Cardinal: A Scene From Nature

The author of this tutorial is Nancy Knadler.

She writes: "This tutorial was inspired by a Christmas card my boss at work received. It was a sketch of a cardinal in a winter scene. Our school’s mascot is a cardinal bird so I looked for a photo of a cardinal to use as my initial image".

Original Image

Result

Nancy describes how to make this nice image:

• Step 1. I opened the image in AliveColors (but you can use the image editor of your choice).
  
  Source Photograph
• Step 2. I took the photo into AKVIS Sketch by clicking Effects from the menu and selecting AKVIS –> Sketch. The image opens in the Sketch window.
  
  AKVIS Sketch

  To create a watercolor picture in Sketch I used these settings:

  In the Strokes group:

  Min./Max. Length = 10/20;
  Midtones Intensity = 3;
  Midtones Hatching = 77;

  In the Edges group:

  Edge Strength = 100;
  Sensitivity = 70;
  Edge Width = 40.

  In the Effects group:

  Watercolor = 50;
  Coloration = 61;

  I pressed the run button , liked what I saw and pressed the button to return to my photo editor.

  
  Photo into Watercolor
• Step 3. I reran the AKVIS Sketch plug-in on my watercolor layer, this time choosing the charcoal effect using the following parameters:

  In the Strokes group:

  Angle = 60;
  Min./Max. Length = 13/20;
  Midtones Intensity = 1;
  Midtones Hatching = 1;

  In the Edges group:

  Edge Strength = 80;
  Sensitivity = 23;
  Edge Width = 95.

  In the Effects group:

  Watercolor = 0;
  Charcoal = 10;
  Coloration = 100;

• Step 4. Before returning to AliveColors, I decided to add a texture to my photo to spice it up a bit. I clicked the Canvas tab while still in AKVIS Sketch and chose a texture with the following parameters:
  
  Charcoal Sketch on Canvas

  Click on to process the image using the new painting settings.

  Press the button to return to AliveColors.

• Step 5. To complete my image, I colored my background a light cool blue in AliveColors.

  First you should select the most simple object - the bird (with for example the Lasso ).

  

  Then invert the selection by choosing Select -> Invert from the Select menu, so that the background but not the bird is selected:

  

  Apply Photo Filter to the selection by choosing Image -> Adjustment -> Photo Filter.

  

  The result is shown in the following drawing:

  
• Step 6. At this point, I wanted to set the entire photo off, so I opened my image in AKVIS ArtSuite to frame the picture. After experimenting with different frame styles in ArtSuite I chose a Classic Frame, checking Average Brightness box and moving the Texture Brightness slider to 135%. I think it added the perfect touch to frame my image.
  
  AKVIS ArtSuite

  Here is my framed painting:

  
  Bird - Picture in Frame (click to enlarge)

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