I'm having major computer problems, so decided to post this sequence of photos that I did a couple of years ago. The photos are old, but the process is kind of interesting.
I put a piece of tracing paper on top of a woman's face in a magazine. I used a pencil to draw the shape of the face, the lips, eyes, nose, etc. and then went over the lines with a Sharpie marker. You can see, in the first photo, where I didn't do a good job of erasing the pencil marks.
I used very diluted watercolor paint to color the lips, the eyes, etc.
In the second photo, I changed the light balance in Adobe Camera Raw to "cloudy," which gave the picture a warmer, more golden tone. But it still doesn't look very good.
So I applied Topaz Adjust "Simplify" to the photograph and then cropped it. The "Simplify" feature in Topaz made the golden colors glow, smoothed things out in general, and gave the image a softer, more painterly, more graphic look. It's more polished than the previous two versions.
This winter, when you're stuck in the house because it's raining out, give it a try. Tracing paper, a pencil, a black marker, a magazine, a touch of watercolor, and then take a picture of what you drew. What do you think? ©Carol Leigh
