Watercolor Painting Effect Page 4 of 4

Watercolor Painting Effect Page 1 of 5 Written by Steve Patterson Preparation: [http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/watercolor- 1. Find 3 COLORFUL pictures on the internet painting/page-3.php; 03/02/11] and save them to your Watercolor folder. In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, we’re going to 2. Open a picture. 3. Size the picture: learn how to easily make a photo look more a. CROP your picture like a watercolor painting. This photo effect a.i. Size 6x4 or 4x6; resolution = 300 works best on images where maintaining rich 4. Save your picture colors and strong contrast is more important a. LN_FN_Watercolor_#_WC [# = 1, 2, 3] than keeping any fine details since you’ll be You are to complete 3 watercolors. losing a lot of detail with this effect. b. Format: PSD

Creating the effect is as simple as duplication some layers applying a few filters and using a few different layer blend modes and the whole thing takes only a couple of minutes from start Step 1: Duplicate the Background Layer to finish. Three Times With the image newly opened in Photoshop, if we look in our Layers palette we can see that we currently have one layer, the Background layer, which contains our image.

We need to create three copies of the Background layer, so use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+J three times to duplicate the Background layer three times. If we look again in our Layers palette, we can see that we now have four layers with the original Background layer on the bottom and three copies above it.

OR Press the “Create new layer” button 3 times.

D:\Docs\2018-04-13\0c21f4e9ca6311967c2a88bbede4d4a7.docx Watercolor Painting Effect Page 2 of 5 Step 2: Turn Off The Top Two Layers Step 4: Apply the “Cutout” Filter On the far left of each layer in the Layers The first thing we’re going to do is simplify our palette, you’ll see a small eyeball icon. This is image and we can do that using Photoshop’s the Layer Visibility icon, and it determines “Cutout” filter. With “Layer 1” selected, go up whether or not the layer is currently visible in to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, the Photoshop document. When the eyeball choose Filter Gallery…, then Artistic, and icon is visible, it means the layer itself is then choose Cutout. In the settings box to the visible. Click on the icon for the top two layers right side, set these parameters: in the Layers palette to temporarily hide them from view inside the document. When you click on the icon, it disappears, letting you know that the layer is no longer visible. Step 5: Change the Blend Mode of “Layer 1” to “Luminosity” With “Layer 1” still selected, go up Step 3: Select Layer 1 to the Blend With the top two layers temporarily hidden from Mode options in view, click on “Layer 1” in the Layers palette to the top left of the select it. You’ll know which layer is selected Layers palette. By because the currently selected layer is default, layers are highlighted in blue. set to the “Normal” blend mode. Click on the down- pointing arrow to the right if the word. “Normal” and select the Luminosity blend mode from the bottom of the list.

Your image should now look something like this after changing the blend mode of “Layer 1 ´to Luminosity.

D:\Docs\2018-04-13\0c21f4e9ca6311967c2a88bbede4d4a7.docx Watercolor Painting Effect Page 3 of 5 Step 6: Turn On the Layer Above “Layer 1” Step 8: and Select the Layer Change The Still in the Layers palette, click inside the empty Layer Blend square where the eyeball icon used to be on Mode to the layer directly above “Layer 1” “Screen” (“Layer 1 copy”) to turn that layer back on, so With “Layer 1 it’s visible again copy” still inside the canvas. selected, go up to Turning a layer the Blend Mode back on doesn’t options once again actually select the in the top left of the layer though, and Layers palette, click we need to have on the down-pointing it selected as arrow to the right of well, so once the word “Normal”, you’ve turned the and change the layer back on, blend mode for the click anywhere else on “Layer 1 copy” to select layer to Screen. it so it’s highlighted in blue.

Step 7 Apply the “Dry Brush” Filter We’re going to add some texture to our image at this point With “Layer 1 copy” selected and Your visible once again inside the document, go image back up to the Filter menu at the top of the should screen, choose Filter Gallery…, Artistic once now look again, and this time, choose Dry Brush. On something the right are the settings for the Dry Brush’s like this: filters. Set the Brush Size to 10, the Brush Detail to 10 and the Texture option to 3. Click OK when you’re done to apply the filter. Step 9: Turn on the Top Layer and Select It Just as we did with “Layer 1 copy” a moment ago, click inside the empty square where the eyeball icon used to be on the top layer in the Layers palette (“Layer 1 copy 2”) to turn the layer back on and make it visible once again inside the canvas. Then click anywhere else on the layer to select it so it’s highlighted in blue.

D:\Docs\2018-04-13\0c21f4e9ca6311967c2a88bbede4d4a7.docx Watercolor Painting Effect Page 4 of 5 Step 10: Apply the “Median” Filter Press CTRL+S to Save your PSD file! With the top layer Work on your other pictures. selected and visible again inside the document, go back up to the Filter menu at the top of the screen, this time choose Noise, and then choose Median. The Median filter will remove even more detail from the image, and the nice thing about it is that it does so without blurring the image so edges remain well defined. When the Median Filter’s dialog box appears, set the Radius value at the bottom to 12 pixels. Press OK to accept the changes.

Step 11 Change the Blend Mode of the Top Layer to “Soft Light.” To complete the effect with the top layer still selected, go up to the Blend Mode option in the top left of the Layers palette, click again on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word “Normal,” and change the layer’s blend mode to Soft Light.

Once you’ve changed the blend mode to “Soft Light,” you’re done! D:\Docs\2018-04-13\0c21f4e9ca6311967c2a88bbede4d4a7.docx Watercolor Painting Effect Page 5 of 5 How to turn in completed work to the S:\ Drive:

1. In Photoshop: a. Open your 3 watercolor PSD files. b. Select File > Save As… b.i. Name: Delete WC and add Final. Morris_Richard_Watercolor_#_Final b.ii. Format: JPG [go to the first one] b.iii. Quality: 12 Maximum 2. Use My Computer: a. Navigate to your MassMedia_Photo folder in Docs a.i. Hold down the CTRL key while clicking on each of your LN_FN_Watercolor_#_Final pictures. There should be three (3). a.ii. Let go of the CTRL key and right click on one of the selected pictures. a.ii.1. Select COPY so that the 3 files are copied to memory. b. Navigate to the proper folder on the S:\ Drive. b.i. S:\Communications\Digital Media\4035 - Mass Media\Student Drop\Photo_MM\Watercolor b.ii. RIGHT click and Paste. Your files should now be there. b.iii. DO NOT save your files using Photoshop to the S:\ drive as your files will be locked and the teacher will be unable to grade them! 3. Fill out and turn in the Grading sheet.

D:\Docs\2018-04-13\0c21f4e9ca6311967c2a88bbede4d4a7.docx