(All uploaded at large size -- click to see BIG, so you can see the details...)
Just doodles today ... but clever doodles, combing a bunch of Photoshop effects and something I just discovered. I won't say "something new," because I imagine it's been out for eons, but I stumbled over it the over day, following an ad from from of the Photoshop brush sites. Have you heard of LiveBrush? Take a squizz:
LiveBrush is the ultimate compudoodle program. You basically load up brushes with all kinds of effects and ... well, doodle in glowing colors. These are some very basic patterns created while I was just finding the tools and figuring out how to configure the brushes and so forth.
The program does let you import an image, so you can paint on an old existing picture. This is what I did with the Conan shot (top render in today's post). The original barbarian and horse is an okay image, but it's a bit "stock." Ordinary. So I shipped it into LiveBrush and, well, doodled on it. Exported it again ... shipped it into Photoshop, also shipped in the original image. Played with the merge modes between the layers ... found something that looks grand. Flattened all layers and they played with the textures to go one step further and create process artwork out of it.
Interesting? I thought so. I went on and did another one -- the Barbarian Babe. Same process ... LiveBrush, then into Photoshop, merging two versions of the image, and then adding texture effects. Hmmm. That's not bad.
I didn't use the LiveBrush effects on this:
This is just the DAZ render whacked into Photoshop and merged with a kind of art paper texture, and then there's some kind of filter effect whacked over it ... creates a really classical, fifteenth century kind of look, which I like.
LiveBrush is highly recommended -- get the "pro" one, which is only $10 and loaded with your brush styles etc., and enjoy. Right now, I'm trying to make it import and export existing images without resizing them, but when it comes to designing whole new patterns and textures, it's dead easy and a lot of fun. And I'm sure the answer to the resizing question, concerning existing images, is in there somewhere. The program is loaded with features, and huge fun for ten bucks. The interface is very intuitive and if your computer is reasonably fast, it works extremely well.
Next, I need to get a whole raft of Photoshop brushes loaded up ... I bought them months ago (from DAZ), put them away and forgot about them! How dim is that? Shows you how busy I've been lately...
Jade, July 15
