First go at "Smudge Painting" a portrait (also a first portrait).

nice. anyone know of a good tutorial on smudge painting?

Nice job, I think I am gonna try that. I have been printing on canvas lately and I am very happy with the results, but this technique would really add an extra dimension to the canvas prints. Thanks for posting.

ah, i guess this one that meat posted looks good; http://forums.dpreview​.com …rum=1006&messag​e=18183049

i missed the tutorial links. ;P

and i've been really getting interested in smudge painting as well. my interest started after seeing jordan hollender's work and acouple other photographers that show such extreme contrast in their photos and trying to figure out how they're doing it.

The effect is done a bit too much ... especially on her teeth. Try to leave a bit of the original detail. Also, your original looks like you softened her skin. Try painting with the raw file as is. It works better if you paint from the sharp original file. Please post more as you continue to learn this technique.

I'm posting something I just did after seeing your post. I still have Photoshop version 7 computer, even though I use CSII. I cropped and painted the bowl of fruit sample. I hope this gives you some direction for your next image. I painted at between 25% & 50% opacity.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

hmmmm...the fruit bowl seems to not have as much of the painting look as the one done above. The fruit bowl seems to just look OOF.

Meaty0 wrote in post #2124659
Thanks everyone for your comments. I think the whole process is pretty nifty. There won't ever be an action to do this because each photo is done differently. The whole thing took me a couple of hours, but it's just one of those things you tuck away and do when you have a little bit of time.

I followed a step-by-step tutorial by Scott Deardorff here...http://forums.dpreview​.com …rum=1006&messag​e=18183049

and here too..http://forums.dpreview​.com …orum=1006&threa​d=17101687

I hope some of you talented people out there in POTN have a go at this; it's fun.

I would be curious.....what was the image size you were working with when you did this....for example I'm trying to do a 16x20 and the brush sizes in the tutorial are tiny.....just curious how you did it?

interesting effect here

Nice job!!!!

Your PP is great. I also like the original shot.

I finally gave it a try, it took me about 2 hours)))Not much I presume, please be hard on me I want the harshiest critique!!!
Before and after.
Please welcome - my Father...

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White_Marten wrote in post #2171040
I finally gave it a try, it took me about 2 hours)))Not much I presume, please be hard on me I want the harshiest critique!!!
Before and after.
Please welcome - my Father...

Hey that's pretty darn good. I'm not a really good judge of these things as I've only just started myself, but I like your painting very much.

taygull wrote in post #2149711
I would be curious.....what was the image size you were working with when you did this....for example I'm trying to do a 16x20 and the brush sizes in the tutorial are tiny.....just curious how you did it?

I had a few problems with that. Scott told me he paints on images that are about 4x6" at a resolution of 72 ppi. The image I used was a 4x6" at 240 ppi and I had to increase the brush sizes by a factor of three at least.

D. Craig Flory wrote in post #2149233
The effect is done a bit too much ... especially on her teeth. Try to leave a bit of the original detail. Also, your original looks like you softened her skin.

Well that's not quite right. The original is exactly as it came out of Photoshop after I converted it from Camera RAW...not even any sharpening. (Just conversion to sRGB and lowered resolution then convert to JPEG) Rebecca has incredibly smooth skin that seems flawless and was also professionally made up for her senior formal dance. I have since found that this skin type doesn't translate well into a smudge painting, and needs texture added.

As to the effect being overdone...you're right...it is a bit over the top. There is a reason though. The screenshot is a direct conversion from the final image I used to print on a cotton based printer paper. It had to be oversaturated to come out as I wanted. But it does look a bit bright on screen. AND I'll drop the intensity of the teeth a bit too.

BTW...I like your bowl of fruit...I haven't tried still life yet...hmmm.

Here's a few links:

This one is a great tutorial -- http://www.pslover.com​/click/4815
This one has great examples -- http://www.innographx.​com/forum/viewtopic.ph​p?t=18

Hope this helps!

White_Marten wrote in post #2171040
I finally gave it a try, it took me about 2 hours)))Not much I presume, please be hard on me I want the harshiest critique!!!
Before and after.
Please welcome - my Father...

I think you have done a fantastic job.