Paint Brush Coloring Book
Posted In: andywarhol, beach, beachparty, bodyofwater, brush, brushes, chicago, color, coloring, downtown, ink, lake, lighting, manipulation, ocean, ott, ottlite, party, photo, self, self-portrait, shoreline, skyline, warhol, wetbrush
Comments: 5 Responses
So this weekend I watched the Underworld: Everything, Everything DVD twice. (I was not sober)
Watched Ferris Bueller twice. (somewhat sober)
Ate Chinese Fried Rice and Crab Rangoons. (totally sober)
Drank too much soda. (inebriated)
And watched Hairspray. (Sober. Why didn’t the advertisement for this film showcase the fact that it’s about integration? Is this topic still taboo after so-many decades?)
Anyhow, all of this got me thinking about colors.
Coloring books.
I decided to simply apply the principles of coloring books to a couple of my photographs with the very simple/very basic concept of regressing towards a childlike look/feel.
I started with this photo:
It’s already manipulated with the process I described in my earlier post a couple of weeks ago.
But I wanted to dirty it up. Simplify it.
I converted the image to black and white.
Adjusted the contrast/levels.
And started coloring. Red, Brown, and Blue using a wet brush in PS CS4.
It came out ok, but not as cool as I thought it was going to be. I’m not sure how to make it pop more than it does without making it look pixelated. I tried to add some texture to the colors by simply layering them via brush strokes over brush strokes. This was done haphazardly without much thought to building edges, almost as if I my vision was somewhat gone (Mr. Magoo-style).
Since I wasn’t getting anywhere with my prior attempt I decided to ditch the Chicago effort and move on to a self-portrait I took recently.
This was taken in my bathroom with one light source, using an portable flourescent Ott-Lite “Plant Growth” lamp that my boss gave me. I prefer flourescents because they are much harsher than normal bulbs and are typically white enough to slightly wash out the subject (i.e. me).
As soon as I started this one I knew it was going to look like a Warhol knock-off, so I did my best to distinguish it by leaving the strokes messy and overlapped; not at all as clean as Warhol’s Monroe. I do wonder if it would look better if it had been sharper though. If the color on the face didnt overlap with the glasses/hair.
Perhaps next week, I will try to combine elements from this post with what I learned during the creation of my Adventures in Pattern-Making entry to create a bright/colorful pattern for the masses.
Following Dr. Novachord’s post asking for audience participation….
What should the subject of my next pattern be?
A. Chow Yun-Fat
B. Robocop
C. Amelie
D. The 400 Blows
THIS IS DR. SALVATRON TELECASTING LIVE FROM THE STREETS OF LONDON.
ADIEU ADIEU ADIEU
TO YOU AND YOU AND YOU
+TRANSMISSION OVER+
Chow-Yun Fat dressed in Robocop garb
How bout Amelie making out with a Chow Yun Fat Robocop?!
Hey one of the tricks you can do when painting colors on top of images is to use the “color” blend mode. So, if you have your original image desaturated (or not), put a layer above and start panting a color… then switch that to “color” blend mode and it’ll blend that color into the layers underneath. For this, you will basically get the same effect but it works especially well when doing gradients or just tweaking the shade of things… instead of doing some crazy hue/sat adjustments with masking.
Diggin the Warhol self-portrait.
So.. people want an amalgamation eh?
We’ll see…
Gimme some more votes people!!
I’ll have to try the color blend mode. I think I just used overlay and softlight.
Chow Yun Fat with a grimace and cigarette. Robocop is played out these days. We’ll Do IT LIVE!!!
I’m agreeing with O’Reilly. Robocop deserves it, no doubt, but CYF gets way less love on the Internets. TEQUILA FTMFW!!!!!