Weekly Assignment #107: Obamicon

Nikolai

We've all seen now-iconic tri-colored portraits of the 44th US President. Let's try our hands in mimicing this popular and, I admit, becoming a bit kitschy:-), style.
Your entry supposed to have one primary subject filling up most of the frame. Background should be very smooth, preferably totally clean. Subject can be human, animal, plant, insect, or whatever catches your fancy. Make it personal.
The choice of three colors is up to you. If you don't have a clear idea of what looks good together - try Adobe Kuler (which is now also a part of PS CS4). Original color schema is fine, too.
For an extra bonus point add some brief matching slogan (but, please, not a "CHANGE" :-)
Each entry should consist of two images, final (tri-colored) and original (preferably SOOC).
Multiple entries are fine as long as they are different.
Both image and post-processing must be fresh (i.e. done after you've learned about this assignment).
Let's get som tri-coloring done!

jrnylst

I can't believe no one has tried this yet!

Not a true tri-color, but the best I could do with Photoshop 7. I adjusted the contrast, used cutouts, adjusted the contrast again, hand-filled the background, hand-filled areas of blue with shades from the body and freehand drew edges where none came through. I also tried using assorted filters to achieve other colors but decided I liked the originals better than the lime green, neon grapes and girly pinks. Fun to play with, but I agree the style itself is getting a bit old.

EDIT: Ooops. Just saw the image needs to be fresh, too. I don't have a fresh one that would work with this. I'm sorry.

Original "Getting Old Bites"

Altered "Getting Old Bites"

Nikolai

jrnylst wrote:

I can't believe no one has tried this yet!

Not a true tri-color, but the best I could do with Photoshop 7. I adjusted the contrast, used cutouts, adjusted the contrast again, hand-filled the background, hand-filled areas of blue with shades from the body and freehand drew edges where none came through. I also tried using assorted filters to achieve other colors but decided I liked the originals better than the lime green, neon grapes and girly pinks. Fun to play with, but I agree the style itself is getting a bit old.

EDIT: Ooops. Just saw the image needs to be fresh, too. I don't have a fresh one that would work with this. I'm sorry.

Original "Getting Old Bites"

Thanks for breaking the ice on this!
Great idea, but, as you noticed, not fresh and not tricolor

Let's count it as an "trial" and have another go at the task!:-)

jrnylst

I'm definitely up to the task. I tread new waters with a filter I've not tinkered with much before. It will be a real challenge to try to figure out how to eliminate even more of the hues than I already did.

And it took me a whole darned lunch hour!!!

Nikolai

jrnylst wrote:

I'm definitely up to the task. I tread new waters with a filter I've not tinkered with much before. It will be a real challenge to try to figure out how to eliminate even more of the hues than I already did.

And it took me a whole darned lunch hour!!!

Ouch! And I thought all it takes is a posterization, levels and 3 color layers with matching blend-if markers...

This was done in 5 min:



Rough on the edges, I admit, but 10 minutes more would give it a nice look. And I didn't particularly work on the color scheme:-)

This post was made with the assistance of Star*Explorer

jrnylst

Very impressive! Especially because you were able to whip it out so fast. But you didn't do your own bonus points.

I tried a couple more times over the weekend with fresh shots, but I didn't go out looking for the bighorn because, in all likelihood, he may not be around anymore! I wanted to achieve the cartoon-look of the original Obamicon, but this photo doesn't have enough fur detail for a recognizable cutout. So I opted for the layers approach you took, only I hand outlined the squirrel and then his eye before applying clashing filters and hue saturation.

I couldn't come up with a catchy bonus point or even a title this time.

Original

Altered

jrnylst

And here's my totally bizarre attempt, because I couldn't get the cartoon effect to look the way I wanted. This is a neon outline and a supernova filter. This one I didn't have to outline by hand, so it took about five minutes, and that was primarily playing with colors.

Original

Altered

Nikolai

Thanks!

NateW

This one's not really much different than the original shot, but I cropped a little, killed the red channel, and posterized to 3 colors.


(here's the original)

in the shot: Ed Robertson, Bare Naked Ladies guitarist and singer. Steven Page is in the original, too, but he had too many colors.

Nikolai

NateW wrote:

This one's not really much different than the original shot, but I cropped a little, killed the red channel, and posterized to 3 colors.
(here's the original)
in the shot: Ed Robertson, Bare Naked Ladies guitarist and singer. Steven Page is in the original, too, but he had too many colors.

"God bless thee merry gentlemen"

NateW

Nikolai wrote:

"God bless thee merry gentlemen"

Not that it's on topic, but....
Did you get the Christmas album (live version)?
I think it was recorded in Detroit (at least the one we've got was); it's complete with the Bird Poop Rap.
I was at that show! Pretty cool.

Sorry, back on track (maybe).