Oil Paints

The images shown below simulate the look of pictures painted in oil paint.
The terms 'tight' and 'loose' have been applied to describe some of the effects. When an artist paints in a 'tight' style this merely means that he has applied a more painstaking technique to incorporate more small detail thus achieving a more photographic appearance to the picture. If a loose technique is used the brush marks will be bolder and more apparent at the expense of small detail. This should be kept in mind when choosing your style as a subject large in the frame would work much better with a loose style than a small subject with a lot of fine detail.
"Michelle Original Photograph"

"Michelle No.1"

This portrait has been achieved by using a dry brush effect in a moderately loose style, which can best be seen in the treatment of the hair, but because the subject is large in the frame a photographic realism is retained. No texture has been applied which gives the impression of the picture being applied to a smooth surface.

"Michelle No.2"

Here a canvas texture has been applied to the same image as above.

"Michelle No.3"

Once again we have the dry brush oil effect but the canvas texture has been applied to only selected areas suggesting the 'paint' is thicker in some places.

"Michelle No.4"

Here a palette knife effect has been used to give a looser style to selected areas. Also, either of the texture effects from the two previous images could be applied to this picture.

"Michelle No.5"

This picture has been achieved by applying a filter which makes the paint itself take on form and can look very realistic but it probably becomes more obvious on a darker image. Once again it depends on individual tastes.
See image 'Dungarees No.1' below to view this same effect applied to a darker photograph.

"Dungarees No.1"

The paint texture effect has been used here to give the 'paint' surface a 3D appearance.

"Dungarees No.2"

Here the same treatment is in effect but used more strongly to give a bolder relief to the 'paint'. This effect can be very convincing but can also cause harsh and heavy lines which are sometimes undesirable if used too heavily.

"Dungarees No.3"

The 3D paint effect is in use again here but this time more of the canvas texture has been allowed to show through.

 

"Dungarees No.4"

The treatment of this image is to simulate the look of oil paint applied moderately over canvas to produce a realistic portrait. You can see patches where the canvas weave shows through.
This is very similar to the effect used on the 'Michelle No.3' image above but with a ragged edge applied.

 

"Dungarees No.5"

Here the effect simulates oil paint applied to canvas but the canvas weave texture is softer thus suggesting some blending of the paint has occurred.
Click on the image for a closer look at selected areas of detail.

This exact same shot has been rendered in oils in a hand painted portrait that can be viewed in the 'paintings' section on this site. It is interesting to compare one with the other, and does show how convincing the computer manipulated image can be. If you would like to view the hand painted version click the button below.

 

"Sweeping Leaves"

Here we have a slightly different effect that looks similar to the style of painting used on 1950's posters. The 'paint' could be either oil or poster paint. This effect works best on scenery or where there are only small figures in the picture as it simplifies the colour pallette greatly and is not kind on faces, therefore not really suitable for close up portraits.

"Loco"

Here the same effect is used and shows the simplicity of the technique and how a lot of the picture area is actually made up of flat colour. Despite this the picture still looks very photographic when viewed from a short distance. The canvas or paper texture could also be applied to this image.