Oil paint filter (oil paint) is one of the latest additions to Photoshop, which uses the engine MGE (Mercury Graphics Engine), which in turn uses the computing power of the GPU. But, we do not really need this information, so let's get to work.
Since the filter is new, you can only find it in Photoshop CS6. For the convenience of calling the tool, the developers moved it directly to the "Filter" menu.
Such attention to the filter is not accidental, because it easily copes with such a difficult task as making a picture out of a photo in Photoshop, while in the preview window, you can watch the changes made by the program in real time.
The filter has six sliders. Four of them are for brush settings, and the other two are for lighting. Using the Bristle Detail and Stylization sliders, you can add contrast to the new brush strokes. With their help, light borders appear between each swirl and curve, making the effect more pronounced. These settings differ in that the first mainly affects the contrast, and the second creates an additional effect of randomness in the picture.
Using the slider Cleanliness (Purity) you can change the detail of all brush strokes. If you set this parameter to a high value, then you will get strokes with a new soft brush. Accordingly, a low value will give the effect of painting with a dirty, old brush with sticky bristles.
The Scale parameter, or "scale", changes the size of the brush.
The last two sliders Angular Direction (Angle) and Shine (Shine) best explain how to make an oil painting from a photo in Photoshop. Quite simply, these parameters are responsible for the angle at which the simulated light falls on the canvas, which also affects the contrast that appears between strokes (Angular Direction). The second effect sets the general visualization of changes. So these two settings are very, very important!
Painting an oil painting
This method is more complex and time-consuming than the oil paint filter, but it has its place, as it opens up other horizons for turning a photo into a painting. By the way, using this method, you will have more opportunities to show your creativity.
Making a photo as a picture in Photoshop is quite simple, we will analyze it step by step.
- Let's open our image.
- Create a new layer and use the Fill tool to fill it with white.
- Now select the Art History Brush tool.
- In the History palette, set the checkbox to Set the Source for History Brush.
- In the settings for this tool, select the brush 63 “Wide stroke of oil pastel” (Oil Pastel).
- Set the diameter of this brush to 30.
Right click on the image and make the brush smaller. Now start coloring the layer. The smaller the size you set, the smaller the strokes will be and the more detailed your picture will be.
After the end of this rather lengthy procedure, apply “Contour sharpness” (Unsharp Mask), which is located in the menu “Filter” – “Sharpness”. This action will make your strokes more expressive. In this filter, you can experiment with the settings and leave the ones that you like the most.
Now there are mere trifles on the way to how to make a picture from photos in Photoshop. For more convincing and realism, use the Texturizer filter, which you can find in the Filter Gallery. From the "Texture" list that appears, select "Canvas" and, based on the preview window, select the parameter value you need.
After these simple manipulations, our photo looks like a natural oil painting. The longest part of this method is the manual application of strokes. This is actually the most interesting part!
Finally, I must say that in Photoshop there are several more ways to create a picture from a photograph, as well as various other stylizations, but for some reason I like the described two methods the most.
Creative success to you!
Turn a portrait photo into a painting (Turn a Portrait Photo Into a Painting). A useful tutorial for getting to know the new brush in Photoshop CS5 - Mixer Brush. Lesson copied from Demiart.ru, prepared and edited by me.
And these are examples of the results of the lesson, which turned out for different users:
Materials for the lesson:
Step 1
Open a photo with a girl. First we need to separate it from the black background. The sticks that make up the girl's hairstyle do not need to be separated from the background to make the selection easier. Since the whole photo is quite dark, it is better to use the Pen Tool (P) to select the girl. The picture on the right shows what you should end up with:
Step 2
On images like this, using the Pen tool is very convenient, because the edges of the object being cut out are quite smooth. With the Pen, you can easily create curves to outline a portrait. After you create the path, you need to convert it to a selection and then to a layer mask.
Note that you must use the Pen tool in Paths mode to create the path:
Step 3
In this case, you can also select the arm and torso of the girl (as shown in the image in Step 1) and use them in your work, but if you want to quickly create with a selection of the girl, then create an outline only around her head, as the author suggests. in this lesson. Try to use the minimum number of anchor points to create the outline, but nevertheless, the outline should accurately outline the girl's head.
