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Project #7 - Creating A Watercolour

Sometimes, a photograph would look excellent as a painting, like a watercolour. This tutorial will show you how to achieve the effect using Levels, Dry Brush Filter, Find Edges. I have used the same image that is in my gallery.

The original photograph was imported into Photoshop via a flash card at a size of 14 inches wide and 8 inches high with a resolution of 72. This effect works better on a low resolution image rather than something at 300dpi.

[Find Edges]

  1. First, duplicate the 'Background' layer (hold down the ALT key and drag the layer onto the 'Create New Layer' icon) and name the new layer Sketch

  2. Select the 'Desaturate' command from the 'Image... Adjust' menu, and then select the 'Find Edges' command from the 'Filter... Stylize' menu. We now have one final step to complete the Sketch effect.

  3. At the moment the sketch effect is too busy, so we need to tone it down. From the 'Image... Adjust' menu, select the 'Levels' command (or you can press CTRL+L). Move the far right and middle over to the left until your sketch images loses detail. Don't take them too far because you still need some detail in the picture.

  4. Okay, now to add some colour. Duplicate the original layer again and this time call it Dry Brush.

  5. From the Filter menu, select the Dry Brush command from the Artistic menu. Enter these values: Brush size 10, Detail 0, Texture 1, and then click OK

  6. Move the Dry Brush layer above the Sketch layer to view the results.

  7. Change the Blend Mode for all three layers to Soft Light.

  8. Click on the Dry Brush Layer in the Layers palette to activate it and press CTRL+L to bring up the Levels once again. As before, move the right and middle arrows towards the left. Use your own personal preferences here depending on how you want the finished painting to look.

  9. The final stage now. Create a new layer and fill it with a pale yellow, or white colour. From the 'Filters... Stylize' menu choose the 'Texturizer' command. Select the Canvas option and enter the values to suit your own preferences.

  10. Finally, change the 'Blend Mode' to 'Multiply' and adjust the opacity of the level to somewhere between 45-55.

[Completed Image]