Norman Rockwell was a classic American illustrator and painter known for his realistic portraits of people and places that reflected a collective identity. Rockwell's body of work reflects a definite period, which by today's standard recollects classic scenes of the 1950s. Using a combination of features in Adobe Photoshop, any photo may be given the "Norman Rockwell" treatment, making it appear as a painting rather than a digital image.
The Right Image
Achieving a true Norman Rockwell effect begins with choosing the type of image that Rockwell painted, or would have painted himself. Norman Rockwell's "The Muscleman" depicts a young boy sizing up his muscles in the mirror and seems to capture the adventurous spirit of all young boys that age. Your image can do the same if you pick one that people from many walks of life can identify with, such as a couple at the altar or a boy and his dog.
Layers
You'll need to make several copies of the image in Photoshop using the layer function. Layers allow you to make copies of the original photo and edit those while leaving the original photo intact. In this way, changes to the photo are allowed to be incremental and the original image continues to be a guide and basis for further editing. Layers also allow you to keep track of the edits to the photo as they can and should be named to reflect the changes made to the image.
The Blur Tool
Photohop's blur feature gives the digital image a slightly lower quality as you might expect to see in a painting. You'll need to use "Smart Blur" in the Filter settings and choose a radius/threshold that isn't too sharp or too blurry for your particular image. The goal here is to keep important detail in your image (of the kind that Norman Rockwell would paint) such as facial characteristics and important scenery.
Glowing Edges
The Glowing Edges feature strips your image of the rich and varied pixelation and highlights the lines that make up figures and other shapes. This makes the image appear as if it was sketched using a fine point marker. You are allowed to choose the width, brightness and smoothness of the edges. Your settings should allow enough detail to allow you to tell what is encapsulated by the edges even though they are empty. Apply further treatments to the inversion of the layer, allowing some opacity. This is because you'll move the glowing edges to the top of the layers. The blurred layer beneath will add color.
Free Hand Painting
Any detail lost from other techniques need to be restored by hand. The best results come from using a stylus and drawing pad, which allows an exacting artistic hand. The stylus is used as a combination of brushes such as the Dry Media Brush to add blacks in settings, figures and shadows and the Watercolor Textured Surface Brush for finer details. Pretend you are painting on a canvas with loose, scribbling strokes but don't completely color everything as this adds authenticity.
