I took a series of images of Ulorin Vex over a year ago. I had a vision in mind but no matter what I do, I cannot get the effect I am after!!

I want red glossy paint to be dripping off the brush, over her hand and then a massive drip mark coming off her hand. Looking back, I wish I painted her hand but I am hoping I can save these images.

I've tried a few ways of adding red to where I want the paint and then doing some stuff with embossing/shadows but I seem to be unable to get the highlights and shadows on the hand.

Any assistance/advice would be appreciated! I'd love to be able to put some of these pics online sometime this century!

Original pic:



http://media-cache-ec4.pinterest.com/up … QDyP_b.jpg  This image is sort of the thing I am after but I want big drips coming off her hand.

your best bet is to photoshop out the brush- your reference image was done in camera

Make the brights and darks of the hand and arm the same as those of the dress. Lift the highlights off the dress and stick them on the drips.

You could probably do the whole thing with the pen tool if you can previsualize the pattern. I wouldn't emboss anything, more likely just dodge and burn or paint the shading where needed.

Lets see what you tried so far.

Shot an Indian girl - then had the idea (3 days later!) that her elegantly poised hand should have been 'sprinking spices'

Got another friend (Indian) who was in the same office block to come over and sprinkle some salt - then grafted one hand onto the other shot

Maybe you can do the same thing here?

Including the 'splat'

Good luck :-)

Try painting the red as a solid color, then clip a soft light layer to that and D&B on it to create shadows and highlights that follow the contours of the hand/arm.

For the drips, in brush settings under "Shape dynamics" set the size jitter to "fade." That will make the size of the brush decrease as you stroke, giving the teardrop shape.

Really like what Peano did as well.

Only thing I'd be tempted to add would be motion blur to the drops.

My method of attack would just be to paint it in with a regular brush, no pun intended.



Not sure how much paint you wanted (I went with a little bit more than the sample image -- gorgeous image by the way) or how big/globby you wanted the paint drops, but the nice thing about painting is you control every detail.

Platinum Dust, that is most excellent work! Very nice attention to detail to the physics involved.

I would find a matching brush and matching red glossy paint and shoot them and the drips on the floor and composite the image together. Especially if your not an great artist or else  can look real fake.

Thanks Ricky, much appreciated

I'm also liking the composite image idea with reshooting the hand and paintbrush. If that's more convenient, that would definitely be another way to go. (Lack of photo equipment here means I'm forced to paint it in instead)

Some great examples here. I'm going to be giving one of the images a try tonight Thanks so much.

Here's my attempt.

I'm really struggling! I rarely use the paint brush - goes to show I still have alot to learn.

That's not how paint looks when it drips.

Peano's brush is probably the most realistic in this thread & Platinum Dust's drips/splatter are very very nice. I agree that a composite might be the best way to go unless you want an overly cartoony effect on an otherwise nice image.

There are several sets of paint drips and splatter brushes for Photoshop that have the shadows and shading and highlights built into the brushes themselves. They can be painted on ...and then Free Transform > Warped... or even better... Puppet Warped around the hand.  You can pull the paint and bend and wrap these brushes around the hand with the transform tools. 

Some of these paint splatter brushes are free (Google: Free photoshop paint and splatter brushes) and they obviously can be colored the same color as the dress.  This might be an intermediate solution if you are not a freehand artist. 

If you do this painting on a clear transparent layer above your image...you can make many trials and play around with it until you get it to look the way you like it.

Yes it will be some work...but then you will have a new skill as a result.

Ray