Skip to content

Painting Effect in Photoshop: Watercolor Painting

How to create Photoshop Painting Effect?

We can create various Painting Effects in Photoshop, like, Watercolor Painting Effects, Oil Painting Effects, and so on. In today’s Photoshop tutorial, you will learn to create a Watercolor Painting Effect. To create this paint effect in Photoshop, all you need is a good quality photograph. We will apply few filters to the photography to create a Painting Effect in Photoshop.

Painting Effect in Photoshop

Let’s begin with the Photoshop Painting Effect Tutorial:

Step 1

Launch Adobe Photoshop and open the image as a new document.

Open the Image to create painting effect
Step 2

After opening the image, we will create three duplicate copies of the layer. We will name those layers as Layer 1, Layer 2, and Layer 3.

To create a duplicate layer, click on Layer in the Menu Bar and select Duplicate Layer. A dialogue box will appear in the document area. In that dialogue box, rename the duplicate layer as Layer 1 and click OK.

Select Duplicate Layer from the Menu Bar
Create Duplicate Layer
Create Duplicate Layer

Similarly, create 2 more duplicate layers and name them as Layer 2 and Layer 3 respectively.

Create more duplicate layers
Step 3

In this step, we will apply a Cutout Filter on Layer 1. But, before that, we have to turn off the visibility of the top two layers so that the changes made in Layer 1 are visible. Turn off the visibility of Layer 3 and Layer 2 by clicking on the eye icon.

Turn off the visibility of top two layers

Select the Layer 1 in the Layers Panel. Then click on Filter in the Menu Bar and select Filter Gallery.

Select Filter Gallery

Now select the Cutout Filter under Artistic and make adjustments in the filter. After making adjustments, click OK to apply the filter.

Select Cutout Filter

After applying the effect, set the Blending Mode of the Layer 1 as Luminosity.

Select Luminosity Blending mode
Step 4

Now we will apply the Dry Brush Filter on Layer 2. Turn on the visibility of Layer 2 in the Layers Panel and select the layer. Then click on Filter in the Menu Bar and select Filter Gallery. In the Filter Gallery, select Dry Brush Filter under Artistic.

Apply Dry Brush Filter

After applying the Dry Brush Filter, set the Blending Mode of Layer 2 as Darker Color. If required, you can also adjust the Opacity of the layer.

Change the blending mode
Step 5

Turn on the visibility of Layer 3 and apply the Median filter to it, to complete the Painting Effect in Photoshop.

Select Layer 3 in the Layers Panel and click on Filter in the Menu Bar. Hover the cursor on Noise and select Median.

Select Median Filter
Apply Median Filter to create Painting Effect

Change the Blending Mode of the layer to Soft Light.

Painting Effect in Photoshop

After applying all the above-mentioned filters, you can successfully convert a photo into painting in Photoshop.

Painting Effect in Photoshop

So, this is how you can create Watercolor Painting Effect in Photoshop.

Practice this Photoshop Painting Effect Tutorial and share your views in the comment section. Also, share this Photoshop tutorial with others.

Author

  • Vivi Designing

    Vivi Designing is a platform for people who are in love with design and are eager to learn for creativity and inspiration. We provide free design resources, articles, tutorials, techniques, and the latest trends in Adobe Illustration and Adobe Photoshop.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *