Fast faux painting effects in Photoshop

Want to quickly turn a photograph into a chalk art or painting?
You'll want to play with the cutout filter in Photoshop.
Before, the cutout filter was easy to find under the Filter menu. However, you may have noticed that in CS 6 some of the filters seem to be missing!
No worries. You can still find your favorite filters in the "Filter Gallery" under the Filter menu.
Then experiment with "Cutout" to create a great look to your photo like the one below. Try changing the number of levels of color until you get the look you want.
(click on the photo for a larger view)
Enjoy!

Photoshop - How to create transparency on a photograph

Ever get tired of the rectangle shapes of images? It's not too difficult to create an image that appears to be of any shape you want.
Check my video on how easy this can be done!
http://www.screencast.com/t/2QF9FEvvqo1