In this tutorial I will show you how to transform a picture into a painting.

For start, let`s get a nice picture that deserves to be transformed into a nice old looking painting. I used this really beautiful stock picture of a nude. The background is nice, the girl is nice also. The perfect combination:


Usually, this process is time consuming using just Photoshop, but in this tutorial I will use Reshade � Image Enlarger, a software with a great potential not only for enlarging images but for creating amazing effects in no-time.
Another great thing about this software is that the image used doesn`t need preliminary preparations or other steps that Photoshop requires for obtaining the desired effect. In this case, the picture is really good, but you can try all this steps with any picture you want.
So, let`s start by opening the original image (the one above) in Reshade � Image Enlarger. Below you have the settings that I`ve used. But those are not strictly the PERFECT settings. Feel free to experiment. I`ve used THOSE settings on THAT picture. My objectives were:
- less perfection in colors (a painting is not a picture, so it can`t have all the real-life details)
- chubby edges (we do not want perfection in a painting, so the last thing we want from our effect are smooth edges)


So, after using Reshade � Image Enlarger, let`s open the modified picture in Photoshop.


Duplicate the Background layer (Layer -> Duplicate Layer). Name the duplicated layer �paint1�.With the paint1 layer selected, go to Image -> Adjustments -> Variations. Check Midtones button. After that, click on More Cyan and then Lighter. Click Ok. This will reduce the color intensity and it will give a nice overall effect for the picture.


Now let`s add a really fine-tune effect that will make the painting look really cool. Go to Filter -> Brush Strokes -> Spatter and choose a Spray Radius of around 3 and a Smoothness of around 9.
In the next step we will try to add some white edges on the painting, a common feature in old-paintings.
Duplicate the paint1 layer (Layer -> Duplicate Layer) and name it white_edges. Desaturate (Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate or CTRL+SHIFT+U). Go to Filter -> Stylize -> Find Edges. Invert the black and white (Image -> Adjustments -> Invert or CTRL+I). Set the blending mode to Lighten and the opacity to 50%.
Next, let`s add some texture to the painting. Create a new layer (Layer-> New -> Layer or CTRL+SHIFT+N) and name it texture. Fill it with white (Edit -> Fill, and choose Use: White). Now go to Filter -> Texture -> Texturizer, Texture: Canvas, Scaling: 100%, Relief: 4. Click OK.Set the blend mode to Multiply and the opacity to around 40% for this layer.
The end result should look something like this: