Create Paint Splash Portraits

James Paterson shows you how to create this fun effect and demonstrates a host of key Photoshop editing skills

- James Paterson

You can have lots of fun with filters, blend modes and brushes in Photoshop – and the great thing is, they’re very easy to use. A vibrant portrait effect like this might look complicated, but it’s quite simple. In this project we’ll explain how. We’ve supplied a starting image but better to use your own – any portrait will do, but it helps if the subject is against a clear, bright backdrop.

Aside from learning how to make a fun portrait effect, we’ll also encounter useful Photoshop features like Smart Objects. These are key to a non-destructive workflow, as they allow you to keep filter effects editable. So you can go back and tweak settings or try a new effect at any stage in your workflow. We’ve used the Torn Edges filter here to transform our photo into blocky black and white tones. Once done, we can add our vibrant paint effects.

To add splashes of colour to our portrait we’ve used a separate image of paints (downloadable for free from pixabay.com, search for 2681039). This is blended using the Screen Blend mode, which creates a double exposure effect by combining the lightest parts of the two photographs.