Jane Conner-ziser Marylin Sholin Vikki Popwell

For this feature we showcase three artists; all are female, all are American, all are highly creative and frustratingly skilful! They are: Jane Conner-ziser from Ormond Beach, Florida. Marylin Sholin from Miami, Florida. Vikki Popwell from Andalusia, Alabama.

Marylin Sholin

One of the advantages of being a small production team at Professional Imagemaker is that we can respond quickly to ideas that develop as a result of seeing new work or sets of new work. Just such a thing has happened with this feature. We have been prowling round doing something on painterly portrait technique for some while now and keeping a watchful eye on our equivalent magazine in the USA, Rangefinder. Operated for the WPPI, Rangefinder has always highlighted the best in American artists working in this area of digital and we felt it was time to bring it to our own readers’ attention. Attending the seminar recently given by Jane Conner-ziser provided the catalyst to pulling a feature together.

Painting

Vikki Popwell

While straight portraiture has its place in the commercial world, there is always a premium market available, for things which are a little different. This is also the reason that designed albums are popular – they are attractive and they also provide the client with something they are unlikely to be able to create for themselves, even in these digital days, when almost everybody has a digital camera. And so it is with digitally manipulated portraiture, you take a basic image and create a unique interpretation of your sitter, in a way which only you, the creator, can. Regardless of how good it might be, a straight photograph is a photograph and bears at least some resemblance to other pictures that somebody has of themselves. Do a full job in Painter and you have something that is unique. Importantly you can also charge more for it – if you don’t, or won’t, then you are wasting your time – it has got to be part of a premium service!

Jane Conner-Ziser

Jane Conner-ziser

So what are the techniques available for your artistic endeavours? Firstly you need a quality giclée output onto a canvas or watercolour media. Secondly you have to apply a non-photographic touch to the image either in an image editing program or by hand embellishment of the print with paint, ink, pencil or some other medium. Thirdly, you should sign the final work to make it your own, and further differentiate it from a photograph. The options for digital manipulation progress through a hierarchy of technique, each level requiring more skilled input from the creator. At its simplest you can apply any of the filters in Photoshop or buy plug-ins such as Auto FX Software. From there you could graduate to the more expensive solutions such as ArtMasterPro. Moving on, you can embellish the border of an image by hand using real torn edges or perhaps by painting with the brush engine of Photoshop. In spite of all these options, the quest for digital creation usually always ends up with Corel Painter. Now in version IX, this is, and always has been, the leading “natural media” software, with a brush engine that is uncannily like real paint, pastel, gauche, oil or whatever. Using Painter you can add distinctive marks to your work at whatever level you choose – from a few wellplaced daubs around the edges, to a full-blown recreation of the image. The whole thing is limited only by your imagination and skill. Do not however imagine that ownership of Painter software makes you a painter, it does not – recognise your skill level and stick within it!

Marylin Sholin

Vikki Popwell

The Nuts & Bolts

As we said earlier, you are almost certain to need some help in your quest for more artistic endeavours. Attending a seminar is one of the fastest ways to see just what can be done with Painter. Here we see Jane Conner-ziser in action at her recent seminar for SWPP/ BPPA. Below we have an extract from her DVD which deals with both Painter and Photoshop techniques – most people actually use both, switching between to accomplish the task in the most appropriate program. As with other Software Cinema products, the DVD movie may be paused at any time so you can work on the same files yourself, making it a very efficient way to learn.

Jane Conner-ziser meeting

The Painter interface has an almost limitless number of options for brush types all of which imitate real media. Some Brushes clone colours from other layers or images, some blend the existing paint in the way an oils palette knife might be used. Watercolour Brushes only work on their own type of layer, a feature you need to know about before you start or nothing will seem to work! The Hose Brushes have a considerable number of sophisticated presets, but you may also make your own and even teach the brushes to repeat patterns of movement that you have taught them.

Painter

ABOVE: If you are coming from Photoshop, the differences in Painter are a little confusing at first. The hues are selected from the rim of the circular colour wheel, the saturation and brightness are varied by moving within the inner triangle. The two brush drop-downs are shown from separate screen grabs. On the right the type of brush is chosen, in this a case a Cloner. On the left the options for the cloner brush are shown, governing whether it acts like an oils palette knife, chalk, a water colour, etc. There are close on 1,500 options from just this dialogue box – small wonder therefore that you need some guidance in choosing when you are a newbie!

