Creative interpretations: Portrait - Andee McDowell

[DannyRaphael]

This is U.S. celebrity Andee McDowell. I thought this would make a nice portrait.

Happy creating.

~Danny~

[Cheryl H]

I'm still on my compositing kick. This has several lucis art layers topped with several pattern fill layers in soft light for texture. I'm starting to really like lucis for blended photos.

[ahutton]

This time I went for glamour, soft focus, a dreamy effect. Went through several different steps. VP watercolor, PMAG xero lineart, bunch of softening, and repainting the lips and making the eyes less red. Oh and buzz was in there somewhere.

Amy Hutton

[Cheryl H]

Wow Amy--great look!

[Duv]

Maybe my third or fourth favorite lady of all time. Did a MF Sketcher followed by Pop Artist. Ran adjust Pop Artist to suit then a contrast adjustment. Last, I reduce the grain under her eyes. Hard to mess this lady up.

Cheers
Duv

[Jeff L]

Here is my take on this one. I used the Gothic Glow action with a little dodging in her eyes and a bit of patch tool on the hotspot on her forehead.

[Xaran]

Duplicated twice and ran xero illustrator on one and xero line art on the other - layer mode of both changed to soft light. gaussian blur on the Illustrator layer.

Changed the colour of her eyes.

Christine

[DannyRaphael]

#1
Inspired by Duv's creation which really caught my eye, the first is a result of more fooling around with Impressionist to render the textured look. (Crayon: Short Choppy Strokes in the hair; Conte: Smudged Monochrome for most of the rest).

The Impressionist layers were topped of by a layer rendered by Photoshop's Find Edges filter (set to Multiply) and a layer created by desaturating a copy of the original BG used to selectively restore eye, nose, lips detail using a layer mask.

Also, I added a layer at the top of the layer stack, filled it with 50% gray, set the blend mode to Soft Light and added Noise for a little texture.

Frame actions available here:
* http://www.photozo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=194
* http://epaperpress.com/psphoto/ (look under Frames tab)

#2
I tried something kind of unusual (for me, anyway) on this one. Applied Emboss filter to a copy of the background. Then, with a levels adjustment layer, squeezed all of the gray out, leaving promenent features against a lot of white.

Clicked on the Background to select it, then went to the History Palette to create a new "current layer" snapshot and set it as the source for the History Brush.

I selected the Art History Brush from the Tools Palette and set the style to Tight Short, and brush size of 3 pixels. When you do this the Art History Brush generates tiny little, squiggly lines, and I used this to paint in hair eye and other areas.

Used Find Edges (against a copy of the BG) with blend mode set to Multiply to restore more edge detail.

~Danny~

[Duv]

Whew. Nice stuff Danny! Like the first one but you should bottle your second effort. Sucks you right into the eyes..and more. Definety going to experiment with your work flow.

Cheers

Duv

[jch71566]

This was a happy accident using:

Xero Radiance
My Extreme Color Filter
PhotoEffex Background Blur.

[jrolinc]

Perhaps I missed something somewhere...

What/Where is the "My Extreme Color Filter", or where can I get info about it and/or who makes it?

Thanks

[jch71566]

Originally Posted by jrolinc

Perhaps I missed something somewhere...

What/Where is the "My Extreme Color Filter", or where can I get info about it and/or who makes it?

Thanks

Well, you see, it is ~MY~ extreme color filter. I am developing it with FilterMeister, but do not yet think that it is quite ready for prime time.

You could achieve a similar effect with FlamingPear's free Vitriol, though. My version achieves the same effect, but with a user-interface.

After I ran "Radiance" on the picture (random settings), there were some patches of yellow/orange on Andee's face. I set my filter to an extremely saturated version of that color, and it turned it white, thus leaving only the red tones.

Cheers!
Jeff

[Duv]

Here's another go with Xero Moodlight, Xero Moonlight, Xero Mystifier followed by Amphisoft Simplifier.

Cheers
Duv

[Trimoon]

Larger image here TM Andee-McDowell.jpg

Duplicate first document
Name: “TM Watercolor”

Duplicate current layer

Impressionist Filter
Style: Chalk/Sketch: On Fine Laid Paper

Blending Options
Set current layer
To: layer
Mode: screen

Flatten Image

Dust & Scratches
Radius: 4
Threshold: 1

Selective Color
Method: relative
Color Correction: color correction list
color correction
Colors: reds
Black: -45%
color correction
Colors: whites
Black: 11%

Texturizer
Effect: Texturizer
Texture Type: Art Paper No 22.psd
Scaling: 100
Relief: 12
Light Direction: Bottom Right
Without Invert Texture
Or
Texture Type: Sandstone
Scaling: 100
Relief: 2 to 4
Light Direction: Bottom Right
Without Invert Texture
Done

[DannyRaphael]

Great detail and lovely interpretation, Steve. Glad to see another Impressionist fan.

Did you get my e-mail RE: the download of your settings .set file?

~Danny~

[ahutton]

Just playing with the new VP filters again. I did a lot of stuff with this one, the main thing being the VP embroidery, then I added another layer with her lips and eyes from the original and did a soft focus on it.

AmyHutton

[LQQKER]

Adjusted the levels and color.
Ran Ninja to lose the noise.
Used Flaming pears lacquer.
Added texture with paint engine.
Used several Nik filters (skylight, sunshine, contrast polarize and midnight).
Ran impressionist pencil sketch.
Simplified at low setting.
Embossed lightly.
adjusted color balance.

[Duv]

Tried a Varis technique followed by Gothic Glow.

Cheers
Duv

[jaykita]

Originally Posted by Duv

Whew. Nice stuff Danny! you should bottle your second effort. Sucks you right into the eyes..and more.

Duv

I totally agree with Duv.
Danny, I feel compelled to use this as a painting on my wall!! 3 cheers for your work of art!

[WideAngle]

Hi,
I used diffused glow filter on the face then brought back some detail..just pulled the red down a bit and lightened a bit.....
I'm wondering how it looks to others?

Thanks

WideAngle.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by WideAngle

Hi,
I used diffused glow filter on the face then brought back some detail..just pulled the red down a bit and lightened a bit.....
I'm wondering how it looks to others?

Thanks

WideAngle.

Hey, WideAngle...

Glad to see you dive into the photo-art forum swimming pool. Welcome.

Your results here are very effective across the board...
* Subtle coloring
* Tone mix
* Skin smoothing

Andee would be pleased. Keep 'em coming.

~Danny~

[jaykita]

Something different from all these lovely contributions. Hope Andee approves!
5 layers...upwards
1. bkgr layer
2. levels to lighten and slightly posterize. Screen 22% opac.
3. g'blur overlay 100%
4. Render lighting effects - default, directional, channel red and material, exposure and ambience almost maxm.
5. chalk and charcoal filter.
Final touch up -- selective color - neutrals to black.

[jaykita]

First simplified the image, and then impr filter pencil sketch modified.

[byRo]

...just another admirer standing up to be counted..
- Used a skin gradient to tone down the colors, leaving only the eyes and lips untouched;
- Made separate layers masked from darkest to lightest;
- Layer BB has all the details and remains untouched throughout;
- Blurred and applied a simple Impressionist filter (chalk soft pastels)to each of the others ;
- Tweaked the blendings until I got the look I wanted.

Roland

[DannyRaphael]

Hey, Ro:

Nice combination of effects here. You made a lovely lady look even better.

- - - - - -

Jaykita: Two very creative looks. I especially like the blackboard approach, a first, I believe, for this forum. Nice job of "coloring outside the lines" (technique-wise). Well done.

~Danny~

[Duv]

Thought I'd have a bit of a go using some of Trimoon's ideas on watercolor. Created a blank layer, filled with white and with History brush using Steve's watercolor brush presets, painted over. Created mask and painted back a bit of eye and mouth detail.

Cheers
Dave

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Duv

Thought I'd have a bit of a go using some of Trimoon's ideas on watercolor. Created a blank layer, filled with white and with History brush using Steve's watercolor brush presets, painted over. Created mask and painted back a bit of eye and mouth detail.

Cheers
Dave

That turned out pretty good, Dave. I like how you left a little of the "canvas" unpainted. I'm still struggling with the method.

~Danny~

[jaykita]

Played around a bit with the pic using phyllis stewart's abstract and smudge idea, then to vp impasto.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by jaykita

Played around a bit with the pic using phyllis stewart's abstract and smudge idea, then to vp impasto.

Hey, I like that combination of effects. Very arty!

[Duv]

I think she looks great even if she does have a bad lipstick day.

cheers
Dave