Conte' and Pastel

Below are a few examples of conte' and pastel simulated effects.
"Mark Original Photograph"

 

"Mark No.1"

The photograph from above has been altered using a conte crayon effect. A black crayon on a white surface.
The conte effect always seems to work best on a photograph with strong contrast and bright highlights. Look out for this when choosing your style, if your photograph has strong highlights and a good range of tonal values it should work well as a conte portrait.

 

"Mark No.2"

The same image as above but a gold colour has been used for the highlight areas.

 

"Mark No.3"

This time the entire image has been changed to a golden colour to give a warm glow.

 

"Mark No.4"

Here the image has been changed to a golden colour but the highlights have been picked out in white.

 

"Mark No.5"

The hue has been altered here to produce a completely different colour to the picture. Just about any colour can be achieved.

 

"Mark texture example"

This image shows the two different textures available. A coarse paper texture at the bottom left and a canvas weave texture top right. All the conte examples above were executed using the canvas texture but could just as easily been completed using the paper texture.

"Carol"

This final conte image shows how well the effect works with very contrasty originals as here we take it to more or less the limit.
This is the same effect as used on the image 'Mark No.2' above but shows the difference that contrast makes to the final result.

Now we move on to the pastel effects.

 

"Michael No.1"

Here we have a combination of fliters and effects to simulate a tightly executed pastel portrait.
Click on the picture to view a close up.

"Michael No.2"

The same technique as above has been used here again but applied to give the look of pastels on a coarser paper.

"Michael No.3"

Here a textured border has been added giving the impression that the pastel has not been applied right up to the edge of the paper.

"Michael No.4"

The same image as above but with a different colour used for the border.