Whether you need a new profile picture or want to spruce up a pet portrait, you can bring a new creative approach to your favorite photos with Photoshop. You don’t need to use brushes to create a realistic watercolor painting in Photoshop. The quickest way to achieve a painterly look is with a filter.
Getting started and basic painterly workflows
Duplicate the Background layer by pressing Ctrl+J on Windows or Command+J on Mac. Apply the Basic Watercolor Filter to the newly copied layer. Blend these new outlines in with your painting by changing the blending mode on the Layer panel from Normal to Multiply using the drop-down menu. To add a special touch to your new artwork, paint your own brushstrokes into the mix with the Brush tool. Work with any number of built-in brushes that mimic real-world watercolor brushes or oil paint brushes.
Exploring pop art and other painterly styles
Venture into the realm of Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein - follow a simple tutorial to add a pop art effect to a photo. Whether you want to change a headshot into a portrait painting or transform an old family photo into an artistic holiday gift, Photoshop offers easy-to-use filters and brushes. The best thing about Photoshop is that it allows you to do things in a few minutes that would normally take hours or days to complete.
General considerations for turning photos into paintings
Converting a photo into a painting takes more than just using Photoshop’s default tools. You need a variety of filters, brushes and design techniques to actually make it look realistic. Before class begins, you’ll need to download a few school supplies. Let’s start by opening up a new document in Photoshop by clicking File>New or using the Ctrl+N shortcut. You want your canvas width to be 1000px, canvas height at 667 px and a resolution of 72 ppi.
Setting up brushes and textures
Open up the Brush Tool from the menu or by pressing the B shortcut. This will bring up the brush options on the right panel. You can click on the Brush Presets from here, or select Window>Brush Presets to bring up the brush menu. If you haven’t already, now would be a good time to download that texture brush set and pull up the brush labeled 422. You’ll need to make a few adjustments before it’s ready to use. First, toggle on the Shape Dynamics option and set the parameters to the numbers shown in the image below. Set the jitter size to 100%, the minimum diameter to 0%, the jitter angle to 42% and the jitter roundness to 0%. Next, select the Color Dynamics toggle and set the foreground/background jitter to 40%. Finally, select the Transfer toggle and set the jitter opacity to 100%. Keep everything else at 0% or turned off.
You’re now ready to start drawing the background, so set your foreground ink color to black and start filling in the white background by moving the brush back and forth over the canvas. As you can see in our example, the canvas should be completely filled and darkened, but there should be enough light areas to provide a textured look. Play with it until you get the result that you want.
Enhancing texture with sharpen filters
Now let’s make the background look more natural by adding an unsharp mask. Click on Filter>Sharper>Unsharp Mask, set the parameters as shown below, and press OK. This will draw out the lighter areas and create a more visually dynamic contrast. It’s an improvement, but it still doesn’t have that natural painting quality we’re looking for, so hit the image with the unsharp mask again (Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask) and you’ll end up with something like our example shown. It’s a subtle change that you might not notice right away, but the double application brings out the finer details, looking more like real painted brushstrokes.
Incorporating a stock photo and isolating the subject
Let’s bring our photo into the mix (if you haven’t already, go ahead and download it). Open it up by clicking File>Open or using the CTRL+O shortcut. Switch over to your background document and paste the stock photo as a new layer with CTRL+V or Edit>Paste. The stock photo is bigger than the canvas that we’re working with, but don’t panic. Use the Free Transform Tool (Edit>Free Transform or CTRL+T) to manually resize the stock photo so that it fits snuggly inside the canvas as shown. If you need to zoom in while in free transformation mode, you can use the + and - keys while holding down CTRL to change the canvas view. Exit out of the free transform mode by hitting the Enter key once you have the picture at the correct size. Now you’ll need to isolate the model from the background. Click on the white space in the background to select it. You’ll have to spend a little time cleaning this up so that the selection perfectly outlines the model. Hold down the Alt key and click-and-hold the mouse to exclude any parts of the model that may have been selected by accident. Use the Shift button to include any parts of the background that have been left out. You may have to zoom in to get the finer details in there.
Once your model is completely selected, click on the Refine Edge button in the option bar. 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. Also, make sure that the output is set to selection. With the model still selected, created a new layer by clicking Layer>New>Layer or Shift+CTRL+N. Create a mask for this layer by clicking Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection. Your active selection will now become a mask. We’re going to do some stuff now that we’d rather not have all over the stock image just yet, so click on the eye icon next to the stock image layer to turn it invisible. Now select the layer thumbnail above to activate that layer. Make sure it’s the layer itself you have selected, not the layer mask. Select the color fill tool and fill in the layer completely.
Adding imperfections and texture for a painted look
Now we can start adding some imperfections and simulated paint hatches to the image to make it look more like a painting. First, select the mask thumbnail so that you’re working with the mask instead of the top layer. Select the brush tool or hit B on your keyboard, then click on the Brush Presets on the sidebar. This time we’ll be using a texture brush from the other set, so download the Dither and Hatches CS2 brushes if you haven’t already. Select the brush as shown in the screenshot marked 244. It’s a sort of crunchy, spray paint texture. Once again, you’ll have to click on the Brush tab and select the Shape Dynamics. Set the angle to 100% and leave everything else at 0% or unselected, as shown in the image. This time, lightly spray the brush in clusters around the silhouette of the model as shown. The idea is that you want most of the brush to cover the model so that the aura is tight around the silhouette. Don’t hold down the brush and spray in a continuous stroke because you’ll end up with the wrong effect.
Now we want to bring out the contour aura a little more and give it more detail, so click Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask and set the amount at exactly 100%. While we’re still working with the overall contour, let’s add some texture to the model to look more like actual paint. To do this, we’ll add some subtle light and shadow to the flat silhouette. Set the foreground color to #ddaf91 and the background color to #edc9af. Open up the same spray brush from before, only this time we’ll be making some different adjustments in the Brush tab. Finally, toggle the color dynamics and set the foreground/background jitter to 100% with everything else at 0 or off. Select the top layer once again so that you’re not working with the mask anymore and start applying the brush strokes to create texture. 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.
Shadows, layers, and fine-tuning
With the contour complete, we can move onto the shadows. Make a duplication of the stock image layer by clicking Layer>Duplicate Layer or using CTL+J. Move this new duplicate layer above the first contour layer so that it’s the very top layer. If this layer is still invisible, make it visible so that you can work on it. Click on Image>Adjustments>Threshold and set the threshold at 201. Now you can select the stencil image using by bringing up the Magic Wand Tool, unchecking the Contiguous checkbox in the tool option bar and clicking on any black area. Once again, we want to make this selection a little smoother, so bring up the Refine Edge menu by clicking the button in the option bar. In the Adjust Edge submenu, set the smooth option to 15, feather to 3.5 px, contrast to 15 and everything else at 0 or off. Make this layer invisible once again and with the area still selected, create a new layer. Create a mask for this layer by clicking Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal Selection. Now the active selection will become a mask on this layer-however, right now we don’t want to work with the mask. Bring up the brush tool and pull up a different brush from the same Dither and Hatches CS2 set, as shown in the image. We can now start drawing the shadow texture. You want to move the brush in a wider area than just where the selection is located. Fill in the shadow texture until you’re pleased with the results. Now, bring up the up the Unsharpen Mask tool once again. Set the unsharpen ratio at 165%, with a radius of 1.0 px and a 0 threshold level. This will bring out the hatch texture and make it look a bit more realistic.
