Written by Steve Patterson. In this Photoshop Effects tutorial, we're going to combine a couple of different effects. First, we'll give a photo easy-to-create painted edges, and then we'll make it look as if it was printed on canvas. We'll be loading in and using a couple of Photoshop's brushes for the painted edges effect, adding a layer mask to paint on, and finally using the Texturizer filter for the canvas effect. When we're done, we'll see how we can use our Photoshop file as a template to quickly and easily give other photos the exact same look!

Any recent version of Photoshop will work.

Here's the original image I'll be using for this tutorial:

And here's the "painted edges on canvas" effect we're going for:

Let's get started!

Step 1: Add A New Layer

With my photo open in Photoshop, my Layers panel is showing me that I have one layer, the Background layer which Photoshop adds by default and contains my original image:

The first thing I want to do for this effect is add a new blank layer above my Background layer, so I'll click the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel:

This gives me a new layer above the Background layer, which Photoshop automatically names "Layer 1":

I'm going to double-click directly on the name of the layer and rename it from "Layer 1" to something more descriptive, like "white background", since we'll be filling it with white in the next step and it will eventually appear to be the background on which the photo sits:

Step 2: Fill The New Layer With White

Next, because I want my photo to look like it was painted onto a white background, I need to fill this new layer with white. I could use Photoshop's Fill command for this, but there's an even easier way. First, press the letter D on your keyboard to reset your foreground and background colors to their defaults of black and white, respectively, if they're not set to that already. You'll see them switch back to black and white in Photoshop's Tools palette:

With white now as your background color and the "white background" layer selected in the Layers panel, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Backspace (Win) / Command+Delete (Mac) to fill the layer with white. The image will now be hidden from view temporarily by the solid white layer above it:

Step 3: Load The "Thick Heavy Brushes" Brush Set

To create our painted edges effect, we need a couple of Photoshop's brushes which install with Photoshop but aren't loaded in by default, so we need to load them ourselves, which is very easy to do. First, select the Brush tool by grabbing it from the Tools palette or by pressing the letter B on your keyboard:

With the Brush tool selected, right-click (Win) / Command-click (Mac) anywhere inside the document window to bring up the Brush tool options dialog box, and then click on the little right-pointing arrow in the top right corner of it:

Then select the Thick Heavy Brushes brush set from the list that appears:

A dialog box will pop up asking you if you want to replace your current brush set with this new one. Choose Append rather than OK, so the new brush set gets added in with the default brushes and doesn't replace them altogether:

Step 4:Choose The "Flat Bristle" 111-Pixel Brush

With the Thick Heavy Brushes brush set loaded, scroll down the list of your available brushes until you get near the bottom of the list, and that's where you'll find the Flat Bristle 111-pixel brush. If you have Photoshop's Preferences set up to show tool tips, the name of the brush will appear when you hover your mouse over the brush:

You'll find two 111-pixels brushes down near the bottom. The one we want first is the one on top, but we'll also be using the one below it in a few moments. Now that we have our brush loaded and selected, it's time to start creating our painted edges effect. First, we'll need a layer mask, and we'll add that next.

Step 5: Add A Layer Mask To The "White Background" Layer

We're going to start painting with our brush to create our painted edges effect, but we're not going to paint directly on the image itself. We're going to paint on a layer mask, and before we can paint on it, we need to create it, so let's do that. Make sure the "white background" layer is selected in the Layers panel, then click on the Add Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the palette:

This will add a layer mask to the "white background" layer. You can see it in the Layers panel directly to the right of the layer's thumbnail preview area:

Using our 111-pixel Flat Bristle brush that we've already selected, and with black already set as our foreground color from when we reset the foreground and background colors to their defaults a moment ago, we're going to paint with black on this layer mask, and as we paint, the photo on the Background layer will begin to re-appear through this solid white layer.

Step 6: Begin Painting From Side To Side On The Layer Mask

Make sure that the layer mask is selected and not the layer itself. You can see the highlight box around the layer mask thumbnail in the screenshot above, which means it's selected. Click on it to select it if it isn't selected for some reason. Then, with the mask selected, begin painting strokes from left to right inside the document window. Because we're painting on the layer mask with black, any areas we paint over will become transparent, revealing the layer below, which in this case is our Background layer containing our photo. You can see the painted edges effect beginning to take shape as you paint with the brush:

The Flat Bristle brush we're using does a nice job of giving us a painted look and feel, not only around the edges but also inside the area we're painting, since it leaves occasional white gaps in the brush stroke which add to the illusion that we really are painting this photo with a dry brush.

You can see in the Layers panel that the areas we're painting over in the document window are showing up as black in the layer mask thumbnail preview area:

Continue painting with your brush until you're happy with how it looks. If you paint a stroke and it doesn't look right to you, simply undo it with Ctrl+Z (Win) / Command+Z (Mac) and then re-paint the stroke. Here's my result:

We're going to switch to the other 111-pixel brush we loaded and touch up the edges next.