Travel photos are ideal to recreate as paintings, as you will see from this sample picture from All-about-Egypt of the columns at the Temple of Karnak. A free Photoshop action of this painting effect is available for download at the end of this tutorial.
Recalculate the original photo file size to 9″ x 12″ at 72dpi,
about 1.3 megapixels. After the photo painting is finished you can bring it back up to a larger file size.
Save a copy of the original photo in the clipboard (Select All and Copy).
Open the Layers Box in the Window Menu
Create three new layers with the original image (Command J)
Set the top layer to Mode: Colors
Set the other two layers to Mode: Difference
Save the file with a new name
Select Layer Background
Click on Filter>Pixelate> Mosaic
Cell Size 62 pixels Click OK
Hide Layer 1 (click on the eye icon)
Click on the right top arrow and choose Merge visible
With Background still selected click on Image>Adjustments>Equalize
Now select Layer 1 to make it visible again and flatten the image
Paste the original image you saved in the clickboard (Command V)
Set the current layer to Mode: Hard Light
Flatten the image
Click on Image>Adjustment>Equalize
Click on Edit>Fade Equalize
Slide the Opacity ruler to 50%. Click OK
