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Software: Ulead
PhotoImpact 6 and 7 Skill Level: All Featured Tools: Mask\Brushes\Effects - Wacom or other graphire tablet is preferable Description: This is a great technique to create your very own designed sketch from any photograph, or portion of a photograph. By applying different backgrounds and textures, you can achieve some pretty dramatic results. |
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1. For this I used Pamela Morrison's daylily photo from the PI Photo Gallery. The original dimensions were 384x256. I changed the dimensions to 300 dpi.
This is the picture and you can right-hand click on it to save it.
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2. I zoomed (enlarged on my screen) the picture to 200% to make it easier to outline.
3. I then masked the entire image by depressing the mask icon at the lower left side of my screen.
| 4. I clicked on the paintbrush and, on the attributes bar, I set the size to 3, clicked on the color (which would have shown white, through varying shades of
grey, to black). A box came up and I moved the slider over to white. Note: White will completely mask the color.
Note: Let me also remind you to save your image as a UFO file often (while out of mask mode and while the selection is still active). This project is fairly time intensive and you sure don't want to have your computer freeze up or crash and you lose all you've been working on. |
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| 5. Begin by outlining the main flower and the parts you want defined. NOTE: If you make a mistake, either press CTL Z (undo) or change the paint color to black.
It's up to you regarding how much or how little background you want to include in the outlining process, again, remembering that the color black will reverse the masking process on order to correct any "slips". |
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| 6. After you have done the main outlining, zoom your painting to where you can view it comfortably on your screen. In this case, because it was a fairly small graphic to begin with, I went to 100% of the size. At this point, add more outlining, filling in small colored areas if you want to, until you are satisfied. Just sketch nice & loosely -- you only want the "essence" of leaves & stems. You'll note that I wasn't following the lines, so just have a good time with this part, remembering that black can erase a boo-boo.! (Did you save your work up to now as a UFO file?) |
NOTE: At any time, you can click out of mask mode to view the image, in case you're not sure of particular details.
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| 7. Another way to check your outlining results is to go out of MASK MODE, & copy/paste as a new image and view it that way.
Heck, you could even print that and let your child/grandchild play "coloring book" because that's what you're about to
do next.
Again, if you want to add more details, just go back to the image, turn on MASK MODE and continue outlining until you're satisfied. |
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| 8. Now comes the fun part! Depending on the size of the picture you're working on will help you to choose the size of the brush you'll be using, as well as the type of brush, i.e., paintbrush, bristle, etc. 9. Choose the color of medium gray (I used 145) and 0% transparency. I chose a bristle brush, size 10, because I wanted the strokes to stand out. Using a regular paintbrush would make it too smeary for this main area, try to "paint" along the same lines as the petals to get the "sketched" effect. BE SURE that you are in MASK MODE. |
10. This shows you what the graphic looks like with just the one flower "colored in" with the bristle brush, which I copied & pasted onto a white background. (Image on left is what it looks like masked)
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11. Continue filling in the remaining main areas, changing brush size when necessary.
(Again, the image on the left is masked and the one on the right is what it looks like pasted on a white background.) |
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Here are a couple of examples of copying and pasting onto simple colored backgrounds with just this much done......
11. Continue filling in the remaining main areas, changing brush size when necessary.
| 12. The following shows the masked image when I've applied OIL BRUSH strokes around the outlined areas (including brushing over some of the bristle strokes at the edges. |  |
| The pictures on the right show what the masked image looks like when copied on two different backgrounds. |  |
| 13. To create an almost totally different painting, you can add additional bristle strokes to the main background, then use the DROP WATER to blend. If your background begins to fade, the OIL PAINT brush can be used. (See below) | |
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14. Turn off the MASK and COPY/PASTE AS A NEW IMAGE on the background of your choice. Here are a couple of samples.
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| 15. When you are satisfied with your graphic and its size, MERGE ALL and select texture.
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| NOTE: I also sharpened the graphic at the lowest setting to enhance it. This is something I almost always do to bring out more clarity on my web images. |  |
You can always save the image you've been working on as a UFO file and play with different backgrounds and fills.
Of you are interested in doing portraiture with this technique, here is an example.
Linda White of Unique Renditions has some excellent examples of this tutorial, so, if you have time, please take a peek. To see some other examples I've recently done: Lion Cub (multiple examples on one page) and a Floral and different renditions of an essence of nudity . I'm continuing more examples as I do them on page 19 of my projects, as well as a Weekend Theme project (WET 40) and also another 'WET' for 12/20/02..
The latest person to try this technique is Virginia (BearMistress) and her lovely example is in her gallery.
I've added a special page for Paula
Buscanan aka BladeCroft because of her unique and excellent reditions
of this tutorial. Thank you for sharing with us!
That's it. Just sign it and claim it as your own!
Good luck and email me if you have any questions.
Hillary
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