Several other intial works too. Again, each served a purpose. I started learning via internet tutorials, and each attempt was a way to learn the ropes.
Manual Posterizing and Creating Vector Portraits
http://www.vectorportraits.com/
Tried to merge both aspects of a photography with the drawn aspect, thought it would look interesting. And it does. But again, could’ve used some more work – pretty mind numbingly boring thou after you learned how to do it and its repetitive. Helped out a lot with masterizing the pen tool, vector shapes and paths.
Colorizing
http://www.tutzor.com/index.php/2008/05/coloring-and-old-black-and-white-photograph/
I like this one. Has some flaws, but I think the colors are well matched and soothing. Grabbed some colorizing, brush and opacity skills along the way, and started understanding the various layer modes avaliable.
Line, Paths and Blending Options
http://anothera.net/v2/tutorials/fire-lines
Time for learning blending options. I found this tutorial interesting, attempted something with a photo I had around. Simple work. Its note saying this was made before hte Bellucci above, and as such, you can see how the pen/line work is really weak. At least I learned how to do custom brushes, which is very useful to know.
