Okay, I admit, that is likely the worst title I've ever put on this blog.  Anyway, as the title suggests, I've been working on filters as part of my 2nd assignment for college: emulating other artists' artwork.  First, I tend to make what I'm working with a Smart Object (right click on the layer, then press "Convert to Smart Object") so I can modify the results later, but doing so isn't absolutely necessary. To make my stuff look like other artists' paintings, I was taught that (in Photoshop) pressing Filter -> Filter Gallery and selecting the "cutout" option, dropping the number on colors from a few million down to 8 or even 3, was a good start.  After that, selecting Filter->Oil Paint (which sadly isn't available on some older and newer versions of Photoshop, but it's on CS6) gives it a paint-like texture, and after that it's a good idea go to the Filter Gallery again and give it an "angled strokes" filter and ...