From photo to painting

James Paterson uses Photoshop CC’s Mixer Brush tool to transform any photograph into a unique digital painting

- James Paterson

This is a fun project to try out on a photo from your image library – you could pick an outdoor scene like this, or why not try a different genre of painting? Perhaps portraiture, still life or abstract? We’ll use the Mixer Brush to give the photo the look of an impressionist painting.

If you’ve ever looked through the Photoshop Filter Gallery you’ll know that there are several filters within that can be used to create a painterly look. But they are all rather blunt and universal…

The great thing about using the Mixer Brush instead is that it creates painterly strokes based on the details and colours within the image. Meaning you can tailor the effect to the image, rather than applying a generic filter.

However, this involves a little more work. We have to gently push and pull the colours around with the brush to create our painterly strokes, following along with the lines and shapes in the scene with short, sharp strokes. Once done, we can enhance the effect with other brushes, including a great free set from Adobe themselves.

Using several layers allows us to gradually build up the effect. Just as a painter might block out areas of the canvas with colours and rough shapes, we can start by using broad strokes, then go on to add finer details in later, if we choose. It may take a little while to do, but it’s a relaxing and rewarding task, and makes even the most ham-fisted scrawler feel as if they are really painting.

1 Mixer Brush settings