Paint like a pro
The Professional Photoshop Book 99
03
CREATE YOUR DOCUMENT
After choosing your thumbnail, create a new document with a white
background at 2835px width, 3661px height, and 300ppi. Go to the Units & Rulers
panel in Preferences and change Ruler Units to Pixels. Now make sure rulers are
enabled and click the left side and drag out a guide to about 2000px. Click the top
and drag down a guide to about 2700px; this serves as your horizon line. The
intersection of these guides is where your focal point lies.08
CREATE A FOREGROUND
Our city will be an enclosed community, accessible only by certain
transportation. With this in mind, draw a train terminal in the foreground. The
tracks will encompass the city and lead the viewers eye towards the focal point.
Use the Pen tool (P) for outlining of train tracks or curved building edges. Simply
click a point to add your first anchor, then click and hold your next point, dragging in
the direction you want your curve. Hold the Alt/Option button and click your most
recent anchor point to remove the handle, and continue completing your shape.04
SET YOUR PERSPECTIVE
Immediately create a new layer and title it ‘Perspective’. There are
two ways to set your perspective. Select the Polygon tool (hit Shift+U three
times), hit the gear icon on the top toolbar, tick Star, set Indent Sides to 99%
and set Sides to 100. Or, select the recommended Perspective brush at
5000px. With either method, ensure the centre of the perspective shape is
placed where the guides intersect. Change the layer Fill to about 15% so it
doesn’t distract from your line drawing.09
REFINE THE DETAILS
Create a new layer and title it ‘Path Lines’. Now, choose a 3px Hard
Mechanical brush, return to the Pen tool, Right-click and select Stroke Path.
Choose Brush from the dropdown menu and deselect Simulate Pressure. Hit OK,
and you now have outlines on all your paths. This will come in handy for fine
hard edges in our texturing phase. Now, continue adding details, erase unseen
portions of the background, and experiment! Even after your thumbnail phase
feel free to erase and redraw any elements that are not working.05
IMPORT THUMBNAIL
Now Rectangle Marquee your thumbnail
and copy and paste it to your newly created
document, adjusting the size (Cmd/Ctrl+T) to fit
the canvas. Remember to place the image in the
guide crosshairs so the horizon line appears
correct and you have a great focal point. Rename
this layer ‘thumbnail’ and lower the Fill to about
20%. Create a new layer titled ‘line art’ and choose
a 15px Hard Mechanical brush with Minimum
Diameter set to 15% and Transfer set to 15%.06
DRAW BACK AND MID-GROUND
We will be drawing over the rough
thumbnail, so grab that pen and begin fleshing out
your background first: mountains, cliffs, and
smaller structures in the distance. Look at photos
of Hong Kong for inspiration, where tall structures
emerge from the trees and steep mountainsides.
At this point in the line drawing, don’t worry about
the main buildings just yet. That’s what the Eraser
tool is for. Scribble bumpy edges to resemble tree
tops, a curved line for your beach, and some round
lines to represent clouds.07
BUILD THE CITY
Refer to Dubai’s metro stations, the Burj Al
Arab, and London’s 30 St Mary Axe (aka the Gherkin)
for inspiration in building your city. We will be
depicting a futuristic city built of fibreglass, steel, and
glass, so draw more fluid and round shapes, instead
of straight, rigid lines. Use a 20px Hard Mechanical
brush this time and draw the edges of your buildings,
starting at the contour lines, and working your way
in towards the centre. For help with this step, refer to
the resources file: Step 7 Video, which shows a draw
over of an initial concept.094-103_PPB_07.indd 99 06/10/2015 15:39