Photographers and digital artists-make beautiful paintings from photos

I am not a photographer, nor do I play one on TV. I freely admit my technical skills as a photographer leave much to be desired, as far as TTL (Through-The-Lens)  know-how. Much to my everlasting regret, I pretty much forgot everything I learned when I studied photography as a kid.

No, I do my manipulation in Photoshop. It is not depth of field or light through the lens that I play with, it’s using the photo as a blank canvas for a digital painting after the photo is taken. Now, I know, for purists, this is a blasphemous remark. It may even make you shake your head with pity. That’s okay. I am more of  a digital artist than I ever was a photographer.  But if you can get past the “purity” thing, you will definitely expand the depth and breadth of services you offer to your clients by being able to offer them paintings or images with special effects in addition to traditional photography. Or, more importantly, these programs can enable you to explore new horizons for your work in a way you never dreamed.

With a digital program like Photoshop or Painter, there are so many ways to parlay your digital and photographic skills and learn how to make digital paintings or add stunning special effects to your pieces…opening up an exciting new market. In this post, I just want to offer some possibilities for you think about and experiment with. The upshot of it all is this: you will not only find an expanded market for your work, but you might find yourself enjoying yourself tremendously and giving your work a whole new level of depth. In fact, you might become addicted to all the artistic possibilities of no-holds-barred digital photographic manipulation. Whether it’s full blown digital paintings you want to create, or unique special effects that dramatically enhance the images, the main thing is to have fun. Because if you’re not having fun, it defeats the purpose and will definitely show in your work.

Photo to painting by Mindy Sommers.

Now, we all know photographers who run their photos through Photoshop’s native filters–a few clicks and they’re done. And that’s exactly what those pieces look like-a click of a few filter buttons and that’s it. That’s no more digital art than Hamburger Helper is cooking. Here are some filter, plugin and software recommendations to start you off with your experimentation. Hopefully, one or more of these ideas will prompt you to find your own voice and embark on a whole new level of photographic creation. None of these filters are ends unto themselves–no filter is, nor should they ever be. They are, however, means to an end. With them, talented photographers (and artists, too)  can use them as jumping off points to their new creations.

Gertrudis Pro
Gertrudis Pro is a fabulous stand-alone software with which you can create some stunning paint and brush effects. Load your image, click “auto sketch tool” and you’re ready to rock. Your photo will act as the “trace” image and Gertrudis will pick up all the colors, shapes and shadows automatically as you move your brush around. Gertrudis Pro comes with its own native brushes, like “Van Gogh” and “Scratch Style”,  but you can create your own brushes to use over and over again by changing the density, size, direction, stroke and color settings of your brushes, and a host of advanced settings. Gertrudis does not allow you to work in layers, but you can easily export your image to Photoshop (or another program).

Alien Skin Snap Art
Alien Skin Snap art is a Photoshop plug-in that turns your photos into beautiful paintings, sketches, illustrations and even cartoons. You don’t use brushes with this software–you apply the effects to the whole image at once. However, you do have control over the filter’s parameters before you apply it. This control includes paint coverage, style, light, canvas texture, etc. I like working with layers for painting programs, putting the paints on separate layers…that allows me to fully control the intensity of the effects I apply and the way in which I choose to apply them.

Color Efex Pro by Nik Software
This is not a painting program, but one that revolves around Color with a capital “C”. This is, hands down, my personal favorite coloring program because the sheer diversity of effects, possibilities and ability to control each effect is just stunning. I couldn’t live without Color Efex Pro, a Photoshop plugin filter.  The sheer number of effects (around ninety if you get the Complete Edition) boggles the mind with exciting possibilities. From tonal and color contrast to old photo and full-control-black-and-white, this program is an amazing amalgam of powerful effects that will turn into an addiction. You will go nuts experimenting. I promise.

Filter Farm (free)
One of my favorite filters is called Filter Farm, one of the best-kept secrets in the digital art world. A simple little program, and only accessible through Photoshop as a plug-in, Filter Farm uses random algorithms and non-predictability to create the most beautiful transitions and color effects. No two effects will ever be the same, and the author claims that they “grow genetically” based upon the users’ choices and image data. I use Filter Farm as a separate layer for my image, enabling me to control the amount of effects I want. Filter Farm comes the closest to magic, and I highly recommend it.

Art Rage
Art Rage may look like a simple program, but it’s not. It’s a sophisticated stand-alone software that gives you many ways to make beautiful paintings. Art Rage supports layers, and you can export/import layers and create new ones within the program.  You have the option of using a “tracing image” to paint over and the program will automatically select all the subtle gradations and hues that are picked up from your image, or you can paint freehand. And you’re not just limited to a paintbrush—there is a palette knife for scraping and smoothing, glitter spray, airbrush, paintbrush, and more. You can also control the amount of “water” added to the paint (thinner), how much paint you want on your brush, the brush pressure, and opacity. (The glitter brush is really cool, it has three dimensional texturing). Art Rage supports Photoshop format files.

Virtual Painter
Finally, a fun little stand-alone program (it can also work as a plug-in) which offers lots of fun options but virtually no control. Virtual Painter will automatically take any image and turn it into any one of a variety of styled paintings including oil, watercolor, gouache, pencil and more…for a total of sixteen styles. Just click and the program will do the rest. You do have some control over the intensity of each effect–such as variations in canvas, color, scale, deformation and focus. While it’s not exactly a serious artist’s tool, it *can* be used in a more sophisticated fashion for serious artists when used as part of a layer or group of layers.

To sum, the world of digital art continues to become not only more exciting, offering an ever-increasing array of fabulous filters and plugins for the digital artist and photographer, but digital art itself has gained the credibility and respect once garnered exclusively to the paint-and-brushes canvas artist. The sheer amount of tools, techniques, programs and options now available to today’s digital artist require a massive array of knowledge and skill to adeptly master. Certainly the breadth and possibilities of effects available to the digital artist is something Van Gogh could only have dreamed about. Like my husband says, “if you’re not growin’, you’re dyin’.”  The skilled artist is always changing, growing and adding to his/her arsenal, and the tools outlined above are a wonderful addition to any artist’s.