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How to Add Oil Painting Photo Effects Quickly (With Actions) in Photoshop

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Read Time: 4 min

If your pictures are no oil painting, well, they could be!  Whether just for fun, or to try and create something a little more abstract and artistic, turn your photographs into a cool oil painting.

Here are three Adobe Photoshop Actions from Envato Elements to make it quick and easy to make works of art from your... works of art. They're a stroke of genius.

1. Comic Oil Paint Photoshop Actions

Comic Oil Paint Photoshop ActionsComic Oil Paint Photoshop ActionsComic Oil Paint Photoshop Actions
Comic Oil Paint Photoshop Actions

Comic Oil Paint is a set of actions for Adobe Photoshop that transform your images into a heady mix of comic book and oil painting. You can adjust the results to suit your needs.

Before You Get Started

You’ll need to install the action.

Photo by Katrina Berban on UnsplashPhoto by Katrina Berban on UnsplashPhoto by Katrina Berban on Unsplash
Photo by Katrina Berban on Unsplash

Run the Action

After the action has runAfter the action has runAfter the action has run
After the action has run

Rather than being one action that breaks down into lots of options, Comic Oil Paint has each effect as a separate action. This means you'll need to try each one to see how it looks, but that does have the benefit of meaning each one is quick to run.

The image above is Effect 3.

Make Adjustments to Suit Your Style

The adjustment options are fairly limited as most of the choice happens when you select your action initially.

Here, I've hidden a Colour Balance layer to bring some more warmth back to the photo, I've lowered the opacity of a Gradient Fill layer and also lowered Effect Copy 2 to slightly reduce the comic book 'dots' and make the effect a little more subtle.

2. Impasto Oil Paint Photoshop Action

Impasto Oil Paint Photoshop ActionImpasto Oil Paint Photoshop ActionImpasto Oil Paint Photoshop Action
Impasto Oil Paint Photoshop Action

Give your photographs the look of a hand-painted oil artwork in just a few clicks with Impasto Oil Paint for Photoshop. The actions work best with portraits and landscapes, with the final composition fully layered for easy customisation.

Before You Start

You’ll need to install:

Here’s the image I’ll be working with:

Photo by Rob Bates on UnsplashPhoto by Rob Bates on UnsplashPhoto by Rob Bates on Unsplash
Photo by Rob Bates on Unsplash

Run the Action

Hit play and be prepared to wait, maybe make a sandwich.

after the action has runafter the action has runafter the action has run
After the action has run

After the action has run you'll see it breaks down into a number of folders.

Make Adjustments

after adjustmentsafter adjustmentsafter adjustments
After adjustments

There are 20 colour effects and they're really varied, including: rainbow, warm, cool, and black and white.

As this picture is full of warm tones, it made sense to go with a warmer colour option here (number 10). I also reduced the opacity on some of the toning options to make it a little lighter and bring some detail back

In Image Elements (additional elements) you can control how much brushwork and texture appears on the image and so I reduced the white border.

before and afterbefore and afterbefore and after
Before and after

3. Oil Paint Photoshop Action

Oil Paint Photoshop ActionOil Paint Photoshop ActionOil Paint Photoshop Action
Oil Paint Photoshop Action

Before You Start

You’ll need to install:

Here’s the image I’ll be working with to demonstrate:

Photo by David Guenther on UnsplashPhoto by David Guenther on UnsplashPhoto by David Guenther on Unsplash
Photo by David Guenther on Unsplash

Run the Action

Create a new layer and call it brush. On that layer, brush over either part of the image, or the whole thing depending where you'd like to apply the effect.

brush overbrush overbrush over
Brush over

I've used green so you can see I've covered the whole image. Hit play, make a coffee.

after actionafter actionafter action
After the action has finished

It looks quite ethereal!

Make Adjustments

layerslayerslayers
Layers

Like the others, this action breaks down into manageable layers. As well as changing colour options, you can also control how much detail comes back through the effect, which is useful if you want it to be more subtle, or more outrageous!

finished resultfinished resultfinished result
Finished result

Here I've warmed up the colours and tones a little and increased the 'oil' effect to make it look a bit more abstract.

More Cool Artistic Effects for Your Photographs

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