Thursday, December 31, 2020

CoffeeShop "Cézanne B&W Painterly Effect" Photoshop/PSE Tutorial!



So, it is the last day of 2020 and it is pouring down rain and dismal. Seems fitting, right?

Tomorrow can't come too soon, but I am looking on the bright side and thinking about all of the valuable things I learned this Year of the Virus. I listed a few below.

For one, I won't ever again underestimate how important it is to be able to visit and hug loved ones. My mother-in-law is in a memory-care home and we haven't had face-to-face time or hugged her in almost a year. My kids and I volunteered in a nursing home once a month and I miss seeing their happy faces and giving them hugs. Talking to them. Seeing their expressions. And I have many friends and relatives with health struggles that put them in the high-risk category that I haven't seen in person for so long. 

Second, there are many things that I used to find annoying I miss so much. Like waiting in a long line. In the "old days" if you pulled yourself away from your phone you would spend that time chatting with strangers. I miss talking with random people when I am out in stores so much. I miss seeing faces. I miss seeing smiles. I hate standing in a little painted circle on the floor distanced from humanity.


Third, how much I miss festivals and crowds of rowdy happy people. Often I would skip my local festivals since I am what I consider an introvert with a touch of extrovert. I can enjoying being around lots of people for a short time (and will talk up a storm), but then I need to get back home to relax and recharge. Well, now I would give so much to go to a festival with hundreds/thousands of people enjoying themselves. 

I want to be surrounded by people, I want to have to struggle to get through a crowd. I want strangers pushing against me to buy a funnel cake. I want dogs on short leashes trying to nuzzle my hand as their owners pull them by. I want to see kids screaming with excitement as they wait, almost crushed, in long lines for the festival rides. I want to see drunk people spilling their beer as they laugh with friends, teenagers smooching while watching concerts, long lost friends walking by who grab you to catch up. 

So may 2021 bring back fearless hugs and kisses, pleasant conversations with strangers, and being able to be surrounded by people, lots and lots of people. May we look back at 2020 and not only feel sadness about a difficult year, but realize that it has taught us how important it is for us to have people in our lives, whether they are loved ones, friends, neighbors, acquaintances or strangers. May 2021 be the Year of Closeness!

I hope you have a wonderful day today and a happy New Year. Thank you for reading my blog, sharing my posts, leaving wonderful comments, and buying my action/design packs. I really appreciate you so much.

Today I am posting a tutorial on how I created a B&W bird image using my newest texture set. You can download the Cezanne texture used in this tutorial on that post.  I love this texture set, it is one of my favorite sets I have ever made! You can download the original bird photo here.

I wanted to show you that you aren't bound to the color or shape of a texture, you can change it however you want for each image.


Place the Cezanne 4 texture on top of the bird. I compressed it into a square shape.


Put the texture in Overlay blending mode and copy it once.

Pretty interesting colors, right? 


Add a Black to White Gradient Map layer on top to create a B&W image.


Add a Gold to Light Gold Gradient Map in Color blending mode to tint the B&W.

Notice all of the white blown-out areas on the background where you don't see the texture? There is an easy fix to add texture to those spots!


Add a Solid Color fill layer just above the bird layer. I used a gray, but you can also grab a color from the image. Put this layer in Normal blending mode and paint out the bird using a soft black low-medium opacity brush on the layer mask. I used a lower opacity brush on areas where I wanted to see more texture.

Note: To see where you have painted click the "\" key to see the red tint, recheck to remove it.

I am simply darkening the background by adding more color where needed. Then adjust the opacity of the layer to taste, I used 60%. Now the background looks solid and beautiful!


Hope you enjoyed this short little tutorial. And Happy New Year!

Do you want to download my favorite CoffeeShop PSE/Photoshop Actions and Lightroom Presets or Design Elements in one convenient zipped file AND help support this blog? Just click here for my action pack or here for all the actions/presets and professional design elements, storyboards, and textures.

7 comments:

  1. Thank You! This was a great post. I absolutely love the texture set. Wishing you a very happy New Year!

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    1. Thank you Planet JJ! I miss people!!! Have a wonderful New Year.

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  2. Awesome post! I'm gonna give this one a try too. Have a great New Years!

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  3. Rogier, Thank you for all this.Also for your generosity and help for people who are struggling in this world. click the "\" key to see the red tint, bud Sorry, I dont have this key ?

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    1. Thank you so much! The key should be on the right side, it has | and \ on it. Rita

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Rita