1. Introduction
I spent time during the past two days playing with the painted / watercolour effects theme and took a closer look at the Photocopy filter which is normally assocoiated with black and white images. Taking the Photocopy filter and subtly blending it in the soft light mode produced quite a nice pastely watercolour. From this base effect, I've changed the blending mode and added several other filters in the Layers Pallete as opposed to compiling them in the Filter Gallery, as this gives me a far greater control in subtly changing the filter elements to produce this effect.
Choosing a landscape image with strong composition, impact and technical execution coupled with plenty of colour will provide the best effect.
2. The Effect
3. Keystrokes
3.1 Open the image.
3.2 Check that the default colours in the toolbox are set to black and white, for the foreground and background respectively.
3.3 Copy the background layer and rename it 'resize'.
3.4 Working from the 'resize' layer, resize the image to the finish size, say 690 pixels high, as in my case.
3.5 Image>Adjustments>Vibrance, setting vibrance = 30 and saturation = 30.
3.6 Filter>Sharpen>Unsharpen Mask, setting amount = 150%, radius = 1, threshold = 0.
3.7 Copy the 'resize' layer and rename it 'photocopy'.
3.8 Filter>Sketch>Photocopy, setting detail = 10, darkness = 20. Click OK.
3.9 Click on the blending mode drop menu in the layers palette and select 'linear burn'.
3.10 Create a new layer and rename it 'glass'.
3.11 Holding down the 'Alt' key, select Layer and drag the mouse down the menu options to Merge Visible, release the mouse and then the 'Alt' key. (Note: This will merge all the visible layers into the 'glass' layer.)
3.12 Filter>Distort>Glass, setting distortion = 5, smoothness = 9, texture = canvas, scaling =100%. Click OK.
3.13 Create a new layer and rename it 'emboss'.
3.14 Holding down the 'Alt' key, select Layer and drag the mouse down the menu options to Merge Visible, release the mouse and then the 'Alt' key. (Note: This will merge all the visible layers into the 'emboss' layer.)
3.15 Filter>Stylize>Emboss, setting angle = 135, height = 2, amount = 100 %. Click OK.
3.16 Click on the blending mode drop menu in the layers palette and select 'Hard light'.
3.17 Create a new layer and rename it 'canvas'.
3.18 Holding down the 'Alt' key, select Layer and drag the mouse down the menu options to Merge Visible, release the mouse and then the 'Alt' key. (Note: This will merge all the visible layers into the 'canvas' layer.)
3.19 Filter>Texture>Texturizer, setting texture = canvas, scaling = 100%, relief = 5 and light = top. Click OK.
3.20 Click on the blending mode menu in the layers palette and select 'lighten'.
3.21 Click on the opacity drop menu in the layers palette and set the slider for 60%.
