Pretty as a Picture

I was talking to a friend the other day who showed me an artist on Etsy that took photographs and made them look like paintings.  She asked if I knew how to do that.  I didn't, but I said I'd give it a try.  I've never really messed with the more abstract filters on Photoshop before, but it was fun, and I kinda liked the result, so I thought I'd share my process!

I took one of my pictures from Paris, which you may recognize because the black and white version of this pic is in my header, and I attempted to turn it into a "painting." This was my result.



I really like the colors and the almost canvas like feel to it. This was the original picture I started with.



To create the affect, I went to Filter-->Artistic-->Palette Knife. It brought up a few options.
I adjusted the stroke size and stroke detail until the affect was obvious enough to see, but detailed enough that you could still tell what the picture was.

Then I took this texture and dragged it over my picture:

I changed my blending mode to "overlay." I like how the pink tones subtly showed through, and made the blues in the picture pop even more. Also by added texture, it gave the picture more of a canvas feel and helped sell the idea that the picture is really a painting! Its not a technique I imagine myself using often, but its fun to play around with every now and then!