Using Photoshop Generative Fill AI To Turn Your Photos Into Paintings

My mother absolutely loves oil paintings. Every time we'd go to an art museum, she'd linger at various oil paintings on display, enjoying the mastery of the art form. Unfortunately, I have zero talent as an oil painter. In fact, I am pretty terrible at just about every art form aside from photography. So, when I learned that I could use Photoshop's Generative Fill AI to change my photos by simulating other art mediums, such as oil paint or watercolor, I got very excited.

So, I created this video to walk you through how to turn your own photos into alternative works of art. It's actually super easy to follow along. However, you'll need a valid Adobe Creative Cloud license and install Photoshop Beta to use Generative Fill (until it is added to the production version of the app).

I'm also included a step-by-step guide below the video in case you'd prefer to see each step listed.

Converting your photo into a painting with Photoshop Generative Fill

Step 1. With your image loaded, enable Quick Mask Mode by clicking on the icon below the Foreground/Background color swatches or press 'Q'.

Step 2. Make a 30% opaque selection by adding 30% grey to your photo. Do this by going to Edit > Fill and ensuring that you select "Color..." from the Contents dropdown many. Then enter the hex color value #4d4d4d (or type in "30" in the brightness channel). Click OK to confirm the color and then click OK again to apply the fill.

Step 3: You'll now see a 30% opacity mask/selection applied to your photo. Click on the Quick Mask Mode icon again (or press Q) to disable it.

Step 4: You'll now see the Generative Fill text box appear. Type in the art medium you'd like to Generative Fill to use when converting your photo. You can enter values such as "watercolor paint," "oil painting," or something else. In this example, I entered in "watercolor painting".

Step 5: You will be presented with three variations of your text prompt. Click on each of them to see the results. It's important to know that it'll likely take numerous attempts before you find a result that you like. Fortunately, you can generate three new variations by clicking on the Generate button again.

And that's all it takes to convert your photos into alternative art mediums! I hope this guide helps. Let us know in the comments if you plan on giving this technique a shot.