Create a Painting of your Pet and make it your own Masterpiece

by Anthony P. Palmieri
Abstract:
Turn your pet picture into a painting. Imagine that pictures of your Shih Tzu, Yorkshire Terrier, Pekingese or other beloved pet are transformed into a work of art. Home PC's and the evolution of software and inexpensive printers expands the capabilities for even the home user making this a possibility. By spending a little bit of money on graphics programs, and a computer, coupled with a bit of creativity, you can turn your digital pictures into much more than just photographs. This evolution has enabled people to express their personality into family pictures as well as other loves such as cars, and pets.
Create a Painting of your Pet and make it your own Masterpiece
An artist used a brush, a pencil, clay or some other medium to create their own masterpiece. When you consign one of these professionals you are not just paying for the final product, but for their experience and talent. Often people art to express their personality, their loves, hobbies and other things. In any case the creative nature that we have comes to the surface once we have the tools and have developed ability to accomplish this. One area that has continued to grow as a result of technological advancement is with computer enhanced graphics. Faster home computers coupled with programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator have taken the high end graphics work once limited to corporations to smaller businesses. The most basic photo manipulation is to correct flaws in the picture, which can be expanded to the more advanced creation of fantasy scenes, such as overlaying multiple images and the addition of special effects.
Now be creative and think how a person can simulate a painting without being an artist. Can it be done? To the purist, anything but the real thing is not art. Does that mean that a cubic zirconia is not real? Why do people purchase them? Well, part of the reason is cost, and an imitation is must much less expensive. So here is the question; can you enjoy something that is not 100% real? I think so.
Lets take advantage of technology. Purchase a graphics program such as Photoshop, and a filter set that enables you to transform a photograph into a painting like image. You will have to experiment with various settings to get it realistic and that will take trial and error to get it just right. Print it out and you are almost there, but the problem is you now you have a 2 dimensional print. Touch a painting, and you will feel a texture from the brush. That texture is a 3rd dimension that adds depth, and various reflections and shadows bringing the picture to life. Can we do this with a print? Yes.
Using various shellacs and varnishes applied to the surface of a print, you can simulate a painting, and add that 3rd dimension. This surface texture must be added in steps. Remember that you are applying a liquid to a paper, and the paper will have a tendency to want to wrinkle and curl. A little bit of wrinkle is actually good, since a real painting will not be perfectly flat. The first coat should be thin and cover the entire surface. This provides a sealer coat. After that coat is fully dry, add a second, third and even 4th coating. With these coatings the focus is to create the brush strokes, and the texture. To make it realistic, you need to paint the picture with the coating as if you are actually painting it. For example if you have a vertical post you need to dray the brush up and down, not across. It becomes a bit more challenging when you are trying to paint a pet. There are many contours, and angles, the fur is fluffy and curved and you need to match the image.
This article gives you an idea of how to get started to create your own simulated painting. Some owners would rather purchase a custom picture of their pet . So, this desire for creativity by these pet owners has spurred an industry that caters directly to them. The pet lover is a proud group that loves to express their love for their pets. These owners take their pets to the experts for advice on how to train them, expert groomers for that perfect coat and the list goes on. Now another option that expends beyond standard photography provides a second level of creativity. One company that understands this area extremely well is Palmieri Concepts. and they have done a wonderful job of these conversions. Besides the founders being a pet owners for many years, and having a house full of pets, this company has spent years talking with owners and listening to them to understand their needs and wants before it even became a company. Often the owners knew they wanted something different, but was not sure exactly what or how to accomplish it. By listening to them, and understanding what could be done, their needs were met. Some of the nontraditional examples included the idea of having fantasy backgrounds such as a dog floating on a rainbow, to taking a color photograph and making it look like an old black and white.
For the serious owner, most have a special wall in their house or office with pictures and posters of their pets and even similar ones. Often these pictures were done in the traditional style of "point-shoot-develop-print-frame". The custom graphics companies that specialize in the photography industry have now taken the "develop" stage to the next level with custom image enhancements. These enhancements could be as simple as a picture of your pet overlaid on a family photograph, or even a key element such as the dog tag with their name on it. By combining this level of graphics, a plain photograph is transformed from just a photograph to an expression of personality. There are many examples of what I have described on line and www.PalmieriConcepts.com in the Pets section has a selection of examples that will give you many ideas that you can incorporate into your own works. The pictures there of the Shih Tzu, Yorkshire Terrier, Pekingese are my inspiration to do this
Anthony Palmieri founded Palmieri Concepts after 20 years of creating custom art work for his own pleasure and enjoyment. This business grew out of a love for motor vehicles and was started to share with others what started out as a hobby. After taking how his own pride and joys (yes this really started with family pictures and not cars) and combining them with creativity, it became obvious that many others would like to showcase their tr

