Watercolor Effect Using Photoshop

1. Open Photoshop.2. Open a portrait.3. Quick Select the background. When the background is selected, right click, and select “Select Inverse.” Your

portrait should now be selected with the marching ants around it.

4. Click on Refine Edge on the top. Select Black & White in View Mode.

5. Click on Smart Radius and adjust the Radius on your slider so that you select a better edge for your portrait. Move sliders in Adjust Edge that suit your portrait. Click Ok.

6. Click on Add Vector Mask on the bottom of your Layers panel (it looks like a rectangle with a circle inside). Your background should have disappeared and look like a checkerboard.

7. Click on File>New. Make dimensions 8” x 11” and click Ok. 8. Above your white canvas you just made, you should see two tabs for your two documents. One will be your

portrait, the other will be your white canvas, most likely labeled Untitled. Click on the word Untitled and drag a little so that you can see the two documents at the same time.

9. Click on your portrait. From your layers panel, drag it into the white blank canvas you just made.

10. Click on the Move Tool to adjust portrait size if needed. Click Enter.11. Click File > Save As> name your file and place it on your desktop.

12. Up above where the two document tabs are, click the ‘x’ to close both files. When asking to save either of these files, select No.

13. Click File>Open and open your portrait you just edited with the white background. 14. Click Image>Adjustments>Desaturate. Your portrait should be black and white. 15. Click Image>Adjust>Levels to up the contrast. Try to get some very dark darks and very light lights, without

losing the image. Click Ok.

16. Click File> New. Make your canvas 700 x 700 pixels. You should see a blank white square.

17. Click on the Text tool and make a textbox over the entire square. Select the foreground color to black, the font to Edwardian Script, and the font size to 10. Type into the box and fill in with random text.

18. Click in an empty gray area of the Layers Panel to deselect the text box. 19. Click Edit>Define Brush Preset. Label it as “text”. Click Ok.20. On the top where your two document tabs are, select your portrait.21. Make a New Layer in the Layers Panel.22. Click Edit>Fill. Make sure it says White with a Blending Mode of Normal and an Opacity of 100%. 23. Unlock your portrait layer and drag it above your White layer.

24. Click on your portrait layer and click on Add a Layer Mask (it looks like a rectangle with a circle in it).

25. Select the mask thumbnail. Click Edit>Fill and fill in with black. Your portrait should disappear.

26. Set your foreground color to white. Click on you r brush tool and make sure your new custom brush is selected. Begin to click on the mask to reveal the face. Experiment with the opacity settings for your brush.

27. Add a new layer above the portrait. (The icon in the layers panel that looks like a piece of paper with a corner folded)

28. Choose the brush tool and make the foreground color black. Using small brush sizes (probably in the range of 5 – 10), click around to add the effect of watercolor splashes. There’s no specific method, just do what you feel looks right. Don’t go overboard, less is more with these splatters. You don’t want them to detract from the subjects face.

29. Create a gradient adjustment fill layer. It’s the icon in the layers panel that looks like a rectangle that has a circle inside, click that and select gradient. Set its blending mode to overlay.

30. You can choose any colors you prefer, I selected one of the defaults.

31. Set its blending mode to overlay.