In this Photoshop 7 tutorial we will employ the Equalize, Hard Light, Chalk and Charcoal and Spatter filters to create a painting with strong colors and texture.
Save a copy of the original photo in the clipboard (Select All and Copy).
Click on Image>Adjustments>Invert
Click on Image>Adjustments>Equalize
Save the file with a new name
Open the Layers Box in the Window Menu
Create a new layer with the original image
Set the current layer to Mode: Hard Light
Flatten the image
Click on Filter>Artistic>Cutout
Slide No. of Levels ruler to Maximum (8)
Slide the Edge Simplicity ruler to 4
Slide the Edge Fidelity ruler to 2. Click OK
Click on Edit>Fade Cutout>Luminosity
Set Opacity to 80%. Click OK
Use your best artistic judgement and repeat the process as many times as necessary until you obtain the best coloration and essential detail.
Create a new layer with the original image
Set the current layer to Mode: Hard Light
Click on Filter>Artistic>Cutout
Slide No. of Levels ruler to Maximum (8)
Slide the Edge Simplicity ruler to 4
Slide the Edge Fidelity ruler to 2. Click OK
Click on Edit>Fade Cutout>Luminosity
Set Opacity to 80%. Click OK
Create a duplicate layer by clicking Command-J (or drag the background to the New Layer Icon)
Set the foreground color in the toolbar to a gray tone (approximately 60% black) and the background color to white.
Click on Filter>Sketch>Chalk and Charcoal
Slide the Charcoal Area ruler to 6
Slide the Chalk Area ruler to 20
Slide the Stroke Pressure ruler to 1
Click on Filter>Brush Strokes>Spatter
Set Spray Radius to 10 and Smoothness to 5.
Click OK
Click on Filter>Artistic>Underpainting
Keep the Brush Size at 0
Set the Texture Coverage to 20
Keep the Texture as Canvas and slide the Scaling to 100% and Relief to 4
In Light Direction choose Bottom Left
Click OK
Set the Current Layer to Luminosity in the Layers Palette with 75% Opacity.
Flatten the image and adjust the contrast. Click on Image>Adjustments>Selective Color and add the "final touches" to the digital painting by tweaking the colors and values.
Red Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%
Yellow Slider: C 0% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 50%
Green Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%
Cyan Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%
Blue Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%
Magenta Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%
White Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%
Neutral Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%
Black Slider: C 50% / M 0% / Y 0% / K 0%
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