Creative Portraits: Good Looking Dude

[ahutton]

For those of us who are sick of looking at beautiful women, I humbly submit a beautiful dude as a portrait study. This guy is from the Corel Gallery.

Am I right, Ladies???

Amy

[Cheryl H]

Bless you Amy. It's about time something besides young, pretty women were posted.

This is from an action I made a while back.

Start with 3 dups of the background. On the lower copy run impressionist (thick dabs) and then paint engine (soft paint).

On the middle copy run buzz simplfier 2 (around 100), edges mono, emboss (mono .2). Then run the sketch layer through impressionist and paint engine (same settings as before). Adjust brightness and contrast slightly. Set to soft light.

On the upper copy, create a gaussian blur sketch. Set to soft light (or overlay) and reduce opacity slightly.

[kiska]

awwwwwright!!!!

[Xaran]

Amy,

He's OK. Not sure about the posting of images from Corel Gallery - you could be breaching copyright.

Christine

[Duv]

I think I see a resemblance to me 35 years ago....maybe not. My wife says definetly not!

Cheers
Dave

[bigkidjr]

here's my humble attempt at a watercolor. I find doing people portraits the most difficult in digital art.


1. levels adjustment
2. dup background, desat, impressionist plugin
3. dup background, find edges.
4. blend=lighten
5. merge visible, crosshatch
6. dup background again. desaturate, blend=vivid light
7. dogdge and burn
8. dup background,blend=color
9. merge visible, tweek colors, add edgework.

[ahutton]

Two images. One buzzed, PMAG handdrawing, Buzz. Played with contrast, not too light and not too dark.

The other buzz, VP oil (normal-subtle-subtle-sintle-intense)

Merged them both on Darken, I think. Cleaned up the result a tad.

Amy

[bigkidjr]

amy -- i really like this one. nice job! what is PMAG handdrawing?

bk

[ahutton]

PMAG=Picture Man Art Gallery Plugins

Amy

[CJ Swartz]

Just added a hint of mystery... added a copy of different channels, a layer of photocopy, find edges...

[Mig]

Originally Posted by ahutton

I humbly submit a beautiful dude as a portrait study.
Am I right, Ladies???

Amy

You are soooo.... right - he is very beautiful.... although still, not my type.

Mig

[brandonx49]

That's an amazing face Swap...

B

[DannyRaphael]

First of all, THANK YOU, Amy for coming up with and positng this pic of a handsome guy to work on. I was hoping someone would step up in this regard and you did. I was feeling a little guilty about all the females to work on, but that’s because I just haven't come across any (what I thought were) decent pics of men.

- - - - -

Mig: Your talent always amazes me and your sense of humor never ceases to tickle my funny bone.

GR-EAT manipulation.

- - - - -

On mine I used:
* Photohshop 7
* The Microsoft Impressionist plugin (contact me if interested)

IMAGE PREPARATION (see attachment for before/after image preparation example)
1. Duplicated background
2. Hair was too dark. Applied Levels adjustment layer to lighten overall. CRTL + I to invert it. Painted white on areas where image was darkest. Turned out I did a lousy job of this and had to correct for it later. Oh well.
3. Merged down to combine the two layers.
4. Highlights on nose, forehead, cheek will cause problems. Need to cover them with some paint, otherwise filtered results look blotchy.
5. Created a new layer.
6. Selected Brush tool; turned Airbrush option on. Opacity ~ 40%, Flow ~ 50%.
7. To set foreground color, Alt + Clicked with Brush tool areas adjacent to nearly white areas on face. Airbrushed as needed to fill in hot spots.
8. When finished, merged down to combine the top two layers.
9. Duplicated the new layer and applied Gaussian blur to it, to smooth the background.
10. Changed the blend mode to Multiply.
11. Added a hide all layer mask and airbrushed white on the layer mask to reveal the smoothed/blurred background.
12. Merged to top two layers and named the resulting layer “A=Base.”
13. Result: Areas of extreme shadows and highlights removed; background smoothed and darkened (for contrast) as a result of the Multiply setting.

