Mac Format - UK (2020-04)

38 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2020 macformat.com @macformat

Creative art effects

How to use brush tips and layer masks to mimic a watercolour look

IT WILL TAKE

15 minutes

YOU WILL LEARN

How to reveal

colour and tone

YOU’LL NEED

Adobe Photoshop

Elements 2020

Photoshop Elements 2020’s

filters can produce a wide

range of artistic looks but they

tend to make your computer-

generated art look like everyone else’s.

The techniques covered in this

walkthrough will enable you to add the human

touch to your digital art by showing you how

to paint brush strokes that reveal colour, tone

and detail from an original photograph.

Because you’re manually painting brush

strokes (rather than simply slapping on a

filter), your digital paintings will look more

personal and unique than filter-produced art.

We’ll demonstrate how to use the Brush

tool and a layer mask to turn a photograph

into a convincing watercolour-style painting,

with varying washes of overlapping colour and

wet-looking edges to the digital brush strokes.

This photo painting technique doesn’t require

you to possess advanced artistic skills to

produce realistic results and you can apply

it to any of your favourite images.

George Cairns

HOW TO Create realistic brush strokes

1

Create a pencil sketch

Open a photo. Go to Layer > Duplicate Layer.

Click OK. Go to Enhance > Adjust Colour >

Remove Colour. Choose Filter > Artistic >

Coloured Pencil. Set Pencil Width to 4, Stroke

Pressure to 2, Paper Brightness to 50. Click OK.

2

Add a mask

In the Layers panel, click the Background

layer. Press ç+J to duplicate it. Drag the

‘Background copy 2’ thumbnail to the top of

the stack. Choose Layer > Layer Mask > Hide

All. The black mask hides the attached image.

Genius tip!

When painting on a

layer mask using the

Brush tool, resize the

brush tip to give the

strokes more variety.

Ta p [ for a smaller tip

or ] for a larger one.

APPLE SKILLS Mac software

BEFORE AFTER

Adobe

Photoshop

Elements

2020

PART 3 OF 3