― Artistic Expression Critique ⇒ Strolling_in_waves

[Psjunkie]

Starting to play a bit with textures, so all help appreciated,,,

[davechinn]

Looks good so far Frank !!! Playing with textures can be/is subjective, so therefor what looks good to you is what matters most. I know .... that's not what you wanted to hear, but if it were mine I would tone down the saturation a bit. A nice candid capture !!!
Dave

[Psjunkie]

Totally understand Mr. Chinn and thank you for thoughts and comment...I actually had de-saturated but deleted that layer as the color was what drew me to this image in the first place..

[pop511]

Dave and junkie;
Your thoughts follow mine precisely, but I agree that to follow the tone of the image, soften the vibrancy of the subjects?
KInd regards;

[minniev]

Starting to play a bit with textures, so all help appreciated,,,

I've been pushing you to play with these toys for a while so I'm glad to see you jumping in.

You are off to a good start. This is upbeat, cheerful and artsy, and has a Norman Rockwell feel to it. You did well in managing the texture between the subjects.

Ideas to consider: I will tell you it made me smile to look at this because the things I'm gonna suggest are almost the same things that Someone Who Can't Be Named said about my first textured images in another place and time (he did know some things even if not as much as he thought he knew). While you should usually partially mask out the texture as it lies over the subjects (and you did), be careful not to go too far or the texture begins to seem like just a vignette. Keep working with opacity, blending modes and masking in/out (including different brushes and opacities) to find the right mixture. It helps me to stand across the room from the monitor and look at the image to see if the texture is balanced. In this one I might leave a tad more texture on the subjects. But of course all this is your creation, so let it be!

If you are going for the illustrative/cartoon-like effect similar to what I did with the train yesterday your hot colors are fine and fun. When starting to work with textures you have to pay attention to what the texture does to color as well, as well as what the texture's blend mode does, to make sure it is giving you what you want. I sometimes tinker with the texture's color because textures seldom come in exactly the tones I want, and I often desaturate them to some extent. I am not smart enough yet to look at a texture and predict what it'll look like on the picture but it seems that is a knowledge point for some folks. I am often surprised, sometimes happily and sometimes not so much.

Please keep playing. It gets more fun the deeper in the weeds you get!!

[Psjunkie]

Thanks pop511, I agree...

minniev you are as usual, spot on with your assessment...and I appreciated your in depth review..

incorporating the knowledge gained here..my final rendition with a deep thank you to all

[Matt Quinn]

Good stuff Frank. Matt

[Psjunkie]

Thank you Matt