Creative Effects Challenge No. 205 - Painterly Image

[Tom]

This Creative Effects Challenge creates a Painterly effect that is quite attractive, I think.

The video tutorial is by davrodigital and can be seen here: Painterly image in Photoshop Elements

I am including written directions, but the video is especially worth watching, as you get to see him playing with the filter settings and hear why he lands on the ones he does.

The settings shown in parenthesis are the ones I used; yours will likely be different!

Duplicate the image twice (Ctrl+J), rename top layer “Sketch”, rename the 2nd layer “Cutout”

1. Apply a Sketch-effect to the top layer
    Select the top layer and click Filter | Sketch | Graphic Novel | Twisted Plot
    • Click the 1:1 button to view at 100%
    • Adjust Darkness to your liking (2.3)
    • Adjust Clean Look (4)
    • Adjust Contrast (2.56)
    • Adjust Thickness (0.96)
    • Adjust Smoothness (1)
    • OK to accept settings
    Ctrl-1 To view at 100%
    Change the Blend mode to Soft Light

2. Apply a Cutout-effect to the second layer
    Select the second layer and click Filter | Filter Gallery | Artistic | Cutout
    • Right-click and select 100%
    • Adjust Number of Levels (7)
    • Edge Simplicity (4)
    • Edge Fidelity (2)
    • OK to accept settings

3. Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer
    Click Layer | New Adjustment Layer | Hue/Saturation…
    • Adjust Saturation to your liking (40)

4. Create a new layer below Sketch Layer, rename it “Texture”
    Click Edit | Fill Layer… | Use: 50% Gray
    Click Filter | Filter Gallery | Texture | Texturizer
    • Sandstone
    • Scaling: 200%
    • Relief: 10
    Change the Blend mode to Soft Light
    If the texture looks too strong, reduce the layer Opacity

5. Add a vignette
    Click the top layer to select it
    Select the Rectangular Marquee Tool (M)
    Drag out a rectangle that leaves a frame around the subject
    Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer above the top layer
    • Invert the layer’s mask by pressing Ctrl-I
    • Move the Lightness slider up to wash out the border (80)
    • Soften the edge by blurring it
    • Click Filter | Blur | Gaussian Blur…
    • Radius: 22.2

Here is my version of this tutorial.  I adjusted the resolution to 120 ppi.  It is worth noting that the higher the resolution the more subtle will be the effect.

(Click for full size view - image from Pixabay)