In this Photoshop 7 tutorial we will employ the Equalize, Hard Light, Chalk and Charcoal and Spatter filters to create a painting with strong colors and texture. The image is part of a larger photo, taken with a digital camera and cropped to a file size of 1.8 megapixels.

Save a copy of the original photo in the clipboard (Select All and Copy).

 

Click on Image>Adjustments>Invert

Click on Image>Adjustments>Equalize

Save the file with a new name

 

 

Open the Layers Box in the Window Menu

TIP – You can create an action script of the following set of instructions:

Create a new layer with the original image

Set the current layer to Mode: Hard Light

Flatten the image

Click on Filter>Artistic>Cutout

Slide No. of Levels ruler to Maximum (8)

Slide the Edge Simplicity ruler to 4

Slide the Edge Fidelity ruler to 2. Click OK

Click on Edit>Fade Cutout>Luminosity

Set Opacity to 80%. Click OK (end of action script)

 

Use your best artistic judgement and repeat the action script process as many times as necessary until you obtain the best coloration and essential detail.

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Create a duplicate layer by clicking Command-J (or drag the background to the New Layer Icon)

Set the foreground color in the toolbar to a gray tone (approximately 60% black) and the background color to white.

Click on Filter>Sketch>Chalk and Charcoal

Slide the Charcoal Area ruler to 6

Slide the Chalk Area ruler to 20

Slide the Stroke Pressure ruler to 1

 

Click on Filter>Brush Strokes>Spatter

Set Spray Radius to 10 and Smoothness to 5.

Click OK

 

Click on Filter>Artistic>Underpainting

Keep the Brush Size at 0

Set the Texture Coverage to 20

Keep the Texture as Canvas and

slide the Scaling to 100% and Relief to 4

In Light Direction choose Bottom Left

Click OK

Set the Current Layer to Luminosity in the Layers Palette with 75%
Opacity.

 

 

 

Flatten the image and adjust the contrast. Click on Image>Adjustments>Selective
Color and add the “final touches” to the digital painting by tweaking the colors and values.

Red Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%
Yellow Slider: C 0% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 50%
Green Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%
Cyan Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%
Blue Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%
Magenta Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%
White Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%
Neutral Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%
Black Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%

Click HERE to see the photopainting.