For colours you can even mix paint on a digital palette (below the colour wheel). This is exactly like mixing paint and you can then pick off a colour to use in your painting.

The Layers palette is close to that of Photoshop (other than collapsing layers together is termed as dropping and water colour effects demand their own layer type).

Choosing your medication – finding the right tablet for you]

Wacom makes two ranges of tablets, the Graphire series and the Intuos. In a nutshell the Graphires are intended for enthusiasts and the Intuos for professionals. However the distinction is blurred and many professionals who do not spend many hours in their image manipulation program, find that the less expensive Graphire suits their needs admirably. The Intuos tablets are higher sensitivity, have a wider range of pointing devices and also have the on-tablet shortcut keys available on both sides (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+space bar and a scrolling device for moving or zooming). Graphics professionals and artists seem always to prefer the higher pressure sensitivity of the Intuos range. Another factor is that all Intuos tables come with Corel Painter Essentials, the Graphire Classic series comes with Painter Essentials, the more expensive Studio range comes with Photoshop Elements and nik Color Efex pro 2 Standard. – see also the Intuos Wide on the following pages –

Wacom Tablet

ABOVE: The stylish new Graphire series is trimmed out in metallic livery. The Intuos, shown opposite page is trimmed in deep blue.

Chart

Now that monitors are easy to make in the wide 16:10 format and now that LCDs are becoming the norm, the standard size of Wacom does not match the screen format as well as it might. Also there are a growing number of users turning to the use of two monitors. This leads to a loss of real estate on your tablet and sometimes distortion of movement (ie circles are not round but ellipses). In the past the reviewer has always cut down the mapping of the tablet to reduce the hand movement required to cross the screen. However, Jane Conner-ziser gave us a convincing argument and demonstration for using all the tablet area to improve the precision during detailed retouching – one we have accepted. So, if you work a wide-screen or a two-screen set-up this new tablet is the one for you.

The new Wide tablet has taken the award-winning features of the Intuos 3, kept the stylish livery and simply spread the working area out to 10.7” x 6.25”. In addition they have added a new Art Marker pointing device to join the airbrush, grip pen, classic pen, ink pen and mouse – more on that later.

Software The software installed easily once we had removed the older Intuos Tablet driver, unlike the Graphire, you cannot have both running on the same machine. The install CD comes with an 88-page pdf manual, a set of animated instructions, tips and tutorials. Importantly for our readers is the inclusion of Corel Painter Essentials, which will do much of the cash-earning retouch stuff for portraiture and album work. The manuals and movies should be regarded as essential homework for all users, these modern Wacoms are so sophisticated that it is the only way you can exploit the full potential that they have. If you are new to graphics tablets you also need to understand how to activate the pen pressure, tilt and rotate features in the brush engines of Photoshop, PhotoPaint and Painter.

Once the software is installed, a brush is added to the application database as soon as you bring it into contact with the tablet. Each pointing device (if you purchase any additional ones – you only get one in the box, the Grip Pen) may be set up to your own parameters, which are then remembered. They include the area mapping, pen pressure sensitivity and a host of other conditions, all of which can be set by testing the pen on the tablet surface.

Digital

In Use If you have never used a pen instead of a mouse, doing so is a revelation. Although they take a week or so to get used to, we know of no instances where a user has gone back to a mouse for their retouch and image manipulation work – indeed if you watch the experts on the Adobe, Corel and Wacom stands at places like Focus they are unlikely to even have a mouse at all! The only good reason for keeping your mouse is for doing letters and your accounts spreadsheets.

Fortunately as long as you don’t leave a pointing device on the tablet (or very close to it), your PS2 or USB mouse will live happily alongside a Wacom. The Grip pen and Classic pen are ideal for retouch work and the majority of photographers can live with one of either. If you are more artistically inclined then the Art Marker, Airbrush and Ink Pen will find favour as additional accessories. The main difference between the Graphire and Intuos ranges is the sensitivity; the Intuos gets to 1024 pressure levels the Graphire to a more restrictive 512.

You cannot tell the difference most of the time except when retouching eyelashes and other very detailed work. Artists, like our consultant, Carol Tipping, swear by the increased sensitivity of the Intuos. Basically you pay your money and take your choice but remember that you can only use the advanced pointing devices on the Intuos.

Wacom Tablet

ABOVE: The Intuos A5 Wide following the style of its squarer brothers.

Wacom Pens

ABOVE: The airbrush, ArtMarker and Grip pens, some of the options available.

