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Posted on 09/06/23 09:16:05 AM

Steve Caplin
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Challenge 959: The Midas touch

Last weekend I took my mother-in-law to Birmingham to see a concert. Outside the concert hall was this statue of engineers Matthew Boulton, James Watt and William Murdoch, which must have been rather impressive until some fool on the local council had the idea of painting it gold.

Can anything be done to rescue it, do you think?

High res is here.

Posted on 09/06/23 09:34:24 AM

michael sinclair
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

Steve before they were painted gold (which i actually like by the way) were the statues bronze or stone?

Posted on 09/06/23 09:56:29 AM

Steve Caplin
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

michael sinclair wrote:
Steve before they were painted gold (which i actually like by the way) were the statues bronze or stone?

I have no idea!

Posted on 09/06/23 10:15:57 AM

DavidMac
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

Double post removed

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Posted on 09/06/23 10:17:12 AM

DavidMac
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

Judging by the smoothness and detail I would say probably bronze. I'm no expert but I would guess the curled plan at the bottom would need a very accomplished sculptor to produce in stone.

But we can make them whatever we like. Styrofoam anyone?

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Posted on 09/06/23 10:27:28 AM

DavidMac
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

According to Birmingham info site - gilded bronze.

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Posted on 09/06/23 2:01:42 PM

DavidMac
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

This is much trickier than I expected. The catch if you want to change the texture much is how to get rid of the intrinsic shininess. Haven't quite got my head round that yet.

So, in the meantime, I've attempted something else. After a lot of fiddling with blend modes and transparencies I've somewhat despaired of improving on this so I'm settling for 'Close but no cigar'.

Must also 'fess up to generative fill to create the background behind the statues. (Needed six variations and some cloning to get a good match.)

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The subtlety and conviction of any Photoshop effect is invariably inversely proportional to the number of knobs on it .......

Posted on 09/06/23 2:17:48 PM

Frank
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

Posted on 09/06/23 2:40:23 PM

DavidMac
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

Very much in the tradition of Steve's work in Photoshop London Frank.Nice.

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Posted on 09/06/23 2:42:34 PM

DavidMac
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

Sandstone. Although I've managed to deal with the worst that shininess is still bugging me.

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Posted on 09/06/23 5:01:05 PM

DavidMac
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

Last one I think. Following a 'twinning' of the two cities, Birmingham's famous statue is prepared for shipping to Las Vegas.

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Posted on 09/06/23 5:24:08 PM

lwc
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

DavidMac wrote:
Birmingham's famous statue is prepared for shipping to Las Vegas.

Now how did you know that I had made a 'quickie' earlier this morning but didn't plan to enter it until I noticed your Las Vegas comment...

This was just a quick exercise to test the 'cutout'.

Posted on 09/06/23 5:38:57 PM

Ant Snell
Specular Specialist
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

Posted on 09/06/23 5:52:47 PM

lwc
Hole in One
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

Great idea Ant... fun image!

Posted on 09/06/23 6:02:13 PM

lwc
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

Frank - Nicely done indeed...!

Posted on 09/06/23 8:22:51 PM

DavidMac
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

They've arrived!

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Posted on 09/06/23 8:23:48 PM

DavidMac
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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

Ant that's great!

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Posted on 09/06/23 9:12:00 PM

lwc
Hole in One
Posts: 3130

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Re: Challenge 959: The Midas touch

DavidMac wrote:
They've arrived!

Indeed they have... some serious bling in that one.