Painted penny.

Natural as in "painted and looks real"?

At any rate it looks great.. Not something you see every day, and does look hand painted. There is some green on the red though, intentional? Also the edges of the coin look harsh, cut out..

Natural as in "painted and looks real"?At any rate it looks great.. Not something you see every day, and does look hand painted. There is some green on the red though, intentional? Also the edges of the coin look harsh, cut out..

Yep, and thanks for commenting. The green was an artifact but I thought it fit well since copper weathers green. I think I may have over-sharpened a little but my biggest problem is the selection tool in Photoshop. Can one feather/blur the edges a little on selections? If so, how?

Fethering a small area is a bit of a pain and doing to in a selection is possible, just don't over do it..

Really, I love the smudge tool.. If you zoom in pretty far and keep the brush small, plus the presure (25% or less) you can work out almost anything and make it look how you want it..

Long process though.. My personal fave for doing ANY selection work is the poly lasso (L).. As my freehand sucks anymore, I can work with it and cut out a circle file with no rough edges..

Another thought is the Elip Marquee tool. Hold shift while dragging and it will give you a perfact circle.. Though it's clear that yours was not, by over sizing the circle and reversing your selection you can "scoot and delete" areas around the coin..

As for the inside, I'd swear by the poly lasso... And if I was doing it, I'd cut the sections into seperate layers then use the Hue/Saturation adjustment..

Sorry for the slow reply BTW.. Work keeps me busy (not photography.. :(.. )

Hope this helps you out more with your PS work.. ;)