The ArtMarker This is the new baby to which a third orienting parameter has been added – rotation. The tips are chisel-shaped just like a felt tip pen maker so loved by concept artists in design studios. However, even in unskilled hands, the chisel edge produces a nice characteristic edge to a border if you are doing a quickie (Charles Green is famous for this effect, he has used it with great success).

Corel Painter

The Airbrush

The airbrush operates like a conventional compressed air/paint sprayer. Airbrushes were once the standard tool for the graphic artist but have been almost totally superseded by digital methods (indeed your reviewer’s compressor was reluctantly put in a skip just this week). It is therefore somewhat ironic that this digital pointing device mimics the older technology quite realistically. The airbrush is able to spray paint in a conical pattern by tilting it backwards. The biggest difference between digital airbrushing and conventional is that you can go backwards! You also do not have to spend time cleaning and greasing a delicate airbrush and ridding it of half-baked gouache.

Corel Painter

ABOVE: The pattern of the airbrush spray is varied by the tilt, vertical on the left and slanted on the right.

Corel Painter

ABOVE: The ArtMarker was used in Painter IX to add a touch of paint-like border around the image which had the benefit of also hiding an intrusive background.

Wacom Chart

The Dodge & Burn Mystery

Photoshop offers a variety of different ways to do the same thing, for example, dodging and burning. These are essential processes for many kinds of image editing – retouching, skin blending, image enhancements, matching cuts and pastes, making quick vignettes – anything that involves natural looking lightening or darkening of selected areas of your images.

Dodging and burning is a transparent process where you match values rather than covering things up. Do not try to blend everything in by painting over the edges. All of the methods, when used extensively, cause slight discolourations that are easily corrected. This drawback does not negate the powerful advantages of dodging and burning in creating beautiful, natural looking images.

Dodging and burning is easier with a WACOM pen, but if you have good bicep control, the mouse is possible.

In this article we will discuss the three most common methods of dodging and burning, go over the advantages and disadvantages of each, and learn when to use them for best results.

Dodge and Burn Tools – method 1

This is great for delicate retouching and skin blending. (Contrary to rumours, it’s not “destructive” to your file – only you can destroy your files!)

Advantages: You can dodge to white or burn to black so this method can be easily used for progressive gradations and extensive work. Because you’re working on a duplicate layer of the background, colour corrections are simple. This method also provides a nice “edgy” look to the retouching.

Disadvantages: The Background copy layer increases the size of the file, which may be a problem for some systems. Also, once you exceed the History States (default 20), going back requires making a patch and some reworking instead of erasing.

Photoshop

How to use the Dodge and Burn Tools: ]

First, duplicate the Background to create a Background Copy. You will be working on the Background Copy. Set tool options to Range: Midtones and Exposure: 3-5%. (Note: the exposure % should be set so you can see results quickly without making streaks). Choose brushes that are just slightly smaller than the areas you want to match up to their surroundings. In the Brush Window, turn off Shape Dynamics to ensure evenness of application. For a quick change between Dodge and Burn that uses the identical brush and exposure, hold down the Option (Alt) key while you continue to work – it automatically applies the opposite effect. Release the key to use the tool’s original function.

How to correct mistakes:

Open the History Window and step back in History States until the mistake has been removed. If you have exceeded the History States (Default 20), use the Lasso Tool to make a selection of the area that needs to be reworked, click on the Background and make a new layer via copy (Command or Control J) of the “before” piece. Drag the patch layer to the top, over the Background Copy, reduce the opacity (opacity slider in the Layers Window) to minimize reworking, merge it down (Command or Control e) and rework the area as needed.

How to correct discolourations:

Choose the Brush Tool. Set the options to Mode: Colour, Opacity: 20%, and Flow: 100%. Locate a colour you would rather see in the discoloured area, hold down the Option (Alt) key and click on it to select it. (Note: the correct colour is usually right next to the discoloured area). Brush a few coats over the discolouration until it blends in.

Photoshop

Overlay Dodge and Burn Layer – method 2

Create a Dodge and Burn layer in the form of a blending mode (Overlay) that works with the Brush Tool and defaulted foreground and background colours (black and white). Good when file size is an issue or you are insecure about committing your artwork to the image – or if you think you might have to go back and redo it in the future.

Advantages:

This method does not increase your file size. You are not actually applying the work until you flatten the file, so you do not have to make a patch to go back or rework an area.

