Turning a Photo Into an Oil Painting

by D Laurent

Painter is the best product around for turning your photographs into paintings. All versions of Painter have a wonderful range of natural media like oils, watercolour, chalks, pastels, pencils, pens, scratchboard, acrylics, gouache and a large collection of brushes and papers as well as the amazing image hoze and a wonderful range of special effects.

The finished oil painting.

The technique used here is the same whether you are using Painter Classic, a basic version of Painter that comes free with many products, or the latest version of Painter.

Painter will open and work with Photoshop files and I often prepare photographs in Photoshop before opening them in Painter, adjusting colour balance and contrast and making any other changes that the image needs. When the original photo is ready I open it in Painter and create a clone which will become the painting.

Clone Your Image

Open the photo in Painter and to create a clone, go to the File Menu and choose Clone. Painter creates a duplicate of the original photo. The clone is linked to the original and Painter will use this as the source as you paint so leave the original image open. First I need a blank canvas in the clone, select all (CTRL A) and delete the contents from the canvas (Backspace).

The cloned image and the original.

Turn Tracing Paper On

Turn Tracing Paper on to see the original image and use it as a guide for your painting. Tracing Paper shows you an image of the original in the clone so that you can use it as a template while painting, just like using tracing paper. To turn Tracing Paper on and off click the Tracing Paper icon at the top right of the document window or use CRTL T. It's a good idea to regularly turn Tracing Paper off as you work so that you can see how the painting is progressing.

The clone after deleting the contents and turning on Tracing Paper.

Paint The Image

In the brushes palette select the Cloner Brushes. Click the icon next to the cloner brushes icon to open the cloner brushes to choose a type of Cloning brush. I've chosen the Oil Brush Cloner.

The brushes palette with the Cloner Brushes selected and the
Oil Brush Cloner chosen from the pop up menu.

Now start painting following the lines of the original using Tracing Paper as your guide. Painter will take the colour of the paint from the original source image.

Starting to paint in the clone with Tracing Paper on. Follow the lines
of the image using Tracing Paper as a guide but remember to switch
it off regularly to see how the paint looks.

Painter's brushes will react to the pressure of a pen if you're using one. The Oil Cloner Brush will build up paint as I stroke giving stronger colour and stronger build up of paint texture depending on the pressure on the pen. I don't want to do a detailed painting. The original photo has such strong graphic shapes and colours and I want to create a painting that uses these with thick paint and bold brush strokes rather than any fine detail. Although the Oil Cloner Brush picks up it's colour from the original image it will smear the colours together as it builds up the paint because it's a wet brush. So the Oil Cloner Brush with a large brush size and strong pen strokes is ideal for what I have in mind. The Control palette lets you adjust the size of the brush and the opacity of the paint. Switching Tracing Paper off lets you see how the paint is being laid down by your brush strokes.

Viewing the painting without Tracing Paper shows how the painting actually looks.
Use the controls palette show here to adjust the size of the brush and the opacity of the paint.

After laying long strokes to create the line of the hills I've used short strokes in the foreground to build texture. Shorter strokes lets the brush pick up more variety in the colour as the paint is added to the canvas.

Of course there are many ways to create paintings from photos in Painter and there are quite a few cloning brushes to choose from and you can make your own. Brushes like the chalk cloner and pencil cloners will pick up the texture of the paper and the soft cloner will let you add detail from the source back into your painting, good for bringing back detail to eyes in a portrait for example. Many of Painters other brushes will work with cloning. Choose a brush and click the cloning check box in the Colors palette and if the brush supports it you can use the clone source with that brush in the same way that you can use the cloning brushes themselves.

Auto Cloning

You can also use Painters Auto Clone to make instant paintings of your photos. Create a clone, delete the image data and choose a Artists brush like the Imprssionist brush. Then go to Effects>Esoterica>Auto Clone and Painter will paint the image for you.

An Auto Clone using the Impressionist Artists Brush

Painter has the biggest range of controls for your brushes of any application. You can make your own brushes and control everything about them, from the size, angle and profile of the brush to how the paint is laid down, how it picks up the texture of the paper, the depth and shine of the paint to how the bristles react with the colour of the paint underneath it - so you can make clean brushes or dirty brushes that smear colours and pick up paint from the canvas. The possibilities are endless and you can create unique brushes that are personal to you and the way you work. If you want to do a lot of work with digital paintings then Painter is the only tool to use. It's power and range is unsurpassed by any other product.

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