Step 4
After you have created a path around the head, close it by clicking on the first point of the path (the cursor will change its appearance), and create a selection from it by right-clicking on the image with the selected tool Pen (Pen Tool)> Make Selection (create selection). In the window that appears, select the feather radius = 1 px:
Step 5
Next, we need to convert the background layer ("Background") with the girl's portrait into a regular layer - to do this, double-click on it and in the window that appears, enter a new name for the layer - "Portrait". After that, we need to convert the downloaded selection into a layer mask by clicking on the "Add Layer mask" icon at the bottom of the layers panel:
....or by this icon on the "Masks" tab:
Step 6
If you did everything right, the mask will hide the black background, and you should see a transparent background instead. Next we need to make the portrait a little lighter. For this we will use a Curves Adjustment layer. To create an adjustment layer, click on the "Add new adjustment layer" icon at the bottom of the layers panel:
The curve settings are as follows:
Step 7
Go to the adjustment layer (“Adjustment layer”) and set it to clipping mask mode for the “Portrait” layer by pressing Ctrl + Alt + G (in clipping mask mode, the effect of the “Curves” adjustment layer will only apply to the “Portrait” layer). Go to the "Portrait" layer and with the help of transformation (Ctrl + T) stretch the portrait of the girl so that it takes up most of your canvas.
Step 8
Now we need to create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) and place it at the very bottom of the layers panel. Fill this layer with white by pressing D (color reset) and then Ctrl + Space. Name this layer "Background", we will use it as a background. Apply the following style to the resulting layer by double-clicking on it in the layers panel:
Step 9
Next, create another new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N), position it above all layers in the layers panel and name it "Mixer Brush". On this layer we will create the base for our painting. Now we need brushes from the "Watercolor Splatter" set (Paint Splatter), the link to which is given at the beginning of the lesson. After you download the brush file, double click on it to install the brushes in Photoshop.
So, to get started, select the Mixer Brush tool and set the following settings for it:
- from the "Watercolor Splatter" set, select the "Splatter 24px" brush
- brush size (brush size) = 121 px
- uncheck the "Load brush after each stroke" option
- from the drop-down menu, select the brush type "Very Wet, heavy Mix"
- check the box next to "Sample All Layers"
- open the brush settings panel (F5) and set the following settings for the "Texture" menu: load the "Artistic Surfaces" textures and select the "Dark Coarse Weave" texture, check the Invert option
- set the parameter Mode = Height, Scale = 79%, Depth = 11%
- if you are using a tablet, go to the "Shape Dynamics" menu and set Size Control = Pen Pressure (if you do not have a tablet, then this is not necessary)
- in the "Brush Tip Shape" menu, set the value of the Spacing parameter to 5%
Step 10
Once you've set up a brush, it's worth saving the settings for that brush. To do this, on the Mixer Brush tool settings panel, click on the icon shown in the figure below, and save the selected brush as a preset, name it "Painting over photos"
Step 11
Make sure you are on a new empty "Mixer Brush" layer. With a brush set up in the above way, you can paint using the color information from all layers, i.e. you can mix colors not only from the "Portrait" layer, but also from the "Background" layer, thus creating blurry edges of the portrait to make it look more artistic. Try to keep the details of the eyes, nose and mouth, and the rest of the portrait may be less detailed and clear. Get creative with this step.
Step 12
At this point, the "Portrait" layer can be turned off (to do this, click on the eye icon to the left of the layer icon in the layers panel), the "Curves" adjustment layer will turn off automatically along with the "Portrait" layer, since it is in clipping mask mode. We will no longer need these layers, but you should not delete them, because in the future they may come in handy for drawing additional details on the “Mixer Brush” layer (for example, hands)
Step 13
Now we need to add a canvas texture (linked at the beginning of the tutorial) to make our work look more like a painting. Download the canvas texture and drag it into your document. Name the resulting texture layer "Canvas Texture" and place it on top of all layers. Change the blend mode of this layer to Overlay and create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer for it.
Adjustment layer settings are shown in the picture below. Don't forget to set the "Hue/Saturation" layer to clipping mask mode for the texture layer (Ctrl + Alt + G).
Step 14
To make the image more contrast, add a Levels Adjustment Layer and place it above all layers. Set the following settings:
Step 15
It's time to bring the painting to life and make it more dynamic with the splatter brushes. Create a new layer (Ctrl+Shift+N), place it under the "Canvas Texture" layer and name it "Colors". There are no exact brush settings for this step - with different settings you will get a rather interesting result. Use various brushes from the "Watercolor Splatter" set, change the values of the "Jitter" parameter, the size and angle of rotation of the brushes. In this case, the author changed the color of the brush many times to get various bright shades of purple, yellow and blue. The lower left image shows only the "Colors" layer, while the lower right image shows how the "Colors" layer looks with the rest of the layers. This Step took the author about 20 minutes to complete, but it's a pretty fun part of the tutorial.
Step 16
Now you need to somehow designate the neck. Let's do this with an interesting method - lighten the background, instead of drawing the contours of the neck. This technique is very similar to using a sponge or cloth to smudge and lighten parts if you are painting a real picture. In Photoshop, this is very easy - create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N), place it between the "Colors" and "Canvas Texture" layers and name it "Brighten neck". Fill this layer with 50% gray (for this go to Edit > Fill > 50% gray), change the blend mode of this layer to Overlay and set the Opacity to 60%.