THE REST OF THE IMAGE (see Layers Palette snapshot attached)
1. Layer = Base: Duplicated. Named A. Base Desat.
2. A: Image > Adjustments > Desaturate. (Tried Channel Mixer, but plain, ol’ Desaturate worked better)
3. A: Duplicate. Named B.
4. B: Applied CherylH method for selecting non-all black areas. Click HERE.
5. B: With selection active, applied Impressionist Pencil Sketch-Detailed Monochrome.
6. A: Duplicate. Named C.
7. C: Drag to top of layer stack.
8. C: With selection still active, applied Photoshop Colored Pencil (2,6,47)
9. C: Change blend mode to Darken
10. C: Add reveal all layer mask and mask out blob uder eye.
11. A: Duplicate. Named D.
12. D: Drag to top of layer stack.
13. D: Change blend mode to Hard Light
14. D: Add hide all layer mask and airbrush white around eyes to bring out detail.
15. At this point I didn’t like the heavy black line around the top of the head. Too late to go back and start over. Proceed with correction.
16. Original Background: Duplicate. Named E.
17. E: Drag to top of layer stack.
18. E: Applied Impressionist Pencil Sketch-Detailed Monochrome.
19. E: Add hide all layer mask
20. E: With airbrush, paint white around too-dark area around edge of scalp.
21. Add Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer and name E1
22. E1: Layer > Group with previous
23. E1 settings: Brightness = 100, Contrast –45. This blended the hair tone into the rest of the image.
24. Create new layer at the top of the layer stack. Named F.
25. F: Merge all visible layers below (Alt + Ctrl + Shift + E). Thought about stopping here (this looked pretty sketched), but decided to try something else just for fun.
26. F: Duplicate. Named G.
27. G: Applied Impressionist Charcoal Default.
28. G: Change blend mode to Darken. Hey... I kinda like this look. Pays to experiment. Eyes still a little too dark for me.
29. G: Add reveal all layer mask and mask around eyes to lighten them up a bit. Hmmm... eyes STILL too dark.
30. G: Duplicate. Named H.
31. H: Click on layer mask to activate it.
32. H: Ctrl + I to invert layer mask.
33. H: Change blend mode to Color Dodge and lower opacity to about 45%. Again, to further lighten areas around eyes. This should do it. Yeah!

- - - - - - - - - -

More dudes welcome in the future!

~Danny~

[Mig]

Pretty cool, Danny. I like the hair.

This reminded me of a cd cover that I must've stared at for several minutes. It's a Sarah Brightman cd. If you're ever in a music store check out this cover. It's better to see it close up. This screen shot doesn't do it justice. (It's also a good cd.)

It's a nice effect.

Mig

[jaykita]

Impr plug-in - large strokes on white, dry strokes on pitted stone (modified),etc. many blends, one layer had a difference blend and surprise! produced the bright colors...can't quite explain that!

[Janet Petty]

In addition to the steps taken in the screen shot, there were some places where the color went haywire. I used replace color to fix those.

The vignette and gradient were both added on other layers and blended to get the desired effect after the initial art piece was completed. I only did that because the hoped for background ended up looking like grey mud.

[Duv]

I really like what you did Janet!

Just a simple variation cropped tight. I was trying to get the nice eyes (just like mine ha ha) in thirds but couldn't quite get there.

Cheers

Dave

[Janet Petty]

I think I like the close-cropped version better. Good job Duv.

[Duv]

Thank you Janet. I thought the white space on the left side and his neclkline was a little bit awkward but I tend to give up a lot to get to the eyes. What I enjoyed about yours was the halo that not only compelled you to focus on the face but emphasized the calming look. What I so enjoyed with the original image and the renditions to follow was the idea "Out of clutter..find simplicity".

Cheers
Dave

[byRo]

Oh dear me. My very first impressionist post - and it's some dude? This can't be right.

