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Have you ever wished the Photoshop Colored Pencil filter had an "angle option" similar to the Emboss or Motion blur filters? (If not, stop reading now! 
)
If so here's a way around the fixed "top right to bottom left" stroke angle:
Before applying the filter, select an option from IMAGE / ROTATE CANVAS, rotate the canvas, apply the filter, and rotate the canvas back to the original orientation.
The good news: You've defeated the standard "top right to bottom left" stroke.
The bad news:Regardless of stroke angle, application of the Colored Pencil filter can often look computer generated due to directional uniformity of the strokes.
What to do?
The following was inspired by a Kailadocope action written recently by Jeaniesa and an unrelated action I dissected from Adobe.com.)
1. Duplicate the background layer 3-4 times. Label each something like, "Original orientation," "Vertical," "45 degrees", "horizontal" or something that will give you a clue to the stroke angle you're about to apply on to that layer.
2. Activate the layer, rotate the canvas to the angle of your liking and apply the filter. At this point you can either rotate the canvas back to the original vertical orientation and continue on or just rotate it "some more" and continue. Your call. Whatever works for you.
3. Repeat step 2 for each remaining layer, altering the angle of the canvas as necessary, changing brush size or pressure and/or adjusting the stroke length parameter of the filter as desired. Don't forget to apply the filter to a "non-rotated" layer. When finished, you'll have layers with different stroke angles and possibly different stroke lengths from which to choose.
4. Except for the bottom layer in the stack, create a layer mask for each layer and invert it (so the layer mask tumbnail is black).
5. Then go from layer to layer and airbrush "white" onto the layer mask where you want strokes "from that direction" to appear.
6. If you used angles other than 90 degrees, you'll probaby have to crop your image at this point.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's a before/after (on the right) of a simple example to illustrate the concept. Notice how the application of different angles breaks up the stroke uniformity.
The three stroke angles used are:
1. Original (top right to bottom left)
2. Opposite (top left to bottm like)
3. Vertical
This is a pretty generic method and should be applicable to other filters as well. A couple that come to mind are Craquelure, Mosaic and Tiles.
Is this a replacement for using real brushes and making real brush strokes? Absolutely not. It's a way for the artistically challenged, like myself, to go slightly beyond "vanilla."
Keep having fun!
~DannyR~
)If so here's a way around the fixed "top right to bottom left" stroke angle:
Before applying the filter, select an option from IMAGE / ROTATE CANVAS, rotate the canvas, apply the filter, and rotate the canvas back to the original orientation.
The good news: You've defeated the standard "top right to bottom left" stroke.
The bad news:Regardless of stroke angle, application of the Colored Pencil filter can often look computer generated due to directional uniformity of the strokes.
What to do?
The following was inspired by a Kailadocope action written recently by Jeaniesa and an unrelated action I dissected from Adobe.com.)
1. Duplicate the background layer 3-4 times. Label each something like, "Original orientation," "Vertical," "45 degrees", "horizontal" or something that will give you a clue to the stroke angle you're about to apply on to that layer.
2. Activate the layer, rotate the canvas to the angle of your liking and apply the filter. At this point you can either rotate the canvas back to the original vertical orientation and continue on or just rotate it "some more" and continue. Your call. Whatever works for you.
3. Repeat step 2 for each remaining layer, altering the angle of the canvas as necessary, changing brush size or pressure and/or adjusting the stroke length parameter of the filter as desired. Don't forget to apply the filter to a "non-rotated" layer. When finished, you'll have layers with different stroke angles and possibly different stroke lengths from which to choose.
4. Except for the bottom layer in the stack, create a layer mask for each layer and invert it (so the layer mask tumbnail is black).
5. Then go from layer to layer and airbrush "white" onto the layer mask where you want strokes "from that direction" to appear.
6. If you used angles other than 90 degrees, you'll probaby have to crop your image at this point.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's a before/after (on the right) of a simple example to illustrate the concept. Notice how the application of different angles breaks up the stroke uniformity.
The three stroke angles used are:
1. Original (top right to bottom left)
2. Opposite (top left to bottm like)
3. Vertical
This is a pretty generic method and should be applicable to other filters as well. A couple that come to mind are Craquelure, Mosaic and Tiles.
Is this a replacement for using real brushes and making real brush strokes? Absolutely not. It's a way for the artistically challenged, like myself, to go slightly beyond "vanilla."
Keep having fun!
~DannyR~
)
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