Paint from a photo in CS5

Step 11

Extra detail
Work your way around the photo, altering brush type and brush size depending on what area you are painting. Although the brushes give very good results, they are missing one vital element of ‘real’ paintings and that is texture. Never fear, there is a workaround. Create a new layer above your painting layer. Go to the Edit menu and pick Fill. Select Color in the Use: drop-down menu. Pick a light cream colour.
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Step 12

Add texture
Go to the Filter menu and pick Texture>Texturizer. Pick Canvas from the Texture: drop-down and set Scaling to 100% and Relief to 4. Pick Top for the Light: option. Click OK.
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Step 13

Blending mode magic
Make sure you have your new texture layer selected and pick Multiply from the blending modes menu. This brings a bit of texture into the image, especially in the lighter areas.

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Step 14

Rub back
One other nice effect is to make it look as though some areas of the image aren’t finished. To do this, merge the Background layer with the painted layer by selecting both (Shift-click each layer) and then going to Layer>Merge Layers. Click on the new Background layer and pick the Eraser tool. Select a stipply brush and start to erase areas. It will go back to the texture layer and make it look like unfinished areas of canvas.