STEP BY STEP DIGITAL PAINTINGS IN PHOTOSHOP

Set up the Mixer Brush Tool to transfrom your pictures into paintings

01 MIXER BRUSH SETTINGS

Open the Layers panel and click the new layer icon, then get the Mixer Brush Tool from the toolbox. Tick ‘Sample All Layers’ in the tool options. Click the preset dropdown and pick ‘Very Wet’. Enable the ‘Clean Brush’ icon and turn off the ‘Load Brush after each stroke’ icon.

02 START PAINTING

Select a rough-edged or bristle brush tip from the brush picker dropdown list and start painting on the empty layer to smudge the colours. Use short, sharp strokes to blend the colours, slowly building up the effect and following the lines and shapes in the frame.

03 ADD FINE DETAILS

Use a large brush tip to start and block in the colours with broad strokes. Play with different types of brush tip to see which works for you. Next, hide the layer, then make a new layer and use a smaller brush to add details. Continue, like so, to build up the effect.

04 DOWNLOAD FREE ADOBE BRUSHES

Grab the normal Brush tool and make a new layer. Open the brush picker, click the cog icon and choose ‘Get more brushes’. Download the Watercolor set from Adobe. Alt-click to sample colours from the image and paint a few splashes around the edges.

05 ENHANCE THE COLOURS

Highlight the top layer and merge a copy of all layers by pressing Cmd/ctrl+shift+alt+e, then go to Filter> Camera Raw Filter. Use the tonal controls in the Camera Raw Basic panel to boost contrast and saturation then hit OK. Next duplicate the layer with Cmd/ctrl+j.

06 EMBOSS THE PAINT

We can use a filter to give our strokes extra depth, as if the paint has been thickly applied in places. Go to Filter>stylise>emboss. Adjust the settings to create ridges in the image as shown. Hit OK, then go to the Layers panel and change the Blend Mode to Overlay.