STEP BY STEP / Painting by filters

1 Make copies Back in Photoshop, press Cmd/Ctrl+J three more times to make three duplicates. Name the first one ‘Cutout’, the one above ‘Median’, and the top one ‘Glowing Edges’. Click the eye icons to hide the top two layers and highlight the ‘Cutout’ layer. 2 The cutout filter Go to Filter>Filter Gallery. Click Artistic and choose Cutout. Press Cmd/Ctrl+0 to see the entire image in the preview window. Set Edge Simplicity to 4, Fidelity to 2, then play with the Levels slider. Click OK, then click the Blending Mode menu and choose Luminosity.

3 The Median filter Highlight and reveal the ‘Median’ layer by clicking the eye symbol, then go to Filter>Noise>Median. Set the Radius to about 12 pixels. Change the blending mode to Soft Light. Set Cutout to 22% Opacity and Median to 50% Opacity. Highlight and reveal the ‘Glowing Edges’ layer. 4 Glowing edges Go to Filter>Filter Gallery. Choose Stylize>Glowing Edges and set Width to 3, Brightness to 7, and Smooth to 5. Next press Cmd/Ctrl+I to invert the tones, then Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+U to desaturate the entire image. Finally, change the blending mode to Multiply. 5 Hide messy edges Click the Add Layer Mask icon, then select the Brush tool and set the colour to black. Paint on the mask to hide the sketch effect over the hair and in any places where it looks a little messy. Press Cmd/ Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to merge a copy of all the layers. Name it ‘Painting’. 6 Hide the layer Hold Cmd/Ctrl and click the New Layer icon to add a layer below the selected layer. Go to Edit>Fill, choose Use: White and click OK. Name the layer ‘White BG’. Highlight the Painting layer, then hold Alt and click the Add Layer Mask icon to add a full black mask. 7 Brush to reveal Select the Brush tool and set the colour to white. Open the Brush Preset Picker, then click the cog to open the flyout menu. Load the Wet Media brushes. Choose the Oil Medium Brush Wet Edges brush tip, press 4 for 40% brush opacity, then begin painting to reveal the image. 8 Add texture To randomize the brush strokes, change the Shape Dynamics Size and Angle jitters. Finish by adding texture: Alt-click the New Layer icon, choose Mode: Overlay and tick Fill. Go to Filter>Filter Gallery, choose Texture>Texturizer, set Texture to Canvas, Scaling to 130, then OK.