Creative Portraits: Autumn Girl

[raniday]

Here's a photo from Stock Xchange that I thought might be fun for us to paint.

[NancyJ]

A quick watercolour I whipped up in PS.

[raniday]

Hi, Nancy You whipped up a very nice watercolor effect. How did you do that?

[NancyJ]

Would have posted before but I'm supposed to be working

1. Duplicate background layer (ofcourse) - 3 times
Layers should then be:

Layer 3
Layer 2
Layer 1
Background

2. Set Layer 3 blending mode to colour
3. Desaturate layer 1
4. Desaturate and invert layer 2
5. Set Layer 2 blending mode to colour dodge
6. On layer 2 filter -> blur -> gaussian blur - adjust to tastes - on this one I used a radius of 100.
7. If required add your favorite blur to layer 1

[NancyJ]

For a wetter look:
8. Apply a small gaussian blur to layer 1
9. Filter -> Stylise -> Find Edges
10. Edit -> Fade -> 30% Colour burn

[Alcar]

Another watercolor. Impressionist plugin with 3 custom styles.
Alan

[twinkissed]

Not sure what I would call this.... used posterization, gaussian blur, diffuse, texturizer (rust flakes) and then painted with the brush tool. From the shaky lines I think maybe I should go easy on the coffee. LOL. It looks better higher quality but had to reduce to put on here.

[raniday]

Nancy, beautiful second effort as well. Thanks for the details. Hey, all work and no play.........well, you know
Alan, that's gorgeous. Are these some of the custom styles that you shared?
Twin, really neat effects. I used that rust flake texture recently and wondered why I'd waited so long.

[Alcar]

Catherine, no. These are new styles that I am still working on trying to get a decent looking watercolor. Below is a zip file with a set of four different versions and I would be interested in comments on anyone's experience with these styles.
Alan

[raniday]

Alan, you knew I was hinting for these! Thanks so much. I'm downloading them now.

[twinkissed]

Nothing serious here, this picture was just too much fun to play with.

[Legacy~Art]

Oh wow Cat gorgeous picture to use!

Look at you guys great pictures...

Allen i asked in the Ali thread would you like me to send you some chocs being the 2nd, and i heard nothing, anyhow...

Allen would you do a script for your pencil drawing please?

And thank you for this script...Like collecting them.

Ella

[ahutton]

I really like this pic. I desaturated, impressionist, median filter, soft focus/halo and VP oil.

Hi res, which of course if much better, is at http://www.bigbluebird.com/fallgirl.jpg

Amy

[Steve Conway]

Did a lot of playing around with a little of everything on this one. Still not sure what I did is anything postable. Sometimes one's inspiration falters. Don't say you weren't warned.

Steve

[PamSav]

Great photo to play with Cat !

Nancy - I love your watercolour look !

Alan - thanks for sharing your Impressionist styles, you got a great result.

Here's mine, smudged in Photoshop. Larger version available here: Autumn Girl

[terivon]

Hmm..
Well, I through just about everything but the kitchen sink into her HA! Had a fabulous time though. I had this little leaf brush I've never had a chance to use, and decided to take her camoflauge up a notch in a few zillion layers of colour, however looking back, I think I went a bit nuts.

My husband on the other hand, took a peek and said if she was the poster child for Canada, he's moving.

Thanks so much for this one!
Teri

[raniday]

Very cool second version, Twin.
Amy, what a beautiful combination of effects!
I think your inspiration is alive and well, Steve, awesome textury look.
And Ms. Pam, a flawless smudge painting, of course.
Teri, I get some of those husband remarks over my shoulder. I just give him the look and keep going I happen to love that shadowy, leafy look you got.

