This does look really cool tut, but I've not managed to find a picture of a hand a paintbrush for free yet, anyone link to and actual picture of one.

@he4rty I put the link to hands in the tute, it is hi-lighted in red and they are all free in Bing.

I had to do a little cloning and smudging to clean up my hand picture. Most of them are not free.

Finally, I got to this fun tut! I know....jaggies on the paintbrush, but the pic the pic I found had no watermark so I used it, unfortunately it was quite small and the enlarging created jaggies. Placement can also get a bit tricky, depending on the background pic and the brush pic. Still, this is a much easier way to get this effect than the old tutorial i tried a few years ago.

2-Ton - really nice, Having trouble with blocky images as well, I searched the net and came across this little tip, I'll assume your hand is on a transparent layer.
Go layer>transparency>alpha to selection
Go selection>Shrink Selection and shrink by 2px
Invert Selction
Go Filters>blur>gausians blur and blurr between 2 -5 px
So this should just blurr the edges of your hand so it blends better.

@2-ton, very nice job, cute baby. I guess you did get around to it after all huh!

yes, finally! And the best thing is that I have learned a bit of how to use edge detect! Also, I used layer mask instead of erase because I wasn't sure exactly where I was going to be erasing.

This is the first time I used edge detect too, I find it a cool script.

Sorry it's taken me so long to get to this, but this chap I've subcontracted the painting to is taking forever:



Kevin

Those bricks are heavy, Kevin. That's really cool. Love it.

That is very cool Kevin. love the big brush,

2-ton: delightful picture! the edge detect filter never seems to get me anywhere, but yours looks really good.

paynekj: aww, give the poor guy a paint cannon! at this rate he won't get a christmas break. neat picture!

How about this - it's my hand, photographed by me, this evening and you're free to do anything you like with it:

It's a png with a transparent background.

Kevin

Thanks a lot Kevin

very nice Kevin. Look like you have a pretty nice camera there.

i tried this tonight...here is what i came up with....

Rdgracer71 - Nice job, takes me back abit.

Well had a go, went for the cliched image

That is very nice rdgracer71, good job. That picture sure takes you back a few years.

Wow that is so very cool alc. lots of imagination there.