How to Turn a Photo Into Art by Creating a Painting Photoshop Action

What You’ll Be Creating

In this tutorial, you will learn how to turn a photo into art. I will explain everything in so much detail that everyone can create the effect, even those who have just opened Photoshop for the first time.

What You’ll Need

To recreate the design above, you will need the following resources:

• Stock Image 

1. How to Start Creating an Action

Step 1

First, open the photo that you want to work with. To open your photo, go to File > Open, choose your photo, and click Open. Now, before we get started, just check a couple of things:

1. Your photo should be in RGB Color mode, 8 Bits/Channel. To check this, go to Image > Mode.
2. For best results, your photo size should be 2000–3500 px wide/high. To check this, go to Image > Image Size.
3. Your photo should be the Background layer. If it is not, go to Layer > New > Background from Layer.

Step 2

If you have changed the image size in the previous step, in the History panel, click on the camera icon to create a new snapshot. Then, set the Snapshot 1 as the source of the history brush tool.

2. How to Create the Painting Effect

Step 1

In this section, we are going to create the painting effect. Go to Layer > New > Layer to create a new layer and name it Painting_Large_Details.

Step 2

Now choose the Art History Brush Tool (Y), and set the Area to 500 px, Tolerance to 0 px, and Style to Tight Long. Then, pick a soft brush, set the Diameter to 20 px, and brush over the whole photo.

Step 3

Go to Layer > New > Layer to create a new layer and name it Painting_Large_Details.

Step 4

Now choose the Art History Brush Tool (Y), and set the Area to 500 px, Tolerance to 0 px, and Style to Tight Long. Then, pick a soft brush, set the Diameter to 10 px, and brush over the whole photo.

Step 5

Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All to add a layer mask that hides the whole layer.

Step 6

Now set the foreground color to #000000, choose the Brush Tool (B), pick a soft brush, and brush over the area where you want more details to appear. Feel free to use different brush sizes.

Step 7

Go to Layer > New > Layer to create a new layer and name it Painting_Small_Details.

Step 8

Now choose the Art History Brush Tool (Y), and set the Area to 500 px, Tolerance to 0 px, and Style to Tight Long. Then, pick a soft brush, set the Diameter to 5 px, and brush over the whole photo.

Step 9

Go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All to add a layer mask that hides the whole layer.

Step 10

Now set the foreground color to #000000, choose the Brush Tool (B), pick a soft brush, and brush over the area where you want more details to appear. Feel free to use different brush sizes.

3. How to Create the Emboss Effect

Step 1

In this section, we are going to create the emboss effect. Press Control-Alt-Shift-E on your keyboard to make a screenshot, and then press Control-Shift-U to desaturate this layer.

Step 2

Go to Filter > Stylize > Emboss and set the Angle to 135°, Height to 3 px, and Amount to 200%.

Step 3

Now change the Blending Mode of this layer to Hard Light, and name it Emboss Effect.

You Made It!

Congratulations, you have succeeded! Here is our final result: