Instant Watercolour Painting

Here's how to turn this:

At the Smithsonian Flight Museum, Washington, DC

into this:

Little Butch

Open the photo (will be background).

Duplicate the photo (i.e. the background layer) 3 times.

On the first layer (from the bottom):

Filter>Artistic>Cutout, 4, 4, 2
Blend Mode: Luminosity

layer 1

On layer 2:

Filter>Artistic>Dry Brush, 10, 10, 3
Blend Mode: Screen

layer 2 (including layer 1)

just for fun here's what layer 2 looks like by itself

On layer 3:

Filter>Noise>Median>12 pixels
Blend Mode: Soft Light

Note: make all the layers visible to achieve the end result




Instant Watercolour Painting

I was having so much fun. Here's another one I did.


Beautiful BC Mountains

Just one more:


view from the tower in Policka

Policka, Czech Republic

I noticed the clouds disappeared so I may need to tweak some settings.

Clouds are back (I used cutout filter 8,4,2 instead of 4,4,2)

Mad About Screenprinting

I was inspired by this self-portrait poster of Andy Warhol.

1. As always, open the photo, duplicate the layer, and remove the background.

2. Add a white background layer and insert it below the photo.

3. Adjust the Brightness/Contrast.

Enhance>Adjust Brightness/Contrast>Brightness/Contrast.

I just played around to whatever looked right. The first time I lost the right shoulder (too much bright white or not enough contrast perhaps) so I had to keep moving the sliders until it reappeared. Note: since this was a b/w photo originally there is no need to remove the colour. However; if it is a colour photo, select Enhance>Adjust Colour>Remove Colour first.

3. Apply the Cutout Filter

Filter>Artistic>Cutout
number of levels 4
edge simplicity 2
edge fidelity 2

4. Adjust the Levels of RGB

Enhance>Adjust Brightness/Contrast>Levels

This is where you play around with the sliders to get the effect you want. I was aiming for black, white and three shades of gray to appear on my image.

Black, White and Three Shades of Grey

5. Apply the cutout filter again but this time increase the edge simplicity to 4.

6. Adjust the levels again but this time I was aiming for black, white and one shade of grey.

Black, White, Grey

Fun Times Colouring

Picture No. 1

Add a New Fill Layer>Solid Colour—green colour, Blend Mode: Multiply, Opacity 23%, all on a White Background.




Just Plain Jane

Picture No. 2

Add a new layer above the photo, call it green hair, and using the Brush Tool, paint over the hair in green and select Blend Mode: Multiply.

Add a new layer above the photo, call it red skin, and using the Brush Tool, paint over the skin in red and select Blend Mode: Multiply.

Add a new background below the photo and using the paint bucket fill it with orange and use Blend Mode: Normal.

Somehow these colours work

Picture No. 3

Select the green hair layer and duplicate it (right click). Rename this layer red hair. Using the Paint Bucket Tool, fill what was green to red.

Make a pink skin layer in the same way.

Add a new background below the photo and using the paint bucket fill it with purple and use Blend Mode: Normal.



These colours look pretty together

Picture No. 4

I noticed there were additional brush strokes on Andy's version (only on some of the panels) and I thought it would be fun to try and simulate that.

Create a new green background layer (you can use the red hair and pink skin that you already have).
Select this new green layer and using the Brush Tool, paint in the strokes. Change your brush to get the effect you like. I used a Wet Media Brush>Dry Brush on Towel.  The name is perfect.

The "Dry Brush on Towel" Brush was used here

Picture Nos. 5 and 6

Repeat steps as required.

Ta Da!