{"id":350,"date":"2017-09-15T11:41:50","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T18:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/?p=350"},"modified":"2017-09-16T10:12:06","modified_gmt":"2017-09-16T17:12:06","slug":"i-love-art-but-i-cant-paint-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/i-love-art-but-i-cant-paint-solution\/","title":{"rendered":"I love art, but I can&#8217;t paint: Solution!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been a photographer for decades but never an artist. But I think even if I could paint, I wouldn&#8217;t have the patience&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>So the perfect solution is to transform my photos into artwork! There are several software titles that do this, and one of my favorite is <a href=\"http:\/\/web.topazlabs.com\/impression\/ref\/5\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Topaz Impression<\/a>, which is now included in Topaz Studio.<\/p>\n<p>While Impression gives you full control over every aspect of the results, here are some examples where I used the unedited 1-click presets to apply the various effects.<\/p>\n<p>First, the original image. Besides doing some perspective correction, I had to pop in some clouds from another of my photos because of the bland blue sky. Your base image doesn&#8217;t have to be pixel perfect, as artsy covers a multitude of sins:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-369 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Impression-Original.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"864\" height=\"701\" srcset=\"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Impression-Original.jpg 864w, https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Impression-Original-768x623.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And here are several results using only a small selection of the many available presets. First up, Chalk Smudge:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-366 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Impression-Chalk-Smudge.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"864\" height=\"701\" srcset=\"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Impression-Chalk-Smudge.jpg 864w, https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Impression-Chalk-Smudge-768x623.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Next, Cave Dweller II:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-367 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Impression-Cave-Dweller-II.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"864\" height=\"701\" srcset=\"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Impression-Cave-Dweller-II.jpg 864w, https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Impression-Cave-Dweller-II-768x623.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now, Swirly Strokes:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-368 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Impression-Swirly-Strokes.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"864\" height=\"701\" srcset=\"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Impression-Swirly-Strokes.jpg 864w, https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Impression-Swirly-Strokes-768x623.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Finally,\u00a0Wispy Sketch III:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-365 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Impression-Wispy-Sketch-III.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"864\" height=\"701\" srcset=\"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Impression-Wispy-Sketch-III.jpg 864w, https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Impression-Wispy-Sketch-III-768x623.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That was fun! Of course whether or not you like the effects is subjective, but you can see the possibilities.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/review_topaz.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">See my review of all of Topaz&#8217; products<\/a>, including more examples using Impression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been a photographer for decades but never an artist. But I think even if I could paint, I wouldn&#8217;t have the patience&#8230; So the perfect solution is to transform my photos into artwork! There are several software titles that do this, and one of my favorite is Topaz Impression, which is now included in <a href=\"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/i-love-art-but-i-cant-paint-solution\/\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"sr-only\">Read more about I love art, but I can&#8217;t paint: Solution!<\/span>[&hellip;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3,25,31,4,7],"tags":[191,189,188,190,48,153],"class_list":["post-350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discounts","category-general","category-photography","category-post-processing","category-reviews","category-software","tag-artists","tag-artwork","tag-impression","tag-painting","tag-photo-art","tag-topaz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350\/revisions\/371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plugsandpixels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}