Portrait Painting

I'm becoming obsessed with painting in PS... This is an image from one of my client photo shoots that I painted and applied a couple of textures to. I never thought about the mixer brush technique or how to use it until a friend (and former mod on BPN!) alerted me to an online course on how to use it. I am in the middle of the workshop and enjoying it so much. There are lots of tutorials and courses out there if you are interested. Just search on "paint over pictures photoshop" and you will find them. :c3: The most difficult part so far is learning to paint away detail that I worked so hard to create!

This is beautiful, Kerry. The combination of the colors, textures, and lovely little girls makes this image timeless. I'm inspired to start painting in PS!

Love it Kerry. Do you think you can do this w/o a tablet? (I would love to learn).

Thank you Wendy and Jackie! Jackie, I know that there are people who are trying to use a mouse for this, but I think it would be very difficult. One of the reasons for using a tablet and pen is that the brushes use the pressure of the pen to adjust flow, size, scatter, and other parameters. This makes the brush strokes look more natural and feels like using real paint. I use a little Wacom Bamboo tablet that only cost about $100 a few years ago. I think they are around $150 now, but that's not much of an investment for what you can do with it. Once you start using a pen you will wonder how you ever got by without it! :c3: You can spend a lot of time just experimenting with brushes and even creating your own.

I love this Kerry! Your brush strokes are beautiful, as are the girls.

Kerry,

Greetings. Beautiful work. Thanks for the explanation of the use of the tablet... Since the look you've created is so great, I tried it with a mouse and thought I don't have the patience for this. Maybe with a tablet there's hope, but I still imagine it takes a bit of patience and an odd destructive feel as you say about the detail. Thanks for posting.

Cheers,

-Michael-

Thanks everyone! I would not recommend trying this technique with a mouse, it is like trying to paint with a bar of soap! The pen and tablet from Wacom (Intuos) can be had for less than $100 and it is a great investment. I've had my Wacom tablet for years and mainly used it for painting on masks and so forth, but there is a whole world of brushes and textures out there that open up whole new avenues of expression. I did a review of my tablet (now discontinued and replaced by the Intuos) several years ago - here

Kerry, thanks for introducing many of us to a new technique! The effects are lovely. I started using a tablet years ago when my hand started to cramp around the mouse so badly that I needed my other hand to straighten my fingers back out! I simply would work no other way now!

thanks for letting me know more about this technique and where to find it. I'd heard of it but no detail re how to locate it. Nice 'start' for you here. I can see why you'd be addicted.

Another beautiful painting, Kerry. You kept the detail where it needed to be, and the result is very nice. The attention is on the girls and their expressions, where it should be. Even though there's not as much detail in the rest of the image, there are wonderful colors and a lot of interest.

Back in my working days, I saw some design (automotive) people using two monitors and realized the benefit of doing that. I immediately got a second one at work and, several years ago, a second one at home. I keep my image on a Wacom Cintiq monitor/tablet and all the palettes and the toolbar on the other monitor. It's easier to use the mouse for routine tasks, but I couldn't survive without the stylus. There's no comparison between it and a mouse for much of what I do.

Breathtaking! I did not know you could do this, on a tablet no less. Very nice work Kerry.

Kerry, sorry I'm late but this one is gorgeous:S3:

Very nicely done. The original image was lovely to start with, the girls looking at each other with such pleasure. The painting effect is interesting.