Digital Art: Portraits, Landscapes and Paint Shop Pro

Workshops run by Elfyn Morris and Tricia Peate of Schools Liaison.

Digital Art – Portraits and Landscapes.

The content was produced as a result of workshops held during January, 2003 and 2004 analyzing portraits and landscapes in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. The workshops further explored composition, technique, elements of design and use of colour using ICT.

The images were selected from the works currently on show in the galleries. Future workshops are likely to focus on a different range of images.

When planning a visit to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery it is advisable to telephone Schools Liaison (0121 303 3890) to ensure that particular images are on display.

Digital Art - notes on the portraits….

THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH (1729-1788)

Miss Isabella Franks c.1775

Isabella was the only daughter of a rich Jewish family who lived in London. She inherited great wealth and married a Royal Chaplain in 1787.

Isabella appears to be sitting in a landscape holding a lamb. She could be mistaken for a shepherdess but for her expensive silk petticoats.

Do you think she was painted inside a studio or out-of-doors?

Clue: look where the light is shining in the painting. If she is sitting outside, would her front or back be in shadow?

Light Effects

Pupils on the workshop discussed the use of light in the painting – there are two separate light sources - then worked on a copy of the image on the computer. The image had been separated into foreground and background so that different lighting effects could be applied to it.

The clone tool was used to recreate the space in the background that was left when the figure was cut out.

With the foreground and background separated and pasted into new layers, the pupils experimented with changes in hue, saturation and brightness.

Changing the colour of the ground…

To carry out this experiment, the pupils selected the whole picture and copied it to a new layer.

The image transparency of the painting layer was lowered to about 70% so that layers of paint beneath would show through when they were flooded with another colour.

Pupils changed the underlying layers to see the effect on the painting

Blue ground Brown ground

JOHANN ZOFFANY 1733 – (1810)The Blunt Children c.1765These two boys are probably Robert (born 1760) and William (born 1761) the grandsons of Sir Harry Blunt, 2nd Baronet They are still small enough to be dressed in petticoats like Isabella Franks. Unusually for a portrait, the boys are painted in landscape format with extensive views of the background countryside, which includes a grand mansion just visible in the distance. Why did the artist include such a large area of landscape? Do you think these boys are really haymaking?

Selecting, copying and resizing

In this workshop, the figures were separated from the background and pasted on a new layer in Paint Shop Pro.

The figures of the boys were copied as a new image, resized and then copied back into the empty background.

The pupils had to enter a percentage value in the resize control box. They used trial and error to find the best size and had to use their artistic skills to position the figures correctly in the landscape.

The pupils also discussed the question – what makes a portrait a portrait recognizable figures, orientation or composition.

SIR JOSUA REYNOLDS1723 – 1792Portrait of Dr John Ash(1723 - 1798) 1788Dr Ash founded the General Hospital in Birmingham. You can see the hospital in the background. He is holding the ground plan for the building in his right hand.By painting Dr Ash framed by his red academic gown, seated in a red chair, the artist has given the figure the impression of greater stature.

The quill pens and the inkwells by his elbows signify that he is an educated man. The female statue protecting a child signifies kindness. The plinth of the statue is inscribed:BENEVOLENT(IA)What does this Latin word mean?

CHARLES ROSSITER (1827 - 1897)To Brighton and Back for 3s,6d. (1859)The picture portrays the discomforts of third class travel endured by passengers on a day excursion to Brighton. The sixty mile journey from London spent in an open-sided carriage, huddled against both the elements and the smoke, dirt and dust from the engine. The passengers fit the category of the ‘respectable poor, dressed in their ‘Sunday best’; 3/6 was a large sum for a working class person in 1859.

To use the Greek pot and the other interactives, visit our website at www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/kids

Aerial Perspective..

Claude Lorrain (1600- 1682)‘Landscape near Rome with a view of the Pont Molle.’ (1645)

Aerial perspective uses tonal (light/dark) changes caused by atmosphere (air) to show distance.Of all the spectrum colours, we see blue most easily over a distance, therefore distant mountains appear bluish. Colours appear paler with increasing distance. An example of this in the Art Gallery is:

Aerial perspective with layers.

•Creating layers

•Changing layer visibility to identify foreground, middle ground and background in a painting.

•Applying effects to a single layer to create illusion of aerial perspective

If you want to use this image, I’ve put the PSP file on the CD (aerial_perspective.psp). The layers are

available from the layers palette

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Aerial perspective uses tonal (light/dark) changes caused by atmosphere (air) to show distance.Of all the spectrum colours, we see blue most easily over a distance, therefore distant mountains appear bluish.

To show this, We’ve used an image containing a foreground and some sky in the background. In the left hand image, the saturation level of the blue sky is turned right up and the saturation of the foreground trees is turned down.

In the right hand image, the saturation levels have been reversed.

Which picture looks more realistic?

Here, we’ve put the middle ground into the picture.

The colour saturation of the middle ground in the left hand picture is much stronger than the saturation of the right hand picture., so the middle ground looks like it’s either closer or there’s some strong sunlight shining on it!

Saturation is the intensity or strength of colour.

If you want to experiment with colour saturation and how it affects aerial perspective, this is how to do it.

This is a PaintShop Pro image with four layers. Layers are like transparent sheets layered on top of one another.

In this image, the background layer is the sky, then there is a layer called mountains, then middle ground, then foreground at the top of the pile.

You can see the layer control palette on this screen shot.

We’ve made the foreground layer active(can you see it’s highlighted in the layer palette?)

Now with the foreground layer active, you can move the saturation slider up and down to adjust the saturation. It will only affect the active layer you selected. To see the effect on the image, click the (proof) eye button.

Linear Perspective..

Maurice Utrillo (1883 - 1955)‘Rue à Pointoise’

Perspective is a method of drawing to show distance in pictures.Linear perspective uses lines to show distance.An example of this in the Art Gallery is:

Perspective is a method of drawing to show distance in pictures.Linear perspective uses lines to construct and show distance.

Vlaminck was a novelist and a racing cyclist before he became a painter. This is the kind of view that he would have enjoyed as he cycled along French roads. Vlaminck was a member of a group of artists called ‘Les Fauves’ or ‘Wild Beasts’ because of the bright strong colours which they used.

Maurice de Vlaminck‘La Route avec Peupliers’ c.1920

An artist would plot the horizon line higher or lower in a picture depending on whether his or her viewpoint is high up or low down.

The horizon is where the eye perceives the sky and the earth (or sea) to meet.

You can’t always see the horizon because it can be hidden by buildings, trees, rocks etc.

The lines all converge (meet) at one point on the horizon in this picture. This is called the vanishing point.

Pictures can have multiple (many) vanishing points.

The yellow lines all converge at the vanishing point.

The red line is the horizon line.

We’ve put a young lad into this version of the picture to show where the viewpoint is.

Here we’ve put an outline round the boy and the horizon line and the perspective lines to the vanishing points to show how they all converge (meet).

The perspective experiment was created in Swift3DProgram available from erain.com

Portrait or landscape?

We used the selection and re-sizing tools to cut out the figures and place them in different places in the picture.

First though, we had to cut the figures out and paint the hole in our digital canvas using the clone tool.

On the CD

We selected and pasted the figures back in different places to experiment with composition.

This screenshot shows how we selected the cut out children with the magic wand tool and then pasted them into the empty background image that we created beforehand. The mirror effect from the image menu was used to flip the figures round to give a further option to experiment with a new composition.

Use the cut out figures that were created with the selection tool.

To select the figures, use the ‘all opaque’ setting for

the magic wand selection tool and

click on them.

After the figures have been selected, click on the blue bar at the top of the image to

make it active and then edit>paste>paste as new selection.

The figures will ‘float’ over the background. You can position them by dragging with the mouse and

then right click to ‘drop’ the figures in place.Don’t forget to use ‘save copy as’ to avoid

changing the original image.

Cloning Tutorial

We have included a tutorial of the above techniques that we used at Soho House on an INSET day for teachers.

The techniques are the same as those used at the Art Gallery.

The techniques we used were:

Selecting part of an image; re-sizing an image; matching the colour of an image with the painting; flipping an image and cloning into an image from a separate source.

