Work stuff, and piccy

[ria_oaks]

Haven't been posting much recently... not since Strikethrough, actually. Laazy. -_- I realized that I haven't even posted yet to tell you guys the news - I got the job at the Credit Union. :) Only part-time, though, so I'm keeping my job at Doc's. I've had three shifts so far, including the grand opening today. It's going pretty well so far, though I haven't really had any training yet. She's going to train me next week and the week after... it's a nice environment, though - office is brand new, and the people are friendly. I'm excited to finally have a real job. :) Met our MP Blair Wilson today at the opening, too. Didn't realize who he was at first because I voted in the North Van riding last election and am not too familiar with the West Van riding. ^^ Anyway, I think it will go well and I'm excited to get training...

Anyway, forget real life. XD I've been in a big Pirates mood recently, specifically a Sparrington mood. I never used to ship them, so now I have a huge wealth of fanfiction to read... I've also been inspired to do a bunch of drawings of them, most of which I've already posted. The other day, however, I was browsing elessil's excellent fanart and came across a tutorial she did about graphic manips. I've never tried manipping before, but I was intrigued and decided to give it a go. She provided a few links to boykissing pictures which were very useful, and I chose one that I thought would work well. Finding the right pictures of Jack and James to go with it was a pain in the ass, but I eventually found some that would work... Though I did fiddle with James's mouth a bit to make him look somewhat happier.

Well, all things considered I'm pleased with it. Took a cue from elessil and combined manipping with brushwork/drawing, mainly abusing the smudge function in Photoshop... Not too happy with Jack's hair and I'm a bit iffy on James's arm. But like it otherwise.. I enjoyed doing it, at least once I found pictures that would work, and I might practice some more later.

Please let me know what you think. :) I'd appreciate any feedback, and definitely would like some constructive criticism and advice anyone has to give. I want to get an idea of what I can do to improve it next time...

EDIT: Okay, I think I just realized one of the main problems with this pic... Jack's head is too damned big. Woops. -_-

EDIT 2: I fiddled with it a bit more... can't do anything about Jack's head being too big without redoing his head, but fiddled with him to try to make him blend into the picture more... I think it's a bit better.





EDIT 3: Okay, fiddled with it again... stil not wholly happy with it. Jack needs more lighting... meh, whatever, I don't think I'll do anymore... want to try another one later. XD





EDIT 4: Okay, I lied, I did another one based on some of the comments I received (thanks guys!). Added a bit more shadow into both guys' faces, think it helped a bit.

Comments

[bk635.livejournal.com]

I thought they were supposed to fly you off to some mystery island up north for training?

I don't really know what to say, because I don't know what manipping is so I have nothing to compare it to. But it looks good; especially James.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Haha, yeah, I was supposed to go up to Texada Island to train... but my boss decided that she can just train me here instead. Kinda relieved, really...

Thanks. :) I also liked how Norrington turned out... Jack's face needs a bit more shading; I tried to add some lightness to it to make it less flat looking, but... it was surprisingly not too hard. The original pictures are here (http://www.freddyandeddy.com/galleries/menkissing/gallery01/mkpic26.jpg), here (http://jack-davenport.net/gallery/displayimage.php?album=13&pos=186), and here (http://www.johnnydeppweb.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=361&pos=748) , in case you're curious... I always thought manipping would be super hard, but when you combine it with brushwork (ie the smudge tool, heh) then it's not too bad. Though it'll take more work to do it really well, and I'm a bit iffy about trying colour...

[bk635.livejournal.com]

Think it'll get really busy there? Your bank is just serving the island, right?

Jack still looks like he was pasted onto the picture, while James doesn't. So you might want to try working on blending Jack in more. You might also want to try darkening James' hand a little more, since it looks like the light-source is coming in from behind instead of the front.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure... hopefully it'll get reasonably busy, because we want it to survive. There was a Credit Union on the island a few years back and it didn't last... so we need to get lots of members. And yeah, it's just serving the island. But people seem to be interested... especially businesses on the island who don't like having their banking off-island.

Yeah, I agree... that's one of my problems with it. That and Jack's head being too big. -_- I fiddled with it a bit more and posted the revised version; I think it looks a bit better. I'm not sure what else to do to fix it... anyway, thanks for the input. :)

[bk635.livejournal.com]

It looks better. You might want to try rounding out Jack's forehead a bit, and getting rid of some more whiteness around James' elbow and hand. Mainly because James' hand is still really white, but there's no light reflection on Jack's hair.

Let me know if there are any iPod deals at the bank. ;p

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Hmm, yeah, I need to add more lighting to Jack.. will go do so. And will darken in Norrington's arm/hand a bit, too.

