Watercolor & Ink Simulation

[smadell]

I confess that I have always been partial to Watercolor & Ink paintings. I suppose they’re something you can either love or hate. Anyway, I set out to create a method to simulate a Watercolor & Ink treatment on a photograph. I have attached a macro that will do this.

1 - Start with a Pixel layer. In most cases, you can open an image as a Background layer.
2 - Click the “Watercolor & Ink Simulation” macro to generate a nice, somewhat stylized image.
3 - The macro generates 2 groups - one for the base colors (the “watercolor” part) and one for the outlines (the “ink” part).
4 - You can adjust many of the parameters to your taste. Expand the “Outline Group” and the “Color Group” to access the individual layers.

I)    In the “Outline Group,” find the “Thicken Outlines” layer. This is a Levels adjustment. If you move the Black Level slider up or down, the outlines will become more or less prominent.
ii)   In the “Color Group,” there is a layer called “Lighten Colors.” This is also a Levels adjustment. Adjusting the Gamma slider up or down will lighten or darken the base colors.
iii)  In the “Color Group,” there is a layer called “Posterize Colors.” This is a Posterize adjustment, and its default value is 8. If you move this up or down, you can inject greater or fewer colors into the image, changing its effect from more realistic to more cartoon-like.

[As an aside, I am indebted to the Affinity Revolution user for his video tutorial entitled “Turn any Photo into a Pencil Drawing,” which formed the basis for much of the “Outline Group” portion of this effect. Thanks, Ezra!]

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So, here is a before and after version using an image taken at Hearst Castle in California.



And here is another before and after version taken at a very tourist-laden luau in Hawaii.

 

Watercolor and Ink.afmacros.zip

[Dr-Hyphen]

Thanks for sharing, but the file is not visible when I import a macro since its a .afmacros file with an "s" which shouldn't be there. Unfortunately, renaming the file doesn't make it work despite it now being visible in the browser window.

 

[PaulEC]

Import it to the Library, not as an individual macro.

[Puffin]

Thank you it does a really great job, keep up the good work.

[BiffBrown]

Nice macro. Imported fine.

Changed the Gausian Blur to a Median Blur. A bit different, perhaps.

Biff

[Nicole]

OMG! I have spent two days fighting with three different trial programs to get this effect for a graphic novel...THANK YOU!!!

[RussD]

Thanks! Awesome Macro.

[Hildegard]

Leider WIRD mir nur in der Bibliothek, nicht als einzelnes Makro angezeigt, sondern nur eine Kategorie mit Makro und mehr nicht 😕 hat jemand eine Idee?

[Komatös]

Hallo @Hildegard und willkommen im Forum.

Das Du nur in der Bibliothek einen Eintrag findest hat seine Richtigkeit. Wenn Du auf das Makro "Watercolor and Ink Simulation" mit der rechten Maustaste klickst bekommst Du eine DropDown Liste angezeigt. Wenn Du dann auf 'bearbeiten' klickst, werden alle Schritte angezeigt, die in diesem Makro gespeichert wurden. 

[Hildegard]

Ich finde noch nicht mal "Watercolor and Ink Simulation"  und bei Makro mit der rechten Maustaste klappt es auch nicht

[joe_l]

@smadell First of all thanks for your macro. It would be nice it you would add a to-RGB-conversion as the first action, because using a CMYK image with your macro leads to unpredictable results.