My first manipulation.

http://orig10.deviantart.net/5d2c/f/2016/067/3/4/my_first_manipulation___easter_themed_by_votheiaagapi-d9uf090.png


My first manipulation guys! I'm so proud of it, though it is pretty poor quality.
I use this app on my kindle fire called Sketchbook Pro (I have paid for he full version) and do all art with my hands and stylus (for its piece only my fingers/hands).
This this I think the most difficulty I had was prospecting each image correctly. I think my strong spot in this was the pony's mane, I love how that turned out (especially the fallen tail!).
I realize I need to really work on the blending from hooves/legs into the grass, both the grass made by me and the actual image.
Really looking for tips or little tricks in how to make it better? And opinions on this!

Thanks guys!

Last edited on 2016-03-07 at 20:16:27 by Agapi|The|Fish

Does sketchbook pro work? I would be interested :D

This is amazing!

Maybe blend it a little more and add more strokes/texture into the mane and tail :)

First manip? Great work! Love the theme :)

I think the bodies of the animals could use less blending/painting over. Let more of the photo come through.

For blending into the grass, you could try taking a teeny tiny eraser and stroking down, which would result in what looks like blades of grass coming up over the hooves. In Photoshop, there's a grass paintbrush that can be used like an eraser tool and stamped. Just thinking of something that would give a similar effect :)

@PurpleMagic; I use it, so obviously it works,XD I'm not quite sure what you mean I guess.

@Magic; thank you! I was just worried about blending it to the point of becoming translucent. And for the mane/tail to add more strokes and texture I'd have to add a darker and lighter shade of grey to it. But ill try it! Thanks for the advice! ♥

@Duchies; I tried letting it be mostly picture, but it looked really weird due to my lack of variety in smudge brushes. As for the eraser/grass paintbrush, there is a brush that looks similar to grass that I tried to use, but kinda got blended out accidentally. Ill try and fix that in the future, ;). Thanks for the advice! Very helpful.

Last edited on 2016-03-07 at 20:45:50 by Agapi|The|Fish

I would skip on the blending of the animals. IME of doing manipulations for over ten years, blending the fur just makes them look fake and painterly, which is generally not what you're going for, and it really just makes it look like they don't belong in the more realistic background unless that, too, is blended to look painterly.

For things like animals standing/laying in grass, I either pick multiple colors from the grass and draw new grass over the animal OR, depending on the background, I'll use a small eraser and erase grass blades from the legs/body directly. You don't want limbs to "blend" into the grass, you still want areas of the leg showing through the plants. Otherwise it looks like the leg just cuts off. Even in really long grass, you would still be able to see the animal through the grass.

LOL I will have to maybe try It :D

@Vos; it isn't really a manipulation though if you don't in one way or another manipulate the object(s) of the image, is it? I Mena I guess I get what you are saying, just using what I did to make it, taking away the blending is seasonally just cutting out pictures if animals and placing them in a page, while using grass paints to go over their legs. I did take different (I think 4 shades) of green/brown from the grass and use a grass like brush over their legs, their legs being blended in was a complete accident. But thank you for he help!

Last edited on 2016-03-07 at 20:53:16 by Agapi|The|Fish

Maybe you could make the credits smaller and less obvious? It pulled my eye from the picture a little. Moving them to to the bottom would help. I love the deer and bunnies and ponies! It was too cute!

@Misty; due to my app, making them any smaller would make them pics later and no longer legible, so they have to be about the size they are or larger, unfortunately, ;(. And for this picture, there wouldn't be enough groom near the bottom to fit them all, and my OCD would drive me nuts if they were spread out over the image,XD. But for my next one I will take their placement into more consideration, ;). Thanks!

Last edited on 2016-03-07 at 20:52:56 by Agapi|The|Fish

I like:

-The stock looks nice together
-Everything has proper credits



What I think could be improved:
-Less smudging on the horses bodies and manes (I'd recommend looking up some smudging tutorials on DA)
-Work on blending the grass better because it's really easy to tell where you drew new grass and it's drawing my eye there rather than the overall image itself
-Maybe not put so many different animals into one manipulation, it makes it busy and it's kinda hard to tell where you want the main focal point to be


This is great for your first manipulation, and the fact that you want to improve instead of complaining about it makes my respect for you boost a lot. Keep improving and good work :D

As long as you significantly alter the original images, it is a manipulation. I used to smudge ALL the time when I was, IDK, 10? Then I got older and noticed that all of the people who were better than me at making manipulations didn't actually smudge much, if at all. Nowadays, I never use the smudge tool for anything lol.

I find a background and horse I want to use. Cut the horse out, paste it on the background. I then ground the horse to make it look like it's actually there, draw in a new mane and tail. Maybe fiddle with the horse's color or markings if I'm so inclined. Possibly add a texture and mess with the entire tone/color scheme of the entire piece. Badda-bing, badda-boom. There we have it.