Inspired by other art...

I've always held an appreciation for Impressionist art. For a short period of time Fauvism, an offshoot of that school thrived. These are some of my attempts to echo that style. Each image had it's beginings as a simple photograph:

A row of restaurants in Ghent, Belgium


Early morning in Porto, Portugal


Cafe umbrellas in a Hudson River town


Blue Windows in Copenhagen, Denmark

Hi, John,

John Angulat said:

I've always held an appreciation for Impressionist art. For a short period of time Fauvism, an offshoot of that school thrived. These are some of my attempts to echo that style. Each image had it's beginings as a simple photograph:

Click to expand...

Stunning!

I never cease to be amazed by the breadth of your vision, art, and craft. It is as if you were a whole squad of artists, each with a different outlook and toolkit.

I like this treatment exploration, John. The conversion of edges to outlines, then hand-tinting the areas, is eye-catching. You've also selected good scenes for the treatment.

Not to be nitty, however, but this is not at all reminiscent of impressionism or of any fine art movement that I know of. Rather, it's a page directly out of a style of commercial graphic illustration that seems to pop-up every 30-40 years. The first occurrence that I know of was in the 1920's. It appeared again in the 1960's on travel art brochures and posters (esp. France, Italy, Turkey travel posters). (You might catch a peek at such a poster in scenes of movies of that period.) Now that it's become more automated we'll probably see it again...we're due!

Hi Doug,
I am truly moved by your compliments. I thank you sincerely for the kind words. I'm not sure if I qualify as a whole squad of artists, but I certainly dabble in as much as I am able. I've come to accept the fact I'm the poster-boy for Photographer-Attention Deficit Disorder!

Hi Ken,
Thanks for the critique. I always seem to learn something from your words in this forum.
I wasn't really trying to replicate any particular school or style, just gain some inspiration. I guess when I said "echo" it implied duplication.
I'll definately have to look at the poster styles you referred to. Hey, you never know - maybe inspiration for another thread, eh?

Hi John,

There's no doubt that, as Ken points out, that you have chosen the right images to benefit from this type of rendering. I do like the idea that you are looking at your own right to deliver the photograph in the form that you find especially pleasing. These do give the impression of pen and color wash pictures that could be sold as pictures for tourists in Prague, Budapest, London or Paris of typical scenes and landmarks.

So would you share how it's done. I purchased a license to some software actions to do this but never got down to using it!

Asher

John; This is not precisely the style of poster to which I referred above but it's pretty close, albeit probably from the 1930's.

By the way, anyone looking for imaging inspiration might be very well-served spending an afternoon (or much longer) looking at poster art from the late 19th century through the 1960's. I am especially fond of Art Deco period posters (1930's).

Using your photography as a canvas for creating new expressive works, as John has, is a path that's full of potential and is not at all uncommon in big-time fine art circles. But it's rare to find on amateur photo forums, as most of the attention is trained on straight photography and pixel-peeping rather than art and illustration.

Here's how it's done:

Hi Asher, Doug and Ken (and anyone else who's interested) -
Here's my notes on creating this effect.
I am not the originator and certainly must give credit where credit is due: this was gleaned from the Photoshop Fine Arts Effects Cookbook, written by James Beardsworth, O'Reilly Publishing, 2006.
I never created an action for it as I found every image had to be tweaked and adjusted so much it just wasn't worth the trouble. It's really easy and you get some interesting results (if you like this sort of thing).

Notes on Fauvism Interpretation:

• Open image and duplicate layer
• Rename new layer “Edges”
• Convert the “Edges” layer to a line drawing using Filter/Stylize/Find edges.
• Create a new Adjustment Layer and select “Threshold”.
• Drag the slider until all or most of the fine details disappear, but the essence of the image as a line drawing remains (somewhere between 140 and 170).

- Here’s where you need tweak each image. If you can’t get the excess details (spots and speckles) out of the image in Step 4, convert the Edges Layer to a smart filter and apply a bit of Gaussian Blur (~1). Switch back and forth between the Threshold value and the Blur value, adjusting each as necessary.

• Copy the Background Layer once again and drag it to the top of the layer stack.
• Change it’s mode to “Multiply” and rename the layer “Multiply”.
• Reduce the “Multiply” Layer’s opacity a bit (~70).

- This is where you’ll need to go back and tweak, once again, the Threshold and Blur if you do not see enough of the line drawing coming through, up the Threshold, etc. – or too much.

• Create a New Adjustment layer (Saturation) at the top of the stack. This is where you will boost the colors. The bolder the better!
• On the “Multiply” Layer select the Move Tool and shift the colors up a bit and over a bit. This will give the appearance of painting outside the lines. The amount is like salt – to taste.
• Crop the image to remove the white space left by using the Move tool.
• There’s no firm value to any of the adjustments. I find it necessary to adjust and re-adjust all layers until the image “looks right” to me.

John,

That's awfully generous of you. It's much appreciated. Now lets hope we don't have an avalanche of copycats! Still it's tempting!

Asher

Asher,
I don't believe anyone has the right to "own" a technique. Even if copied, the results will always be what you put into your image.
Besides, my sharing is no more generous as the time and techniques the pros on this forum freely give to us amateurs.
...Just paying it back in a small way.