[DannyRaphael]

Perhaps a bit on the busy side, but with some simplification should render well. Photo by N. Suydam.

All aboard!

~Danny~

[kiska]

On the second:
crop
Painter
Photoshop-filters-spatter spray, texture
dup-vivid/32%
dup-find edges,fade
Painter to soften filters
overlay
On the first:
Used previous image
red and green channels
filter-wave
dup
Transform-flip vertical
enlarge canvas,combine
h/s
selective sharpening
rotate

[Rob S.]

First, I posterized the beejeebers out of it (and yes, that's a technical term). Then I threw a rough pastel on it, desaturated everything but the train and built up a sepia-like effect on the desaturated part.

[DannyRaphael]

kiska:

Now THAT'S some manipulation on #1. Not in 1K years would I have come up with that combination of steps. Glad you shared them, just to illustrate the possibilities.

#2 came out very painterly. Nicely done.

- - - - - - -

Hey, Rob:

Glad you found our little fun corner of the world. Your application of sepia tones in the background was very effective in highlighting the foreground colors.

re: beejeebers
I'm always up for learning a new Photoshop technical term!

Welcome aboard.

- - - - - - -
On mine...

1st one:
* Increased resolution to 100 ppi
* Applied Levels adjustment layer to punch up the contrast in the highlight areas. Airbrushed white in shadow areas, which did not need to be darkened.
* Applied Image > Adjustment > Hue/Saturation to boost saturation a bit.
* Merged visible layers onto a new layer
* Applied a plain, ol' Photoshop Dry Brush filter. That seemed to work on this one just fine. Decided to quit while I was ahead!

- - - - - - -

2nd one:
* Duplicated background
* Applied Impressionist Chalk: Detailed Opaque Strokes
* Duplicated background again and dragged to top of layer stack
* Blur > Smart Blur > Edge Only; tweaked settings until I got enough -- but not too much -- line detail.
* Ctrl + I (to invert from white lines on black to black lines on white)
* Changed layer blend mode from Normal to Darken, revealing the layer below
* Applied Unsharp Mask on the Detailed Opaque Strokes layer to give the strokes a little personality.
* Duplicated background again and dragged to top of layer stack
* Added a hide all Layer Mask (Layer > Add Layer Mask > Hide all)
* With Layer Mask active, airbrushed in the right bottom corner to reveal some of the track detail that got hosed by Impressionist)

- - - - - - -

3rd one:
* Still experimenting with Impressionist Pencil Sketch: Detailed Mono variations, seeking a "pencil sketch" look. Three layers rendered by Impressionist were blended with Photoshop Smart Blur > Edge Only and Photoshop Find Edges.
* I used airbrushed black and white on Levels and Brightness/Contrast adjustment layers to selectively enhance/tone down contrast in various areas.

The result is a little busier than I'd like, but I'm okay with the general outcome.

Whoo-whoo!

~Danny~

[kiska]

Thanks, Danny. Just trying for a little variety. It looks sorta like a monster bug with it's mouth open.

[Rob S.]

Thank you, Danny. I've not done a lot of this style of "freeform retouching". Mostly I outline and clean up commercial stuff. Big machines, product shots...that kind of thing. It's good to let the creativity flow once in awhile.

[ahutton]

I buzzed the beejeebers out of it (see I can use technical terms, too!)
Then I enhanced the edges, made a copy, mirrored it and made it negative. Then joined them on average. PSP8

Kind of neat. Reminds me of the train yards back in Pittsburgh.

Amy Hutton