Photoshop as painting aid (?)

[Hammers]

I was just browsing Google Pictures for anacondas and, as one prone to do, thought about how rather difficult it is to get the transitions between colours right when painting wild life. Patterns look bold on a tiger, python, whathaveyou but at a closer look is rather subtle. Moving from phootography to painting a mini can  be tricky because we often simplify things by painting  perhaps just three to five layers.

Then it struck me that I think I have seen Photoshop (or similar, I use PSP) to turn photos into something looking like paintings. Wouldn't this be a useful tool to single out fields of colour in a photograph? Does anyone know how to do this procedure?

[Scout_II]

Various filters can help simplify the colors in pictures.

Posterize and Paper Cutout are default ones which I use from time to time.  They will break the image down into solid color blocks as opposed to more natural gradients.  Play around with the settings till you see what works best for the scale and level of detail that you are working in.