Project 1: Photobashing
GRAP2530 IMAGING | AD022 ASSOCIATE DEGREE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN, RMIT | S3663308
INTRODUCTION
This project involved choosing a painting from the NGV to mimic the characteristic details and apply that to a photograph to look like an oil painting.
I chose Peter Hannen (Philpot 1915–1916) because the form of the subject and the attire would be ideal to replicate with a modern creative commons image. I used Photoshop to manipulate Female HD Photo (Zasiadko 2015), to look like the painting by replicating the following characteristics:
- soft brush strokes;
- a warm colour palette;
- strong canvas texture; and
- dark overall shades.
To achieve the above I used the smudge brush, the mixer brush, a soft brush to create a dark gradient background, colour adjustment layers to alter saturation, hue and values, textures applied in various blending modes, colour matching, and colour lookup tables.
Images used
L to R: Peter Hannen (Philpot 1915–1916); and Female HD Photo (Zasiadko 2015).
Sketch
Sketch. [Mock up: Sketchbook MockUp PSD (Popa 2014)]
INSIGHTS
The smudge brush made the most obvious adjustments and it transformed the photograph to an image that looked like an oil on canvas painting. But this created harsh brush strokes so I softened and blended them out using the mixer brush.
I adjusted colours many times to get the look I needed to match Peter Hannen (Glyn Warren Philpot, 1915–1916). These were as follows:
- a colour balance adjustment layer for the highlights to add green and subtract blue; the midtones to add red and subtract blue; and the shadows to subtract red and add blue;
- a selective colour adjustment to add cyan to the reds and minus cyan from the yellows;
- a warming filter; and
- two colour lookup layers.
Details
L to R screenshots: colour balance; smudge & mixer brush; without vs with colour lookup tables; and masking of canvas texture to selectively show.
Final photobashed image
Mock-up. [Wood Photo Frame Mockup (Medialoot 2017)]
PRODUCTION VIDEO
FUTURE APPLICATION
The knowledge I learnt about brushes and colour adjustments will be advantageous in almost any raster-based work I do in my future studies and professional work in years to come.
References
Altham, S. (2017). The DoxScott Experiment, track, viewed 3 September. 2017, <http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/Loveshadow/56391>.
Brown, N 2012, Burned and Scratched Textures, photograph, viewed 26 August 2017, <https://wegraphics.net/downloads/burned-and-scratched-textures>.
Brown, N 2013, Grunge Stamp Borders Multi-Pac, photograph, viewed 26 August 2017, <https://wegraphics.net/downloads/grunge-stamp-borders-multi-pack>.
Fuzzimo, 2014, Free Hi-Res Canvas Textures + Seamless, photograph, viewed 26 August 2017, <http://www.fuzzimo.com/free-hi-res-canvas-textures-seamless>.
Medialoot 2017, Wood Photo Frame Mockup, photograph, viewed 1 September 2017, <http://graphicburger.com/wood-photo-frame-mockup>.
Philpot, G W 1915–1916, Peter Hannen, oil on canvas, 39.6×36.3 cm, Late 19th & early 20th Century Paintings & Decorative Arts Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Popa, A 2014, Sketchbook MockUp PSD, photograph, viewed 4 September 2017, <http://graphicburger.com/sketchbook-mockup-psd>.
Zasiadko, R 2015, Female HD Photo, photograph, viewed 7 August 2017, <https://unsplash.com/photos/LyeduBb2Auk>.
