In this week’s free Deke’s Techniques, Deke whips out his Wacom Cintiq. With it, he uses Photoshop to hand-paint a photograph, turning the stately serene lion on the left into the wicked wild cat on the right before your very eyes, using a combination of brush strokes and blend modes.

Of course, you don’t need the fancy (and somewhat expensive) technology to follow along. Read on to get a preview Deke’s approach and see if it sparks some wild ideas of your own.

Deke starts by making a template (basically a layer with reduced opacity) of the photo over which to paint. He starts with the eyes and a black brush:

Eventually the black strokes define the key details in the original:

Next, a layer of colored strokes painted directly on the screen with the Cintiq:

If you’re a member of lynda.com, Deke’s got an exclusive movie this week in which he applies a series of blend modes and CC-specific layer settings to create this final effect. Not a member? No problem. Just sign up for a free week at lynda.com/deke and enjoy. Rwar.