Spoiler alert, this is fun and addictive! Click on the Brush tab next to Brush Preset tab. Fill in the shadow texture until you’re pleased with the results. Set the refine edge effect for black and white, then in the next menu set the smooth edge at 25, the contrast at 40% and leave everything else set at zero or unselected. Move the brush back and forth to make the shadow visible. This will be the new canvas color. While we’re still working with the overall contour, let’s add some texture to the model to look more like actual paint. Move this new duplicate layer above the first contour layer so that it’s the very top layer. Click the Brush tab and select Shape Dynamics, setting the minimum diameter at 52%, the jitter angle at 100 and everything else at 0 or off. Switch over to your background document and paste the stock photo as a new layer with CTRL+V or Edit>Paste.

Select the default brush tool, and press the D button to set the background and foreground colors to default. Press the G key and you will see they are all nicely tucked away in a folder. I use a Wacom tablet all the time. First, toggle on the Shape Dynamics option and set the parameters to the numbers shown in the image below. Like before, use the default brush at different opacities to manipulate the mask layer to allow more or less of the texture to show through. Loved this tutorial – I own a WACOM but unfortunately never really learned how to use it so haven’t used it for a few years. To follow along with the tutorial, you’re going to need this photograph (right-click to download it to your computer) as well as two brush sets pulled from our roundups of cool Photoshop brushes.

This is an easy fix, we just need to add some white areas. Toggle the scatter option and select both axes, set at 130% with the count slider at 1 and everything else at 0 or off. Open up the Brush Tool from the menu or by pressing the B shortcut. Once again, you’ll have to click on the Brush tab and select the Shape Dynamics. No Spam. Required fields are marked *.

I generally shoot landscape, but love botanical macro. I mostly take landscapes with a Canon T3i and own a small Wacom but not managed to master it so rarely try to use it. You can adjust the opacity of the brush to have more control over how much you reveal. This will darken the details and make them stand out better over the textures. I’m stuck on the Gaussian Blur part with the fourth layer. I use Corel Painter and a Wacom tablet to paint with.

), Hey Colin, Love the Tutorial!

You can use [ and ] to make the brush larger or smaller. Choose Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur. You are laying down challenges for aspiring image editors. Thanks Julie, You did it great. You don’t want to just go with any brush: you need a brush with some “grit.” If you use a regular default Photoshop brush, all you’re going to do to your image is smooth it out. I have enjoyed and learned so much. I used your watercolor painting tutorial to show him how to make a cloud brush to create the smoke effect that worked for him and his client. Lets make it black and white. First, select the mask thumbnail so that you’re working with the mask instead of the top layer. Next, select the Color Dynamics toggle and set the foreground/background jitter to 40%.

Instead click on the layer itself. Choose Filter>Stylize>Find Edges (an oldie, but a goodie). I held the ALT and made the mask in black, have the brush chosen and it is white with the 30% and nothing happens.

Open it up by clicking File>Open or using the CTRL+O shortcut. When the mask layer is invisible, it should look something like the picture below. Excellent tutorial, Shoot whatever looks good, more free-lance Nikon D610 Keep up the inspiring tutorials. I adore my Wacom and Intuos pen. Grab a free Layer Blending Modes e-book, free tutorials, presets and more. Lets choose the Orange brown, but wait!

Set it to1920X1080 with a white background. Create a new layer and place it at the top. Here’s a speed edit video for this photo, titled “Bowties and Alibis”: So next time you’re in a creative rut or just feel like trying something new, grab an image, a tablet, the smudge tool and have yourself a good old-fashioned painting session! I have devised a nice easy way to get a water color effect that is sure to impress. Fill it with white, or a faint color. Here is another example from a different photograph. Applying the basic watercolor filter. Don’t hold down the brush and spray in a continuous stroke because you’ll end up with the wrong effect. Don't neglect your friends, share this right away. It’s great to have these tutorials in video, especially with all the steps in completing a lesson. Again, use the default brush and default white foreground color with only 30% opacity and carefully fill in each tooth. My grandson is doing photography to help pay his way thru college. Now that you’ve completed this tutorial, you can apply these same concepts to other images. Hey, Colin why don you show us some video tutorial? Now that we have the general strokes figured out, we’re going to go in and give the picture more detail. Select the color fill tool and fill in the layer completely.

