Hey there!

I was wondering if anyone could help answer a question... my brother is looking to take a few regular photos of various cars and turn them into an "airbrushed/painted" look for a t-shirt design. This is NOT one of the photos, im just using it as an example.

He was wondering if there was a quick and dirty way of doing it (certain filters, action sets, etc..) though from the example photo he gave:

it looks like its more along the lines of redrawing it in photoshop from scratch.

Which is possible of course, but where he's looking to do this for several cars, was hoping to have a quicker/easier way.

If not, no worries. Just know as always, when there's a photoshop question that I can't immediately answer, come check with fellow PSC'rs.

Thanks in advance!

There are no easy tricks that I know of but just
adding those horizon shapes on the side helps a lot.
Basically draw in a horizon with the pen tool ( in this case it was the tops of houses) go across
the length of the car an make a big loop over the top of the car to create
a large selection. Now on a new layer, create a gradient that goes from white to transparency.
Or sky blue is nicer. Drag the gradient only part way up the side of the car and lower the opacity
until it looks good. Do the same on all the shiny parts. Just remeber there is an environment around that car that will be reflecting on it. Usually you see the sun on the horizon reflect the most.
I know my description probably makes no sense so I will try and do an example for you if I get a chance.

I thought maybe some Hard Light transparency would help. I added some bubble wrap filter. Just a quickie, and it turned out on the ugly side. It might of worked better with a hi res image with a photographer controlling the light so it wasn't as harsh.

Thanks guys... I think I may just end up recreating it with the pen tool so I can get the colors what they need to be and the reflections correct, etc...

Simply play with the surface blur filter to smooth out the detail while retaining the hard edges. Just a thought.

For a good result, I think there's no quick & easy way to do it.
You have to redraw mostly every pixels... like for a traditional airbrush illustration. But some PS work on a picture is a lot easier & faster than the traditional techniques.
Pen tool, stamp & brushes tools are the useful tools. A lot of layer masks are also necessary.