I started out to make a mosaic background and then said what the heck and did the whole thing. It has so much texture I had to do a screen capture to get a pic small enough to upload here, but the link leads to a higher res version. This is my first attempt at a mosaic portrait.
http://www.pbase.com/image/53287643

[Duv]

This is definetly one of the more interesting pics to play with. Worked in LAB, reversed curved the A and B Channel, then Z curved both to bring back a quasi skin tone. Ran Impressionist>Watercolors Splatter Colorful>Brush: Watr9b>Smudge:5/Pressure:83

Cheers
Dave

[cazubi]

What a great photo and awsome art interpretations being done from it. Thanks Catherine.

I used Studio Artist and Painter for this one.

Cathy

[terivon]

Originally Posted by raniday

I started out to make a mosaic background and then said what the heck and did the whole thing. It has so much texture I had to do a screen capture to get a pic small enough to upload here, but the link leads to a higher res version. This is my first attempt at a mosaic portrait.
http://www.pbase.com/image/53287643

Oh, that's a LOVELY mosaic! I'm so not showing my husband that one, or he'll be redoing the entryway using it as a pattern! Great Job!
Teri

[patriciakay]

Hi,
Agree with all its a lovely photo to play with, like all that you have done,being new to actually publicly showing what i try to do...here goes...havent yet reached perfection...but its fun trying...

The first one i just simply ran Davids watercolor action in p shop.

The second i made an action myself this morning ...its a first...so did that,then ran isobels pastel sketch action then just played with curves.

Looking forward to seeing more....

Regards Patricia Kay

[raniday]

Surprising colors from Duv & Patricia. Pat, if you like your action, maybe you'll post it for us to try as well. Beautiful, Cathy. I am sooooo waiting for Studio Artist to come out for PCs.

Thanks, Teri. I've played with mosaics a little, but an unexpected thing happened this time that I didn't notice till I had posted it. There's a diagonal line running from about the center to the lower right corner. I don't have a clue what caused that.

[kiska]

cathy, cathy!!!! Do you have a handle on Studio Artist???? Just got it and am OVERWHELMED. I belong to the forum below; the linked thread being SA. ANY GUIDANCE WOULD BE APPRECIATED!!!

Love your version and the canvas texture.

Thanks

http://www.innographx.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3402

[patriciakay]

Hi Cat,
Of course you can have the action...as i said its a first and it was done on a flower not a person...just one thing...how do i send ..do i zip it...another first for me....and i thought i was just going to learn arty things Ha Ha
Regards Pat.....

[CJ Swartz]

Such a gorgeous image! Thanks, Cat!

This is just a simple USM with a notepaper sketch filter (using the eyedropper to choose colors from the image rather than the default black/white) added, then masked out (mostly) from the face.

[raniday]

Cj, simple steps to an outstanding painting.
Pat, look above and see where Alan put his presets in a zip file and posted them here for us to download. Email or PM me if you have problems.

[CJ Swartz]

Originally Posted by terivon

...My husband ..., took a peek and said if she was the poster child for Canada, he's moving. Teri

This Autumn lady definitely has appeal, and the image allows a lot of different ideas to be used beautifully -- from NancyJ and Alan's watercolors, Amy's impressionist oil, Pam's smudging, Cazubi's painting to Twin's textures, Duv and PatriciaKay's colors, Cat's mosaic, Steve's "bit of everything" and Teri's "all but the kitchen sink"! I love it when everyone loves an image and play like crazy thinking of how they want to show it off.

[raniday]

P.S.
Pat if you're not comfortable with posting your file yet, not to worry. Just a suggestion, and there will be plenty of time for posting presets later on when you've grown more familiar with the forum.

[cazubi]

Kiska, I love Studio Artist, but I don't know much yet...I just blunder my way through it right now. I did follow a couple of tutorials and it helped a little. I think you just have to keep playing with it...I like the cloning tools in the 3.0 collection, as well as the Wacom section (found in the default drop down). Just keep going in and play with the many kinds of paint styles and you will eventually find a technique that works for you.

Cathy

[raniday]

Here's a link to a few more versions I did with this photo:

http://www.pbase.com/catbounds/black_and_white