creating impressionisticimages with???

[wynpotter]

I've been away from photography for several years, In that time I went back to painting in oils. I'm now searching for a hybrid of photo & impressionism that i can print on a 16x20 format printer and maybe start with a print and add WC washes. Has anyone worked in this area, if so what tools do you find necessary, PS filters or scripts to layer textures & possible colors.
 I enjoy the realism of photographic shapes but need the impressionism and softness of wc  washes and filter overlays. Any thought will be welcomed. I have a canon 350 epson 3800 PS with some filters as a starting point.
Thanks Wyndham

[eleanorbrown]

I can identify with this idea!  Lately I have been experimenting with hand painting over my images using Corel Painter 11 and a Wacom tablet and pen.  The software is complex and requires an enormous learning curve but I  basically use the colors from my image and reinterpret the content.  I paint each stroke by hand sometimes at 100 percent view to get the detail where I want it.  I have been experimenting with output on canvas, heavy matte art papers such as Sugar Cane and Bamboo by Hahnemuhle, etc....Honestly don't know if this method will last with me or lead to some other way of seeing and printing my images.  (when I photograph I "see" the image in terms of a "painting" (usually somewhat abstract)...shapes, textures, colors, etc..  anyway here's the direct link to what I've done so far (hope the like works!) Eleanor

http://web.mac.com/eleanorbrown/ELEANOR_BROWN_PHOTOGRAPHY/Painted_Pigment_series.html

I've been away from photography for several years, In that time I went back to painting in oils. I'm now searching for a hybrid of photo & impressionism that i can print on a 16x20 format printer and maybe start with a print and add WC washes. Has anyone worked in this area, if so what tools do you find necessary, PS filters or scripts to layer textures & possible colors.
 I enjoy the realism of photographic shapes but need the impressionism and softness of wc  washes and filter overlays. Any thought will be welcomed. I have a canon 350 epson 3800 PS with some filters as a starting point.
Thanks Wyndham

[Rob C]

I'm not sure if I get the drift of your search correctly, but I may have done some similar stuff too. My way has been to paint on a board and then copy it with a camera and print fairly straight from that.

You can easily find or spot some examples of the things on my website; you need only go as far as the pages of thumbnails to find them.

In a sense, it's like making my own graffiti. I did impressions of both Van Gogh and Miró which I think I called VinVanGee and MeRow. Maybe they worked, maybe not, but they gave me a buzz twice, and I enjoy looking at them again, so maybe that's a triple whammy? The originals are scraped off the board and new stuff painted on top. I like the idea of impermanence in art; I don't much dig sculpture which I see as an inevitably failed bid for immortality, however talented the creator. However long the rocks last, he/she's long gone regardless... Memory? For the birds or for your family.

Rob C

[wynpotter]

Rob, I'm looking at your shot of the woman seated in a doorway, open blouse. i would take that down to B&W line and add texture then hand paint a WC wash but even that's not quite what I have in mind but a possible direction where the strong lines of the image remain but everything else changes.
I know it's subjective but wanted to open a dialog with others on this. Wyndham

[Rob C]

Some longish while ago somebody posted a landscape done via a special filter (computer) that lent it a sort of painterly effect; it wasn't at all bad, and would make a perfectly good series of French-style views for, say, a restaurant or bar location. It didn't lose much detail, but did remove the straight photographic quality. The photographer posted a link to the filter app but the firm had stopped trading.

I'm listening to Three Dog Night doing 'I've never been to Spain' and it opens memories of a great time... From there, I'll probably do two version of Miss Ann. What a wonder is youtube! In the event, it's Gene and Eunice with Ko Ko Mo.

My favourite klrzfm.com was busy doing sport or someting with chat tonight... shouldn't be allowed; gets in the way of the music.

;-(

Rob C

[jdemott]

There are lots of techniques and variations in use--your imagination is the only limit.  If you are interested in hand painting on photographic (inkjet) prints, you might get more ideas on painting websites.  I know an artist who prints photos that are purposely fairly abstract on watercolor paper and then starts working them with pencil, pen and watercolor.  Another artist puts torn photos into collages and then paints on them with acrylics. 

If you want to approach it working primarily or solely digitally, you'll want to have the full version of Photoshop and a knowledge of working with layers and layer blend modes like Overlay and Soft Light.  There are lots of ways to create various textured layers that can be combined with a representational image--photographing textured objets like grungy walls, making images with painting programs, etc.  If you search on terms like "textured landscape" or textured photo" I think you'll find links to various groups working with those sorts of techniques who offer various texture files for your use. 

Modifying a photo before combining it with either a digital or handpainted layer is another whole subject.  A search on the web will lead to lots of examples of various techniques to combine various Photoshop filters and adjustments to create artistic effects (although many are not to my taste).  You can enhance lines, blur, simplify colors, etc.  Many of those techniques also use layers and blend modes in Photoshop. There are also various plug in filters such as Nik Color Efex and Silver Efex (which I like) and Lucis Art. 

My sense is that a good eye for composition and color counts for a lot more than the particular digital tool you use.  The people who get truly good results put time and effort into the work.  Searches for "impressionistic" effects on photo websites are often likely to lead to folks who want a one-click tool that will make their snapshot look like a Renoir.

[BobFisher]

You can create 'impressionistic' images in camera with different types of camera movement and/or multiple exposures.