A Decent Oil Painting Effect in Photoshop

Step 1

Begin by choosing your image. In my experience I find scenery is more effectively altered by this effect than portraits are, mostly because features tend to become a bit abstracted and it sometimes changes the way a person looks. This isn't true for all portraits, but keep that in mind when choosing an image. Today we'll be turning my sweet girl, Panda into a reasonable facsimile of an oil painting.

Step 2

Go to:

Filter | Stylize | GLOWING EDGES

Step 3

I think the effect is nicest if the edge is as thin as possible so set that to "1".

The brightness should be about midway.

The last slider will determine the level of detail in the final image. For many images, sliding the setting further to the left will produce nicer results, but for portraits, sliding it to the right (smoother) will generally be preferable.

When you are done, click "OK".

Step 4

It is important that you click OK and do not make any other edits at this point except the next step. If you try to tweak the image after applying the filter, you will not be able to do the next step.

Step 5

Go to the EDIT menu and choose: Fade Glowing Edges

This option is only available if you do nothing between applying the filter and going to the edit menu.

Step 6

I normally keep the MODE at NORMAL, but I've also had good success with HARD LIGHT.

Change the opacity to 30%

Note that Glowing Edges produces a mostly black image, so applying this filter, even at 30% will darken the image.

If you have the Preview option clicked, you will start to see the effect we are going for.

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