Creative Portraits: Bride with Flowers in her Hair

[DannyRaphael]

The happy bride.

[Xaran]

Xero Line Art, Painter IX and Helen Yancy Tutorials.

Christine

[Axleuk]

Xaran,
Your impression is simply wonderful to look at. I have been trying to acheive a similiar look with limited success.

You mention Helen Yancy tutorials, are these online based or are they the ones that Helen features on her DVD's ?

[Xaran]

The DVD Tutorials - worth the money in my opinion.

Christine

[jaykita]

Very Nice, Christine.
I did one layer of vp airbrush (lowered opacity), and one render-clouds layer, after retouching and manipulation of the image.

[Axleuk]

Jaykita, i love your take on the bride, but if i may be so bold as to mention one detail that has caught my attention, the red blotch in the hair above the flower, i find this a slight distraction and think that perhaps the image would benefit if you erased it. Just a little observation.

[jaykita]

Originally Posted by Axleuk

Jaykita, i love your take on the bride, but if i may be so bold as to mention one detail that has caught my attention, the red blotch in the hair above the flower, i find this a slight distraction and think that perhaps the image would benefit if you erased it. Just a little observation.

Hello Axleuk, if you look closer, you'll notice many such blotches, like the one on the ribbon to the right But thats the style i normally go for. Perfectly imperfect, i'd like to think! However, i thank you for your advice, and decided to take it. Hence this next image.

[Axleuk]

Hi Jaykita, in my humble opinion, the second image looks nicer and cleaner, even with the other blotches i think the balance is just right now. Your style is great, and the whole feel of the image is very warming, it was just that red blotch that kept catching my eye that i found slightly distracting.

I would do a rendition myself, but the monitor i have here in work is aweful and i fear the image would look different to you guys ( and gals ) than it would to me.

[Axleuk]

Ok, at the risk of embaressing myself with my monitor issues, i still went ahead and had a go at this image.

This method involved duplicating the image several times, basic retouching skills, hue and saturation at each stage, running the impressionist plug-in a few times at varying levels, selective opacity erasing, and then merging layers together with the whitewashed frame.

I wanted to acheive a dreamy serene effect, but i think i ran away a little too much ( never know when to stop ), still, was fun and learnt something new along the way.

[Janet Petty]

Nice subject to work with. So far I'm liking the different versions.

Jaykita, yours is great as always. You really have a talent for this arty stuff.

Axle, yours is very nice too.

Xaran, I'm glad you have so much to work with. It gives a whole new dimension to the game. Great job.

Janet

[Axleuk]

Well this is just some basic retouching work with some warming colour for added effect.

[DannyRaphael]

Christine:

That's a dynamite interpretation. The background and hair are especially effective.

Where did Xero Line Art come into play? To add some detail?

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Axle:

Although kind of a dark mood, I thought your "Death of an Angel" was very artistic.

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I'm not sure if I like this or not, but I'm tired of looking at it...

There are too many layers to describe (I went on and on and on combining layers), but there are layers rendered by Photoshop's Dry Brush, Colored Pencil and Photocopy filters as well as one using the Virtual Painter Oil Painting plugin and Impressionist > Pencil Sketch > Detailed Mono style.

~Danny~

[Janet Petty]

Danny, you might not be sure if you like it but others do. I'm included in that number. I sort of want to describe it as paint by number with watercolors. Not bad work there.

Janet

[Axleuk]

Axle:

Although kind of a dark mood, I thought your "Death of an Angel" was very artistic.

Sorry Danny, after viewing it a few times, i decided to delete the post.

I made the image very quickly and felt it was a bit too amaturish by even my own humble standards

[Xaran]

Originally Posted by DannyRaphael

Christine:

That's a dynamite interpretation. The background and hair are especially effective.

Where did Xero Line Art come into play? To add some detail?

~Danny~

Danny

I used Xero Line Art in drawing mode with the top slider set all the way to the left to brighten the picture to start with.

Christine

[Neve]

Beautiful result Christine, extremely pleasant to view!

Jaykita, this is ethereal, soft and fantasy-like. Wonderful result!

Don't stop posting Axle, you're doing really well, welcome aboard.

Great effort Danny as always and thanks for a lovely photo. I'm looking forward to working on this...

