Saturday 1 June 2013

PAINTING BY NUMBERS WITH TUTORIAL TRYOUTS



For Kristin's Tutorial Tryouts this week she gave us the challenge of trying Vicki's approach to painting by numbers, which was quite an easy, relaxed tryout, and a bit of fun.  The pic above is my finished piece.


I decided to use a 'still life' photograph as the basis.  I recently took a thermal image photo of a vase of tulips and I selected a small section of it which I cut down even further to focus on one tulip only.


I fiddled with it a little in Photoshop until I found a version that looked promising for the colors and background.  The tutorial suggested tracing the print by hand with tracing paper from a paper copy, but because time is very short for me at the moment I wanted to find a way to do everything on the computer.


The 'tracing' above was produced by using the 'trace edges' filter on Photoshop.  I like the way sections of the background are like spray painting, but I felt it could be improved. 


Now the picture above looks more like a hand-traced version.  In fact I used an app on my i-pad called Art Rage, which has the facility to place a 'tracing paper' over a photograph so that a 'pencil' from the tools can be used to trace round the shapes.

This was so easy to do, and felt just like tracing on paper, and I was surprised and delighted with the result.  I was so enthusiastic about my tracing that I think perhaps I outlined too many small shapes which was not helpful when I was adding the colours in Photoshop.



At that point I abandoned the idea of using the same colours and instead tried a colour combination that is new for me and am fairly pleased with the result and with the ability to complete the tutorial using the computer.  I like the little touch of a few dashes of digital 'spray paint'.

Interesting and fun to do, and once again I learnt a little something new, so my thanks to Vicki and Kristin.

Sadly this is Kristin's last Tutorial Tryout - for now at least she says.  The Tryouts have been a real challenge to me, and I've learnt a lot, so I hope to see her back with them later in the year.

7 comments:

  1. I love it, Jez! The soft colors you used are so easy on the eye. Blessings!

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  2. So awesome Jez....I love it....this is similar to what I do in pixlr and photobucket!! Only a little different process...but I love the surprise of seeing all the transitions!! Great colors!! Thanks for sharing!

    Hugs Giggles

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  3. Oh this one looks so interesting. I've fallen behind when my PC WS playing up! I'll have to go back on the ones I've missed. I love that you did this on the computer - thank you for explaining the programs too.

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  4. Jez, you are amazing with your capacity to challenge yourself and I love your experiments in Photoshop. The thermal image is wonderful, I love the colours :)

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  5. Love this Jez, I love the way you challenge yourself and I am always impressed with your use of Photoshop. The thermal image picture is fantastic, love the colours in it :)

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  6. Oh wow! I am also impressed - your digital work is gorgeous and the colors really pop!
    AND thank you for joining the Summer of Color for the first time - It really is a lot of fun - and YES! I will absolutely have examples of each color combination that we pick - will make it easier on us all I think ;) xo

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  7. What a fascinating post about art in Photoshop. Photo-editing is so seductive and I enjoyed reading your description of how your lovely tulip artwork was made, something a bit different.

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