter

[041567970]

Peter that is amazing...nice work!

[CathyH]

Pete that is great, can you tell me what you did?
Do you use the smudge tool at 100% pressure?
cathy

[Peter S]

Originally Posted by CathyH

Pete that is great, can you tell me what you did?
Do you use the smudge tool at 100% pressure?
cathy

Thanks Cath, !00% no, I made that mistake when I first tried smudging things. This was Trimoons #23 preset, I've been finding that the easiest for me to use, set to about 50%, but I cheat a little at the start by using noise reduction to get rid of any stray pixel noise there. The trouble with that, is that it tends to lose details in hair especially, so I use the Darken and lighten modes a lot, to try and bring some of the highlights back, and of course D&B.
The rest is just lot and lots of small brush strokes, though the eyelashes where from a eyelash brush dabbed onto a separate layer and then lightly smudged and faded the opacity a little.

Peter

[CathyH]

Thanks Peter, I will give mine another try.
cathy

[palms]

sorry guys i was feeling a bit left out
and i need the practice
Palms

[CathyH]

Palms that is very nice, I like the background color, it brings out the color of her eyes.
Although it seems a little soft over all?

cathy

[Peter S]

Originally Posted by palms1

sorry guys i was feeling a bit left out
and i need the practice
Palms

Practice - likely story, just cos you can do hair I'll bet.
It's good though.

Peter

[palms]

Originally Posted by Peter S

Practice - likely story, just cos you can do hair I'll bet.
It's good though.

Peter

Peter are you using just a mouse ? cause that makes hair very hard work
one tip is to rotate the image so that you go across as opposed to down

Palms

[Peter S]

Originally Posted by palms1

Peter are you using just a mouse ? cause that makes hair very hard work
one tip is to rotate the image so that you go across as opposed to down

Palms

No I use a CAT fur (for) smudging.

I've got an old Wacom pen, though its still hard work.

Peter

[lkroll]

Different then my last version. Also, a lot more smudging too.

[CathyH]

Hey that is neat lkroll, almost like a wood cut.
I like it.

[Dron58]

My first try at portrait

[CathyH]

Vitali, that is great. How did you do it?