2D Artist

Learn how to create drama inan eerie underwater scene...In this speed painting tutorial I willdemonstrate how you can quickly createan imposing underwater scene, featuring adangerous fantasy sea monster. We’ll startby generating ideas with thumbnails, andexplore scale to add drama. We will also makeuse of several of Photoshop’s tools includingDodge, Burn, and the Tilt-Shift filter to addtexture and depth to an underwater painting.01Thumbnail ideas: The first stage is togenerate lots of ideas with thumbnaildrawings. Sketch out several different thumbnailsas this will help you come up with alternateideas. Try not to go into too much detail whencreating thumbnails. At this point, you want tofocus on defining the basic forms of the image,and the values from background to foreground.Think about how you want your image tofeel. Here I want it to feel claustrophobicand dangerous, so keeping the entire sceneunderwater works best for this. I also wantmy monster to be subtle at this stage, as thesuggestion of danger is often creepier thanshowing it in its entirety. It is important to thinkabout the shape of your monster too. I wantmine to feel serpentine, as the long curvedshape can add to interesting compositions.02Refining the thumbnail: Now withmultiple thumbnail ideas, you can``````create the initial composition. If there areelements of different thumbnails that you wouldlike to include, try merging them into the samecomposition. Here I blend two thumbnailsthat I like, taking the tilted foreground andserpent shape of one, and combining it with theclaustrophobic rock formations of another.``````Try several different options until youare happy with the feel of the image.Remember that it is much easier to makehuge compositional changes at this stage,rather than later, when you have spenttime and effort adding detail and color.03Checking the composition : I feelthat the landscape format of mycomposition does not truly show how deep theocean is, and how threatening the monster couldbe to the diver. If you want to show dramaticheight, try adding verticality to your scene, andemphasize the height and sharpness of the rocks.``````Continue to keep your forms loose at this stage,only focusing on very simple shapes. We will addcolor before we continue with any specific details.``````“If there are elements ofdifferent thumbnails thatyou would like to include,try merging them into thesame composition”``````Create multiple thumbnails focusing on basic forms to generate different ideas``````Merge elements from different thumbnails to create something new``````Composition is the focus at this stage andit is important to make changes before youadd details