Tutorial: AKVIS ArtWork

Greetings from Canary Islands!

This photo was taken on the island of Gran Canaria in March 2008. The author wanted to share her sunny disposition with her friends and send them a self-made postcard. In this tutorial we will show you how easy it is to convert an ordinary photo into a greeting card.

The author used the plugin versions of AKVIS Retoucher and AKVIS ArtWork.

• Step 1. Open the image in your photo editor (for example, in Adobe Photoshop). The photo composition is good, but the cables and the pole spoil the idyllic view. Before we convert the photo into an oil painting we should get rid of these details. We applied АKVIS Retoucher plugin.
  
  Original Photo
• Step 2. Select the cables and the pole with any selection tool.

  The users of Adobe Photoshop can do it in Quick Mask Mode mode (click on ). To switch between the modes, use the hot-key Q. Activate the Pencil tool and paint over the irrelevant details. The painted zones will be marked red.

  Switch to Standard Mode (the button ). Invert the selection with the command Select -> Inverse.

• Step 3. Call the АKVIS Retoucher plugin with the command Filter -> AKVIS -> Retoucher. The selected areas will be marked red.
  
  Workspace of АKVIS Retoucher
• Step 4. Click on to start image processing. AKVIS Retoucher automatically replaces the red areas with appropriate fragments of the image. When the retouching process is over, click on to apply the changes and close the plugin.
  
  Photo without the cables
• Step 5. Call Filter -> AKVIS -> ArtWork to open the plugin version of АKVIS ArtWork. You will see the preliminary result in the Preview Window.

  We changed the settings on the Painting tab and added an inscription on the Text tab:

  Simplicity = 7;
  Stroke Curvature = 48;
  Max Stroke Length = 19;
  Stroke Thickness = 9;
  Stroke Intensity = 5.

  
  Fragment (flower pots)
• Step 6. Start image processing (the button ). The result will be shown in the After tab.
  
  Photo processed with AKVIS ArtWork
• Step 7. Click on to apply the changes and close the plugin.