Charlotte's Works

Have to admit that I wasn't crazy about the idea of adding red to my pretty blue + white/silver sort of colour scheme but it worked out all right when I made the bauble red. At least I think so But the hyacinth is looking blurrier and blurrier...

Charlotte- This is turning out beautifully. I think it still reads as a silver and blue color theme with the red accents just red enough to balance the overall look and fit the season.
The perspective on the vase and the pot is not quite right. I can't put my finger on the pot...might be lighting on the rim trim, but the vase is just the highlights on the lower fluting need to have more curve. Perhaps dropping the two middle highlights a tiny bit.
I see what you mean about the hyacinth...can you do a slight sharpening pass that would tighten up the edges? Definitely try it on a copy to see if you like it.
Ivy looks so real.

I don't think I have any sharpening function in ArtRage (there's only blur...) but I'll try to work it up a bit when I get back to it. Looks like I won't have time for it all this week. Will try to look at the highlights and some other stuff on the candle holder as well. And the pot.

Charlotte wrote: I don't think I have any sharpening function in ArtRage (there's only blur...)

If you want more filters, one option is to find some older Photoshop plugins which Artrage can import and use. The downside is that the 64bit version can't make use of the 32bit plugins which are likely to be the majority of the ones that are compatible with Artrages filter import. I've often used Photoshop's own filters directly from Artrage (liquify etc).

I'm not sure I'd even know how, but I guess I could look into it , Thanks for the tip Banj

Beware!
Photoshop plugins may tweak the colours just as you want but will remove all information about paint depth and wetness and consistency. All colour mixing afterwards will be "different".

well those are things I haven't got my head around anyway I might just find it easier... But anyway, I'll be busy until next week so no time to try just yet. Thanks for the warning though! Guess I'll need to google it a bit, or something.

Here's a little demonstration of the filter problem.
I squeezed out a bit of paint from the tube and then used the palette knife before and after applying a Photoshop filter.



At point 1 you can see how a single stroke of the knife smears the thick paint easily and you can see the change in thickness. This is normal ArtRage behaviour.

At points 2 you can see how, after the filter, the canvas texture is now applied again over the paint where there was no texture before. This is because ArtRage so longer recognises it as "thick" paint.

At point 3, again after the filter, the knife now doesn't behave in the same way and you now have to smear back and forth to get any kind of blending effect.

Before the filter ArtRage understands the marks made by all the different tools and makes them behave accordingly. After the filter it just treats everything the same whether it's pencil, charcoal, thin paint, thick paint, and even the impasto highlights are just treated as "a different flat colour."

I haven't worked on this (or anything else) for weeks but I finally managed to get some stuff done today, mainly repainting the top of the pot and trying to sharpen the hyacinth leaves and flowers somewhat. Since last wip I also widened the base of the candle holder somewhat.

I have to finish this week if the cards are to be printed and sent back to me before it's time to post them, so I'd better focus from now on! And I'll try to focus on repainting the cones and the spruce. The rest I'll TRY to leave alone now. I think.

I'm not sure if it's because I've not painted in a while or if it's hormonal but last night I dreamt of some serial murderer psychopath who was furiously stabbing a knife into a kids (severed) head over and over (obviously a very sharp knife, or the kid was soft in the head maybe...), while a tortured but live victim was trying to sneak away... Not entiely sure that's healthy... Hopefully painting again will help... *nods*

Charlotte wrote: last night I dreamt of some serial murderer psychopath who was furiously stabbing a knife into a kids (severed) head over and over (obviously a very sharp knife, or the kid was soft in the head maybe...), while a tortured but live victim was trying to sneak away... Not entiely sure that's healthy...

backs slowly out of the thread...