Thank you both!
I am still a new user of PDN, I can have a go at explaining how I have done my paintings, there is probably a shorter way of doing most of the steps, but this is how I do it!
Firstly I have 2 copies of the picture I am working on, on the first one (my main painting) I apply the oil paint effect, depending on how much detail is in the picture I play around with the oil settings. I usually go for something with a large brush at first as a background with fairly low coarsness.
When I am happy that it looks OK, I go to the other copy of the picture (my working copy) and do another oil paint effect on that, I usually go for a much smaller brush and less coarsness.
When I am happy with the level of detail and can see all the shapes I want in the subjects I copy that picture into a new layer on the first one (main painting). I then play around with the layer property opacity settings to get something I am happy with, I quite like the "overlay" or "normal" settings for this part, but different settings can work. I like to see some of the larger brush strokes with the smaller ones showing on top. It gives a nice effect showing different level of detail in the brush strokes and more of a real painting feel. I then flatten the image
Next I go back to my working copy and undo the paint effect to revert it back to the original photo. Then I apply a pencil sketch. I like to have a large pencil tip size. I play with the range setting until I get all the details I want to see in the finished painting. Sometimes I may need to use a white paintbrush to get rid of pencil strokes in places I dont want them, such as sky or some background things.
Then I paste the pencil sketch in a new layer onto my main painting and again play around with the layer properties. Here I find that "overlay" or "multiple" usually work best for me with opacity at 255. Again I then flatten the image.
I might sometimes add another layer of pencil sketch, depending on what other details I want to see.
Sometimes I want to add a colour wash to certain areas of the painting, to maybe darken a background or discolour something to age the picture, I add a new layer then scribble with a brush in the colour I want over an area then apply a gaussian blur to just discolour the area I want. I dont always discolour.
Then I need to apply a canvas background to give it the full painting effect. I get my canvas and paste it into a new layer. I usually use multiple setting and turn down the opacity to somewhere around 115 so i can see enough canvas through the painting to give it the right effect. The I flatten it.
Lastly, sign your painting and you are done!
I hope that this makes sense, as I said I am a new user and am learning all the time.
Here is the canvas that I use, feel free to use it if you want.
Here are a couple more paintings I did today.
I still am not 100% happy that they look like a convincing painting, but its getting there. I am sure some of the more talented people here can make something far more realistic.
Thanks again,
