Photoshop: Brush Strokes

  Similar to the painterly effects of some of the Artistic filters. Brush strokes replicates different brushes used by painters to create different graphic effects.

• Accented Edges. Use this to apply a variable edge around image detail. Depending on the setting of Edge Width, this can vary from a dark, charcoal black to a softer, chalky white.
• Angled Strokes. Use this to give the effect of hard brush strokes. You can change their direction, stroke length, and sharpness. To break up the regularity, a small number of strokes appear in the opposite direction.
• Dark Strokes. Use this to accentuate dark areas of an image with black pencil-like strokes, and lighter parts and white pencil-like strokes. The intensity of these shades, and the balance between the two, is variable. Images sometimes benefit from sharpening afterward.
• Ink Outlines. Use this to make your photograph look as though dark and light pens have been carefully drawn around all edge detail, and the midtones smoothed out.
• Crosshatch. Use Crosshatching, a technique used by painters and illustrators, to create texture. They brush the same area twice but with strokes in the opposite direction. This filter can be used very effectively with monochrome images.
• Sumi-e. Use this to give the effect of a wet Japanese ink brush on absorbent rice paper. It is similar in a way to dark Strokes and Ink Outlines, but with a softer rendition that may need some sharpening.