2D Artist

2DARTISTMAG.COM2DARTIST MAGAZINE | Speed paint an underwater monster“Adjust the lines of the Tilt-Shift filter to mostly blur thebottom section of the image”``````Gently blur the foreground to show depth within your painting09Foreground blur and sharpening: Tosuggest more depth within the image, Iuse the Tilt-Shift filter to blur out the immediateforeground and some of the very top of theimage. It is important not to use this too strongly,or it will ruin any sense of scale within the image,instead making it look like a miniature scene.Adjust the lines of the Tilt-Shift filter to mostlyblur the bottom section of the image. This willencourage the viewer to look past the immediateforeground to the main focus of the image – inthis case the diver and the approaching monster.Once this is done, sharpen your image usingthe Unsharp mask, making sure that you justgive the edges of the focal point the slightestsharp edges. Too much Unsharp mask canmake your textures look too rough and jittery.10Final touches: Now that the paintingis more or less finished, you can adda simple Noise filter to add a very faint grain tothe image. I find that this adds a cinematic feel,and helps to unify all the details and colors.Don’t add too much, as less than five-percentis usually required to give a nice, grainy feel.If you are still unhappy with the colors,a good tip is to use the Variations tool(Images > Adjustments > Variations). Thisallows you to tweak the color scheme veryaccurately, so you can get it to your liking.Here, I use this tool to add some moresaturation to the mid-ground of my image.PRO TIPSKeep tonal values in checkIf you have spent time and effort making sure that your grayscale values are perfect, you don’t want them to be ruined after adding somecolor. So it is a good idea to keep a spare copy of your black and white layer, to ensure the tonal values are safe no matter how much you editthe main image.``````Alternatively, try to keep a plain black layer to hand. This way you can place it above your image and set it to the Color layer mode, which willshow you an accurate representation of how your tonal values still look. You can also use the Desaturate tool if you wish, but I find that thisdoes not work as accurately.