Photoshop

Disadvantages:

The Overlay Blending Mode restricts the application to what the blending mode is capable of – high contrast and saturation – you can’t dodge to white or burn to black. You have to create additional layers to correct discolourations. Reworking an area allows you to go past where you started from in value, so it’s harder to blend smoothly.

Here’s how to make an Overlay Dodge and Burn Layer:

Hold down the Option (Alt) key while you click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Window. A Properties Window will open. Name the new layer Dodge and Burn, change the Blending Mode from Normal to Overlay, choose 100% opacity and “fill with overlay neutral colour (50% grey). Set the Brush Tool options to Mode: Normal, Opacity 3-5% and Flow 100%. Use brush sizes just slightly smaller than the areas you want to match up to the surroundings. In the Brush Window, turn off Shape Dynamics to maintain consistent brush size. Dodge using white as the foreground colour. Burn using black as the foreground colour. Keyboard shortcut x toggles between the two colours.

How to correct mistakes:

Use the opposite colour to rework mistakes. To start over again, fill the area with 50% grey.

Jane Conner-ziser unravels the secrets of Photoshop retouching

How to correct discolourations: Click on the new layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Window. Make sure it is on top – if it isn’t, drag it up. Change the layer blending mode (in the Layers Window) from Normal to Colour. Set Brush Tool options to Mode: Normal, Opacity 20% and Flow 100%. Hold down the Option (Alt) key and click on the colour you want (usually the colour right next to it). Apply a few coats until the colour is corrected.

Photoshop

Screen and Multiply Dodge and Burn Layers – method 3

This method uses lighter and darker versions of the image for dodging and burning. Incredible for selectively controlling contrast and value and is a powerful enhancement tool for photo realistic retouching, quick vignettes, hair, clothing and eye enhancements.

Advantages: The blending modes are lighter and darker versions of the same file so perfect pixel registration is maintained. Mistakes are easy to correct without overworking the area. It is infinitely editable. Most work is invisible.

Disadvantages:

The file size becomes the largest of the three methods in this article. You have to change layers while you are working. It is limited by the Screen and Multiply characteristics of your file so you can’t dodge to white nor burn to black. Discolourations require the creation of an additional layer for correction.

How to Use Screen and Multiply Layers for Dodge and Burn:

Duplicate the Background by dragging it into the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Window. Change the Blending Mode of the Background Copy to Multiply. Rename it Multiply (or Burn). Apply a Layer Mask, Hiding All by holding down the Option (Alt) key and clicking the new Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers Window. Duplicate the Background Copy by dragging it into the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Window, change the Blending Mode to Screen and rename it Screen( or Dodge). The black Layer Mask should already be on this layer; if not, add the Layer Mask, Hiding All as before. Brush Tool options should be set to Mode: Normal, Opacity 3-5% and Flow 100%. In the Brush Window, turn off Shape Dynamics to ensure consistency of brush size. To Dodge, select the Screen Layer and use white paint. To Burn, select the Multiply Layer and use White Paint. (NOTE: When you change layers be sure to click on the black mask to activate it – otherwise you will be painting.)

How to correct mistakes:

Change the foreground colour to Black and brush over the mistakes on the proper layer(s) until they disappear.

How to correct discolourations:

Click on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Window to make a new layer. Make sure it is on top –f if it isn’t, drag it up. In the Layers Window change the Blending Mode from Normal to Colour. Set Brush Tool Options to Mode: Normal, Opacity 20% and Flow 100%. Hold down the Option (Alt) key and click on the colour you need to put in the discoloured area (usually the colour right next to it). Apply a few coats until the colour is corrected. NEED MORE? Jane Conner-ziser has two instructional DVDs, available under the Software Cinema label which deal with Fundamental and Advanced retouching techniques. Contact Head Office for details 01745 356935.

Photoshop

Before and After

Three great methods for Dodging and Burning – which one is the best? In truth, they are all good. None of them destroys pixels or degrades the file. Each allows you to CHANGE the file, which is what IMAGE EDITING means. Each allows you the ability to fix your mistakes. I use the Dodge and Burn Tools for delicate skin blending and the Screen and Multiply Layer Mask method for artistic contrast and value control and for enhancing large areas. I rarely use the Overlay Dodge and Burn method, but I wanted to share it with you because it is a popular method as well. The samples in this article were created using dodging and burning methods exclusively to illustrate the powerful results you can achieve with simple retouching tools. I hope this article answers some of your questions about dodging and burning, and if you would like more assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you!

Find tutorial DVD's by Jane Conner-ziser