Kelly-Anne

[jerry]

Boy you folks have really made some nice entries of this pretty young lady since I checked in yesterday..Top notch everyone..

Phyllis
The brush that I used with your technique is simply called "dry brush 39". I used it at approx 50% opacity and varied the size depending on the detail..Like you, I used a fairly large brush for most of it approx. 40 to 50 pixels.. I varied opacities from 50 to 6 percent depending on how I was blending..The intuos makes blending pretty easy with pressure control..I would simply rub harder to blend harder..The technique works really well..I found the canvas texture to really compliment this technique..

Have fun
Jerry

Thanks everyone for the nice comments..

[themanda]

I've been working on that style of "smudge painting" this afternoon. Far less lizard skin!! While I'm still not thrilled with the results, I'm much happier. Just need to practice some more. I must say, though, that the way it renders fabric and hair is PERFECTION. I'm amazed that something as simple as the smudge tool gives such terrific...and consistent...results.

Thanks for sharing this one Phyllis!!!

[LQQKER]

Very attractive little one.

I'm still playing with "PaintEngine" . I used this in conjunction with PS7 filters (a bunch of them), and some Nik contrast filters to bring out the color.

Really nice work everyone!

[themanda]

LQQKER, I love what you did to her eyes!! Great job!

[themanda]

That's what I'm calling this technique for lack of a more glamourous term. I guess we could call it the Phyllis Special...but everything she does is so darn special that we'd be at a loss for what to call her next creation. Hmm...

Anyway, I've been playing with this and am finally at a place where I'm happy enough with my results to post them. I did some PE'ing on the background and added a lighting effect, but everything else is done with the good ole smudge tool.

[retpmikl]

LQQKER,

different, original and very nice. The eyes, the lips, the hairs... Ya, I like it a lot.

Amanda, a nice work with the smudge tool. Bravo.

[pstewart]

Here's one that mixes oil painting technique with abstract sketch. Started with a much simplified abstract then painted it with smudge brush etc. Supposed to look like a quick oil paint sketch rather than a serious portrait.

Phyllis

[pstewart]

Originally posted by jerry
The intuos makes blending pretty easy with pressure control..I would simply rub harder to blend harder..The technique works really well

Of course! That's what I'm missing here. My slate is offline temporarily waiting for hubby to install a new driver so I've been using a mouse all week. Painting with a mouse is not the easiest thing in the world, but it does help coordination.

Originally posted by Amanda

I must say, though, that the way it renders fabric and hair is PERFECTION. I'm amazed that something as simple as the smudge tool gives such terrific...and consistent...results.

Thanks for sharing this one Phyllis!!!

Glad you like it, but I'm really surprised that it sounds "new" to anyone. I used the smudge tool on the cover girl in challenge #8 but didn't sharpen it. Now I wish I had. To me the "new discovery" here is adding unsharp mask to the process...it amazed me that something as simple as sharpening a smudged image could give it the look of a painting by bringing out the stroke detail as well as adding some shading and highlights.

Btw, Amanda, I like the intensity of your painting...daringly dark, and the bright highlights scattered through the hair really accent it. Lovely!

Phyllis

[jerry]

LOOK OUT !!!!! When Phyllis gets her tablet back, We are really going to see the paint fly..

Looker..Very nice effect.

Amanda..Now your getting the hang of this technique..Very nice..

Jerry

By the way Phyllis..that last simple painting is AWSOME.. Any more hints on how you simplified it first..PLEEEEZE (I'm always polite when I whine)

[Pam]

Lqqker -
That's beautiful! I love the colors and the way you handled her eyes.

Themanda -
Very nice job on the "Phyllis" technique. I'll have to try that...good work!

Phyllis -
Your quick oil sketch is wonderful. BTW, I'm trying to document the steps I took on my Kelly-Anne attempt for you but life is getting in the way at the moment I'll have it done ASAP.


Pam

[pstewart]

Originally posted by jerry
By the way Phyllis..that last simple painting is AWSOME.. Any more hints on how you simplified it first...

Glad you liked it...thanks.

Before smudging it I blended a simplified version over the original and combined the two. You might also try "use all layers" setting.

To do the simplifed layer, I used my abstract method but simplified it even more by painting white over the little spots it left on the face. I may have also blended in a layer of the basic outline technique also with the facial speckles painted white...don't recall. There may be some hints in the next two I'm posting here, since they were made from these two simplified versions, abstract and outline to start with. Neither is smudge-painted so you can compare the lines.

On this first one, I blended a cutout version of the original over the abstract version.

Phyllis

[pstewart]

Looker, just saw your pic...wow! Very intense...love how the eyes glow and the lips stand out, along with the bold highlights in the hair. And the red background works perfectly with that interesting mottled texture all over...great look!

This one was made from a basic outline with faded anisotropic diffuse to soften it slightly. It was also overlaid with an abstract layer at low opacity, as I can see from the wiggly dark spots on the shirt. Purpose was mainly to smooth out the dotted lines in the hair more left by the outline method. Blurring set to darken blend mode with faded opacity added some softness.

Phyllis

[JBCaffrey]

Did this in Painter 7 then used Trimoon's pencil lighting effect to add some embossing and texture.

Jim

[DannyRaphael]

I was messing with Smart Blur / Edge Only filter. Normally running this filter yields white lines on black (or, when inverted, black lines on white). I wanted to see if I could extract the original colors from the image vs. just black.

After running the filter (NO CTRL + I to invert it as usual), I clicked the Channels tab, clicked one of the color layers (makes no difference which... they're all the same for this purpose), CTRL + Clicked the channel name, which "loads the selection" (marching ants). Optional: If desired, Select > Save Selection... could be done at this time if the selection might be used at another time.

Clicked the layers tab, clicked "off" the Smart Blur / Edge Only layer, revealing the original Background. CTRL + J to create a new layer based on the selection. Result: Colored edges.

Turned the BG layer off; inserted a new layer above it (and below the edges layer) and filled with white.

Colored lines layer: Duplicated and set blend mode to Multiply (to give color more "oomph"). Duplicated the layer again and, with Move tool selected, hit right arrow twice, down arrow twice to offset it a bit, adding a little more line character.

Tured off the all-white layer, merged all visible layers, added a layer mask to the consolidated edges layer and with forground set to black, airbrushed the layer mask to hide some unwanted spots and lines.

Duplicated original color Background and dragged to top of layer stack. Applied a layer mask and inverted it (CTRL + I). With foreground color set to white and a very wide brush, used airbrush setting (very low flow / opacity) to selectively restore eye color and a little to the face and neck areas.

Applied a border using the Edit > Stroke command.

The point here is not so much the resulting image, which falls into the so-so category in my book, it's the ability to get "colored edges" via Smart Blur / Edge Only.

Keep havin' fun!

~DannyR~

[Pam]

Danny, this is an excellent idea! I've been working on manipulating the lines for the past week myself...

I like your idea of moving the lines layer slightly out of register.

I've been experimenting with making the lines more sketch-like. Now they just look like technical pen work. To that end, I've been trying to work with Paint Engine. But that's taking forever...there are just SO many variables with that thing, and none of them seem very logical to me.

So until I can get a handle on Paint Engine, I've been messing them up a bit with Distort>Ripple. Just a tiny amount, 30-50 seems within reason. Then use a heavy, bumpy type texture or pattern to break up the lines and have them look more sketched.

Try it and let me know what you think...


Pam