| 1. Watercolour effect | | | | of the bonuses of the big pixel effect is that you |
| Make yourself into an instant Van Gogh with | | | | can resize your photo as large as you want |
| Photoshop’s watercolour effect – this | | | | without sacrificing quality … because pixellation is |
| looks particularly good with landscape and portrait | | | | part of the quality! Here’s how to ‘big |
| canvas art prints. To recreate it: | | | | pixel’ your photos for canvas printing: |
| * Create three duplicates of your background | | | | * Use the Mosaic filter (under Pixelate in the Filter |
| layer in Photoshop, and begin by working only on | | | | menu) and set your square size to something |
| the first two (turn the top two duplicates off in | | | | that works for your picture. Bigger squares look |
| your Layers palette) | | | | more striking. |
| * Use the Cutout filter (under Artistic) on Layer 1, | | | | * Create a Pattern of inverse dots the same size |
| with 4 levels, an edge simplicity of 4, and Edge | | | | as your mosaic squares, by creating a new |
| Fidelity of 2. Change the blend mode of this layer | | | | (square) document the same size as your mosaic |
| to ‘Luminosity’, using the Layers palette. | | | | squares. Use the circle tool to draw a circle that |
| * Use the Dry Brush filter on the next layer | | | | fills the doc from top to bottom and side to side, |
| (under Artistic again), with a brush size of 10, | | | | and then invert the selection using Ctrl+Shift+I. Fill |
| brush detail of 10, and texture of 3. Change the | | | | this with white using the paint bucket. Then hide |
| blend mode to Screen. | | | | every layer other than the white corners (using |
| * Use the Median filter (under Noise) with a radius | | | | the Layers palette) and go to Edit-Define Pattern. |
| of 12 on the next layer. Set the blend mode to | | | | Name the pattern Pixels, Dots, or something |
| soft light. | | | | recognizable. |
| You’ll see you have quite a detailed photo for | | | | * Make a new layer on top of the photo you are |
| canvas printing with a realistic watercolour effect! | | | | using for canvas printing |
| Just like creating a commissioned painting of | | | | * Set your blending options, with a mode of |
| whatever subject you feel like. | | | | normal, opacity of 100% and fill opacity of zero |
| 2. Pixellated Effect | | | | percent. |
| Think about the pop art of Andy Warhol if you | | | | * Set the pattern options with the blending |
| want an example of this effect – or go stand | | | | options, to a mode of normal, select your Pixels |
| up close to a billboard and you’ll get a better | | | | pattern from the arrow at right of the pattern |
| understanding of how your canvas printed photo | | | | option and snap to origin |
| will come out. This is a much more modern look | | | | * Scale it to 100%, and you have a Warhol for a |
| than the watercolour effect, and the texturing of | | | | canvas art print! |
| the canvas gives the pixels an extra depth. One | | | | |