Haha, no, we don't have gimmicks like that. XD Credit Union is all customer-service based and stuff like that... our members actually join the CU and become shareholders. It's different from a bank - isn't actually a bank, technically, though it does all the same things. But they aren't profit driven like banks are; they're actually co-operatives...

Though really, the iPod was nice. *cough* Will probably switch from TD now, though. Esp since my employee acct gives me unlimited transactions.

[elessil.livejournal.com]

Yay! Seducing people into manipping one by one....mwahahahah! Good job, and keep on doing it ;)

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Haha, yeah, your tutorial inspired me. :) I love your artwork, btw, it's gorgeous.. and thanks for the compiment. :)

[garran.livejournal.com]

Hey, (tangentially,) I voted for Blair Wilson. I feel proud of this because my vote seems to have done a lot of good; he won by a pretty small margin (for this riding, anyway).


-Andy H.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

That's cool. :) Didn't realize you were in the WV riding - thought your house was in NV? And is it sad that I can't remember the name of the NV MP even though I voted for him? -_- I suppose next election I'll be voting in the WV riding... because really, this is technically my permanent residence now. Though it's kinda weird, because I'm so used to voting in NV...

[garran.livejournal.com]

We do live in North Van, next to Cap. Mall and the Lucas Centre. Provincially, I think we're actually in the riding for Lonsdale, but federally we are just within the borders of the vast and bloated West Vancouver/Sunshine Coast/Sea to Sky Country (I think I read somewhere that this is one of the most populous ridings in Canada. It certainly is surreal when my friends up in Powell River are considering the same candidates that I am).


-Andy

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

It's good for a first try, really... I'd make the blacks blacker (through Image/Adjustments/Selective Color) on both of the guys' heads, because the bodyshots have actual black on them and the grayness of the headshots stands out. Otherwise it's good. And yeah, getting Jack's head to fit is pretty difficult 'cause the beard and hair are extra.

I've got a fairly extensive photomanipping tutorial here. (http://snowgrouse.livejournal.com/1017367.html#cutid1) Mostly a list of good rules of thumb.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Hmm, thanks for the feedback. I fiddled with it a bit more to add some shadows to their faces and posted the result; think it looks a bit better. Also checked out your tutorial, which had some useful advice and such. Will save it for later reference... :)

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

It looks nice! I can't do shadows at all, so I only suggested the cheap and easy way of doing it, but you even painted the buggers in! I think I'm going to be looking forward to *your* tutorials soon...

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Aww, thanks. *blush* I fiddled with the brightness/contrast, too, but I find that if I overuse that function the picture starts to look a bit off. And I don't know much about other functions like overlays or whatever. ^^;

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Oh no, I wouldn't use brightness/contrast, just Selective Color to make the blacks blacker. And duplicating a layer is easy, you can set its mode from the layers box itself. Although I understand it takes a while to get to grips with that stuff. Hell, I've been doing manips for about six years now and I still don't know even half of Photoshop's functions, even professionals don't... the lovely thing about PS is that there are always at least three different ways of achieving the same result:).

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Ahh, okay. Thanks for the advice. :) I'm going to keep fiddling with PS; I think I need a book or something... ^^ It's fun to fool around with it, anyway.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_varda/]

Aww, that's lovely! I love the look on both their faces, particularly James'. The soft texture of the picture goes well his expression and it gives the entire manip a very dreamy look. I like it a lot.

To be honest, I prefer the first picture, because Jack's face looks best there, although I think that can be altered a bit in the second and third picture by changing his eyebrows and bottom lip a little. And, like snowgrouse said, maybe darken the shadows slightly, so the contrast between the bodies and the faces is not so big.

Still, I think you've done a really great job for a first manip. Thumbs up!

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I fiddled with Jack's face a bit and I think it looks okay now, but I'm not 100% happy with it... think I'll leave it for now, though, and work on other ones.

[pearly-dreams.livejournal.com]

Looks really good, especially if this is your first time manipping! The black and white combined with the paintbrush-stroke-like texture is wonderful. There are, of course, things that could be improved, but that all comes with time, eh? ^^

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. :)

[porridgebird.livejournal.com]

elessil's tutorial is wonderful, isn't it? This looks good. I like the intense intimacy of it! The only thing I'd suggest is to watch the lighting. But you'll get the hang of that.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) And yeah, her tutorial was very useful. I'm still getting the hang of lighting, yeah... it's hard to get it to match up. I'll just keep practicing. :)

[justin-barrette.livejournal.com]

The first one is by far the best. The one closest to the comments, that last one, Jack is a little scary... his eyes are wonky.

But I adore the first one, and saved it.

[ria-oaks.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :) Though I still feel that the lighting is off on the first one... Jack seems too grey. I thought I'd fixed it by adding lighting in, but maybe it backfired. ^^; I might go back to the first one and fiddle with it a bit to try to find a happy medium between them... :) Anyway, glad you liked it! :)