Abstracting a face using gradients

[samueld6911674]

Hi,

I'm working on a digital art project that has a step which involves deforming a face. Specifically, blurring or smudging the image so what's left is almost a gradient effect - say "silver-surfer-esque". OR this:

:

As you can see, almost unrecognizable and very smooth. My next step is to use the displace command to wrap a pattern over the face w/ blend tools, but getting this part right is important. The more abstract the better. any suggestions?

[mglush]

HI!

So sorry for the delay in getting to your question! Are you still looking for some ideas on how to distort the face image? I have a couple of ideas for you. What version of Photoshop are you running?

You can use the Warp feature (Edit>Transform>Warp) to distort the image:

By dragging the bottom corner anchor lines in and the top corner anchor lines out you get a mild distortion of your image.

or you can use one of the Filters to make a dramatic change to your image--Filters>Distort>Ripple:

Using the large Ripple option set to right around 300 gives you the image above.

Another of the Distort filters is the Spherize filter--Filter>Distort>Spherize set to 100% gives you this:

I made several copies of your layer and played with the filters under the Distort Filter menu--have some fun experimenting!

You can also play with my favorite filter...the Liquify tool! I call this the make-eyes-bigger and take-off-50 lbs tool because it's amazing!

Check it out and have some fun!

If you need help with the Displacement map, let us know!

Michelle

[samueld6911674]

I may not have been clear enough. I used the sample image (from The Prisoner, great TV show from the 60s) as an example of a result I am looking for -- I'm not trying to manipulate that one specifically. I'm looking to take a normal photographed face and manipulate it the point where is becomes anonymous/smooth/un-identifiable.

[joanH]

Hello samueld6911674, Here are some of my favorite tools for distortion of stuff - and a few samples of the fun you can have with one or all of these filters.  ENJOY! JH