Cloning a face into a painting.The paintings that we used in the Art Gallery were:

The Blunt Children, by Johann Zoffany

Miss Isabella Franks by Thomas Gainsborough

On the CD

•Some notes on the painting.

•Mirror tool

•Adjusting brightness and contrast.

•Hue / saturation / lightness

•Lighting effects

•Resize an image.

•Clone tool technique.

•Finishing touches with the retouch tool.

•The pupil session

The Experiment with an Air Pump by Joseph Wright

Digital Art at Soho House - Cloning

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Some notes about the painting.

Two sisters are torn between curiosity and

distress. The man tries to reassure them and explain what is happening in the

experiment

The moon is a reference to the Lunar society. Matthew

Boulton was a member. They met when there was a full moon because their way

home would be lit.

The scientist looks like a magician with long hair

and flowing robes. Scientists at the time often

visited the homes of wealthy people to instruct

and entertain them.

The two lovers are oblivious to the

experiment!

The gentleman is fascinated. He is timing the experiment with his

pocket watch.

An empty place at the table allows the artist to open up the scene so that the viewer is drawn in.

There is a pickled skull in the jar and the whole scene is lit from the centre by a single candle light. These objects are also symbolic

of life and death.

Scientific equipment is arranged on the table as a

still life. The cup-like objects are a pair of

Magdeburg Spheres that are inseparable when the

air is pumped out of them.

To show the steps in this cloning exercise that you can do with your class, I’m going to put the face of this model on the scientist. (Serves him right for being so cruel to the bird!)

The first thing that we have to do is to get the

light shining on her face from the correct side.

Mirror tool.

Now the light is falling on the model’s left side to match the face of the magician.

To get the lighting closer, I’ve lowered the brightness

and raised the contrast. Raising the contrast has

also given me the grainier effect I want to match the

canvas

Brightness and contrast

I’ve used the HSL adjuster to try to match the orangey glow on the face from the

candlelight.(Colours > adjust > Hue /

saturation / lightness)

Hue / saturation / lightness

Next, I’ve used the lighting effects to light the

underside of the face to match the face in the

picture.

The easiest way to use this is to drag the light around until you are

happy with the effect.

Lighting effects

Through trial and error, I’ve reached a value of 10% to match the two faces up..

The original image of the model’s face was too big

for the image of the painting. So I had to resize

it.

Resize the model’s face to fit the picture.

Use the clone tool (double paintbrush icon) to copy

image information from one image to another.

Right click in the part of the image you want to copy

Paint with the left mouse button down to transfer the

model’s face to the scientist’s.

You can see the cross hairs over the part of the image that you are copying from.

The clone tool technique.

Use the tip of the nose on both images to get the

centres of the faces in the same place.

Retouch tool

The edges are a bit hard where the

brows meet so I’m using the colour

retouch tool on its smudge setting to blend the edges in.

The colour retouch tool icon looks like a pointing finger.

There are a range of other settings for the retouch tool – ‘dodge’ lightens and

‘burn’ darkens for instance.

The final version.

Cloning a group of pupils into the picture.

Each pupil chooses a figure from the

painting.

They have to look hard at the painting and then recreate the pose for their

figure.

When we did this with a real group of pupils, we projected the image onto a white board to help the pupils get in position for the photo.

We’ve included this numbered image and an unadulterated

version on the CD so you can have a go with your class.

They have to arrange themselves

in a group in the same places as the

figures in the painting..

Giving them a card with their number

on it avoids confusion.

When everyone is arranged in the

correct place and with the correct pose, a digital

picture is taken.

You can cut down on a lot of resizing

if you resize the image of the

painting to 1024 by 768 to match the

camera image size setting.

Setting up the photo.

When we did this workshop at the Art Gallery, we used a painting called ‘To Brighton and Back for 3/6’ by Augustus Egg.

We chose it because it had a fair number of figures in different poses.

On the CD.. These are the files that are on the CD.

This folder contains the Adobe Acrobat version of this presentation

This folder contains the PowerPoint version of this presentation

This folder contains the PaintShop Pro files that you can use back at school

If you brought your class to the workshop, this folder contains the files that your pupils produced.