Paint like a pro
The Professional Photoshop Book 101
03
SEPARATE THE ELEMENTS
Create a new layer under your line art titled
‘Sky Gradient’. Pick a mid-grey for the left colour and
a light grey (hex# c0c0c0) for the right one and drag
this diagonally down on your canvas from your top
right, from dark to light. Set this layer to Multiply.04
REFINE WITH THE PEN TOOL
Use the Pen tool again to carve smooth,
clean-edged shapes. Carefully trace your points
over your line art. In this piece, the monorails, train
terminal, and large glass panels of the building are
outlined. Once your paths are enclosed, Right-click
in Pen mode and hit Make Selection. Feather
Radius should be 0, and Anti-aliased should be
checked. Now, head to Select>Save Selection, and
title it as you please. The selection is now saved in
your Channels box, where you can hold Cmd/Ctrl
and click the Channel title to activate it.05
HIGHLIGHTS AND SHADOWS
Create a new layer titled ‘Highlights1’ and
set the blend mode to Soft Light. Grab a 60px Soft
Round brush at 50% Hardness, with Shape
Dynamics, Diameter and Transfer set to 0%. Working
general to specific, build your highlights up with
white, noting where the sunlight hits or reflects. Add
a ‘Shadows’ layer set to Multiply, and do the same
process with a medium grey. Build up shadows and
highlights with various brushes and sizes. Houston
Sharp’s brushes contain a Hard Elliptical great for
defining value (http://bit.ly/1Fxo7Zv).06
DETAILED TONES
After your shadows and highlights are painted in, you can now begin
refining your tones and painting in details. Choose a Cloud brush from Tyler
May’s brush family, and with the Opacity and Minimum Diameter at about 50%,
begin painting in the sky how you see fit. Don’t worry about painting over any
buildings, since you can always refine them with the Pen tool. Experiment with
brushes in Multiply and Hard Light mode at this point, pushing your values
further and preparing them for colour.08
REFINE WITH CUSTOM BRUSHES
Begin detailing the colours of the piece using several various cloud,
foliage, and hard surface brushes from the links provided. You really need to
observe light when it hits buildings and the reflective quality of glass to paint in
the colours effectively. Emphasise your highlights by painting in colour dodge
mode with a bright yellow and low Opacity brush. For distant mountains and
trees, select a hard elliptical brush at 50% Minimum Diameter and Transfer.
Remember atmospheric perspective. Distant mountains will gradually fade to
blue, and foreground elements will be darker with higher contrast.07
COLOUR OVERLAY
Create several new layers above your greyscale layer that you can
delete on a whim rather than erasing. Haze, highlights and greenery will be your
standard colour overlays. Select a Soft Mechanical brush at transfer set to 0%
and switch the layer blend mode to Color and begin painting. Also experiment
with Overlay or Hard Light blend modes. When using this method, colours will
seem very unnatural at first, but these are just the base colour layers that our
custom brushes will detail later.09
PLACE RESOURCE IMAGES
After establishing your basic colour scheme and roughing in details,
feel free to place resource images such as trees and clouds into your image for
greater colour reference. Images can always later be used for photobashing
techniques, but right now blend them with your underlying colour layer by
painting away any unwanted sections with the layer mask mode. Open up Jonas
De Ro’s brush preset Sand Paint using his Dry basic and Paint brushes, blocking
in your structures and the surrounding landscape.094-103_PPB_07.indd 101 06/10/2015 15:39