Pau Homs, whose awesome interpretation of The Legend of Zelda as a Fortiche-style animated show we recommend checking out, has released a tutorial video tackling painterly smudging in 3D using the new Paint Filter node from Blender 5.2's extended Online Essentials.
The node lets you choose from several texture styles, including watercolor, oil paint, digital geometric, or your own custom texture. Options like seed and sharpness allow further control over the result. For a more realistic look, additional settings help correct how paint shifts color and becomes distorted based on the material.
Pau also explains how to achieve variable detail brushwork, so different parts of the render can have different levels of stylization, just like in a real painting.
