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Oil painting in photoshop my

easy paint technique
by Simon Stratford

May 24, 2013

36 comments

Oil painting in photoshop, is it

possible to get that oil brush work in
a flat image? I was messing with
Photoshop yesterday trying to make
a photo look like a Rembrandt
painting.
A Rembrandt, yeah right, shut up, thats, never
going to happen
Okay aim lower, how about a hand painted art
effect? inspired by the colour palette of Rembrandt.
He used a technique called chiaroscuro. Its an Italian
word that basically means that you use dark
http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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shadows with bright light. The theory is the contrast

gives a painting an intense depth that draws the eye
into the painting.

No photoshop filters required

I dont use many adobe ps filters, turns out most are
total crap. Try the art effects, they are shockingly
bad, nothing like what I would expect anyway. Rant
over, Im using ps cs5 to get this oil painting effect,
but its so simple you could do it with any version.
You dont need any fancy filters (apart from sharpen),
no graphics tablet, and to be honest very little skill to
achieve nice results from your photo. Im sure there
are third party filters that would get you close to this
oil painting effect but Im not using them here.

Oil painting in photoshop

First off you need a good photo, the higher the
http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

Rembrandt
Before starting my
oil painting I tried to
adjust the photo
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resolution the better. This wont work so well with a

tiny 72dpi image, so get a good hires photo to start
with. Its also best, if you have your subject in the
middle of the frame, looking at the camera. You
could do this oil painting with any subject matter, but
for this tutorial well keep it simple.
Sit and watch the time lapse video of me working,
the oil painting technique is very easy. The basic
premise is that we are brushing over the top of the
original image with the smudge tool. Its all in the
brush work or in this case the mouse work and
goes something like this.

http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

colour to
Rembrandts
palette, trying to
get yellow ocher
and burnt sienna
kind of look and
feel.

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Lets break it down

1. Pick a big art brush (fan brush is good)
2. Select the smudge tool
http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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3. Duplicate your photo layer

4. Follow the contour of the face and smudge
very roughly at first
5. Use long flowing brush marks (the aim is to
smudge everything, eventually)
6. After you have smudged each area, like the
ear, flatten with the layer below
7. Adjust the Strength of the smudge tool to get
different effects.
8. Duplicate the layer and smudge again

Oil painting in photoshop tips

Change your paint brush, and brush size often, so
the brush marks are not all the same. The eye for
instance will need a smaller brush, the forehead a
bigger brush.
The fan brush is good for blending. Ive used it to
blend the edge of the person to the background, to
give that blurry, misty painting technique.
http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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Push the paint around from dark areas to lighter

areas and vice versa. Use long and short brush
strokes. Dont worry if you make a mistake, just undo
or smudge the paint over the mistake.
Change the strength of the smudge tool, 80% is
good for strong bold brush marks, 40% is good to
blend the paint rather than smudge it. Less than 40%
produces very delicate results a bit like the blur tool.
You could use blur filter to blur the edge of the
figure, so it looks a bit more dreamlike. Be careful
not to over do it.
Just to recap:
Change the brush size often
Use the fan brush
Push colour around
Change the brush strength

Sharpen the image to get realistic brush

strokes
http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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Once you have finished your smudge painting, you

need to sharpen your image to reveal the brush
marks. This really brings the painting to life, it makes
it pop, and looks like real brush strokes it goes
something like this.
A close up of the brush
work, as you can see
the sharpen effect really
brings out the brush
work. It gives it depth
so it looks a bit like
thick strokes of paint.

1. Duplicate your paint layer

2. Use filter/smart sharpen
3. Set Amount to 500% and radius of 1.8
(depending on your photo resolution, adjust)
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4. Look good? now knock back the opacity a

bit.

Optionally add a texture layer

Finally Ive added a kind of paint overlay to my whole
image and knocked it back. I just wanted some extra
texture in the background to give it a kind of aged
look. You dont need this, but I liked it.
This technique might sound complicated but trust
me its not, anyone can create an oil painting in
photoshop.

Before photoshop

http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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After the oil painting effect

http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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Get me to do the oil painting for you

If you dont have time to do your own oil painting in
photoshop then you can hire me to do it for you. I
now offer this as a service, but be warned its not
http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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cheap. It can take well over 5 hrs work to create the

oil painting effect.
Ive proved that its not that difficult but it does take
time. Cost depends on your picture, the more
complex the more it costs. I generally charge around
150 for a print ready piece of artwork.
If you are interested youll need
A high resolution photograph (nothing shot
on your mobile phone)
A well lit photograph
A head a shoulder shot

Feel free to mail me to talk about your project.

That is all.
More oil painting stories:

http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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(http://simonstratford.com/michael-fassbender/)

Michael Fassbender photoshop oil painting with

cracked paint (http://simonstratford.com/michaelfassbender/)

(http://simonstratford.com/benedict-cumberbatch/)

Benedict Cumberbatch Vincent van Gogh painting

(http://simonstratford.com/benedict-cumberbatch/)

http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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(http://simonstratford.com/photoshop-oil-portrait/)

Thom Yorke photoshop oil portrait with realistic

texture (http://simonstratford.com/photoshop-oilportrait/)

(http://simonstratford.com/oil-

painting-in-photoshop/)

Oil painting in photoshop my easy paint technique

(http://simonstratford.com/oil-painting-in-photoshop/)
http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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36 COMMENTS
Westwood
August 11, 2013 at 11:22 am

This is sick!!! and the fact that its done with zero actions
(which are horrible by the way) just makes it awesome!

itsmesimon
October 5, 2013 at 8:07 am

Post author

Thanks for the feeback westwood

Lucie Drabkova
August 16, 2013 at 12:02 am

EXACTLY what Ive been looking for you saved me ! Thanks!

mark
August 24, 2013 at 4:36 pm

http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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Best is always simplest, thanks for this!

Cassandra
September 20, 2013 at 9:56 pm

Just what I needed. Thanks for the easy to follow tips!

Jeroen
October 4, 2013 at 10:45 pm

Nice tutorial.
You talk about a big art brush (fan brush is good)
I see several brushes in Photoshop, but no art brush collection.
Could you be more specific?
Greetings,
Jeroen

itsmesimon
October 5, 2013 at 8:11 am

Post author

Jeroen at the time of creating this I was using cs5, Im using

photoshop cs6 now if you select the brush tool then click the
brushes drop down (top left) the fan brush is about the 14-16
brush. I think its always been there even in older versions of
photoshop.
Its not part of any art brush collection, its a basic brush, I call it
an art brush because it has a brush icon rather than a round
icon, and its a fan brush that traditional artists use (I think to
http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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blend colours)
Hope that helps you.

Trista
October 31, 2013 at 11:48 pm

ARGH! Ive been looking for how to do this for ages! Everyone
is so taken with actions, but it just looks like a garbage filter.
THIS makes sense to me! And I dont have a tablet, so mouse
painting is the best I can do! Thanks x100000

itsmesimon
January 2, 2014 at 8:20 pm

Post author

I dont have a tablet either, just good old mouse.

amy
November 5, 2013 at 2:04 pm

Thank you so much! I paint as well as being a graphic designer

and i think this is so much fun and useful , very nice of you to
share :)

Heather
November 11, 2013 at 4:08 pm

I personally Think article, How to make a photo

look like an oil painting in photoshop was in fact spot on!
http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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I personallycant agree together with u even more! Finally

appears like I reallydiscovered a weblog really worth checking
out. Thanks for your effort, Drusilla

itsmesimon
February 13, 2014 at 7:53 am

Post author

Are you human or spam, its hard to tell these days!

Navini
November 16, 2013 at 7:29 pm

DUDE! you are a life saver! :D

you just helped me on my wedding invitations man!
i love it!!!
Godspeed!

itsmesimon
November 22, 2013 at 10:32 pm

Post author

Glad it helped!

Serene
November 28, 2013 at 12:28 am

What kind of paint overlays did you use? Did you get them
from another website for free?

http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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itsmesimon
January 2, 2014 at 8:16 pm

Post author

It was just a few paint textures I found on the web, nothing

special, you could use a cracked paint texture, to give it an
aged look.

BenzeneWings
January 16, 2014 at 9:01 am

Very nice!

Stuart Cutting
January 16, 2014 at 10:45 am

Thanks for the great guide, exactly what I have been looking
for.

seyi888
January 23, 2014 at 6:08 pm

How did you get the brush to also smudge the image as well?
and which brush did you use? Did I need to smudge the whole
image or just the outline of his head (including ears)? Do I only
need the brush for the rest of the picture?

Douwe
January 24, 2014 at 8:37 am
http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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Wow!
Just what I like: no fancy effects, layer styles, etc. Just an artist
and a his tools :)

Alfie
February 5, 2014 at 7:16 pm

This is genius! Thanks! I hope theres a normal rate version of

the video.

itsmesimon
February 13, 2014 at 7:55 am

Post author

nope! its gone, the file was massive and I needed the space.
Also it would be very boring watching 4hrs of this, almost like
watching paint dry.

Tito
February 11, 2014 at 5:27 pm

Nice tutorial, It really help me, Im trying to make a Russian

generals portrait with my dads face.

itsmesimon
February 13, 2014 at 7:56 am

http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

Post author

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Tito, Ive seen that somewhere on the internet, looked really

good, thinking of doing the same thing myself. Good Luck.

Tito
March 5, 2014 at 2:00 pm

Done!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordtito/12482147613/

itsmesimon
March 8, 2014 at 8:08 am

Post author

Lovin your work!

Dee
February 19, 2014 at 9:29 am

Amazing! Thank you for sharing!

Divakar
March 4, 2014 at 9:08 am

Thnx Sir,
I like this tutorial. Its very easy & Effective

itsmesimon
March 8, 2014 at 8:08 am
http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

Post author

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no problem

Esther
March 18, 2014 at 10:43 pm

This was great. Good job! Thank you for sharing!

I also agree with one of the other comments . Just what I
like: no fancy effects, layer styles, etc. Just an artist and a his
tool.

Greta
March 24, 2014 at 4:59 am

Thats a great tutorial! Thank you for showing us your method.

Overpainting really lifts a portrait, and a painted photo makes
a great gift too how often do people get their portraits
painted nowadays? Plus you can use it to get all sorts of cool
effects that cant be done in real life, or special lighting, props
or environments. A NZ-based artist that I know used a photo of
his son to create this illustration of Mark Twains Huckleberry
Finn for a recent exhibition, he made a process video and the
results are just gorgeous: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=CQpqKlkGyD4

Evy
September 22, 2014 at 9:57 pm

Thank you for this amazing post! :)

http://simonstratford.com/oilpaintinginphotoshop/

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