How can I apply realistic brush marks on an image?

Question

I wonder how brush marks are applied to images. For example, there are some good marks on the sun graphic below. Are they textural, or do they require some special painting tricks? Any keyword that directs me to true path or link will be appreciated. I'm looking to accomplish this with GIMP.

By the way, they seems like brush marks to me but they may be friction marks, sword marks, bear claw, etc. What are they really?

Answer 1

G'MIC plugin for GIMP

In the example you gave it seems indeed a photography of a real background was used. But nevertheless we can apply brush or sketch marks to an image using external filters in Gimp. Below I did a quick sketch mark using the "Black & White - Sketch" filter from the external Gimp plugin GREYC's Magic for Image Computing.

1. Source Image

   

2. Sketch filter with added motion blur

   

3. Overlay of source image and sketched image

   

The sketched image in step 2. will need further fine tuning for more realistic brush/pencil stroke effects.

Answer 2

That is simply a photograph used for texture. No one painted those brush marks in Photoshop. In reality, this is how it's done most of the time.... by using a photograph of a brush texture to add the variation.