Fun with Painting (and special offer…)
Last week I wrote about the efforts I had made to create an art-worthy image of a narrow Athens passageway. Something about that image had “tickled my fancy” and so I put a lot of effort into trying to get rid of all the modern detritus that was spoiling my vision of what it should look like.
Then, my good friend Alex showed me some of the work he liked and particularly this one he had taken in a typical Parisian street with people enjoying the bars and restaurants:
I thought that would look good as an oil painting and so I created a full resolution digital painting for him using Impresso Pro from Jixipix. I just noticed today that Jixipix have a summer sale on at the moment on both bundles and individual products (I have the water color and the Impresso programs). Just use the coupon SUMMERSALE when you check out to get 30% off the price. Anyway, here is Alex’s masterpiece – with the bicycle and FBI words removed!
Worthy of Fine Art America, I think! So, to cut a longer story short, I thought I would have a go at my Athens image in the same program. I also picked up some advice to lighten up the street lamp a bit to give it more prominence, and here is the result of a few minutes painting:
I chose an approach that maintained detail in the center area of the painting and also around the Greek flag. It is a pretty impressive program and when I am fed up with keywording, it is nice to relax with a digital paintbrush in my hand and a red wine to moisten the bristles. So if you want to follow suit, here is my link to Jixipix. Remember the code – SUMMERSALE.
Like what u did w/the street lamp, Steve; not to mention the strong emotional appeal of the colors and flow — nice transition from the photo! 🙂
Well, I think you went a bit overboard with the background. I would like it with a bit less “blur” than what you have applied. It isn’t a photograph with bokeh, it is a “painting” and I think there needs to be a bit more detail in the “out of focus” areas.
Just my take. I think you are very creative and you have obviously done well.
You could well be right. I haven’t uploaded this anywhere yet – I like to mull them a bit first. So I will look at other presets and see what I can do that is different and then see which I prefer!
Hi Steve I have purchased the software you recommended and I am playing with it and some of my images. I am currently only with Alamy but might expand agencies in the future. I have a question, when you upload a photograph which has been digitally altered to look like a painting do you upload it as a ‘photograph’ or ‘illustration’ I have currently been selecting illustration with Alamy but wasn’t sure if that was correct.
I was thinking about that question as well – and how to get them on stock agencies more generally. I think I have had rejections with SS because I didn’t include a property release with the original photo in it. But on Alamy, I think the answer is that people submit them as photographs, although I saw a discussion where sales are few and far between as Alamy tends to be a bit more editorial in nature
Steve
Whats your favorite preset of jixipix?
I don’t really have a favorite – I usually flip around the different options until I see a result that matches the image and then modify that.