Jane Conner-ziser Marylin Sholin Vikki Popwell

For this feature we showcase three artists; all are female, all are American, all are highly creative and frustratingly skilful! They are: Jane Conner-ziser from Ormond Beach, Florida. Marylin Sholin from Miami, Florida. Vikki Popwell from Andalusia, Alabama.

Marylin Sholin

One of the advantages of being a small production team at Professional Imagemaker is that we can respond quickly to ideas that develop as a result of seeing new work or sets of new work. Just such a thing has happened with this feature. We have been prowling round doing something on painterly portrait technique for some while now and keeping a watchful eye on our equivalent magazine in the USA, Rangefinder. Operated for the WPPI, Rangefinder has always highlighted the best in American artists working in this area of digital and we felt it was time to bring it to our own readers’ attention. Attending the seminar recently given by Jane Conner-ziser provided the catalyst to pulling a feature together.

Painting

Vikki Popwell

While straight portraiture has its place in the commercial world, there is always a premium market available, for things which are a little different. This is also the reason that designed albums are popular – they are attractive and they also provide the client with something they are unlikely to be able to create for themselves, even in these digital days, when almost everybody has a digital camera. And so it is with digitally manipulated portraiture, you take a basic image and create a unique interpretation of your sitter, in a way which only you, the creator, can. Regardless of how good it might be, a straight photograph is a photograph and bears at least some resemblance to other pictures that somebody has of themselves. Do a full job in Painter and you have something that is unique. Importantly you can also charge more for it – if you don’t, or won’t, then you are wasting your time – it has got to be part of a premium service!

Jane Conner-ziser

So what are the techniques available for your artistic endeavours? Firstly you need a quality giclée output onto a canvas or watercolour media. Secondly you have to apply a non-photographic touch to the image either in an image editing program or by hand embellishment of the print with paint, ink, pencil or some other medium. Thirdly, you should sign the final work to make it your own, and further differentiate it from a photograph. The options for digital manipulation progress through a hierarchy of technique, each level requiring more skilled input from the creator. At its simplest you can apply any of the filters in Photoshop or buy plug-ins such as Auto FX Software. From there you could graduate to the more expensive solutions such as ArtMasterPro. Moving on, you can embellish the border of an image by hand using real torn edges or perhaps by painting with the brush engine of Photoshop. In spite of all these options, the quest for digital creation usually always ends up with Corel Painter. Now in version IX, this is, and always has been, the leading “natural media” software, with a brush engine that is uncannily like real paint, pastel, gauche, oil or whatever. Using Painter you can add distinctive marks to your work at whatever level you choose – from a few wellplaced daubs around the edges, to a full-blown recreation of the image. The whole thing is limited only by your imagination and skill. Do not however imagine that ownership of Painter software makes you a painter, it does not – recognise your skill level and stick within it!

Marylin Sholin

Vikki Popwell

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