Watercolor Drybrush – Two Masters
Ottorino De Lucchi
Paul McCormack
No, these aren’t oil paintings, amazingly enough! These are examples of a very exciting and satisfying watercolor drybrush and glazing technique (though it can be a bit meticulous). The two artists represented here are two of the premier masters of this technique and for a fuller enjoyment of their work check out their websites.
The technique is simple to describe but takes practice as does any mastery of watercolor. Thin glazes of pure watercolor pigment in an almost dry application are laid down layer upon layer until the desired value and color is attained. The brilliance and luminosity that can be achieved through this technique I never thought possible with watercolor. Glazing with oils has long been known to achieve this brand of jewel-like luminosity. Oil painting masters going back centuries have used it as their staple. Watercolor, on the other hand, has the reputation of being easy to overwork and muddy in repeated layers of application. A reputation that’s well earned and I can testify to first hand. But with the right approach this is not always the case. I’ve tested and pushed the drybrush technique myself on a few occasions and it works. I am having to relearn almost everything I know about watercolor painting and layering. My previous paradigm dictated that simple one, two, or three layer applications at most achieved the best results and kept the watercolor painting fresh, unmuddied and watercolor-like. There are, of course, many notable masters that excel at this traditional watercolor approach, which, in its own right, is beautiful to behold and can be very exciting. But apparently watercolor has more to give as a medium than I ever knew. I’m anxious to learn more.
Rust, Cracks and Stone Textures
Thanks to DesignM.ag for these excellent compilations of Photoshop brushes and textures
150 Free Rust Brushes for Photoshop
Pixel Pushing Predigiosity
Or … How Photoshop Changed My Life.
We can argue later about whether predigiosity is really a word (don’t think it is) but for now lets talk about life changing stuff. Few things can be called life-changing. Fewer still can claim to have changed the world as we know it. Things like automobiles, airplanes, the telephone, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups come to mind (yeah ok, that last one’s a stretch, but its close). Photoshop falls into both categories but maybe not in the way you think. While it may not have changed your life per se, it has changed the way you view the images of life whether you realize it or not. You may have never made one single click inside its considerably powerful interface, but you view its effects every single day, and as a result you frequently view an altered reality. Photoshop has changed everyone’s life, their world, or, at the very least, some degree of perception of that world.
For the artist/photographer (like me), it has also changed my professional life and my personal enjoyment in ways I could not have predicted. As a teenager with a budding art talent pushing to set itself free, I also pursued photography as an outlet of artistic expression and creativity. With no money or place to have a darkroom, I had to content myself with slides or dime store prints from my negatives, sending off to a lab only occasionally for that special enlargement and leaving the nuances of custom printing and retouching to pros. My talents eventually morphed into a career in graphic design, illustration and a continued interest in photography. Photoshop is the most important program in a whole suite of programs that has completely changed my professional life. Not a workday goes by that I don’t open Photoshop for some reason or another. It has put money in my pocket, food on my table and clothes on my back. It has also afforded me hours of pleasure as a darkroom, the likes of which I could never have imagined as a teenager. It has become the retouching and illustration tool only imagined in science fiction only 20+ years ago when Photoshop was just a gleam in some programmer’s eye. So, there it is. Photoshop’s cool! ‘Nuf said. And on its twentieth birthday I’m more than happy to give it a little love.
Photoshop 20th Anniversary Event
If you’re into celebrations and benchmarks and think Photoshop is the absolute best program ever, then celebrate you should – Photoshop’s twentieth birthday to be exact. NAPP along with Scott Kelby, his Photoshop User TV mates, Matt Kloskowski, and Dave Cross and members of the Adobe team will join together in a streaming live celebration event tonight at 7:30 to pay homage to the program of programs – Photoshop.
Photoshop 20th Anniversary Event – Celebrate with Adobe and NAPP
New Photo Gallery
I’ve just posted a gallery of some my best photography work. I immensely enjoyed taking and editing all of them and they represent many memorable experiences. So I hope you will stop by and take a peek.
Photography by Steve Mitchell
Portrait Painting From Photos (watercolor)
In coming posts I will try to show more samples of portraits painted from photos to give a better idea what looks can be achieved. If you missed my post about this offered service check my previous post which gives the details for turning your photos into a painted portrait.
Below is an example of a digital watercolor painting recreation. Again this is hand painted using digital software and not a filter conversion of any kind. Watercolor is a bit more difficult to simulate digitally than oils but an artistic, loose, wash effect can still be achieved. A style such as this couples well with printing on watercolor paper.
So brush off those old photos and contact me for an estimate today.
Full Portrait – click to enlarge
Detail – click to enlarge
Portrait Painting From Your Photos
If you’re looking for a unique gift or a special way to preserve a favorite photo, try a painted portrait from your photo. This is a new service I’m now providing using painting techniques I’ve developed over the years as a professional illustrator. I digitally recreate your favorite photos of family or friends in a painted, simulated media style. This is not a Photoshop filter or software trick like some that claim to instantly convert photos to look like paintings, most of which don’t look like a painting at all. Instead I take your photo (or if you prefer we can arrange a photo shoot if you are local to me) and I prepare and enhance the photo for painting, then using digital painting software I hand paint the entire portrait to simulate a real painting, no automatic software conversions or filter effects.
A painted portrait from Steve Mitchell comes with these features:
- A hand-painted, digital portrait by a professional illustrator with over 25 years experience
- Generally created at a much larger size and at a higher resolution than the original photo making it a great way to preserve and enhance treasured photos
- Choice of various media simulations such as oils or watercolors
- Choose your preferred degree of loose impressionism or tight realism.
- Choose to get just the digital file and make your own prints or order a print of your painting from me printed on a variety of media such as watercolor paper or canvas.
- Choose to customize your photo before its painted with enhancements such as removing unwanted elements, combining people from separate photos, changing colors of particular elements or even have your subject placed over a completely different background.
- Reasonable, competitive pricing usually much lower than a photo studio can provide. Pricing from $120 and up depending on factors such as size, number of subjects, background elements, retouching and prep, etc.
Get in touch today for a free consultation and quote.
Note: Most portrait prints taken by a professional studio cannot be submitted for reproduction due to copyright laws. You must only submit photos that you have complete reproduction rights to.
Full Portrait – click to enlarge
Detail 1 – click to enlarge
Detail 2 – click to enlarge
Full Portrait – click to enlarge
Detail – click to enlarge
Corel Painter Resource Site
I ran across this Corel Painter site today which has a number of nifty brush downloads as well as other resources. Jitter Brush.
Peter de Sève is Blogging
Sweet! I’ve always loved the art of Peter de Sève and was tickled to find out he has a blog now. Check it out.
Digital Facial Study
I’ve been playing around with Corel Painter 11 to gain more familiarity. What a yummy program! The ability to combine digital mediums that would be incompatible in the real world is pretty cool, marker and chalk over oils for example. I plan to put it through its “real world” paces not just as a finished art platform but for doing quick impromptu sketches and studies. On this facial study I used marker, oils, pencil, chalk, blending stump and eraser. Painter works better as a digital sketching platform than I imagined. I know this is not new. There are tons of great illustrators working in Painter but I need to find for myself the most comfortable approach. More experiments to come.
