Dream Cottage

[ravenmd]

I recently spent a lot of time scanning and repairing hundreds of 35mm slides taken by my dad in Europe in the 1950s. He had a wonderful eye and sense of composition. He spotted this cottage while driving along a road in Belgiun, stopped and just clicked it. Unfortunately it was an overcast day and very little light shining on the house. This picture definitely needs some colour corrections done to it before it can become art, but the cottage is so charming I just can't restist it!

So this is a double challenge in a way... I invite you to first brighted it up and then have some fun turning it into art. I would love to see what can be done with it!

[ravenmd]

my 1st effort

I have never submitted to an art challenge (although I must admit I have been lurking occasionally)

I adjusted the levels and curves and then tried a watercolour technique. I did add some blue to the sky and greened up the front lawn beforehand.

[ravenmd]

well ok, seems the file did not attach. Let me try again....

[Guest]

Raven, welcome to photo art. What a wonderful first attempt! What watercolor technique did you use? It turned out great!

The picture is wonderful too. You say you have "hundreds" of pics? Hmm...wonder if you'd be willing to send me a few to use as mini-challenges? If so, email them to [email protected].

Phyllis

[d_kendal]

Hey Marie, that's a beautiful photo to work with! I started out with photoshop and did some layer masking to put blue into the sky so it wasn't so washed out and did a curves adjustment on the rest to bring up the contrast. then I went into painter classic and did a lot of painting using the oil cloner. then I went back to PS to do a bit of final tweaking.

- David

[Sanda]

just a quick reditiion of this beautiful cottage. All I did wa play with filters, not real work though. I adjusted the levels and curves then ran the xero illustrator plugin and added some canvas texture.

[Guest]

David, great oil brush look. Sanda, nice soft highlights. Chuck, the lighting change is great...nice rainbow too.

Here is my usual.

Phyllis

[jerry]

Raven.. great watercolor and picture to work with..

Dave and Sanda..both very nice..

Chuck..that is just awsome..You are becoming quite the artist..

This cottage looked like an etching to me..Hope it works..

Jerry

[ravenmd]

David, Sanda, Chuck, Phyllis, Jerry.. what can I say.. I love all of them! I'm astounded at the quality and variety of work on this forum. David, you are so adventurous with all these different technicques.. you're light years ahead of me. I used basically about what you had in your watercolour action you so generously shared... Im JUST starting.. gimmie a break. ok, I cheat

Sanda, again.. love it. Reminds me of some of the illustration style of vintage chilren's books.. ala Rackham? (think that's his name) Anyway.. I love this look! Chuck.. mind blowing! so vibrant. The addition of a rainbow is perfect Phyllis, this is so exciting.. everytime I think I've seen the coolest thing, you come up with another one. Jerry.. fanastic.. it looks so authentic! I must learn that technique!

I confess I had stayed away from this forum only because I KNEW I would get hopelessly hooked and I just didn't have the time to commit.. but now that I've dived in.... (dove?) I'm afraid it's all over. I foresee some late late nights...

[Guest]

And here's a watercolor.

Phyllis

[jerry]

Phyllis..Just beautiful..I love that version

Raven..the engraving/stipple technique that Chuck and I used is an action that danny posted here at RP..Here is the link..scroll down to Danny's post..http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/sho...5&pagenumber=5

Jerry



P.S. Check out some of the other actions that you might have missed..

[d_kendal]

Originally posted by ravenmd
David, Sanda, Chuck, Phyllis, Jerry.. what can I say.. I love all of them! I'm astounded at the quality and variety of work on this forum. David, you are so adventurous with all these different technicques.. you're light years ahead of me. I used basically about what you had in your watercolour action you so generously shared... Im JUST starting.. gimmie a break. ok, I cheat

I confess I had stayed away from this forum only because I KNEW I would get hopelessly hooked and I just didn't have the time to commit.. but now that I've dived in.... (dove?) I'm afraid it's all over. I foresee some late late nights...

Thanks Marie! Well I'm not sure it's so much adventurous.. it's more just trying random things which keep working out quite well if you're experimenting with filters, actions etc., then you're at the same place I am! and hey. . there's nothing wrong with cheating, for photo art anyway! yes, this stuff is hopelessly addictive, and the late nights seem to be a side effect of the whole photo-art thing, there's been a couple occasions when I've been sitting there not noticing the time go by when suddenly I realize it's getting lighter and the birds are waking up and making noise

- David

[GOLDCOIN]

Ravenmd.....What a storybook cottage.....Thank you for sharing it with all of us. Very nice watercolor....

David..... Yours has that foggy, early morning misty...... haunted, perhap, look. Like it.

Sanda.....Where have you been, great looking version.

Chuck.... can't decide which one was my favorite......Well, the Van Gogh version wins. Went back and had another look, maybe your third one. All were good.....you are getting really accomplished. Something to that practice, practice & praction.

Phyllis.... The colors were great, what was that overall pattern on your first one. Very nice water color..

Jerry..... Agree, the etching did set this pix off very well. Funny, how one actions work so well with one pix, but looks just awful with another...

I'm in my pattern & texture phase.... still can't find the brush that paints with pattern or texture..... It's not in the Edit , fill area??

here's what I came up with.....

[jeaniesa]

Phyllis, your watercolor is outstanding! Did you use one of the techniques already shared on RP, or did you come up with something new? I have a feeling that this technique was shared somewhere else, but I've been focused on other things lately and haven't been paying as much attention as I should.

Jeanie

[BigAl]

Nice subject Marie!

A strange thing about this one, which didn't seem to bug anyone, is that the house seems to be leaning to the right. I fixed that and then played around with a couple of filters. I agree with Chuck in that the sky needs some mods, and he's already won with the rainbow