After that, take the Brush Tool (B) white with soft edges, brush opacity (Opacity) = 20%:
While on the "Brighten neck" layer, with the selected brush, go over the intended neck area and, possibly, over other areas that, at your discretion, need to be lightened to make the picture look better. You can also darken areas with this brush by changing the brush color to black.
Step 17
Next we need to detail the face. The author decided to emphasize the eyes, so he created two new layers. He used one of the layers to draw the shadows on the face (in the figure they are marked with red arrows), on the layers panel this layer is called "Shadows". And the second layer was required to add white dots on the face, which are part of the girl's makeup. This layer's blend mode is Overlay (in the Layers panel it's the "Paint" layer)
Step 18
We need one more layer to draw the details of the entire portrait. To do this, you will need a simple round brush with a small diameter and hard edges. You can place this layer below the "Canvas texture" layer and name it "Ink" (Ink), since this technique of drawing details will be similar to drawing with ink on paint. Here's what it looks like close up drawing details in this way:
Step 19
So, it's time to think about how to finish your work, add or draw details, perhaps add a frame. Turn on your imagination! I hope this tutorial has inspired you to create masterpieces. The figure below shows how all layers should be laid out:
Final result!
If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.
Some photographers and designers are afraid to draw in Photoshop. In the meantime, you can draw in it. To do this, like a real artist, we need a canvas: press "Command (Control for Windows) N"; in addition, we need a palette (Windows menu > Swatches) and brushes.
The first thing we definitely need is a Wacom tablet, preferably an Intous-series. For avid artists, you will also need an Airbrush pen with an additional wheel. About him below.
Let's start by choosing the Brush tool ("b" from the keyboard). It has all the same degrees of transparency as the layers (read about working with them in the magazine "Fotodelo", No. 9, 2009). Let's start with Normal with 100% Opacity and Flow. Next, find the "icon" (Fig. 1) and open the brush settings panel. Brush Presets are variations of Adobe-provided brushes. There are many interesting ones among them, experiment and ... forget. We will create our own unique and best brush. We look at the following "icon" (Fig. 2). Brush Tip Shape - General settings window for this brush. Diameter - diameter in pixels. Flip X/Flip Y - flip the brush along the axes. Angle - angle (measured relative to the horizon line). Roundness - thickness of brush dynamics area. At first glance, it changes the thickness of the brush, in fact, with this parameter everything is more complicated. Don't stop experimenting.
Hardness - the hardness of the brush. Spacing - distance from nearest points (in % of stroke size). Those. at values close to 0% it will draw a solid line, at 100% it will draw circles tightly pressed together, etc. Ascending.
Next is the Shape Dynamics panel (Fig. 3). Most delicious. Size Jitter is spraying by size (again, easier to try than to explain). The ubiquitous Control droplist is a parameter control method. The simplest of them is Fade - fading, this is a software method, it works when you release the mouse or pen, it is practically useless.
All other methods are related to the tablet and pens. The entire Wacom Intous series recognizes Pressure (i.e. pressure on the surface) and Tilt (inclination relative to the surface of the tablet). But the Intous4 Art Pen also supports rotation about its axis (Rotation, Direction and Inital Direction).
Minimal Diameter - minimum dot thickness when spraying. Tilt Scale - change the size of the stroke when the pen is tilted. Incidentally, the tilt of the Wacom pen is measured relative to the angle at which you touched the tablet, and not relative to the axis of the planet, so draw at least on a roller coaster.
Angle Jitter is a chaotic change in the angle of a stroke. But the level of the angle is also controllable with Wacom's capabilities.
Roundness Jitter - spray with a strong change in the shape of the brush. With its help, you can, for example, get the effect of drawing with a toothbrush.
Scattering panel (Fig. 4) - scattering. According to scientific: chaotic displacement of the center of the blot relative to the axis of the stroke line. The most useful is the "engine" Count. 
By combining this setting with Spacing in the Brush Tip Shape panel, you can get a nice spatter/irrigation effect.
Texture (fig. 5) is a texture. With it, everything is simple: select the desired texture (including the previously created one), the transparency with which it will be projected onto the stroke, and draw. Just pay attention to the Texture Each Tip checkbox. If this option is disabled, the texture will be solid for the entire line, i.e. inseparable. And if you turn it on, then it will fall differently on each blot. And this can also be controlled (for example, by tilting the pen).
We will skip the Dual Brush - this is a mixture of two brushes and a field for creativity of true perverts.
Color Dynamics (Fig. 6). Brush color dynamics. The most useful setting, Fareground / Background Jitter, allows the Background color to penetrate into the primary. Can also be controlled by pen tilt/pressure, etc. An ideal setting for setting on the AirBrush wheel "a. Other parameters (Hue / Saturation / Brightness) allow you to change the hue / color saturation / brightness.
