Tutorial 04: Questions, discussion, results

[DannyRaphael]

Click HERE to be taken to the thread that describes how this image was created.

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Add your questions, comments, observation -- and of course, your creations, for this tutorial to this thread.

~DannyR~

[Ray Cooper]

Danny,

I have tried a few changes of my own to the bridge with the result below

Open Image: Bridge-1.0_base_01Ø Create duplicate imageØ
Select duplicate imageØ
Filter > Sketch > Graphic PenØ Set Options at 15, 50, right diagonalØ Layers > Blending Change – MultiplyØ Merge VisibleØ
Filter > Render > Lighting Effects - Style > default / Light Type > spotlight / Texture Channel > blue / check White is high / set Mountainous at 90Ø
Image > Auto LevelsØ
Image Levels – adjust to suit

Ray

[DannyRaphael]

Ray:

Good for you. These tutorials are guidelines, not hard and fast rules. Glad to see you experimenting (and "bending the rules") by trying different filters, blend modes and settings. That's how you learn what you like and what you don't.

Thanks for sharing your creation and for including the detailed steps.

~Danny~

[SWEngineer]

Here's my first go at some advanced (beyond single filter) PhotoArt using Elements2. This was inspired by tutorial 04 (this thread) and tutorial 06. My work is based on a photo from http://philip.greenspun.com. Here's a link to the original image:

http://www.photo.net/photo/pcd1313/portrait-15

In tut04, Danny notes the the colored pencil filter gives no control over the stroke direction. I overcame this limitation by expanding the canvas, rotating the layer, filtering it, rotating it back, & then cropping to the original size. I also discovered very accidently that a desaturated, blurred "ColorDodge" layer applied to tut04 variants yields an impressive simulation of a color sketch on very rough paper. This made a great new starting point for more fiddling. I also expanded on the great idea to use layer names to document steps; here I simply added empty (transparent) layers and named them with further documentation details (masking before filters for example). Probably these variants are obvious / well known / documented, but worth sharing if not.

Comments welcome, especially ideas for further improvement. (Note the .jpg files don't do justice to the originals.)

-Mark

Details on generating the art (layers from BG to top):
BG
A=BG rotate 35deg, Noise(gauss, mono, 9.5), ColorPencil (4,8,45), rotate -35. Note that I did a rough selection of the eyes & masked at 50% before running the noise & CP filters
B=BG noise(gauss, mono, 5), ColorPencil(4,8,45). Norm mode 50% opacity
C=BG rotate 35deg, ColorPencil(4,8,45), rotate -35 deg. Soft light 33%
D=empty layer -- decided not to use
E=merge visible (A,B,C)
F=copy E, CrossHatch(9,6,1), Dissolve 50%
G=merge visible (E,F)
G1=copy G, BasRelief(13,5,topleft). Overlay 38%
H= copy BG decolor
I = copy H, inverse, GaussianBlur(4,6). ColorDodge 87%
J=merge visible (H,I). ColorBurn, 24%
K=copy BG, SmartBlur(54,55,high,edge_only). Darken 10%
L= my happy accident turning off layers H&I, turned off H first & about fell out of my chair the result was so cool! L=merge(G,I,J,K). Applied a Curves layer with mask protecting all but the background. Adjusted curve to darken background to get tone roughly matched to the rest of the image. This produces sketch2.jpg.

M= copy sketch2, MotionBlur(37,3), MotionBlur(-37,3)
N=copy M, Median(2) [eyes 50% masked]. Added a Curves layer to darken tones < 75% black. This gives sketch3.jpg.

P=merge visible (G,G1,J,K)
added a Curves layer to reduce contrast
added a PatternFill layer (lichen). Overlay 23%
added Levels layer (Output 85, 170) grouped to patternFill.
This created sketch1.jpg

[SWEngineer]

Having trouble with one of my attachments. Getting an error

sketch1.jpg:
Attachment in Progress. Can be deleted here.

but I can't delete it or add it to this post. (It looks healthy on my global list of attachments - my web browser crashed hard the 1st time I was uploading this file - likely the source of the problem)

Here it is named sketch_one.jpg. Any suggestions for killing the ghost file greatly appreciated. -Mark

[DannyRaphael]

Having trouble with one of my attachments.

but I can't delete it or add it to this post. -Mark

How to fix: See http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/sho...p?postid=75197

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And may I say a) Welcome, Mark. And b) WAY TO GO! on your interpretations. These are very impressive.

Glad you were inspired, then added your own touches. "Happy accidents" are pretty cool.

Hope to see more of your creations in the future...

~Danny~