Another digital watercolour...

**Ross Macintosh** · 27 February 2006, 03:20 PM

Masque - I played a bit with your image. I hope you don't mind.

I did the Xpose plugin thing on it, punching up the brightness and highlights, and then made a bitmap copy. On the copy I ran the KPT Pyramid Paint plugin. I then overlaid the Xposed processed one on top and gave it a fractal plasma stained glass transparency. It brought back some of the complexity to the Pyramided one but the plasma kept it a little looser.

Regards, Ross

**masque** · 27 February 2006, 03:46 PM

Bit softer and a bit wetter using plugins in Serif PhotoPlus.
Mine retained a little more detail than yours which I suppose gets away from the true idea of water colour a little.
I remember when I did actual water colours some years ago I used to work over them in pencil or pen to sharpen them up a little.
derek

**Craig1128** · 27 February 2006, 06:25 PM

Excellent work guys! When you share your techniques, please know that it is MUCH APPRECIATED!! I downloaded a lot of 'free' plug-ins, plus purchased a few and have been playing with them to figure out what does what. The thing is that so far I haven't been able to think in multi-dimensions with filters... I'm going to try these techniques, and hopefully they will help me to think past what one (or even two) filters will do added together. Keep up the great work! Craig

**RTK** · 27 February 2006, 08:10 PM

Super thread! Thanks for sharing (great work on visualizing your concept too, Ross.)

**Ross Macintosh** · 27 February 2006, 08:24 PM

Thanks Guys.

I'm very pleased that Graig has recognized that filters have lots of creative power when the effects are layered using Xara's flexible transparency tools. Many people seem to think that applying filters as one-click-effects. In fact sometimes their minimal settings can produce dramatic effects when layered with other equally subtle effects. It's the old sum is greater than the parts thing at work.

If others want to try this kind of filter-effect layering try it with a portrait. It certainly doesn't have to look like a watercolour -- the point is to have some good clean creative fun.

Regards, Ross

**Craig1128** · 28 February 2006, 01:20 AM

I just had to try this... without digging too deep in my photo supply, I found a baby picture I took of a co-worker's baby when she was new born... I tried your techniques, substituting filters when I could... I'm going to post it, but it brought me to a question. If I have a photo, how would you recommend getting the 'outline' type picture that you use in the last steps?? Anyhow, I'll have to play some more with the technique and thanks again for sharing!

**Ross Macintosh** · 28 February 2006, 02:28 AM

The outline step is probably most relevant to the look of traditional architectural watercolours. Typically they are painted over a fairly detailed base drawing. For other kinds of subjects the lines may be less important. I suppose many watercolourists may draw a few lines or a relatively loose sketch that they then paint over. In the xara drawing it would always be possible to just draw some lines if it helps the digital painting.

The baby is a great subject. The painting highlights to me one of the problems I've found in trying to do these. Note that some portions of the image remain too photographic. Ideally (I think) it would have a more consistant painterly effect. One way to try to avoided the problem is the use of a posterizing filter that greatly simplifies the photo.

Regards, Ross

**Craig1128** · 28 February 2006, 04:02 AM

So you're suggesting to draw (trace) some lines over the photo in Xara to add to the effect? I thought maybe a plugin or something could be used. I tried the Little Ink Pot's Thredgeholder, but the lines weren't very dark... I could play with this some more, maybe put several copies on top of each other, etc. If I were to trace the lines, what areas of the photo would you suggest to highlight with lines?

I'll also try your suggestion of the posterizing filter. I don't have a lot of 'art' background, so I see a technique like this and go, "oh wow, that looks cool" without really knowing all the 'artistic's' behind why it looks good. So this is a total learning experience for me when you describe what looks 'watercolored' and so on... My experience is more photography, crafts... (origami, paper models and so on). I'm eager to learn as long as there's those willing to teach. I appreciate your feedback.

Craig

**ZEBtoonz** · 19 March 2006, 12:03 AM

Just had to say, thanks Ross, for your threads on using SketchUp and producing a watercolor effect. I recently was asked to do a watercolor sketch of a beach house and immediately thought of your posts. I also checked out Grant's threads in the SketchUp forum and found the masks you mentioned.

Actually, the effect was easier for me to do than making the SU model :-) Since I only use SU occasionaly I find myself stumbling around with jumping geometry and misplaced objects, etc. (I really should take the time to study SU a bit.) In any case, I was able to come up with a nice final image (sorry, can't show it here till it's approved). My boss was pleased and I had learned a new technique for future projects.

Anyways, thanks again! It was a big help!

**WheelBrat** · 21 March 2006, 02:27 PM

Originally Posted by Ross Macintosh

.................transparency tools. Many people seem to think that applying filters as one-click-effects. In fact sometimes their minimal settings can produce dramatic effects when layered with other equally subtle effects. It's the old sum is greater than the parts thing at work.
If others want to try this kind of filter-effect layering try it with a portrait. It certainly doesn't have to look like a watercolour -- the point is to have some good clean creative fun.
Regards, Ross

I agree with you Ross. Also the playing around doesn't have to be restricted to the plug-ins ... using some of the software's own digital paint / drawing effects themselves can also add some interest to a digital manipulation.

The following pieces were completed in the 1990's with just with Painter ... ver. 4 or 5 I think?

http://tinyurl.com/kh6n2

I used some of the same effect techniques and transparencies that Ross used and applied a bit of the methodology I used for hard-copy work way back before the wheel was invented.

Haven't tried it since or with Xara... yet!

madainn mhath
Cuidhil-meaban