After I draw the eliptical effect all my layers disappear. You may have to zoom in to get the finer details in there. In the Angled Strokes menu, set the direction balance at 44, the stroke length at 7 and sharpness at 8. The gradient color type should be the default black-and-white gradient, only set it so that the colors reverse. Hey Colin, Great Tutorial as usual! I have a Nikon D500 and I would love to turn some of my African wildlife pics into watercolors. Great job and it really looks like liquid water. I shoot landscapes,macro and non or slow moving subjects. I can’t wait to try it. Now I’m going to share this with you. Now the active selection will become a mask on this layer-however, right now we don’t want to work with the mask. How to Turn a Photo Into a Beautiful Painting in Photoshop (Tutorial), Create a Shaped Clipping Mask in Photoshop/Illustrator (Tutorial), 51 Free Photoshop Tutorials for Amazingly Cool Photo Editing, How to Use Our Free Folder Mockup Templates, 55 Ridiculously Cool Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials, How to Design the Perfect Business Logo (Infographic), 22+ Graphic Design Interview Tips: Common Questions & Best Answers, 83 Graphic Design Portfolio Websites Guaranteed to Draw Attention, Adobe Illustrator vs. Photoshop vs. InDesign – Print Design Guide, 38 Typography Tools for Print Designers (Better Than Adobe Suite), 14 Beautiful Business Card Slots for Presentation Folders. Thanks so much for your generosity in making these tutorials and sharing them with I suppose your millions of fans by now! Great tutorial Colin. Don’t forget to add white to the areas of the pupil, where there’s a reflection of light. Now set your smudge strength to somewhere around 70% and get ready to go crazy. Of course, you’ll have to slightly adapt the information from this tutorial to apply it to a different picture, but the root principles remain the same. Collin, what a great tutorial! Colin this is a great tutorial.

If you haven’t already, now would be a good time to download that texture brush set and pull up the brush labeled 422. If you’ve followed these steps correctly, you should have an image that looks like this: You can also download a PSD version of the working file we used for this tutorial. Amazing. We want to set the background color, so hold down the alt/option key when you click and the background color will be set. The cameras I use are Canon 5D Mark iii as well as Fujifilm XT-2, which is now becoming my preferred camera. It will take several applications for the texture to show through, but as you can see in the example image, the ideal result is light and subtle. We want to set it so that the white is completely clear, so that the black fades into transparency. Select the default brush tool with default white as your foreground color and the brush opacity at 30%. I’d really love to see what you do with this effect. Click Open. The only caveat is the default watercolor filter in Photoshop looks like a filter was slapped on a photo. I do read every thing you send through. This is the very best part of the tutorial and something else you won’t find anywhere else (Don’t you just love the original tutorials here at PhotoshopCAFE)? Its fast and free! Draw an oval. It’s like you have some paint on a paint brush and you’re dragging it around a canvas, except this is way easier because all the colors are already in place… and of course there’s an “undo button.” (Thank god.). Hi, there, I am really glad you have shared this amazing blog with us! Now set the foreground color at #ce8751 and the background color at #f6e0cf. This way whatever you do to the teeth won’t accidentally affect the eyes. I adore your tutorials and use your hints all the time. You can also use the Magic Wand Tool if you prefer (Shift+W)-whatever gets the job done. Sigh ! Any ideas as to why I can’t get the dab effect?

How to Create a Painting Effect This will help the selection be a little less rough around the edges. Ingeniously clever. Thank you! You’ll have to spend some time working with it to get it the way you like so that you end up with results similar to our example. As usual it was very easy to understand & follow. Below you can see the brush that I used to smudge with (I just clicked once with black paint so you can see the shape), but any rough-edged brush should do nicely. Switch between black and white by pressing X or clicking between the foreground and background swatches.The default black will make the mask more visible, while the default white will take away from the mask. Paint the white areas of the eye using the brush. Today I’m going to share how I turned my portrait of her into a painting.