Painting Effect Tutorial
April 27th, 2008 by Olivia Bell |
(+3 rating, 3 votes)
Loading ...This Painting Effect Tutorial will explain how to add a subtle painting effect.
This effect is brilliant when you have a dull image which you want to add a slightly realistic paint look to it. It still looks like a graphic, but it has a subtle edge, something more interesting… this doesn’t always work for every image, but when it does the outcome is really special.
I created this effect to enhance this photograph of the Swan. It was lovely, but a little bland… afterwards I turned it into a wallpaper, which you can download at LTY Designs’ Wallpapers page >>>
Feel free to request something similar to this Painting Effect Tutorial.
Before
After
Painting Effect Tutorial - The Steps
- Before we start I suggest you download the Swan image - just right click on the before image and save it to your desktop. If you use this image for anything other than testing out this tutorial remember it’s copyrighted to Olivia Bell (me) @ LTY Tutorials - feel free to use it for anything, but if you distribute it I require a link on your website back to LTY Tutorials (feel free to ask more questions below regarding this
).
- As we’re downloading stuff, might as well download this Selective Color file - you’ll be using it later on.
- Right, first step: you need to duplicate your layer. To do this go -> Layer -> Duplicate Layer… once you’ve done that a little box will pop up, just press OK. Once you’ve done that you should notice two layers in your layers pallet. If you can’t find your layers pallet press the F7 button on your keyboard.
- Now go -> Filter -> Brush Strokes -> Ink Outlines… a big box will pop up with your image on the left and settings on the right hand side. There are three settings; Stroke Length, Dark Intensity, Light Intensity - Change the settings to this: Stroke Length = 1 - Dark Intensity = 0 - Light Intensity = 50 - and then press OK.
- Now you’ll see quite a change in your image… in this case, it’s a bit too dramatic, so I’m going to fade the Ink Outlines. To do this, press these keys on your keyboards Shift + CTRL/Command + F - if a box doesn’t appear… eg if it doesn’t work then go -> Edit -> Fade… (it’s the 2nd or 3rd option).
- A little box should now have appeared, whether you used the keyboard shortcut or the normal, longer route. Change the Opacity to 35% (make sure the "Preview", is ticked so you can see what this looks like). In this case I didn’t change the mode … but in future you can always play with this.
- Now… remember that selective color file you downloaded earlier on? We’re going to use it
….so, now go -> Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Selective Color - a small box will appear, on the right hand side you should find a few buttons to click… look for "load" - another box will appear, now search for the file you downloaded… once you’ve found it, select it, press OK and OK again.
- Now you need to locate your layers pallet which I talked about a little earlier. You’ll see that you now have three layers. Take a look at mine. Your layers pallet should look just like mine.
- Now I duplicated my selective color layer - the easiest way of duplicating any layer is using the brilliant shortcut: CTRL/Command + J - hopefully you’ve just duplicated your selective color layer and should now have four layers. I now changed the layer type from "Normal", to "Soft light"… when you look at your layers pallet you can see a drop down menu which displays "Normal", you can now change that to "Soft light" - you’ve just changed your layer mode.
- This step can be skipped! Just because I’m picky, I felt the swan had been too overexposed (eg. it’s unnaturally white)… so, I selected the eraser tool (press E for it) - then selected a small round brush (30/40/50 is a good size), and just erase a little on the Swan, I just did the next and body - you may notice a very, very slight difference - but enough for me to do it.
- Now I wanted to add a slightly scratchy look, so I used one of my own textures from LTY Designs - if you want the exact texture, use this texture - otherwise you can download all sorts of scratchy textures here. So, download a texture you want to use and then open it in Photoshop - then use the following shortcut: CTRL/Command + A (this will select the texture), then CTRL/Command + C (this will copy the texture)… then go to your Swan image and go CTRL/Command +V (this will paste the texture onto your image)…….. then go to your layers pallet, look for the layer mode (remember, the drop down menu?)… change it to "Screen".
- Now a bit of colouring…. I just felt it was just a little bland, so I went and added a few colour layers.
- So, go -> Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Solid Color… this box will appear - you’ve got several options there, all you need to do is change Mode from Normal to Color Burn and press OK. Another box will appear, in the little field at the bottom it will have 6 characters, something like FFFFFF or 000000… or even something completely random. Replace them with FFC7E3 then press OK!
- Now we’re going to do the same… Go -> Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Solid Color… that little box will appear, change the Mode to Color Burn again, then press OK and then change the 6 characters to C7FFF6 (different to last time)… and press OK.
- We need to do the same again…
So, go -> Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Solid Color… change the Mode , but this time change it to Soft Light and press OK - then change those 6 characters to FFCEC7 then press OK!
- *cough* Last time… promise! Go -> Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Solid Color… change the Mode to Hardlight and instead of pressing OK… change the Opacity to 31% and then press OK. When the color box appears, change the 6 characters to FFD4EB and press OK
- Aaannddd you’re done.
I hope this tutorial was helpful and made sense - if you do have any questions regarding this painting effect tutorial then feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to help you further. 
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