Oil painting effects and discussions

[Blacknight]

I personally prefer the look of an oil painting over watercolor. I played with this one (mainly the FILTER/ARTISTIC/UNDERPAINTING) and liked the way it turned out. How many different mediums can we simulate with Photoshop?

[Blacknight]

Here is what it looked like before I messed with it...

[jeaniesa]

I usually prefer watercolor over oil, though I've been trying to create different effects with the various images I've been working on. Oil is one that I've had a hard time duplicating though. I usually think of oil as "heavy" and just don't prefer that look as much, though I HAVE seen plenty of oil paintings which have a light feel to them, so perhaps I'm not being fair.

In any case, I think it would be fun to see how many different mediums we can simulate in PS. Oil paintings will be challenging because of the inherent tecture in the paint - at least that's how I think of it. But I don't know why, since my grandmother was accomplished at oil painting and most of her images did not include lots of texture. (Wonder where I've come up with that bias then?)

I'm glad to see the the original photo is dark, because my first thought when I saw your painting was that it was a night-time view of the ocean. I'm not sure I like the green areas in your version, but that is purely personal color preference. One other thing I notice is that the texture shows up in some areas (midtones) more than others (highlights and shadows.) Not sure if this was your intent or not.

Overall, it leaves me with an ominous feeling - perhaps because I've been surprised by large waves breaking on the rocks of a jetty as night falls.

So, how did you do it?

Jeanie

[Mike Needham]

Nice idea Blacknight! I love the concept of reproducing various mediums

Great touch to have used a canvas texture too

[Jakaleena]

Neat idea trying to simulate oils instead of watercolors. I think I'm gonna mess around with that idea some. I bet it would look neat to try to make a portrait into something like a Rembrandt painting.

[DJ Dubovsky]

I love how the canvas shows through in some spots but not others as though the paint were thin in areas. You did great on achieving the effect you wanted. Now I wish there were a way of simulating brush strokes without affecting the image below unlike the brush stroke filters already in Photoshop which change the appearance of the image totally.
DJ

[jeaniesa]

Originally posted by DJ Dubovsky
Now I wish there were a way of simulating brush strokes without affecting the image below unlike the brush stroke filters already in Photoshop which change the appearance of the image totally.

One idea, and I have NO idea if it will work, is to make a new layer on top of the painting. Then use a black brush to "paint" the strokes you want on the blank layer. (You might want to use grey for lighter-looking strokes.) Essentially, paint the strokes as you think they should look in the painting (you'll probably need to use PS7's new brushes or another painterly program to get a try brush stroke effect.) Once you're done, copy the layer over a "new image" that is filled with white. Then, save as a PSD file. Back in the painting, delete the layer with the brush strokes, then apply the texture filter using the texture file which you just saved.

Like I said, I have NO idea if this will work and I don't have time to try it right now. (Didn't Doug suggest something like this in one of these threads? Perhaps that's where I got the idea from. )

Jeanie

[Vikki]

I haven't spent too much time on an oil technique, so I thought I'd give this a go. I wanted to try and give it an effect I've seen done by past artists, that paint Niagara Falls (dramatic effect)
I really prefer watercolors, so this may still look like one.
Oil or watercolor, or what?
Blacknight: I liked this photo for the oil effect!
I've posted the steps, but it's late for me, so if they aren't clear, let me know.
Adjusted levels (to fix color also)
Duplicate layer
TOP LAYER
cutout: 8/0/3
PE: artic
select midtones (color range)
distort/glass:frosted 10/8/100
select highlights:accent edges:1/29/1
select shadows:smudge stick:2/0/10
set layer opacity to lighten 62%
BOTTOM LAYER
PE: 0wetter2
Flatten image
Select shadows:unsharp mask 94/1.2/0
Select midtones - invert
Texturizer:canvas
fade 50%
deselect
texturizer:canvas 55/1/top
adjust level (darken shadows % highlights)
increase saturation on greens
increase saturation on magenta & adjust hue to more yellow

[Blacknight]

Looks great to me! It lost it's "nightime" look that it seemed to have in the original. Now it looks like a fun place to be rather than maybe a little scary as I think I made it appear.

I personally wanted the rocks to look more like maybe a palette knife kind of effect, and actually tried that on the image I did. It was a disaster, but it remained as a "buffer" layer with a blend mode because it changed the colors below it to more what I wanted. I was bad and didn't record the steps I did to make it - wasn't really doing anything but playing around and then I got into it and, well, you know how it goes.

I've been thinking of using the action menu and recording whenever I start messing around like that, but so many of them end up in the trashcan that I never seem to bother recording and then wish I had. That would be an easy way (mistakes and all, though) to "remember" what you did, I guess.

[Blacknight]

Originally posted by Vikki

I've posted the steps, but it's late for me, so if they aren't clear, let me know.

Maybe it's late for me too, but what's PE?

[jeaniesa]

Originally posted by Blacknight
Maybe it's late for me too, but what's PE?

Paint Engine - the one that only runs on PC's.
Jeanie

[jeaniesa]

Vikki - I LOVE it!! Like I said above, I'm not an expert on oils - nor am I particularly drawn to them, but I think your painting is a lot more "oil" than "watercolor"! I love the color of the water that you got - esp. that small green patch.

Phil is right that the lighter version changes the mood, but my version would probably end up lightening the picture as well. That being said, perhaps I should try making a dark version to "test" myself.

Great job!!

Jeanie

[Blacknight]

I'll stop now - I feel like I'm hogging the thread or something, but I wanted to make a non-green version just to see if it would still keep the same mood as the green one and not offend those who don't prefer green (I don't like green much either, except for some reason I kind of liked that green pic - but then I think I like this version too...fickle, I guess)

[Blacknight]

Originally posted by jeaniesa
Paint Engine - the one that only runs on PC's.
Jeanie

Oh.

~pouts 'cause he can't use it~

[jeaniesa]

YES! I like that MUCH better!!

Jeanie