19
POTATO TUBERS
You have created grass roots but what
about the potato bushes? Go to a photo stock site
and find potatoes or use ‘17638378’ from http://www.
istockphoto.com. Place it into the ‘Soil’ group. Cut
some nice tubers (stems) and move them beneath
the bushes. Group them and hide parts of the
potatoes using the group mask and a rough black
brush. Draw shadows and highlights using clipped
layers on the group. If the colour is too vivid
desaturate it a bit. Grab the Brush tool and draw
drop shadows.22
TUNE THE COLOURS
In order to blend the objects into the scene
even more, create new clipped layers in Soft Light
mode. For each of them pick the environment
colour with the eyedropper and draw some colour
reflections on the lower parts of the objects using a
huge soft brush. Then improve the colour of the
harvester. Make a mask for the green colour with
the Lasso tool and different brushes. Tune the
colour using a green Solid Color Fill layer.20
SURFACE EDGES
The next step is improving the surface
masks. It’s mainly grass so create a special brush
for it (F5). Use ellipse form and Scattering to make
a brush like on the screenshot. Just use it in black
and white colour on the edges of the masks. You
need to add shadows and highlights on the sides of
the high grass and the wheat so that the edges
look better and more realistic. Use the same brush
in Normal and Overlay modes.23
TWEAK THE SHADOWS
The shadows of the objects still show their
origin. Improve them with the ‘Grass’ brush that you
have used on the edges of the surface masks. Use it
to refine the masks of the objects and to add some
more shadows with a dark green colour. Also you
need to create the drop shadow for the harvester on
the feed slice. Make a selection from the vivid
harvester mask. Create new Layer in Normal Mode
and just draw the shadow with the ‘Grass’ brush.21
LIGHTING OF THE OBJECTS
Proper lighting is a very important part of
great visualisation. Make sure the source photos
are really close to each other in terms of lighting so
you just need to tune them slightly. Create a new
layer in Overlay mode for each object and improve
the lighting using huge soft brushes with a low
Opacity of 5-10%. The black parts of the sheep are
too dark so lighten them a bit with a Selective Color
adjustment layer. Choose Black in the Color Select
field and move the Black slider to the left to 2-5%.24
FINAL TOUCHES
Almost there! Unhide the bubbles and create a grey gradient on the background to add a bit of depth.
Use the flip trick in order to look for any final flaws that need to be fixed. Add one more detail, cut some stones
from the middle soil layer and place them on the grey background near the pie. Draw drop shadows in with a
soft black brush. Now have a final look at the illustration. It’s finished!QUICK TIP
An important tip that’s not about Photoshop; do
what you love. It should be about having fun
and not just about money. Put your soul and
personality into your work and you’ll be able to
create top-notch products.