Soft Watercolours by ScaryKitty

Very nice effect

havent tried it out yet, but looks good on paper

Thanks, all!

I worked a very long time on this -- more time than it warranted, I expect. I really wanted to get a look that included colours not just bleeding outward, but actually mixing. I don't think I've really caught that yet, but I'm closer. ^_^;

Well, and after all this work, an update is coming soon: after playing with the filter with some other images, I didn't like how dark the colours kept coming out, so I went in there and fixed that. Now I'm working on a better outline routine for more complex images, especially those with lower contrast. I swear, using the lifesaver can be so misleading!

NOTE TO SELF: Always use several images as guinea pigs!

Again, thanks for the encouragement, everybody. Kisses!

Hey, Kraellin!

"Chinese Watercolor" is actually by MeKenzie. Is that the one you meant? Or did you mean another watercolour filter by northernshadow? I have northernshadow's "a watercolor painting" and did look at it a long while ago now. ^_^; MeKenzie's "Chinese Watercolor" is nifty, but not the look I was going for.

I bet you mean "a watercolor painting," now that I look at it again. I'll give its guts a look-see and see if any inspiration pops out.

Looks very good -- probably the closest filter to actual watercolors I've seen to date. However, it has a significant problem -- speed. It's slow to adjust, and quick adjustments are a necessity for this filter, because its defaults don't look very well on photos with people and faces.

To improve the speed, I'd look at the topmost branch. I noticed that you apply a blur to a tone-curved and previously blurred sub-branch -- I think it's redundant, try to rearrange it.