I have been reluctant to work with any Action button or automated process in SA from the first time I drew directly on the canvas. The act of drawing painting has been my focus.
But there are times when I wish I could just press a button and have something magically appear.
Every so often I try some Action button experimentation... But always the results are far from my intent.
The effects I get are often fun. I am including a whole big fat zip full of water color like stroke generating presets and wish anyone who tries them - FUN!
A note on a philosophy behind why these Presets fail and also succeed.
Most "filters" applied to photos do one thing - they reduce or garble or distort the information in the photo.
Art - the kind I do for work - (caricature more or less) is intended to do something different. The idea is to summarize and enhance the subject matter. Focus things and present vital information. Simplify and exaggerate. Thats the old school caricaturists job description.
SA is great as a filter factory - like any filter (software) that reduces the vital information intended to be communicated. Super good at that. But the results are a reduction always... The reduction for me is very personally unsatisfying. I want to caricature.
HOWEVER - I keep seeing some really compelling abstractions being created thru SA. The abstractions don't come necessarily thru a photo (realistic) source. They are often random mixes of blobs and colors and lines and patterns.
The Presets here "water strokes"... DO NOT do a good job at making a photo source look like it was done in water color. They make a serious mess. My wish was that I find the magic watercolor Preset that I could just press the Action button to make a painting with. That idea didn't pan out - tho it gave me some requests for JD. My about face was to take the opposite tack and just see what kind of nonsense I could get from something that looked natural media... And learn to like it!
I would look at these Presets as doing an automated version of Coco the Gorillas art or the like.
I was impressed quite a bit by a primate painting of a spider (some time in the 80's?) I saw in a paper or magazine. The actual art was scrawling mess... But the little focused tangle that was the spider was clear. It said "spider". These Presets are in this category. They generate a big mess (use a photo to see) that may not say anything at all about the source reference - but look all kinds of wet stroke cool.
Each Preset does something a little (or a lot) different.
Some use the light areas of the source to paint - some the dark. Some do use the source and let the source come thru... Sort of spoiling the abstract image idea by having a ghost of the source stuck inside.
I intended to post some samples of the Presets in action - but the results are more fun to see in action - try them and you will see - the process is more interesting than the results.
If anyone happens to make something from these - please share. I would like to see.
Cheers!
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This set of Presets needs a few examples...
Here are a couple of examples rendered with one or a couple of the water strokes presets.
The effect is enjoyable as abstractions (of the attached source image)
The medium is applied to heavily. I want less strokes with more targeted effect. But the action of the scene is captured in a way that still "tells" about the original subject.
The "style" is very much like color studies or form studies. With a very organic looking application of medium.
I really enjoy the abstract-ification of the subject matter mixed with a recognizably "natural" (like) medium.
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