Two-Click Watercolor Painting

Yesterday Llama Louie came up to the doorway and knocked.  "I got a problem," he called out.  "Come on in, Louie," I answered, "what's the trouble?"

He walked in and sat down, looking sad.  "After that seminar by Rick and Deb Ferro we decided we needed more class in our high-end products," he told me.  "We chose watercolor painting, but everything we try looks awful.  We need one of your One-Click actions."

"Gee, Louie," I said, "watercolor painting is tough.  Making a One-Click action will be really hard.  How about a Two-Click action?"

"Okay, okay," he grumbled, "just get started."

I explained that we would need four layers beside the Background layer, one for Photoshop's Cutout filter, one for the Dry Brush filter, one for the Median Noise filter, and one to hold the original image to blend in with the others.  We want the layers to be adjustable, so we will have to combine them with different blend modes.  We'll use Luminosity for the Cutout layer, Screen (at 30% opacity) for the Dry Brush layer, Soft Light for the Median Noise filter, and Normal (at about 30% opacity) for the Blend Original layer.  Then we'll adjust the layers, create a new merged layer, blur it, and blend the merged layer with a gradient mask.

"My head hurts," muttered Louie.  "Just make it."

"No, you make it," I said.  And here's what I told him to do.

  1. Start a new action and name it "Watercolor 1";

  2. Press Ctrl-J to create a new layer, and turn off its visibility;

  3. Press Ctrl-J three more times to create three more new layers;

  4. Name the lowest new layer "Cutout," the next one "Dry Brush," the next one "Median Noise", and the top one "Blend Original";

  5. Select the Cutout layer, turn its visibility on, apply the Cutout filter to that layer (Filter -> Artistic -> Cutout) with Levels = 4, Edge Simplicity = 4, and Edge Fidelity = 2, and change the blend mode to Luminosity.

At that point we had this:

   

"Hmm, it's beginning to look like a painting," said Lama Louie.  "You're doing great, Louie," I said, "just keep going."

  1. Select the Dry Brush layer, turn its visibility on, apply the Dry Brush filter to that layer (Filter -> Artistic -> Dry Brush) with Brush Size = 10, Brush Detail = 10, and Texture = 3, and change the blend mode to Screen and the opacity to 30%;

  2. Select the Median Noise layer, turn its visibility on, apply the Median Noise filter to that layer (Filter -> Noise -> Median) with a Radius of 12 pixels, and change the blend mode to Soft Light;

  3. Select the Blend Original layer, turn its visibility on, leave the blend mode at Normal and change its opacity to 30%.

  4. Stop recording the action.

Now we had this:

    

"At this point, Louie," I told him, "you can change the opacity of any of the layers to get you closeer to what you want.  They will still all blend together."

"I like it just fine the way it is," he said.  "What's next?"

So I told Louie to click somewhere other than the Blend Original layer, and then

  1. Start a new action and name it "Watercolor 2";

  2. Click on the Blend Original layer to select it, and then press Ctrl-A to select the entire image;

  3. From the Edit menu, first click "Copy Merged" (Shift-Ctrl-C) and then click "Paste" (Ctrl-V);

  4. Name the new layer "Gaussian Blur," and then apply a Gaussian blur (Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur) with a Radius of 20 pixels;

  5. Create a layer mask to hide the blur (Layer -> Layer Mask -> Hide All);

  6. Select the Gradient tool, and from the Gradient picker on the option toolbar, select the Black, White gradient;

  7. Then select the Radial Gradient (2nd from left);

  8. Place the cursor in the center of the image, click down and drag the cursor to the farthest corner;

  9. Stop the recording.

Now we had this:

    

"Wow, that's great!" said Louie, and he started out the door.  "Wait a minute," I yelled, "you can't go yet; you still have to adjust it."

"What do you mean?" he asked.  I told him that using a radial gradient was just a general-purpose compromise, but in this case he needed a little less blurring at the table because it was a focal point for the image.  "How do I do that?" he asked.  "Click on the layer mask icon, and then paint with a soft black brush," I said, "at about 50% opacity.  Paint down in the corner where the table is.  And maybe a little where the lights are."  So he did and we got this:

"Great!  I'm outa here!" shouted Lama Louie, and once again he bolted for the door.  "But you need to write down the steps," I called after him.  "No," he yelled back, "they're too complicated for me to do at home.  Just put the whole thing out on the website where I can download it."

It's probably best, I thought to myself.  So, gentle reader, just click here to download the Two-Click Watercolor Painting actions.