See layers in attachment:
1) Background - some gets through right to the top;
2) BB: Masked to get only the darkest parts, impressionist (mostly chalk I think - got carried away and forgot to write them down ), blending darken;
3) BH: Masked to get only the near dark parts, impressionist (..), blending darken;
4) HB: Masked to get only the near light parts, impressionist (..), blending lighten 60%;
5) HH: Masked to get only the lightest, impressionist (..), blending lighten;
6) Outline: CG Lineart from Stephen Marsh, invert, levelled with max at 127, overlay;
7) Canvas: Mid-gray with PS canvas texture, overlay.

Ok, enough of that, now for the ladies!!

Roland

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by byRo

Oh dear me. My very first impressionist post - and it's some dude? This can't be right.

See layers in attachment:
1) Background - some gets through right to the top;
2) BB: Masked to get only the darkest parts, impressionist (mostly chalk I think - got carried away and forgot to write them down ), blending darken;
3) BH: Masked to get only the near dark parts, impressionist (..), blending darken;
4) HB: Masked to get only the near light parts, impressionist (..), blending lighten 60%;
5) HH: Masked to get only the lightest, impressionist (..), blending lighten;
6) Outline: CG Lineart from Stephan Marsh, invert, levelled with max at 127, overlay;
7) Canvas: Mid-gray with PS canvas texture, overlay.

Ok, enough of that, now for the ladies!!

Roland

Ro...

Glad to see the Impressionist fire is lit. I can see this tool has great potential in your capable hands, too.

re: CG Lineart
I did a half-way search at Stephen's site, but wasn't able to track this down. Is it a PS plugin? In which section did you find it.

~Danny~

[byRo]

Originally Posted by DannyRaphael

re: CG Lineart
I did a half-way search at Stephen's site, but wasn't able to track this down. Is it a PS plugin? In which section did you find it.

Sorry, I took the link that is mentioned inside the action, and I didn't check it out.
The full link to the page is :Convolution Corner
and the actions are here: Custom_convolution_actions_APS5.zip
There are about a zillion actions in the download, worth a few minutes sifting through them!!!

Rô.

[jaykita]

A bit of cloning in corel painter with pastel brush for texture, then ps7 impr plug-in- chalk-medium covered colored, and finally usm 400, .5.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by jaykita

A bit of cloning in corel painter with pastel brush for texture, then ps7 impr plug-in- chalk-medium covered colored, and finally usm 400, .5.

Very nice effect. I like this one.

You've been on a real creative roll lately! Keep it up.

~Danny~

[jaykita]

Originally Posted by DannyRaphael

Very nice effect. I like this one.

You've been on a real creative roll lately! Keep it up.

~Danny~

Thanks, Danny. You are very encouraging as always, and i appreciate that.

[Janet Petty]

Too much fun playing with techniques to pass this one up. I tried Trimoon's watercolor tutorial and added a spin of my own.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Janet Petty

Too much fun playing with techniques to pass this one up. I tried Trimoon's watercolor tutorial and added a spin of my own.

JP:

A favor, pleasse.

Click Edit button on your post and via Manage attachments button upload a version w/o the texture layer, would ya?

I think I like what I see a lot, but can't tell for sure with the texture.

~Danny~

[Janet Petty]

I'm sooooo sorry. I've been working really hard lately on cleaning out my huge file sizes. After I finished this pic and uploaded the screen shot. I flattened the image and saved it as a tif. The file you requested no longer exists.

I guess I should wait a few hours/days before I downsize. Forgive me.

Janet

- - - - - - -

No problem. Considering all the nice stuff you contribute, you deserve a break once in awhile! ~djr~

[Duv]

I'm having fun with Trimoon's technique as well.

Duplicated the background
New empty layer filled with white.
With Art History brush set at 25 pixel and 35% opacity started painting back detail. Changed brush sizes to get more detail.
Created layer mask on white layer and with soft small white brush painted back about 60% of eyes and mouth.
Hue/Saturation layer, boosted Sat.

Cheers
Dave

[Janet Petty]

Nice job Duv. I see you had the same thing going with a nice slice of white down the bridge of the nose. I finally gave up on that and flattened the image then painted over it some to reduce the shine. I also had some of those little white flecks and decided to add a bit of yellow where most of them were then blend it in with smudge. I always enjoy seeing your results. This one in particular was a good one. Thanks.

Janet