How to use Brush Stroke Filters to simulate 'Oil Painting on Canvas' look ?

[Joseph...@adobeforums.com]

I'm a multi-year PhotoShop designer working on PS Ver 7. I have some pictures of my Family I would like to render to look like an Oil Painting on Canvas. Of course I immediately turned to the brush stroke filters and tried all of them. Angled brush strokes seemed to work the best. The problem is that none of these filters really provide a very prolific rendering. The image on screen sort've looks like it was painted with brush strokes but when I print it out on my HP DesignJet 5000 printer the output looks (from 6 feet away) more like a photograph that has just been blurred a little - not much like a painted picture. I was wondering if anybody knew any secrets here. Perhaps a combination of brush stroke filters used in a particular order ? Or maybe a 3rd party plug in filter/tool that would work better than the standard brush stroke filters in PS ? Appreciate any help. J.S.

[Joseph...@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for the reply. I am using an artist grade canvas. Can you tell me more about this "Frescon filter" ? Thanks, J.S.

[Daryl_P...@adobeforums.com]

Hi Joseph,

While I've not got much to offer, I'll just add that you might also consider what mediat you're printing to. I've made some prints on artist canvas inkjet media that I was very happy with. While still not quite taking on a realistic painted look, the true canvas texture of the media did contribute to giving the initial illusion of this being a painting and not a photo. The images that I printed also employed subtle application of the Frescon filter which also contributed to the simulated painting.

Hope that helps,

Daryl

[Daryl_P...@adobeforums.com]

Oops...that was a typo and should have been the Fresco filter. Basically though, it is just one of the native Photoshop filters that I suppose you coudl describe as blending the image pixels in such a manner as to give somewhat of an Impressionist look to the image. In the case I was working with, I had a 3 megapixel digital image that I wanted to print at 11x14 inches but which lacked the detail for doing so without looking rather pixelated. As I played around with the image, I stumbled across using the Fresco filter and found that I liked the effect it provided, but only afer first applying the filter and then subsequently using the Fade command to lessen the extreme to which the filter was applied.

The original image before I edited it is seen here: <http://www.retouchpro.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/337/password//sort/1/cat/500>

It was largely a trial-and-error effort, but in the end I was quite pleased with the result seen here: <http://www.retouchpro.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/338/password//sort/1/cat/500>

Another member at the RetouchPRO forum took this image of mine and edited it even further, applying some sort of crosshatched texture to it, but he didn't recall the exact steps. The result of his effort is seen here: <http://www.retouchpro.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/975/password//sort/1/cat/all>

Finally, if you'd like more details on the steps I used to create my original version, you can peruse this thread: <http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3335>

Beyond this, you might search the RetouchPRO website for even more ideas. It's a very informative website.

Daryl

[Sorry]

A'yup.

Consider this reply as a second, very strong vote for exploring Painter for the style you're looking for (says Phos, who really needs to upgrade from Painter 6 to Painter 8 )

[tma...@adobeforums.com]

Your best bet is to use Painter. It has functions for making a photo look painterly in many, many different styles. It also allows you to apply the effects by hand or automatically and has a wide variety of canvas textures (though Painter refers to them as paper textures). Most of Photoshop's similar effects were "borrowed" from Painter, but Painter still does them much better. You can download a demo version from Corel.

[Jonatha...@adobeforums.com]

Painter is an excellent choice, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Art History brush yet. You can get some surprisingly good results if you spend a little time on it.

[Joseph...@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for the recommendation. Who makes the "Painter" software ?

J.S.

[Sorry]

"Who makes the "Painter" software ?"

It was mentioned in reply #4 in this thread.

It also comes up at the very top of the page if you do a Google search using the text string "Painter software"

Not to be deliberately evasive (OK, maybe just a little) but it behooves us to pay attention when reading answers to the questions we pose.