Now that we have the general strokes figured out, we’re going to go in and give the picture more detail. Let’s start by making another copy of the original photograph layer and placing it at the very top of the layer menu. Make this layer visible if you haven’t already, then click Filter>Filter Gallery and select the Angled Strokes effect in the Brush Strokes subfolder. In the Angled Strokes menu, set the direction balance at 44, the stroke length at 7 and sharpness at 8. This will make the light sources look more like angled brush strokes. Now, set the layer’s blending mode to the option labeled Darker Color. This will make it so that the details of the top layer combine with the textures in the layers underneath. Select Image>Adjustments>Levels or hit CTRL+L and set the levels like in the image, so that the lowest input level is 60. This will darken the details and make them stand out better over the textures. Create a mask for this layer by clicking Layer>Layer Mask>Reveal All or clicking on the mask button. Select the default brush tool, and press the D button to set the background and foreground colors to default. We want more of the texture underneath to come through, so use the paintbrush to paint the problem areas where there’s weird shadows or where details aren’t showing. 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. Look out for tricky problem areas, like the dark lines that appear around the edge of the model’s skin. Once you have it the way you like it, do the same to the shadows in the picture. Switch to the Contour 2 layer, the one you used to create the shadow contour. 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. 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.
Finishing touches: eyes, teeth, and dramatic lighting
What we have so far looks cool, but the white areas in the model’s eyes and teeth have been put through so many filters and textures now that there’s a sort of ugly color bleed when you look closely. Create a brand new layer and place it at the top of the layer list. Select the default brush tool with default white as your foreground color and the brush opacity at 30%. Paint the white areas of the eye using the brush. Don’t forget to add white to the areas of the pupil, where there’s a reflection of light. You don’t want the eyes to look so light that they’re scary, so play with the opacity settings of this layer until you get a whiteness that looks natural, without looking photographic (after all, we’re going for a painted look here.) We found our ideal setting was at 85%, but it’s going to depend entirely on how heavily you applied the white in the first place, so adjust until you get something like the example picture. Once the eyes are taken care of, you should move onto the teeth. To make things easier, create yet another new layer and place it at the top. This way whatever you do to the teeth won’t accidentally affect the eyes. Again, use the default brush and default white foreground color with only 30% opacity and carefully fill in each tooth. The teeth near the front should be a brighter shade of white than the teeth near the back, since there is more light hitting them. Once more, lower the opacity of the layer itself to make it look more natural. For this tutorial, we set it to 70%.
The picture is looking pretty good now, but we can do better than just pretty good. Let’s finish off the picture with some dramatic lighting effects to make it more interesting. Create a new layer and place it at the top. Change the layer fill amount to 0% in the layer menu and then double click on the layer to open up the Layer Style options menu. Click on the Gradient Overlay toggle and then set the blend mode to overlay. The gradient color type should be the default black-and-white gradient, only set it so that the colors reverse. Next, click on the gradient color selector to bring up the color menu. Here you can play with the opacity settings for your gradient. We want to set it so that the white is completely clear, so that the black fades into transparency. With this last little step, you’ve given your picture much more depth and drama, adding the finishing touches. Now that you’ve completed this tutorial, you can apply these same concepts to other images. Whether you follow the tutorial to a tee or use it as a stepping stone to be experimental, we want to see your results. Share your best photo-to-painting masterpieces in the comments below and show off your hard work!
Alternative approaches: oil painting and generative techniques
Convert a Portrait to an Oil Painting in Photoshop Without the Oil Paint Filter. In Photoshop, making your image look like an Oil Painting is very easy, especially if you have the Oil Paint Filter installed. But not all Photoshop versions have this filter by default. You can go through steps using Levels, High Pass, Unsharp Mask, and Diffuse filters, or leverage Generative Fill with AI to achieve painting effects. Generative Fill can be applied at a lower intensity to preserve most of the original detail and blend in just a little AI.
For Generative Fill workflows, you can set the brightness to about 30% and use a gray color with a 20-40% intensity as a sweet spot. In practice, you type prompts such as watercolor painting or oil painting and choose among variations. These techniques can produce convincing painting-like results while maintaining control over the final look.
In practice, the best results come from combining filter effects, brush textures, masking and careful fine-tuning of layers and blending modes to achieve a cohesive painted appearance. You can experiment with pop-art overlays or deeper painterly textures depending on the subject and desired mood.