Creative Portraits: Bonnie Brunette

[Neve]

Super result Danny - I can see why the Unsmudged Mono works so well especially with this one. Well done.

[ahutton]

Awesome, Danny. My only comment would be to tone down the canvas texture a bit.

Amy

[gholmes1936]

Originally Posted by DannyRaphael

There have been some great interpretations so far on this one.


I made multiple copies of the base layer to which these filters were applied:
* Photoshop Dry Brush
* KPT Pyramid Painter
* Impressionist > Crayon > Choppy Strokes (dress only)
* Impressionist > Conte > Unsmudged Monochrome (More controls > Color > Stroke color = background, Jitter: Hue = 25)
* (Again with brush = 40 ) Impressionist > Conte > Unsmudged Monochrome (More controls > Color > Stroke color = background, Jitter: Hue = 25)
...then combined the best of each layer using layer masks.
* Merged all into a single layer and applied Unsharp Mask for texture

I usually don't like digital textures, but I liked the Splat > Canvas look on this one (stolen from Corona's method).

View at max size possible.

~Danny~

Even if I had nearly as much experience as you do I couldn't do this without getting a different computer/Operating system. I use a MacIntosh and a lot of the things used by this wonderful group are not available for my preferred system. Oh, and to paraphrase an old Texas saying, "I am a Yellow Dog Mac user!"

And dizzyworksformesinceIhaveMenieresDisease.

[byRo]

Originally Posted by ahutton

Awesome, Danny. My only comment would be to tone down the canvas texture a bit.

Danny, I liked this one a lot but I did have a feeling that there was "something" about this painting - seems like Amy is right.
Don't know if it would be applicable here, but applying a shadow mask (inverse luminosity mask) to the texture layer could help tone down the canvas in the face.
Just an idea.

Rô

[carriewoeck]

My goodness Neve,
You sure keep yourself busy! This is wonderful as is all your stuff.
Carrie

[carriewoeck]

Originally Posted by corona2632

Pencil sketch on old paper (photoshop CS only)

How did you get that old paper look?

[lkroll]

A pastel/watercolor mix.

[Kraellin]

i seem to be following you around, lk

mine here will not look very good at all if your gamma settings dont match mine pretty closely. hopefully, my monitor is calibrated fairly well.

this started out as an exercise in only using manual operations. i just wanted to use simple tools and no grand filters or plugins and practice my brush strokes and smudge techniques a bit. i chose a smudgy sort of brush, lowered the opacity, increased the 'step' and lowered the density. this was all to get a varied 'drag the paint' effect. the smudging was actually done with the 'push' tool and not the 'smudge' tool.

after all smudging was done, i copied the layer and applied 'sharpen more' twice.

copied the layer and applied illumination. as you can see i'm now veering from my original intention to not use very many auto type operations

added a new blank raster layer and applied a white 'cracked paint' filler pattern and blurred it with gausian blur. i then added a blending mode and erased the filler over the woman's face to let it shine though.

copy merge and add as new layer. and, control v to make a new image of that layer.

cropped the new image.

resized the new image.

added an adjustment layer of contrast/lighten and added more contrast.

duplicated the layer and gausian blurred it and set a blend mode to it and to the contrast adjustment layer. the new duped layer was below the contrast/lighten layer but above the background layer.

done.

the basic look still comes from the 'push' and 'sharpen more' effects.

craig

[Nanls]

Just got new software toys and couldn't resist... Merry Christmas!
~Nancy~

[Janet Petty]

And well worth it, Nanis. Keep "playing".

Janet

[Steve Conway]

Ah! To be sure now, 'tis my contributation to this bonnie lass.

Steve

[LQQKER]

This lady could pass for a "young" Geena Davis.

Desaturated bg.
Curve adj.
Changed hair color, lip, eye & blouse.
Adapt.eq on hair & brows.
Painted in highlights, shadows.
A bit of digital make-up.
Simplified.
Smoothed & blended.

[lkroll]

I really like this one.

[Cassidy]

Well this one was fun, first time I have not wanted to bite painter. Played with the clone tools and used wet oils for this one

[Cassidy]

Originally Posted by Nanls

Just got new software toys and couldn't resist... Merry Christmas!
~Nancy~

Lovely Nancy, care to share what you used?

[Nanls]

thanks Janet, very kind,, and sure Cass, always happy to share. I got Photographic Edges 6 upgrade (I had PGE4). I first simplified the image with buzz, then brougt it into PGE6 and used "Edge Bush Oil." Then used edge "volume 03; AF001.AFX," (part of the same program) adjust the edge over her blouse and then cloned the edge and broght it to the top, over her hair. I added a texture to the background, but being this is new software, not sure which one... if I figure it out I will post later. Saved it and then brought it back to Photoshop and use the art history bursh to bring in some brush strokes, especially around the neckline of the blouse. I have 2 gigs of ram, but this software is much more time/ram intensive than the former version.... so as long as it took on this smaller image, am curious as to the time invovled in a larger hi-res image .... all in good time!

Originally Posted by Cassidy

Lovely Nancy, care to share what you used?

[Peter S]

Shame this site is no more!!!

My version finished off with the cutout filter.

Peter

[stosh7]

My view went in a slightly different direction. I thought that such a beautiful neck should be lavishly adorned ...

Stosh

[lkroll]

Used her line art sketch technique along with Impressionist (and a few other things) to create this pencil sketch. So so simple.

[CathyH]

Pete I really like this style you have been working. I personally like it better nice and smooth like this one.
Ro that is a great sketch, not over done, or so filter looking.
Stoch, something happened to her hair? and maybe add a slight drop shadow to the necklace. very neat idea.
here is my version mostly smudge. and Dodge and Burn.

[stosh7]

Yes, I took some liberties - lowered the hairline, enlarged the eyes and mouth slightly, altered the jawline ... nothing a good plastic surgeon wouldn't have wished he could do. When it's beautiful to begin with, the temptation to play
G-d is overwhelming .

Stosh

[palms]

Wow missed this one some super and inspirational threads here

Palms

[Steve Conway]

Another oldie that was fun to work on again.

Stevwe C.

[Photomaster]

Steve, you are right. This is a great portrait to work with.
In Photoshop:
Changed background,
Lightened skin,
Painted highlights in hair,
Added new highlights to eyes,
Adjusted color,
Layer style-Outer glow to figure,
Sharpened,
Added noise.

[Kraellin]

photomaster,

not crazy about the choice of backgrounds there... a bit too busy and detracts slightly from the main image. but i love the main image!

[Kraellin]

i had another go at this. this time i chose to do more of a retouching style than art. i recently made a filter forge filter called 'banded adjustments' which i used to start. this re-lit things a bit and added a bit more color tone to her face.

i then took it back to psp and touched up bits and pieces and added a usm filter at 2/100/5