How to Retouch a Digital Camera Picture

by Timothy Firth
Retouching can be considered the act of blending in those colors that make a seamless presentation. It is often used to correct for blemishes on a person's skin, or the "red-eye" effect that can occur with flash photography. It is also a restorative process for photos or other source artwork that has some areas that have been compromised by handling or scratching, etc. The retoucher will use their judgment to restore the colors to segments of the picture that tend to reconstitute the image as it was before being damaged.
Two application programs that are useful in retouching will be discussed, MS Paint and JASC's Paint Shop Pro.
Because the specific technique useful for a given project will call upon a series of complex and arcane steps, only an overview of the capabilities of these two applications will be discussed. The user is encouraged to become familiar with the basics of the program you intend to use - to experiment with some of the steps relevant to a chosen retouching technique - to call on the "Help" files to obtain guidance on how to use the features, etc.
The two applications have some tools that are similar, and the principles of operation have commonality. The "eyedropper" tool is used to sample color from the source artwork or from a color palette. There are a variety of application tools for applying this color to the areas you choose. You can create a custom palette of colors, or you can "measure" the color that has been sampled by using "custom colors." The measure of a color is defined by its saturation, intensity, and hue. In regard to the colors that appear on your screen, they are defined by a "triad" of the colors red, green, and blue (RGB), with the intensity of each defined by an eight-bit number. The decimal value of this number ranges from zero for black, or absence of intensity to 255 for the maximum intensity of that basic RGB color. Note that a specific color includes an intensity value for each of the colors red, green, and blue.
Often, there will be an equivalent of the decimal value stated in some other way, perhaps as a two-character hexadecimal number or as a character symbol that is part of a defined character group that has a corresponding number between 0 and 255, as in an ASCII (American Society for Character Information Interchange) code. Regarding hexadecimal numbers in relation to decimal numbers, F in hexadecimal corresponds to 15 in decimal and FF corresponds to 255. Hexadecimal is a base-16 counting system, and decimal is a base-10 counting system. Hexadecimal has features that make it convenient to use with computer systems and with characterizing intensity levels of the RGB color triad.
Either application can be used to insert chosen colors into areas that need retouching. MS Paint allows you to place discrete colors within any pixel. It allows you to sample the color existing within a given pixel and apply that color over one or more pixels in patterns that are governed by the application tool. It also allows you to sample a rectangular patch of pixels, over which the colors may vary, and replicate that patch wherever you wish.
Paint Shop Pro has application tools that allow you to sample a color and apply it in a manner in which the density of the applied color is greatest at the point of application and diminishes as you get farther from the point of application. In other words, the application tool can be much like an airbrush, with the greatest density under the spray nozzle, and an overspray that can be adjusted by settings. Paint Shop Pro also has a layering feature that lets you determine the relative opacity of either layer - that is, you can make a custom layer with a pattern of applied colors that have a tendency to correct the source artwork, and determine later how much influence this layer should have in the evolution of the final image. In general, the custom layer overlays the source artwork in the temporary image seen by the program. You can manipulate the pattern of color and it's density, as well as control the transparency of this layer so you can obtain the desired result. When satisfied with the result, save the temporary image to a permanent image file.
About the Author
Timothy Firth B.Sc. provides cheap e-books with master resale rights, premium e-books, audio books, software and home business opportunity suitable for everyone. For more information on Digital Photography, visit E-Book Library Online - http://www.ebooklibraryonline.co.uk