I have tried making paintings from photos and Poser renders but the results are dismall. The tutorials I have found on the art history brush do not help make that tool of any use to me unfortunately. I have had better luck taking snapshots of filtered images and compositing them with the history brush with different settings and tips... but really I am not doing well. So far the best is carefull smudging or just painting with eyedrop sampled color but the results can be either surreal or flat as the case mightbe. I wish the smudge fingerpaint would alt-key to eyedropper. Anyone have advise for a "hand painted rather than filter aproach to paintingafying pictures...

I have found that painting isn't one of the things Photoshop is best at. Art Rage is a really good free program for copying and painting. http://www.ambientdesign.com/artragedown.html

Wow! ArtRage is totally beautifull! Just the pencil alone it terrific. Thanks.

try useing the smudge tool at different opacitys and with different brushes.. i love painting this way in photo shop

Yes, I just saw a great one of 'The Grinch' done that way. Really impressive.

I've working with Photoshop for 8 years but for pure organic painting satisfaction, Corel Painter 9 works out the best. You can do wonderful things in Photoshop but Painter and a Wacom table is the nearest thing to real paintin'. Look at Bert Monroy's art for what can be done with Photoshop. He has training videos at Lynda.com. Here is a photo I modified in Painter.