Oil Painting Effect in Photoshop – Mixer Brush Technique

In this 90-Second Tip, I’m going to show you how to easily create the Oil Painting Effect in Photoshop!

You will learn powerful Photoshop tools & techniques to create this awesome effect.

We may not all be gifted with the talent of Da Vinci and Picasso, but with Photoshop—anything is possible!

Once again, I am welcoming you back for another  90-Second Photoshop Tip!

For this tutorial, our creative juices will be flowing freely as we learn how to boost mundane photos into classical oil paintings that are worth the space on your wall as an art exhibit.

Ready to paint? Let’s go!

Preparing Your Brush For The Oil Painting Effect In Photoshop

Open your selected image file.

On your Toolbar, select the Mixer Brush Tool nested under the Brush tool.

On the Options bar, click on the downward arrow to reveal the drop-down menu. Under General Brushes, select Soft Round and set the Hardness to 80%.

Also in the Options bar, you’ll see two brush icons that represent the Load Brush, which fills the brush with reservoir color, whereas the Clean Brush removes the paint from the brush. For this tutorial, select the Clean Brush option.

Adjust the settings of the brush by clicking the drop-down menu. In this example, I find it that the Moist option works perfectly, although you are free to experiment as you’d like.

On the right-most side of the Options bar, make sure you enable the Sample All Layers checkbox. 

If you are using a pen tablet, also click on the Enable Pressure Sensitivity icon.

Setting Up the Canvas

Next, go to the Layers panel and create a New Layer and rename it as “Painting Effect.” 

To make the image easier to see through the new layer, set the layer opacity to 75%.

Time to Paint!

With the Mixer Brush, start painting on the blank layer. This tool works by picking up the colors from the previous layer and reveals it onto your new layer. The effect that this makes achieves the oil painting effect.

That’s it for this series’ 90-second Photoshop Tip #20: How to Apply Oil Painting Effect in Photoshop!

I hope this tutorial will inspire you to transform your photos and create a new masterpiece out of it.

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