How to make an oil painting from a photo in Photoshop tutorial

Colin Smith

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There are many ways to make art in Photoshop and I have found over the years that people really love turning photos into things that look like paintings. The oil paint filter in Photoshop gives a very distinctive look.
This tutorial shows you how to choose the best settings for the most realistic results, as well as a couple of little tricks to get a more realistic result.

Over the years I have done a few of these painting type effects, this English Tea Can one has been one of your favorites, check it out here.

 

Thanks for checking out this tutorial.

Great to see you at the CAFE

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Colin


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14 comments

  1. Dick Reed

    Colin, you amaze me. I’m 80 years young and still learning in Photoshop. In all the lessons I have taken over the years, you are the best! You make learning so easy! I’m serious. You have a talent in teaching. I bought Photoshop in 1995 and used it all those years in my business. I now have an app that I developed from my shoots called, camera-storyboard. Because I have taken so much knowledge from you over the years for free, I wish to return the favor and give you a code for my app free. Just contact me at the email and I will send it to you. Thanks so much for your knowledge.

  2. Gail Barton

    Why can I not get Oil paint to go from grey, I have followed the instructions in the video, but it still stays in grey.

  3. Rory Tate

    Collin,
    Another marvelously simple and effective tutorial. You’ve left the door wide open for experimentation. Can’t wait to try it out. Hope it will work with version 5.5

  4. Vijay Bahel

    Great Video on the technique to make an Oil Painting from Photograph

  5. I had not used Oil Painting in this way. Thank you. Does the image need to be 8bit? Thanks so much.

  6. This is great. I have Adobe CC, with all the applications and recent downloads. I am already a subscriber, and look forward to other lessons as well.

  7. Rory Tate

    So well done, Colin on the 100K subscribers. You’ve managed to combine a “bottomless” technical knowledge, a friendly demeanor, you haven’t tried to be funny (thank God), you stay on point throughout the tut – you’re a bloody marvelous educator. And yes, a terrific tut and can’t wait to try it out. Taking son out for birthday lunch and hope to get a great photo to use.

  8. Great tutorial. I followed along until I got to the “Filter Gallery”. Mine is greyed out. I will run back through, use different pic, restart and see if I can get it back.
    Thanks

  9. Frank

    5-star tutorial!!!! I tried to apply to a portrait of my mother but for some reason I did no come out very well. could you to a tutorial using an image portrait? Thanks so much

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