Watercolor Painting techniques

Preparations

• Download and open DSC_0337.JPG Photo of St. Pauls in Photoshop.
• Reduce the image dimensions: Image>Image Size. With Constrain Proportions selected, reduce the dpi to 72.
• Click the magnification tool and select Actual Pixels in tools option bar.
• Save as a psd file with a different name.

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Water Color Painting

Water Color Filter gives boring results

• Open the psd file you just saved.
• Apply the Filter>Artistic>Watercolor filter to the image. Change the sliders to see different boring results.
• Do NOT save.
• Do NOT submit an image you modified like this as one of your photo variations.

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Water Color painting with brushes

This works better if you use a pressure sensitive pad (available in Studio 6) so you draw with a pen and can apply different pressure to the strokes.

• Open the PSD image you created above in Photoshop .
• Click Ctrl + J to create a duplicate layer.
• Apply Smart Blur filter to prepare the image. Click Filter>Blur>Smart Blur
  • Radius = 14.1
  • Threshold - 68.4
  • Quality = High
  • Mode = Normal
  • Click OK

Apply Glowing Edges Filter

• Duplicate your background layer copy (Right click on layer and select Duplicate Layer), and name layer Glowing Edges
• Apply Glowing Edges filter (Filter>Stylize>Glowing Edges).
  • Width=3
  • Brightness=9
  • Smoothness=10
  • Click OK
• Invert the effect: Image>Adjustments>Invert.
• Desaturate: Image>Adjustments>Desaturate

Painting Layer

• Duplicate your background layer copy again (Right click on layer and select Duplicate Layer), and name layer Painting
• Drag the Painting layer to the top of the stack
  • Click Image>Adjustments>Invert
  • Change the blending mode to Color Dodge, which turns the layer white with some black lines.
• Click the Brush tool and click the brush picker down arrow in the tool options bar.
  • Click the right arrow on the right side of the window
  • Click Reset Brushes to load the default brushes and click replace (not append).
  • Scroll down the brush list almost to the bottom and select Dry Brush
  • Increase the diameter of the brush so it is large
  • Change the opacity in the tool options bar to 60%
  • Check that the foreground color is black in the toolbar
• Turn the eyeball of the Glowing Edges layer OFF to see the results.
• Paint in the center of the Painting layer and leave some white around the edges.
• Change to a water color brush by opening the brush picker; click on the right arrow and choose Wet Media Brushes; replace the brushes
  • choose Watercolor Textured Surface from the brush dropdown list.
  • Start with a smaller sized brush to paint the building
  • Use a larger sized brush to paint the sky and water
• To imitate white paper color
  • Click Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Color
  • Click OK
  • In the color picker that appears choose a light off white (#f1edb1 or #f4edd6)
  • Click OK
  • In Layers palette change layer's
    • blending mode = linear burn
    • opacity = between 25 - 35%

Watercolor Paper Effect

• To imitate watercolor paper texture
  • Click Layer>New Fill Layer>Pattern
  • Click OK
  • In Pattern Picker, click the pattern picker dropdown on left
  • Click right arrow to load Artist Surfaces
  • Choose Watercolor from the swatches
  • Increase the % at the top of the window to about 570%
  • Click OK
  • Drag this layer below the color fill layer
    • Blending mode = Multiply
    • Opacity = 75%
• Add broad color wash
  • Duplicate the background copy (one you blurred)
  • Use the eyedropper tool in the toolbox to select the blue sky color
  • Click Select>Color Range
  • Select black matte preview so you can see what is selected
  • Increase the fuzziness slider so it selects water and sky
  • Click ok to see the selection
  • Click Layer>New>Layer via copy to create a copy of the selected area.
  • Drag this layer ABOVE the Pattern fill layer
  • Apply a Filter>Blur>Motion Blur to the layer
    • Change the Distance to between 275-300
    • Leave the angle alone
    • click ok
  • Change the blending mode to Darken in layer dropdown box
  • Change opacity to about 60%
• Finally apply the Watercolor Filter
  • Create a duplicate layer of the background copy and name it Watercolor Filter
  • Drag it to the top of the stack
  • Apply the Watercolor Filter: Filter>Artistic>Watercolor
    • Brush detail=12
    • Shadow intensity=0
    • Texture=3
    • click ok
  • Change layer blending mode to Luminosity
  • Lower the opacity mode to between 20-30% until it looks good but does not block rest of work.
• Save the psd file
• Save for web, reducing the file dimensions.

Results

 

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