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.

Let’s begin with the Photoshop Painting Effect Tutorial:
Step 1
Launch Adobe Photoshop and open the image as a new document.

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.



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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.


Change the Blending Mode of the layer to Soft Light.

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