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In this Photoshop tutorial you’ll learn how to make photos look like paintings.

If you enjoy creating unique and “handmade” designs with photos then you are going to enjoy this effect and you can use it on all types of photos to give them a painted on canvas look. You can also rough up the edges to make them look like the photo really was painted directly onto an artist’s canvas.

First you will begin by opening your photo in Photoshop. In your Layers palette you will see that you have one layer and it is the Background layer. The first step you will want to take is to add a new blank layer to the palette. This layer will cover your background and you can do this by clicking on the New Layer icon on the palette. It looks like a sticky note pad.
Now you will see that you have a new transparent layer above the background. You can rename your layer if you would wish. This will be a white background. You want your photo to look like it was painted on this layer so you need to fill it with white. You can use the Fill option to make the new layer white. It will temporarily hide your original photo behind it, so don’t think you messed up and deleted it.

Next, you will create the painted edges effect. To do this you will want to select the Brush tool. With your brush tool selected, you will right click inside the layer and your Brush tool options box will appear. Click on the small right-pointing arrow on the top right corner of the dialog box. Select Thick Heavy Brushes from the list. Another box will pop up and ask if you want to load the brush set and replace your current brush set. Click OK or Append in Photoshop CS2.

Now you can find the Flat Bristle 111-pixel brush. After the brush is selected you will click on Add Layer Mask at the bottom of the layers palette. It appears as a box with a circle in it. After you do this, you will set your foreground color to black. As you paint across the photo to create the brush strokes, the Background photo will begin to appear through the white layer. Do this to your delight to create the painted edge effect that you want. Also, as you do this, you want to ensure that your layer mask is selected and not the actual layer itself. This is very important. You can experiment with the Rough Flat Bristle brush as well to add a rougher texture to the edges of the photo.

Finally, select the white background layer and add another new layer. Fill this new layer with white as well. Go to Filter > Texture and then select Texturizer. Set the texture to Canvas and scale to 100%. The light direction should be Top and Relief should be set to 4. Click OK to apply the texture. Now you will change the blend mode. On the layers palette you will select Multiply from where it currently says Normal. As soon as you do this, you will be able to see your painted photo with the canvas texture applied. Now you have a painted photo to use in your graphic design or on websites, etc.

About the author: Valerie Mellema is a freelance writer and the owner of Words You Want.