― Artistic Expression Critique ⇒ Tribute to Gudrid

[minniev]

Another play with making a mix of photos and drawings. The church, the statue and the landscape are photos. The girl and the unbird are not. To bring them closer together before starting I ran the photo items through a little piece of software I've had but not used much, Topaz Clean. Then I began assembling and fighting light and sizing, which is meant to be a little disproportionate but not terribly so.

Advice is appreciated.

[Psjunkie]

Advice is appreciated.

My advice is keep at it you are producing very pleasing art....

[PietFrancke]

looks fun - I think I will photograph a figure again and see if I can build something around him. Here I think the problem you are having is based on level of detail. If you crop above the wall, it doesn't look bad.
sky/birds/fence - look appropriately distant, but still a nice clean perhaps animated look of detail.
church - perfect, nice colors, nice level of sharpness, though still distant
statue - feels more photographic than the rest - perhaps it needs to be bigger or have more color or lighting is wrong, don't know, something about it bugs me.
meadow between girl and church - feels nice from a color point of view. Might need a little more detail to the right, the foggy blurry of it would be ok if nothing in front of it was sharper than its is.
girl - like the church, perfect, feels good, belongs.
two posts and bird - would have liked it more if the bird and post didn't intersect with the church - particularly right on the edge of the church.
grasses above the wall - super high level of detail, and too photographic. Perhaps paint over it with a mixer brush to remove detail. I like the feeling of it though..
Wall, Detail level is too low - too painterly as compared to the grass above it and below it. Perhaps add texture and detail to it somehow, or put a farmer on a horse or something in front of it. It is so large it threatens to become the subject. Must have a level of detail that is comparable to the grasses.
Bottom grasses look kind of cool, but again, the contrast (due to the level of detail that the wall lacks) might hurt the image.

Perhaps get more texture and shadows on the stone wall, and perhaps add bushes or more foliage/vines/stuff that sits in front of the wall.

[minniev]

Advice is appreciated.

My advice is keep at it you are producing very pleasing art....

Thanks!

[minniev]

looks fun - I think I will photograph a figure again and see if I can build something around him. Here I think the problem you are having is based on level of detail. If you crop above the wall, it doesn't look bad.
sky/birds/fence - look appropriately distant, but still a nice clean perhaps animated look of detail.
church - perfect, nice colors, nice level of sharpness, though still distant
statue - feels more photographic than the rest - perhaps it needs to be bigger or have more color or lighting is wrong, don't know, something about it bugs me.
meadow between girl and church - feels nice from a color point of view. Might need a little more detail to the right, the foggy blurry of it would be ok if nothing in front of it was sharper than its is.
girl - like the church, perfect, feels good, belongs.
two posts and bird - would have liked it more if the bird and post didn't intersect with the church - particularly right on the edge of the church.
grasses above the wall - super high level of detail, and too photographic. Perhaps paint over it with a mixer brush to remove detail. I like the feeling of it though..
Wall, Detail level is too low - too painterly as compared to the grass above it and below it. Perhaps add texture and detail to it somehow, or put a farmer on a horse or something in front of it. It is so large it threatens to become the subject. Must have a level of detail that is comparable to the grasses.
Bottom grasses look kind of cool, but again, the contrast (due to the level of detail that the wall lacks) might hurt the image.

Perhaps get more texture and shadows on the stone wall, and perhaps add bushes or more foliage/vines/stuff that sits in front of the wall.

Thanks for this thorough listing of your observations, this extra set of eyes really helps! Yes, matching level of detail is what I'm working on. I haven't figured out how to control Clean yet, I just resurrected it yesterday. I think it has a lot of potential in turning the photographic elements into something more amenable to the art objects I'm gathering. What I did for the church was paint texture back into it once I'd softened it. I may do the same with the rocks and see how that does.

Wonder if I could just move the post and bird further down the line?

I need to practice more with Clean and see if I can figure out its controls. It's a tiny plugin, so there's not a lot to learn, but it isn't intuitive.

The mixer brush is not one I've tried much, so I will be experimenting.

One thing I did do today, finally: I figured out how to make a selection mask using channels. It didn't work any better than one made from Select Color but I could see how it might be easier with another type image that had more contrast and less of that fuzzy gray stuff.

[Psjunkie]

don't know if this would have helped but whichever channel you use..red, blue, or green. Duplicate it make sure the duplicate is selected and hit command "L" to bring up a levels adjustment and you can make more contrast or less contrast....then use that selection for you mask

[minniev]

don't know if this would have helped but whichever channel you use..red, blue, or green. Duplicate it make sure the duplicate is selected and hit command "L" to bring up a levels adjustment and you can make more contrast or less contrast....then use that selection for you mask

I did those things, of course can't vouch for how accurately, and used the levels adjustment. There ended up being some stuff that was either under or overselected. I have that with masks anytime I'm selecting hair or leaves against sky, no matter what I use. I've watched tutorials about it but I still can't seem to avoid it. More practice...

[PietFrancke]

don't know if this would have helped but whichever channel you use..red, blue, or green. Duplicate it make sure the duplicate is selected and hit command "L" to bring up a levels adjustment and you can make more contrast or less contrast....then use that selection for you mask

I did those things, of course can't vouch for how accurately, and used the levels adjustment. There ended up being some stuff that was either under or overselected. I have that with masks anytime I'm selecting hair or leaves against sky, no matter what I use. I've watched tutorials about it but I still can't seem to avoid it. More practice...

I like the idea of rough selections and then using a mask if needed to refine your work. And then later edges can be blended anyway.. About the post, yeah - slide it left a little or even right to past the windows. Looking forward to future cuts.

[minniev]

Gudrid Phase 2

Moving the post proved impossible but I made a new post for the bird, and that seemed to help.

I painted back in texture on the rocks so they wouldn't be so different from the grass. I blundered around with the mixer brush but that just made a mess, so clearly I have to do another tutorial to figure it out better before I incorporate it into the thing.

I'm still thinking on the statue. It's already bigger than it oughta be. It isn't a pretty statue, but I want it in there for story.

[Psjunkie]

I like the moved post but your rocks now look cloned....I think some light adjustment for the statue