Photo to Digital Painting in Photoshop •Art Instruction Blog

Transforming a photo into a digital painting in Photoshop is an art form that blends traditional painting techniques with modern digital tools. By leveraging Photoshop’s versatile brush features and layering capabilities, artists can convert any photograph into a masterpiece resembling a hand-painted artwork.

Transform a Photo to a Realistic Oil Painting – Photoshop Tutorial

This tutorial on how to go from Photo to Digital Painting in Photoshop, by Unmesh Dinda from PiXimperfect, guides viewers on transforming a photo into a painting in Photoshop. Unmesh recommends downloading specific brushes available to Creative Cloud members, highlighting the usefulness of wet media brushes and others in the mega pack for this process. The tutorial shows how to use the mixer brush tool, adjusting its settings to mimic painting strokes and blend colors for a painted effect. Unmesh walks through the process, covering everything from the portrait to the hair and background details, highlighting the manual work involved in each stroke. This Photoshop tutorial also covers additional adjustments like color and texture enhancement to give the painting a more artistic feel.

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Photo to Oil Painting Effect (Without Oil Filter) – Photoshop Tutorial

This tutorial on how to go from Photo to Digital Painting in Photoshop by Pixivu, shows how to create an oil painting effect in Photoshop without the oil paint filter, for versions where the filter isn’t available. The artist begins by duplicating the layer and adjusting shadows/highlights to enhance the image’s details. Then, he slightly adjusts the contrast with Levels. The High Pass filter sharpens the image, and the Unsharp Mask further prepares it for the oil effect. The key to this effect is using the Diffuse filter in Anisotropic mode several times, rotating the image 90 degrees each time to prevent flaws and simulate various angles.

This process is repeated four times for a uniform effect. To smooth the skin, apply the Reduce Noise filter, then use the Unsharp Mask again to bring back details. Additional steps include duplicating the “Oil Painting” layer for more details, merging all layers into a new one for tone adjustment, and optionally adding colorful lights with a soft brush on a new layer, adjusting blend mode and opacity for desired intensity.

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Oil Paint Effect – NowPhotoshop Tutorial

In this tutorial on how to go from Photo to Digital Painting in Photoshop by NowPhotoshop, the instructor demonstrates how to create an oil painting effect in Photoshop primarily using the smudge tool. The process starts with creating a new layer from the background to preserve the original image. With the smudge tool set to a strength of 20%, the instructor smooths the image’s mid-tones in normal mode, then switches to darken and lighten modes to blend the darker and lighter areas, avoiding distortion in crucial areas like faces.

Following this, the instructor applies the “Angle Strokes” filter from the Filter Gallery to mimic the strokes of an oil painting, adjusting stroke length, sharpness, and direction balance. The artist demonstrates selective color adjustments to enhance whites, neutrals, and yellows and to adjust the overall color grading, creating a vibrant oil painting look. This approach offers a fast way to transform photos into oil paintings in Photoshop.

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Colin Smith from Photoshop Cafe demonstrates how to transform a photograph into a realistic-looking oil painting in Photoshop. He teaches that merely applying the oil paint filter is insufficient for achieving an authentic oil painting effect. Colin uses a photo from Adobe Stock to illustrate his process, which includes duplicating the original layer for non-destructive editing and then applying the Oil Paint filter from the Filter menu.

He adjusts settings like stylization, cleanliness, and lighting within the filter to enhance the painting effect. Colin further refines the painting by creating another layer with additional oil paint filter adjustments, focusing on texture and realism. To mimic the appearance of a canvas, he applies the Texturizer filter with a canvas texture, adjusting the scaling and relief. Colin shows the before and after results, transforming the photo into an artwork that resembles an oil painting ready for printing.

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Photo to Watercolor Painting Effect (in 5 Seconds) – Photoshop Tutorial

This Pixivu tutorial shows how to make a watercolor mockup in Photoshop and quickly apply the effect to any photo. The process begins with creating a new document and importing an image. The image is duplicated and converted into a smart object labeled “Base.” Five copies of the base layer are made, with various adjustments. The first copy receives an Emboss filter and Sharpen filter for texture, followed by a Cutout filter for an artistic effect.

Subsequent layers are adjusted with Filter Gallery options and blend modes, like Overlay and Color, to enhance details and tone. Glowing Edges and High Pass filters add outlines and sharpening. All layers are grouped, setting the foundation for the watercolor effect. A border image is then selected using Color Range, cleaned up, and added to the main document, along with a textured overlay and levels adjustment for contrast. The tutorial demonstrates how updating a single, smart object in the “Base” layer can instantly apply the entire set of effects to a new image, efficiently creating a watercolor mockup.

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Oil Painting Effect From Your Photos – Photoshop Mixer Brush Technique

In this Photoshop tutorial, Jesus Ramirez from the Photoshop Training Channel demonstrates how to transform a photo into an oil painting using the mixer brush. Starting with any portrait, you select the mixer brush tool, nested under the brush tool, and choose a soft round brush with 80% hardness from the general brushes. The mixer brush simulates realistic painting techniques by mixing colors on the canvas and varying painting wetness.

Jesus advises disabling the option to load the brush after each stroke and enabling the option to clean the brush after each stroke. He recommends using the “Moist” preset for the brush settings, which works well for creating an oil painting effect, though other presets can be explored. It’s essential to enable “sample all layers” and, for Wacom Tablet users, to activate pressure sensitivity.

Next, create a new layer for the painting effect and reduce the original photo’s opacity to 75% to make the painted areas more visible. Begin painting on the new layer, picking up colors from below and revealing them at full opacity, thus creating the oil painting effect. For best results, follow the contours of the subject in the photo.

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