Easily Transform Your Photo into a Watercolour Painting in Photoshop

Posted on December 6th, 2008 under Photo Effect, it has 25 Comments and 30,203 Views so far.

In this tutorial, I will show you the processes I used to transform a daily average photo into a Painting-like Image in Photoshop. The steps are really simple and you can apply them in pretty much any photo you like.

We will be using techniques such as layer blending options, image adjustment tools and filters.

Here is a before-and-after preview of this tutorial:

Before:

After:

Ok let’s get started!

Step 1

1. Load a photo of you choice into photoshop. You can use the above “before” image if you want to follow exactly what’s in this tutorial.

Once you load your photo, duplicate the background layer once, and change the blending option of the duplicated layer to “overlay”. The way it add a bit more colour contrast to the photo and we will be able to play with this layer further in this tutorial.

The effect will look like this:

Step 2

Still on the “Background Copy” layer, hit Ctrl + M to bring up the Curve Tool, apply the following settings:

The result so far:

Step 3

Duplicate the “Background Copy” layer once, keep the layer blending option of the duplicated layer as “Overlay”, then hit Ctrl+Alt+Shift+B to bring up the Black and White adjustment tool and use the following settings:

After applying Black and White Adjsutment, duplicate this layer once and apply Gaussian Blur filter on it. This is to give some extra softness to the image.

See below for detail settings:

After applying Gaussian Blur, hit Ctrl + M and bring up the curve tool again and apply the following setting:

Here is the effect so far:

Step 4

To make the watercolour effect more realistic, we can use the Glass filter on image. Duplicate the “background 3″ layer once, go to Filter > Distort > Glass and apply the following settings on the duplicated layer:

Optional: We can also adjust the layer opacity of this layer a bit:

Here is the result so far:

Step 5

Ok now you may think the sky looks a bit empty, no worries, we can grab some fantastic cloud brushsets on Qbrush.com. Create a new layer and name it “cloud”, paint some cloud using the brushes you donwloaded over the top.

Here is the result so far:

Ok, that’s it for this tutorial! You can further edit the image by adding some colour overlay or some lighting effects. That’s totally up to you.

Here is my final image of this tutorial:

Hope you enjoy this tutorial and if you have any question, drop me a line!

Cheers and have a great day!

Moriah Says:
I wish you could have showed us how to make the colors like that . If you could please respond to this comments and maybe send me a tutorial about how to do that. i would really appreciate it.
thanks,
Moriah
James Says:
hi moriah,
The colour effect is really easy. If you managed to get the last step, simply save your work as a JPEG image, then load the saved JPEG image back in.
Use a BIG round brush (200px+), set the brush mode to overlay/color dodge with an opacity of around 50%, choose a brush colour and just paint over the image.
Hope this helps:)
Jo Says:
Hi James,
I really love your tutorial and want to be able to get this effect on some photos from Ireland, my only problem is I can’t seem to find the black and white adjustment tool! I tried using the keyboard shortcut you provided and looked through every single option in the windows but still no luck. I’m using portable photoshop, would this mean that I don’t have that option, and if so, is there an alternative way of applying that step?

Thanks!

Jo
James Says:
Hi Jo~ yeah the earlier version of Photoshop may not have B&W tool, but you may be able to just desaturate the image first, then use curve or level tool to alter the image a bit.
Hope this helps
Pat Says:
That looks great.
This might be a silly question but im new to Photoshop, and i was just wondering how you created that splattered paint effect like in the bottom left hand corner, and the white border that is around it?
It looks amazing and has given me some great inspiration!
Thanx :)
admin Says:
Hi Pat~ it’s easy, you can dowload brushes from qbrushes.com or someo other websites and google “load brush into photoshop”. Be aware that some brushes may not be compatible with the older version.
After download, you can choose you brushes then just painting over the image.
Hope this helps
Peter Schaefer Says:
Very cool, Thank you!

Best,
Lautus Design
jay Says:
Hi james! How can I load the brush i’ve downloaded to CS3?
James Says:
Hi Jay, you can go http://myphotoshopbrushes.com/install_brushes for some detailed instructions of how to install brushes in CS3.
Hope this helps~
Viren Says:
Kool Thanx Bro :D
Yvonne Says:
thank you for your tutorial… :)
bruce Says:
Can you please give a step by step on the exact colors you choose to get that effect in the end? Can you post the color codes? I am new to PS. I can’t seem to get those colors. Maybe do a sep. tut on color adding.
James Says:
Hi bruce, the color I chose is simply the Red, Green, Yellow. You can create a new layer on top of every other layer and set it to “overlay”, then simply use a big brush to paint over it.
hope this helps
Ann Says:
Hello James. Your tutorial has been an answer to my hunger for becoming skilled in PS. Thanks God I found your website.Can you please tell me how to choose and put a color on a brush tool? I can’t seem find it. One more thing, what do you mean by “desaturate the image first” when somebody asked about the “Black and White Adjustment Tool” being nonexistent in Photoshop CS2?Me neither is unsuccessful after looking it up through the whole window.I need your answer asap. Thanks a lot James.
Ann Browne Says:
How do you get the image onto a real canvas to frame? iI want to take a photograph of our house and turn it into a painting.

Can you explain that part of the final process?
Business Cards Says:
I love your work! I’m a big fan. Your tutorials are always very enjoyable to read, and this is no different. You did another excellent job. I also love the white effect on the edges. This’ll look really cool when printed on canvas. Thanks for posting this!
Z Says:
That picture is awesome!
Cass Says:
the tutorial was great to follow but it was a total let down. u showed the before and after pictures as if u were gonna guide us through the colouring effect of the after photo. but u didnt. u should have just put the step 5 picture as ur after photo. no offence but not finishing ( with guiding us though the colour effects) is just pure laziness. sorry
Cass
ps u do definitely have though
Cass Says:
i meant to say
ps. u definetly have talent though