[DannyRaphael]

Before:
http://www.pbase.com/image/28428051

After (Original zoomed for detail).
http://www.pbase.com/image/28428072

I really like the way you can make images look "painted" in Corel Painter. I'm experimenting (again) with starting out with images rendered by Impressionist, then doing the Painter thing.

Unfortunately in the base image, the top of her head can't be distinguished too well against the tree. In hindsight I should have fixed that (somehow) before starting the transformation, but...

Impressionist settings:
* Face/neck area: Used Lasso tool to create a selection. Applied Pencil Sketch: Colored Detail (Reduced brush size; increased pressure for a little more definition)
* Inverted selection. Applied Chalk: Detailed Opaque Strokes to the rest.

Switched to Painter and used various brushes to "smear, smudge and stroke":
* Blenders > Just Add Water
* Blenders > Grainy Blender
* Artists > Captured Bristles
* Photo > Soft Cloner (to restore a little detail)

Back to Photoshop
* Add Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to boost saturation everywhere except face and neck.
* Used Lasso to select around Left eyeball; copied selection to new layer (Ctrl + J) and moved it over R eye. Blended with Layer Mask. (The "painted" R eyeball looked way off.)

Back to Painter for a little more blending. Save and close.

Hope this gives you some ideas.
~Danny~

[kiska]

I really like that. I just got Painter a couple of weeks ago but have not tried it yet. Too overwhelmed with all the new bells and whistles.

kiska

[DannyRaphael]

Painter is about as intuitive as Photoshop when it comes to learning how to use it. In a word, "Not."

Two very good Painter education sources:
* www.EclecticAcademy.com - Offers 3 or 4 levels (from baby steps to not quite running) of on-line training for Painter. I took the first (most basic) class in January and was very impressed. Thorough, very knowledgeable instructor who welcomed questions. Useful class materials and exercises. Hands on course. Zero artistic background assumed. Very positive experience. When my plate clears, I intend to take the rest of their offerings.
* Painter 8 Creativity, Jeremy Sutton. It has some very good introductory content, plus numerous exercises that are accompanied by detailed, step-by-step instructions. Some of the exercises focus on taking a photo and creating a "painting" from it; others are more traditional art oriented. The intent of these is not to turn you into an artist per se, but to give you experience to use Painter tools/techniques that are generally useful.

Painter 8 Wow is very popular and a terrific resource to get "ideas" about Painter capabilities. It's strengths are the many amazing examples and high-level discussions on how to achieve them. Unfortunately for newbies the general nature of the descriptions are more geared to those who already have their arms around the basics, plus have a fair amount of traditional artistic skills, too.

Good luck as you make progress. It's a pretty amazing piece of software in its own right.

~Danny~

[kiska]

Thanks for the info. I enrolled in the next session of the Eclectic Academy. Starts next Sun. Appreciate it. WATCH OUT!!!

kiska