Art from Photographs

I noticed a theme recently of art created from photographs so I thought I'd share some of it.

I took some self-portraits while I was bald; this being one of them:

I found a YouTube channel, davrodigital, of tutorials about photo effects made in Photoshop Elements. I've tried to follow a few of them, with mixed results. Here's a framing effect:

I like this frame a little more:

The picture wasn't perfectly suited to frames because there wasn't enough margin at the top (above my head).

Then I tried a "sketch" effect:

Even following each step, it doesn't come out with the same results as the tutorial, so I'm guessing what kind of photograph you start with makes a big difference. (Like does it have a lot of contrast, or a lot of lines, or whatever.) Or maybe he's not sharing all the secrets to finding the right settings.

Here's a picture I took when I was in Toronto.

Not that great at all.

But it worked pretty well for the "tiny planet" effect:

Fun, right?

This was another portrait I took in the same session:

And look what my friend drew and gave to me to celebrate being done with treatments:

Isn't it fantastic?

I was really touched by the gift.

Finally, my sister commissioned our cousin, artist Karen Rhebregen, to make a portrait of our grandparents in batik.

She created the composition from a couple pictures my sister sent her.

It's wonderful! It was a gift for my mother and proudly hangs in her home.