[DannyRaphael]

This pic is courtesy of www.MorgueFile.com (really), a source of an interesting assortment of royalty free images.

See what you can do with this dude!

~Danny~

[CJ Swartz]

Thought a Mediterranean background would be suitable. Ran a Render Lighting filter to add shadows, and used multiple layers to add "character" via Palette Knife and layer masks to reduce effects to taste. Now he's kind of a cross between Bogie and Pacino...

[jaykita]

Danny, what do u think?

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by jaykita

Danny, what do u think?

jaykita: Very, very stylish. Swapping the white for a black background was a terrific idea.

You've definitely got the touch!

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CJ: Your background replacement is a definite improvement, too. It fits right in decor-wise with our sharp dressed man.

I never think of things like swapping out backgrounds like this as you'll see from mine.

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Mine #1:
* Bottom layer: Duplicate of background to which Impressionist > Watercolor > Damp Translucent (with pressure lowered to 80) was applied twice, then Unsharp Mask, then Damp Translucent again (same settings)
* Middle layer: Duplicate of background to which Photoshop Watercolor filter was applied. Added a hide all layer mask and airbrushed in a little detail around eyes, ears, mouth.
* Top layer: Duplicate of background to which Xero > Lineart filter to get black edges on white background. Changed blend mode from Normal to Darken and then applied Virtual Painter Oil Painting about 6 times to soften up the lines. Lowered opacity to about 10%

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Mine #2:

This may "look complicated" because of all the verbiage, but isn't. Near the end are a few steps that are necessary, but don't lend themselves to brevity.

* Used the Magic Wand tool (tolerance = 10) to click on the very convenient all white background. Select > Save Selection... I named it "Select BG". This is an easy way to create a selection that will come in handy later on.
* 1st layer above BG: Duplicate of background to which Xero > Fritillary was applied (settings tweaked for large grid). This filter is available in the Set 4 collection here.
* 2nd layer above BG: Duplicate of background again to which Xero > Fritillary was applied (settings tweaked for small, detailed grid). Added a hide all layer mask and airbrushed skin and shirt to reveal details.
* 3nd layer above: New layer. Alt + Ctrl + Shift + E to merge layers below into this one.
* 4th layer: Duplicated 3rd layer. Apply Virtual Painter Rectangles. Tweaked settings with the intent of rendering background rectangles somewhat larger than the ones on the jacket. For more distinctive size contrast I should have gone for "larger" than what I got, but these will have to do. Select > Load Selection > "Select BG" (created in first step). With the selection active, I added a layer mask which (due to the active selection) revealed the "detail" layer below while keeping the Virtual Painter rendered. Pretty neat, but...
* Virtual Painter has a tendency of "distorting" images sometimes, so there were some unwanted portions of the top layer visible, around the edges of our Sharp Dressed Guy. What to do? Cover up the offending areas.
* Alt + Click on the top layer's eyeball, turning off all layers. Because of the layer mask, it will look like there's a big hole in the middle. That's OK.
* With the Rectangular Marquee selection tool, I selected a section of the layer near and about the same size as a spilled over section Alt + Ctrl + D to bring up the Feather dialog, radius=2, OK; Ctrl + J to copy the feathered selection to a new layer. Press V key to invoke Move tool and drag newly created layer into position. Use arrow keys to fine tune positioning. Repeat these steps as many times as necessary until coverup is complete. Don't forget to click on the Virtual Painter layer each time before making the selection.
* After all the "cover up" pieces were created and positioned, be sure the only layers with eyeballs on are the Virtual Painter layer and the layers above it with the cover up pieces. Click on the VP layer and Layer > Merge Visible to combine them.
* While I was at it I wanted to add some "depth" the rectangles on this layer, so I duplicated the newly combined layer. Next, Stylize > Emboss (135,3,75) was applied and the blend mode of the embossed layer changed to Overlay. That helped, but the embossed layer was duplicated two more times.
* Again the visible layers were merged, Layer > Merge visible.
* In the process of modifiying this layer, the layer mask got hosed. Not a problem: Select > Load Selection > "Select BG" again and add another layer mask.
* Turn on the merged 3rd layer above BG ("below the hole") to reveal the detail.
* Add Levels and/or Hue/Saturation adjustment layers at the top of the layer stack to tweak contrast or color to taste.

