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   Photoshop Elements Course

Project #21 - Creating Photopaintings

Quite often we see photographs that have been manipulated, enhanced or even turned into paintings. This tutorial will show you step-by-step on how to combine both techniques together creating a surreal and very effective effect.

The main tools we will be using are: Quick Mask, Gradient, a combination of Selection tools, and the seldom used Wet Edges function on the Paint Brush's Option box.

This is the kind of technique you could apply to almost any everyday subject - try it out on different things and see what results you come up with.

Try and get into the habit of using layers and saving your work regularly.
  1. [Selected Car]

    The first thing to do is "lift" the blue car in the foreground and place it on its own layer. There are a number of ways to achieve this - I opted for a combination of the Pen Tool and Quick Mask. Use your own favoured method and place a selection around the car and its driver.

  2. [Car on Floating Layer]

    Once you have your selection - "the marching ants" - around the car, press keys CTRL+J to copy it to its own individual layer.

  3. For now, click the eye icon next to the car so it doesn't get in our way.

    Click on the BACKGROUND layer in the LAYERS PALETTE to activate it. From the IMAGE menu, select ADJUST and then DESATURATE. This will turn the background layer to greyscale.

  4. [Find Edged Fitler]Now from the FILTER menu, choose the FIND EDGES command from the STYLIZE menu. Because we drained the colour from the layer, we will get a combination of dark and light lines ranging from black to various shades of grey... just like a sketched look.

    Press CTRL+L to bring up the LEVELS dialogue box and move the middle triangle slightly to the left. This will lighten the lines.

  5. What we want to do now is add a sense of motion to the background area. This is achieved by using the MOTION BLUR option from the FILTER menu. Before we apply this filter, though, press Q to enter QUICK MASK mode. Next press the G key to activate the GRADIENT tool. Make sure that the FOREGROUND to BACKGROUND option is selected from the OPTIONS palette.

    Click and hold down your mouse button on the middle right edge. Hold the SHIFT key and drag the cursor over to the left hand side of the picture. Release the mouse button and press Q to return to NORMAL EDITING mode. From the SELECT menu, choose the INVERSE command to swap the selection around.

  6. [Motion Blur Settings]

    From the FILTER menu choose BLUR and then MOTION BLUR. Opposite are the settings I used, but you can choose a different figure for the Distance settings if you want.

    Because we applied the GRADIENT tool in the QUICK MASK mode, we now get a steady transition of the MOTION BLUR tool. You will notice how it is more dominant to the right than it is to the left.

  7. Remove the SELECTION by pressing CTRL+D. Click on the car layer to activate it. You should now have your car in its original colour and form, with the background looking like it has been sketched and smudged from the right. To make it look a little more realistic apply the RADIAL BLUR filter to the wheels of the car.

  8. Ok, we're nearly done. Click on the background layer to activate it. Select the PAINTBRUSH from the TOOL BOX and then press the ENTER key to activate its options. Click on the WET EDGES option (you should get a tick next to it) and lower the opacity to about 50-55%.

  9. Now for the painting effect. Choose a color for the car on the left and gingerly paint over it. Try and keep it tidy, but don't be too accurate. Repeat the process for other objects that are on the background.

    It's up to you how much you color you add - don't go too far or you'll lose the effect. Because we are using the WET EDGES option, every time you repaint over an area you have already painted, the colour darkens - similar to watercolor painting.