My secret

Here's the secret to the "hand painted/grunge" look. I have to give credit to the Sprague Lab which is one of the most amazing sites I've used (besides my own...ha ha ha) That's where I learned it.

-First open the photo you'll be using and make a duplicate (cntrl J)
-Then hide the original
-change the blending mode on the new duplicate photo to soft light (this is in a drop down box above the layers.
-duplicate the photo
- then remove the color from this new copy (enhance, color, remove color)
- make two copies of this new desaturated copy (so you will have four pictures showing now)
- then on your recent two copies, take the first of the two and do a Gaussion blue (filter-blur- gaussion blur) to the degree you blur it is up to you. I've read from 10-20 but I prefer to start at around 5 depending on the picture.
- Then preform this on the next of the two copies. But this time make it a little more than what you just previously did, so like an 8 if you did a 5. This is totally up to you.
- Then flatten the image and add a grunge frame or whatever you want.

ENJOY!!!! Let me know if you have questions.