This is how my “Birthday Fairy” looks after putting together the elements (doll, outfit, hair, textures and lighting), posing and then rendering the image in Poser.  (Click to see full-sized.)  Not bad and I’ve seen many images in 3D galleries that look just like this.  I’ve managed to pose her without any poke-through (when the body comes through the clothes) and though the lighting looks a bit too harsh, it’s adequate…doesn’t leave too many dark smudges on her skin.

This is what she looks like after several hours in Photoshop.  I soften every harsh line, paint over skin tones, enhance eyes and lips, clothes, add shadows and highlights, paint on hair, wings and create a background usually using Dave Nagel’s FREE dynamic brushes.  I duplicate layers, playing with layer blend modes and layer opacity.  Takes quite a bit of time but I find it very relaxing and get quite a bit of satisfaction out of making my Poser renders ’soft and purty.’  *smile*  However, after finishing, I usually find something that I wish I had done differently (with this fairy…I don’t like how I posed her eyes and the angle of her wings looks wrong to me).  Each one is a learning experience.  *smile*

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PioneerWoman (I love, love, love the new site!) has promised to post a set of cool Photoshop Actions (Old West and B&W).  Hopefully she’ll get them posted this week.

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ShareCG (where I post most but not all of my freebies…you’ll find lots of graphics and other downloads hiding here on my website that’s not offered at ShareCG) creates a Portfolio page which conveniently lists all of my downloads I have posted there.

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Happy Birthday, Jeanne!!!!