The Professional Photoshop Book - Volume 7 2015

07

REPEAT AND RANDOMISE

At this point you simply repeat the previous three steps. Lasso, add highlights

and shadows, and refine the shape. Play around with the downloaded brushes and try

the Rock and Pebble brushes for hard surfaces and the Cloud ones for haze and our

waterfall mist. Don’t forget to use your different painting modes to achieve more

contrasting values. Multiply adds shadow and Overlay/Color Dodge emphasises

brights. Staying with a high opacity, detail the grounds, the underlying rocks, and use a

flat brush with a white (#111) for the waterfalls.

06

REFINE YOUR SHAPES

Increase the Hardness to about 60%, reduce the size of the brush, and begin

painting over the general shapes for refining. Lassoing comes in very handy at this

point, as you can define sharp edges and create jutting cliffs in a matter of seconds by

simply painting in your selection. Use your Eyedropper tool (Alt/Opt) continuously in

this step to match the particular area you are painting in. Begin using the Rock brushes

at varied sizes for rock highlights.

QUICK TIP: PRACTICE PAINTING

Reading each tutorial step may become technically

overwhelming. In addition, viewing the real time video

of the painting and practicing on a blank canvas with

each brush and its different settings is highly

encouraged. Much like in oil painting, it’s not always the

actual brush and paint that make the piece, but rather

your technique.

08

ENHANCE THE BACKGROUND

Since the background is a bit bland at this point, use the Lasso

tool to carve out large rock formations and paint a grey darker than the

sky beneath using a 0% Hardness brush sized at 400px or above. Keep

the selection intact, and paint in Overlay mode towards the top to darken

and in Soft Light to add haze towards the horizon. Now, select the rock

brushes and paint textured highlights and shadows, altering size,

opacity, and blend modes.

Flip the canvas often, as

elements tend to shift in the

direction of your dominant hand

05

ADD ATMOSPHERIC HAZE

Flip the canvas often, as elements tend to shift in the

direction of your dominant hand. Now that your shapes are more

solid you can select a large 500px Soft Round brush at 0%

Hardness. Change your painting mode to Overlay and, using the

colour picker (Eyedropper tool), spot-select and lightly paint a light

grey in the background, and dark grey in our foreground. Play with

Color Dodge as well to show a bright light source, which in this

painting is beyond the mountains towards the right.

Control tone and colour in scenes

The Professional Photoshop Book 107

104-109 Colour Control.indd 107 06/10/2015 15:37