Winter Coyote

What an elegant rendering Ron-just enough texture to bring out the fur and accentuate the lovely colors of the coyote's coat. It's a beautiful stance too, with that rather intent look . I like the lighting and the simplicity of the snow for contrast as well. Just lovely.

Thank you, Cindy.  Regarding the texture in the coat, I tried a number of different brushes before finding one that allowed me to show individual strokes when examined up close. I don't know about you, but when I get to work in Topaz Impression, I don't keep a record of all of my adjustments to various presets, so it is often difficult to exactly reproduce a previous look. Guess I'm going to have to start taking detailed notes.  Do you keep a record of the adjustments you make to presets in Impression?

Ron Day wrote:Thank you, Cindy.  Regarding the texture in the coat, I tried a number of different brushes before finding one that allowed me to show individual strokes when examined up close. I don't know about you, but when I get to work in Topaz Impression, I don't keep a record of all of my adjustments to various presets, so it is often difficult to exactly reproduce a previous look. Guess I'm going to have to start taking detailed notes.  Do you keep a record of the adjustments you make to presets in Impression?

Hi Ron- Hmmm- I don't keep records in Impressions-I guess you can save your final adjustments, but usually I don't apply the same stuff to a different image.  Not sure it would enlighten anyone if they knew what my tweaks were if I wanted to share them-usually there are so many, and they are so specific to that particular image. Not sure what you are wanting to keep- the same workflow to apply to a different image?

I'm seeing a "save" function, but I guess it doesn't show each individual stroke change.....or you could perhaps save each one? 

Very nice Ron! I too use Impression quite a bit for various things like pet portraits I do for clients. Yes, I always save my presets (right in Impression, upper right side toolbar.) I've spent hours trying to get a convincible looking painting style. I finally worked one up that I like, so of course, I saved it for future use. It's funny, but a preset doesn't always work on every image, but I find it's workable in 80-85% of the time. I usually can tweak my existing preset to create a decent looking image. I then actually acrylic paint right on top of the canvas (I always use canvas for pet portraits) to give it that final hand painted look (because at that point it is). Here's one I did that consists of three images combined (BG, and each dog separately) in Photoshop, then tweaked a bit. I spent roughly 8 hours in hand painting this portrait after I printed it on canvas.

Cynthia Crawford wrote:

Ron Day wrote:Thank you, Cindy.  Regarding the texture in the coat, I tried a number of different brushes before finding one that allowed me to show individual strokes when examined up close. I don't know about you, but when I get to work in Topaz Impression, I don't keep a record of all of my adjustments to various presets, so it is often difficult to exactly reproduce a previous look. Guess I'm going to have to start taking detailed notes.  Do you keep a record of the adjustments you make to presets in Impression?

Hi Ron- Hmmm- I don't keep records in Impressions-I guess you can save your final adjustments, but usually I don't apply the same stuff to a different image.  Not sure it would enlighten anyone if they knew what my tweaks were if I wanted to share them-usually there are so many, and they are so specific to that particular image. Not sure what you are wanting to keep- the same workflow to apply to a different image?

I'm seeing a "save" function, but I guess it doesn't show each individual stroke change.....or you could perhaps save each one? 

Cindy, sorry my question was so ambiguous.  What I was trying to say is that I often get a style I want to duplicate in another image, but I'm unable to do so because I don't remember the preset and/or I don't remember the various steps I took to tweak it.  For example, I spent a lot of time tweaking a preset to get the snow in a scene to appear Impressionistic. The following year I have another snow image but can't replicate the same style without reference to what I did in the original. I think the answer is to start saving the settings on all of my paintings, and although there will be a great number of custom settings saved, I can at least look through all of them to find what I'm after.  Thank you for your input.

Mark Picard wrote:Very nice Ron! I too use Impression quite a bit for various things like pet portraits I do for clients. Yes, I always save my presets (right in Impression, upper right side toolbar.) I've spent hours trying to get a convincible looking painting style. I finally worked one up that I like, so of course, I saved it for future use. It's funny, but a preset doesn't always work on every image, but I find it's workable in 80-85% of the time. I usually can tweak my existing preset to create a decent looking image. I then actually acrylic paint right on top of the canvas (I always use canvas for pet portraits) to give it that final hand painted look (because at that point it is). Here's one I did that consists of three images combined (BG, and each dog separately) in Photoshop, then tweaked a bit. I spent roughly 8 hours in hand painting this portrait after I printed it on canvas.

Hey Mark, great technique and result. I'm impressed with the time and effort you put in, and it shows - what a beautiful painting of these dogs!!!  Also, thanks for your input on my question to Cindy.  I believe saving all of my presets with adjustments is the answer.  It is refreshing to hear that the style of a particular preset works 80-85% of the time for you. Thank you so much for sharing your workflow and painting technique.  Again, stunning work, Mark!

Ron and Mark- OK- I see what you arewanting to do-makes sense. I guess I don't have the same need for repeatable results....yet. .

Beautiful work on the collies Mark!

Good light, excellent pose

Makes me want to pet him. Nice work showing off the beautiful coat.

fab shot Ron. love the effect... such an interesting further dialogue too with Mark. TFS