QUICKTIP:CREATENONDESTRUCTIVELY
Use all the error-proofing capabilities that
Photoshop offers. Once you are confident in the
path of your piece, go to Image>Duplicate to
create an identical canvas.13
ADD SOME COLOUR DETAILS
Now is a good time to open your Color
panel by going to Window>Color. Use a variety of
the loaded brushes, and set them to an Opacity
above 80%. The Drawer brush is excellent for
grass or rough textures, and the Texture Draw
brush, rotated 90 degrees, is great for grass. Use a
big soft brush for the waterfall mist, and a 15px
Hard Round brush for distant lightning. Remember,
Color Dodge and Overlay painting modes can
convey highlights so use those in conjunction with
your brush selection and colour choices.14
INSERT RAYS OF LIGHT
There are two methods to achieving rays of
light. One is painting with the Light Beam brush in
Overlay mode. Or as shown in the video, you can
create a new layer and select either the Render
Scratches or Rock Highlights brushes at 1400px and
100% Opacity and paint a light beige and light blue
colour. Go to Filter>Blur>Motion Blur and set the
angle to -90° and the distance to about 250 pixels.
Then go to Edit>Transform>Distort and pan the
bottom corners outward and the top corners inward
so the light beams appear more radial.11
MAKE A COLOUR OVERLAY LAYER
Create a new layer, name it ‘Colour Overlay’,
and change the blend mode to Color. Open the colour
window and choose hex# 9daa88. Select a 500px soft
brush and paint the greens accordingly. Select
another darker green and paint over the shadows.
Choose hex# 7b92b5 for the background, and #bef5ff
for the waterfalls and atmospheric haze near the
horizon line. Again, select from various brushes and
alter their settings so you get a precise overlay.15
FINALISE COLOUR
During the final portion of the greyscale
painting, you detailed the landscape. Refer to Step 10
and repeat this process while exploring all brushes.
Load Photoshop’s default Dry Media brushes and
select the Charcoal Flat brush at high opacity for
streams, refining the waterfall, and mountain ridges.12
ADJUST HUE AND SATURATION
Create a new Hue/Saturation adjustment
layer and set Hue at -15, Saturation at +41, and
Lightness at +5. Right-click the layer name and
create a clipping mask. Get in the habit of always
using adjustment layers to edit colour or brightness,
as they can always be tweaked or masked later on.
Now, create a Color Balance adjustment layer and
edit the Shadow, Midtone, and Highlight levels to
your liking. For this particular piece, Midtones were
set at (+8, -7, +2), Highlights at (-11, -12, -1), and
Shadows at (0, 0, +13).TECHNIQUES CONTROL TONE AND COLOUR IN SCENES
Make a habit of using the fill and adjustment
layers, located at the bottom of the layers window.
These steps will ensure you won’t have to keep
tapping Undo.Use a 400px soft brush at low opacity and Color
Dodge painting mode to really emphasise the
waterfalls, sun, and clouds. Finally, create a new
adjustment layer for Color Balance, Brightness and
Contrast, or Hue and Saturation and tweak your
painting to perfection.