Photo: modifying the color and contour of a portrait

[Amy Choue]

I am trying to create a cover for a book about Napoleon and discovered a book that can be very usefully referenced. (I posted about this topic, that of creating a cover for a book on Napoleon, some days ago. So this post is something of a followup on that previous post). 

The cover of this book, Napoleon and Berlin, is based on the painting "Napoleon in His Study." Is this kind of manipulating an existing image super difficult? How is it done? It seems to me some really significant changes have been made (first off, most obviously, eyes are very different from the original painting). If I put aside those changes (which seem to require real artistic talent), and aim to create something like that cover but entirely on the basis of the original painting, what are the ways that I can achieve that? 

 

 

[Amy Choue]

I asked the artist I'm working with to create something close to the cover of Napoleon and Berlin, and she sent me a draft like the one below. I think this is a result of some simple applying of adjustment layer, and there will have to be some actual detailed work by hand to achieve something like that cover. She asks me how it can be achieved. (haha, I am not kidding... this is for real). Anyhow, I wouldn't know. Please let me know what can be done to achieve that. Any suggestions will be deeply appreciated. 

[thomaso]

You can achieve a coloured look in seconds by applying a fill colour to the image. Below, the darker version has red applied as a fill colour and still shows darker colour, the lighter version is a copy that additionally has "K Only" enabled and shows tints of the fill colour only.

To achieve the yellowish tint of the 'Berlin' cover you could use another copy and adjust its blend range curve. For further variants you could also play with layer opacity and layer blend modes). A more sophisticated workflow would create a duo- or tripple-tone image with individual colour channels in APhoto.

It appears not useful to make fun of "your artist" – in particular if you consider your own way to handle this subject, e.g. with your decision for her, your partially ambiguous communication or your changes of mind across several threads and the time required.

[NotMyFault]

In addition to the reddish color overlay, the book covers shows halftone effect. There is another thread covering that.

 

[Amy Choue]

Many thanks! I feel I've been given something to rely on, in interacting with this strange cover artist, and also something I'll have to learn soon.

I wanted most of all to replicate that gritty pattern(comb-pattern?) that must have been carried over from the original lithograph painting to give the image an echo of the original. It's great to know something very close to this can be achieved with "currency effect." Please let me know if there are some other ways to achieve this, anything, any way to do it will be greatly appreciated.  

Also, may I ask one further question? How do we achieve that "blurred" look? The color and the contour of Napoleon's face and clothes are evenly (to the same degree?) blurred. My strange artist speaks as if she doesn't see it, as if there isn't that difference between the original and the cover image. Here too, any suggestion will help me to find ways to salvage my project.