[Neve]

I'm not too sure how this will look after being compressed? as it was enlarged and worked on entirely in Painter 8 (I'm still learning...). Used Acrylic throughout. Worked on a different layer each time I decreased the size of the brush. I love the Soft Clone feature which brings back details you want into your image. I'm a bit rough on the strokes (didn't follow the contours correctly) but I enjoyed the process.

[Axleuk]

Hopefully i will be getting my new Wacom tablet today and am looking forward to using Painter, your picture looks great, i'm impressed by the appearance of real brush strokes, i can see myself having a lot of fun with this.

[Neve]

I just got my Wacom last week and still fumbling. I've only done 3 projects in Painter so far and know I'm hooked already. Thanks for commenting Axle.

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Neve

I just got my Wacom last week and still fumbling.

Keep on "fumbling," Neve... You're already on the right track.

~Danny~

[Neve]

I appreciate your encouragement...thank you.

[Axleuk]

Painter XI:

Like Neve, i have just received my Wacom recently, in fact i received it a few hours ago.

I have never used a tablet before nor have I ever looked into Painter as an application to work with, but after viewing some of the work that has been posted using such a application, i had to try it for myself.

You will have to excuse my lack of description as i only started to mess around with this image and did not pay attention too much to what i was actually doing, but if i recall i started out by going over the image in acrylic, very similiar to Neve's taking time to try and keep the some sort of physical resemblence. I varied the brush sizes to accomadate the different levels of detail i wanted to keep then saved and opened it again in Photoshop, applied a smidgeon of smartblur and smoothed out a few of what i can only call 'minor' distractions and finished it off with a canvas texture.

I beleive the original has a much cleaner refined look than the compressed version, but alas here she is.

[Neve]

Wonderful first effort Axle both with Painter and your Wacom....YEAH!!!!! Keep 'em coming whatever you do. Tell me, have you tried to use the eraser yet on your Wacom Pen....mines isn't working at all. ? I will have to investigate.

[Axleuk]

Originally Posted by Neve

Wonderful first effort Axle both with Painter and your Wacom....YEAH!!!!! Keep 'em coming whatever you do. Tell me, have you tried to use the eraser yet on your Wacom Pen....mines isn't working at all. ? I will have to investigate.

Thanks Neve.....regarding the eraser, i seem to remember at one point it was working, but now it seems to select a colour, which leads me to believe that it is custom configurable.

HAve you read this post yet Neve ? http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/non-retouchpro-resources/9482-corel-painter-xi.html i found it to be very useful at helping you navigate the interface.

[Xaran]

There have been some fabulous renditions for this, can't wait to see what Axle and Neve will come up with once they get used to there Wacoms and Painter.

Re: the eraser - when you turn the pen to the eraser it should automatically bring up the eraser brushes in painter.

Christine

[Legacy~Art]

Hello i am very new to this forum, and i cannot see how i can add a small photograph, i did my version to this beautiful bride, can someone please tell me do i just add a photo with the icon provided or do i need to reduce it in size before upload it?
Legacy

[Legacy~Art]

Please help...

Ok i uploaded an attachment i also made it into a thumbnail i can upload the larger version if needed.

Legacy

( Thank you Danny for your help )

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Legacy~Art

Please help...

Ok i uploaded an attachment i also made it into a thumbnail i can upload the larger version if needed.

Legacy

Welcome, Legacy:

I admire your tenacity (in getting the pic uploaded) and from what I could see of it, your talent, too.

If you're using Photoshop, you can size your images to ~ 8" x 10" at 72-80 ppi, then use File > Save for Web and adjust the quality setting to get the image < 100 KB.

If you like click the Edit button for your post, the Manage Attachments button and delete the too-tiny-to-appreciate attachment and upload a larger one.

In any event, I'm glad you found us and jumped right in with a creation.

~Danny~

[Legacy~Art]

Oh Danny thank you, i shall try that now. Legacy

[Neve]

Well Done Legacy-art, nice result. She seems to have a sparkle about her.

Axle - thanks for the useful link, I've earmarked it to check out in a week's time, I'm off again to babysit the grandkids for a while (school holidays here).
There's a great deal to learn re Painter but I'm determined to stick with it as the results I've seen others achieve are simply outstanding and at times breath-taking.

Christine - I hadn't even got around to checking out any erasers in Painter8 yet. They don't come up automatically, however, it is now working when I go select that category. Thank you. There's probably a configuration involved as Axle suggested and I'll check that later on also.

I'm relieved I'm not the only one new to Painter LOL