Abstract Watercolor Tutorial:
I got asked a few times how I achieved this effect and since I find it to be relatively easy, I figured I’d do a quick tutorial for those that are interested. This tutorial was done is PS CS4.
Before we get started with the steps I would like to show you what the original image looks like, and what the finished product is. There are a lot of ways you can go about to get this effect but I think the way that I am about to show you is pretty simple.
[01] We will start off by opening our original image by going to File > Open. I’d recommend you work with a black and white image in order to get the full spectrum of the watercolors to be visible. I haven’t tried this effect with colored pics, it’s up to you if you want to experiment and see how that turns out. Also, your image must have a white background in order for the watercolor splotches to be concentrated on the subject. If you have anything else in the background it’s going to get picked up by the watercolors and it won’t look right.
[02] Now, we want to white out her face a little bit and define some of her features by bring out some of the contrast in the image- this way the watercolor will be better applied to the those certain areas. Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. Depending on the quality of the picture, the adjustments and the settings are going to be different for every image- here is what my settings are set at. You may have to play a little with the brightness and the contrast settings to get an effect like I have. Basically, you want her face to be almost ghostly white and the contours of her face and hair to be almost black. After you’ve done that, we will duplicate the layer by going to Layer > Duplicate Layer.
[03] Now, we will apply the Watercolor Filter to your duplicated image. Make sure you have the duplicated layer selected in your Layers Palette (it should be highlighted in blue when you click on it). Go to Filter > Artistic > Watercolor. Leave the settings as they are and press OK. Rename your duplicated layer as ‘Watercolor’.
[04] Select your original/base layer NOT your ‘watercolor’ layer and go toImage > Adjustments > Threshold. My settings can be seen here. Again, you will have to adjust this setting based on your image by moving the little pointer to the right. Just try to replicate how my image looks like. Click OK and then rename that base layer to ‘Threshold’.
[05] Set your ‘Threshold’ layer to multiply and then Merge both of the layers by going to Layer > Merge Layers. Now we will only have one layer left (and the white background which isn’t visible in this screenshot).
[06] Now, comes the fun part or so I think. We will be using these two textures:ONE, TWO (courtesy of this website). Open both of the textures by going to File > Open. Now create a new file by going to File > New with the same dimensions as the image we are working on (500X673, in this case) and basically all you will be doing is cutting out various areas of the two watercolor textures we opened and pasting them to the new document we created. We want to aggregate all of the watercolor splotches/splatters where Karen’s face is. I used ‘multiply’ as blending mode when I pasted each section and merged the image at the end. So after copying and pasting certain splatters mine looks like this. I hope you see where I am getting at with this. You are kind of creating your own texture in a way and you will use this finished canvas to bring our other black and white picture to color. So, if your subject is positioned on the right you’d want to concentrate majority of the splatters to the right. Try not to have too big of empty spaces between the splatters because there will be a gap in color in your finished product. Once you’re done and have merged your image, copy and paste it on top of your base/original image. Our layers should look like this.
[07] In this step, we will be working with Layer Masking. Select our merged layer and press CTRL+A (select all), followed by CTRL+C. All that is doing is copying our merged layer. Now, select our layer with the watercolors and at the bottom of the layers palette create a Layer Mask by clicking this symbol. This will appear next to our watercolor layer. Now hold ALT and click on the layer mask (the white box next to our layer). If you did it right, your whole image will turn white and you’ll notice that the rest of the layers are shaded and not visible. Now, click CTRL+V (paste) and your base image should appear in the white space (layer mask), like so. Now, click CTRL+I (invert colors) and your layers should look like this and your image like this. Click back on the watercolor layer to see the image (I added a star to which section you should click on) and your image should be covered in watercolor splatters.
[08] We’re not done, so don’t start packing up your stuff just yet. If you want you can delete the merged layer/the base layer of Karen, I like to keep it and lower the opacity of the layer a bit so it kind of defines the edge of the subject, here are my settings. It’s up to you, you can try it both ways and see which suits you.
[09] In this step, we will be using this paper texture from Bashcorpo. Open it up like we normally would and then copy and paste it on top of our image and select Linear Burn as our blending option, like so. Our image should look something like this.
[10] And the last part is to clean up the watercolor splotches a bit by using the Clone Tool. Select the watercolor layer, then click on the Clone Tool. What the clone tool does is basically it clones/duplicates the section you select and transfers it to the place you want it to be. (For example, say you have a picture of sand and there’s a shell on it but you don’t want the shell to be there, so by using the Clone Tool you can hold ALT click on a section where there is sand and then click where the shell is and it will erase the shell and put sand on that section. So then you’ll have a shell-free sand. lol Ok, that was a stupid way to describe this but I hope you get the point. If you’re still not understanding how to use this tool, let me refer you to two of these Youtube tutorials: one, two). You’ll find different brushes at the top of your PS under the File, Edit navigation. You can mess around with different brushes to see what the effect is of each. I will be going with this one. Once you click on the Clone Tool, hold ALT and click with your mouse over the area of the watercolor that you want to apply to another place. Let go of the ALT button and just hoover over another place and you should see the brush has picked up that area you selected and start clicking on the section where you want it translated and it should appear there. Keep adding, changing brushes and selecting different sections to clone and you’ll get a hang of it and end up with a more finished product. This is my result.
There you have it. Every image will be different based on how you position your watercolor splotches, how much you contrast the original image, what kind of colors you choose to be your dominant splotches and etc. Experiment and you’ll get a hang of it. It took me a few tries before I was able to know where I wanted what positioned and was satisfied with the result. Try it a few times. Enjoy!
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