Something else (Fig. 7). The chaotic change of Opacity and Flow - one of the most useful parameters - for some reason ended up in Other, but you shouldn't forget about them.
A Few General Tips
1) Feel free to “hang” several settings on the same pen parameter at once.
2) There are a lot more default brushes in Photoshop than originally presented. Don't be afraid to click the panel view settings button.
3) All settings that are valid for a brush (Brush) are also possible for Clone Stamp and History Brush. With some limitation - for all drawing tools.
4) The bitter truth of Photoshop is that there are a lot of settings in it, but obviously not enough to, for example, simulate an oil brush. So if you decide to draw seriously, you will have to get used to Painter, a lightweight but very functional version of which is attached to any Wacom tablet.
5) If you have been in art school for a long time, but you cannot draw on the computer due to the different tactility of the tablet, try changing the pen or pen tip. They are also different and can simulate different degrees of resistance.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to create an oil painting effect in Photoshop. I will try to explain everything in as much detail as possible so that even beginners who first opened the program can cope.
The picture above shows the effect we will be creating in this tutorial. If you want to get a more advanced result, as in the screenshot below, then I suggest you try my action.
For work, we need a stock photo. The picture from the lesson is paid, but you can download the archive with alternatives or take your own photo.
Document preparation
Step 1
First, open the photo with which we will work. Let's move on File-Open(File - Open), find the desired file on the computer and click on the Open button. Next, check the document settings:
- Photo must be in RGB mode, 8 bits/channel(bit/channel). To check, go to the menu Image-Mode(Image - Mode).
- To obtain a high-quality result, it is better to take the image size within 2000-3500 pixels in width/height. To check, go Image - Image Size(Image - Image Size).
- The photo should be the background layer. If this is not the case, go Layer - New - Background from Layer(Layer - New - Background from layer).
Step 2
If you changed the size of the document in the previous step, then on the panel Window-History(Window - History) at the bottom, click on the button in the form of a camera to create a new picture. Then click on the empty cell to the left of the created snapshot to define a new source for the archive brush.
Step 1
Now let's go directly to creating the effect. Adding a new layer Layer - New - Layer(Layer - New - Layer) and name it "Large Details".
Step 2
Activate Art History Brush Tool(Y) (Archival art brush). On the top panel, set area(Diameter) by 500 pixels, tolerance(Tolerance) - by 0 pixels and style(Style) - on Tight Long(compressed long). Then we right-click on the working canvas, in the menu that opens, select a soft brush, set size(Size) by 20 pixels and paint over the entire image.
Please note that the detail of the result depends on the size of the brush. The smaller it is, the more details will be drawn.
Step 3
Create a new layer Layer - New - Layer(Layer - New - Layer) and name it "Medium Details".
Step 4
Activate Art History Brush Tool size(Size) by 10 pixels and paint over the entire image.
Step 5
Adding a black mask
Step 6
Now on the toolbar, click on the color square and in the window color picker(Color selection) choose black (#000000). Activate brush tool
Notice that the layer mask is selected in the layers panel. If you made an extra stroke, then you can restore the desired area if you switch to the white color of the brush. Black - hides, white - restores.
Also, while working, adjust the diameter of the brush to work out fine details more carefully. Use the [ and ] keys to quickly change the size.
Step 7
Create a new layer Layer - New - Layer(Layer - New - Layer) and name it "Small Details".
Step 8
Activate Art History Brush Tool(Y) (Archival art brush). We leave all the settings that were in step 2, only change size(Size) by 5 pixels and paint over the entire image.
Step 9
Adding a black mask Layer - Layer Mask - Hide All(Layer - Layer Mask - Hide All) to hide all the contents of the layer.
Step 10
Now select black color (#000000), activate brush tool(B) (Brush), select a soft brush and paint over the areas where you want to keep more details.
Create an embossed effect
Step 1
Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E to create a separate copy of all visible layers. Then Ctrl+Shift+U to desaturate the resulting layer.
Step 2
Let's move on Filter - Style - Emboss(Filter - Stylization - Embossing). Install Angle(Angle) 135 degrees, Height(Height) - by 3 pixels and Amount(Effect) - by 200%.
Step 3
At the top of the Layers panel, switch the blending mode of this layer to hard light(hard light).
Congrats, this is what the final result looks like:
The picture above shows the effect we created in this tutorial. If you want to get a more advanced result, as in the screenshot below, then I suggest you try my action.
With the help of the action, you can create a realistic oil painting effect in Photoshop in just a couple of mouse clicks. You just need to open the picture in the program and run the action. He will do the rest of the work for you! As a result, you will get a layered result that is easy to customize to your taste.
The action also includes 10 color variations and 5 textures to overlay on photos. IN special video you can see the detailed instructions for using the action.
