How to Quickly Create Digital Art with any Image in Photoshop

Photoshop Tips & Tricks

You've probably seen a variety of different digital art images that seem very complex to make. Even though some of them may require a lot of work, others are in fact very easy to create in Photoshop. And it's worth knowing these types of art images as they give you a lot of creativity freedom. Today, I will show you a method you can use to make a lot of different art images in less than 5 minutes using only some of default (and not so often used) Photoshop tools.

Please, keep in mind the settings shown in this tutorial are to be taken as a reference only. They may need to be adjusted a bit depending on the image size you use. But if you want to follow this tutorial exactly as described to practice this technique, please download the following free image from Pexels: Download.

Step 1

Open your image in Photoshop.

Step 2

Select the Art History Brush Tool (Y).

Step 3

In the top toolbar, click on the brush thumbnail to open the Brush Presets picker.

Step 4

Click on the Gear icon and from the dropdown menu select "Legacy Brushes".

Step 5

Under Special Effects Brushes, select "Falling Ivy Leaves" and set the brush size to about 7 px.

Step 6

In the top toolbar set the Style to "Loose Long", the Area to 20 px and the brush angle to 85º.

Step 7

Go to Layer > New > Layer. Name this layer as "Reference", set the Opacity to 60% and click OK.

Step 8

Go to Edit > Fill. Apply the following settings and click OK.

Step 9

Again, go to Layer > New > Layer. Name the layer as "Art" and click OK.

Step 10

With the Art History Brush selected and already set be sure to have the "Art" layer selected. Now simply click and drag over the areas you want to paint.
Note: Click and drag quickly to make light passes or click and hold over an area to make it more visible.

Step 11

When you finish, you may delete the "Reference" layer or increase the opacity to 100 % to have a white background.

A Final Note:

Due the freedom digital art gives you, you may change the top toolbar settings to your liking, like the Brush Size, Area, Style and Angle to achieve a different look. Also, you may choose any brush you want from the brushes panel, and play with the top toolbar settings to get even more different effects.