Something that was a little unusual on this one. The portion of the top layer (rendered by Virtual Painter and given more depth using the embossed layers) represents the background of the final image. So what? The point is the "bottom" layer doesn't necessarily have to be the "background" and the top layer not necessarily the "foreground." With layer masks you can pretty much control your own destiny.

~Danny~

[Duv]

I created a Water Color Layer in Painter 8 and selected a Watercolor runny air brush set to Size: 175 Opacity: 100% Spread: 40 degree and chose a gray color. Painted over figure and portion of white background. Still on the water color layer, Selected Effects: Esoterica: Maze: Gaussian Am't 3.

Cheers
Dave

[ahutton]

This is just a VP oil with everything on subtle but focus, merged with impressionist charcoal set at 208

AmyHutton

[dd50stripes]

Jaykita,

Won't you please share how you obtained this effect?

Thank you,
Dee

[JustChecking]

many nice works so far! i like especially (but not only) CJ's and Duv's works


-------------
head is watercolour w/ dry brush as a hard light over it, suit is very soft accented edges, and i added few edges to restore "definition"

[jaykita]

For Dee:
I hadn't made notes on this one (regret it now), however ive tried to retrace my steps and came up with something very similar that i hope will satisfy you. Not exactly the image i created earlier, so sorry.
I've used psp6 with photoshop7.
Start with psp6... first prepare a sketch from the original image. To do this, duplicate the original (Dude) - then greyscale layer - negative - gaussian blur 5.00. Merge. Blur More (twice). Unsharp mask strength 300 radius 20 clipping 2. Clean up spots. Save as Dude1.
Open Dude. Paste Dude1. Paint Mode - exclusion 58%. Merge, then - Brightness 23 contrast 75 - Save as Dude2.
Open Dude - paste Dude2 - paint mode of layer Luminance - merge- save as Dude3.
Open Dude - paste Dude3 - paintmode hard light - merge - save as Dude4.
Open Dude4. Duplicate - multiply layer - merge - save as Dude5 - Blur more - unsharp mask strength 200. Brightness is -30 and contrast +50. Save.
Go to Photoshop. Open Dude5. Smart Blur, next Sprayed strokes. Paste sketch image Dude1 - multiply - merge layers. Save as Dude6. Saturation is -25, Hue is -8. Paste Dude1 - multiply - Fresco. Paste Dude1 one more time - multiply - merge. Save. Use fill color black on background. Use smudge tool accordingly.
I know, seems like a lot of saved images. But for my earlier creation, I just went along copying and pasting as and when i liked, and lost them all.

[DannyRaphael]

jaykita:

That was very kind of you to retrace and document your steps in such detail.

Just out of curiosity is there a reason you didn't do all of your work in Photoshop? Of the Paint Shop Pro steps you listed I didn't see any that couldn't be done in Photoshop.

In any event, this is an awesome creation.
~Danny~

[jaykita]

Thank you Danny, for your appreciation. You are right...i could have done it all in photoshp. But i've had Paint Shop Pro almost forever, and i'm comfortable with the workings of this software. Photoshp on the other hand is a new acquisition i'm still trying to learn about, and enjoying it too. The built-in filters of photoshp are so much more exciting, however.

[Neve]

Terrific results, I've thoroughly enjoyed viewing, thank you.

Artistic Filter/Poster Edges 2/1/2 - PS7

PSP8.01

AIM/USM FILTER - 183/7/4(pv mode)

Buzz Simplifier Filter

Buzzed again

Cloned a white patch from his forehead and a pink
patch from his nose.

Xero Filter - Super Smooth (which seemed to apply to this gent !)

Paint Alchemy Background

[dd50stripes]

Hiya Jaykita,

Thank you so much for those directions! I really do appreciate it!

Going to see how close I can come now ...

"Smile"

Hugs,
Dee

[Cheryl H]

Neve--you paint alchemy users are few and far between. I usually use impressionist--it just suits me better, but I do have a collection of brushes for paint alchemy (all the default impressionist brushes). PM me if interested.

[dslinger]

inspired by JustChecking's use of color, I thought I'd try out a screenprint effect.

1. channel mixer to decrease image to only yellow and red
2. duped this and did a dark strokes.....brought the fill down to 42% and erased the strokes from all but his hair and suit.
3. duped again and did a threshold until it was just a bit of black outline...brought this down to 22% fill.

Can you tell I'm between projects at work the last few days? LOL