Creative interpretations: Civil War Soldier

[Janet Petty]

I couldn't decide which made the statement I was aiming for, roses or no roses. So I posted both. Danny said it all when he posted the picture of the reenacter. Civil war = oxymoron.

Janet

[Trimoon]

Thank all of you for your kind words.

The first thing I did was to work on the background for it. This was done by creating a new layer and filling it with a burgandy color.

Next I created a new layer, which makes this a total of three layers -- the original layer, a second layer filled with the burgandy and now this third layer, where I'm going to use a special paint brush preset that you can download from my website (trimoon.com). The name is Art 334.

I applied this on the third layer. What it does is paint a combination of the red and white. Now, this brush is tricky. If you let up off the mouse button, it will leave overlapping layers. In other words, hold the button down and don't let up. The overlapping layers is okay for another technique, but for this one, you need a continuous flow, without overlapping each other.

Now, I create a fourth layer (a new layer) and I set the blending mode to hard light.

I use the art history brush here to repaint the soldier only -- not the background. I alternate between two presets that you can get from my website on the download page. They are the only two art history brush presets that I have there.

The technique that I use is best done with a tablet but can be done with a mouse. They are just very short strokes -- letting up on the mouse, or picking up on the pen. Don't hold the mouse down and just scribble in the image. You'll just get a bunch of blotchy colors. Remember, the larger brush tip, the wider the brush strokes. The smaller the tip, the more detail. I like to do the detail around the eyes, nose, ears and mouth, leaving the broad strokes for areas such as the forehead, cheek, the coat area, etc.

For dark areas, I may apply the art history brush to another layer with the blending mode set to screen. This will bring out more detail in dark areas.

The trick here is not to restrict yourself to applying this technique to one area. I start off using a blending mode of hard light, but I may create several more layers using different blending modes to create the total image. These are usually dependent on the image itself and what's called for. This particular soldier, I used about four layers using different blending modes to create the overall finish. By the way, I also used one layer using a blending mode of multiply and adjusted the opacity.

You have so many options to help you create a final look that it's hard for me to sit here and tell you everything I did, since I didn't record it. I've gotten to where it's intuitive. I'll see a problem and I know what to do. Painting this sort of thing is multidimensional and it's very hard for me to explain to you what I do. That's why I sometimes make a video and record the whole session and then come back and explain it verbally. The problem there is that the videos are very large and cannot be downloaded from my site due to the bandwidth. Anyway, now I'm just rambling.

Steve

[raniday]

Janet, what a creative idea.
Steve, I've printed out your directions. I think everyone with a computer has your CD's except me, and that's only because I'm so awful about getting around to doing things, but all of your art that I've seen here and in other forums is awesome! I'm ordering this week.
catherine

[Bill M]

Hi, Danny, long-time-no-post. But I was moved by some of the renditions here and was inspired to contribute. One of the most popular Civil War songs was "Just Before the Battle, Mother" and that inspired me to do this.
Warmest regards, Bill

[Janet Petty]

Bill, that looks so old, so real. It could almost have been a picture from the 1860s.

Janet

[jaykita]

Thank you for your explanation. Makes perfect sense.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Bill M

Hi, Danny, long-time-no-post. But I was moved by some of the renditions here and was inspired to contribute. One of the most popular Civil War songs was "Just Before the Battle, Mother" and that inspired me to do this.
Warmest regards, Bill

Bill:

Seeing your post was a sight for sore eyes. This is a spendid job of aging and framing.

I hope you're inspired again soon -- so you can once again inspire us.

~Danny~

[TylerRB]

....and his shiny new medal!

T

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by TylerRB

....and his shiny new medal!

T

Hey, Tyler...

Welcome aboard.

A simple, but elegant addition. Nicely done. Hope you'll jump into a few more of the fun little projects.

~Danny~

[TylerRB]

DannyRaphael

I hope too...thanks for the welcome!

[Duv]

On this one I did the following:

Curves Adjustment to pump up contrast.
Dial a Dot Engraving (Under Stipple action)
DarkenEdgesCorners. atn
TLR Toner: Orange High
Filters Unlimited: Aged Film

Cheers
Dave

[jaykita]

Brushwork over a yellow bckgr with chalk brush. Tweaked colors some - ps7.

[Neve]

Terrific work Judy!

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Neve

Terrific work Judy!

Ditto what Neve said.

All Photoshop? I'da never guessed that.

[jaykita]

Originally Posted by DannyRaphael

Ditto what Neve said.

All Photoshop? I'da never guessed that.

Thank you Danny, Neve!
Yep, all ps7, better believe it! Got the idea from this site. though this lesson is not a digital one.