A quick painting projectin Photoshop: Moonrise,done entirely with .abrbrushes and the defaultbrushes, with a bit ofknow how about layers,merge modes, blurringand gradients.

This project was donevery quickly to fill aneed ... something I’dforgotten to render up in3D, and suddenly I wasout of time.

It was done in PSElements 9, using brush-es you can buy throughRenderosity and the DAZmarketplace — and I’lllist the resources as wego through the project.

Have fun!

Best wishes,

First, working from thebottom layer and on up,you want to create the skylayer.

This was a very simplegradient, from deep warm

purple to warm orange,which was intended torepresent city lights.

If you haven’t alreadyset the image size, doit now:

then pick the colors usingyour color picker.

You want to choose thedarkest color and the light-est color to be seen in thesky layer (which is the bot-tom layer of your painting).Let Photoshop make thegraduated fade for you...

Image > Resize > Image Size

If you’re not familiar with the gradua-tion fill tool, here’s a great place tolearn it.

It works like a bucket fill, but it usestwo colors ... And you can also setloads of cool effects with it, if younotice the extra tools that appear atthe top of the workspace, when youselect the graduated fill tool.

For this project, leave it simple. Youwant a perfectly simple graduationfrom top to bottom of the image ...But don’t let this stop you from play-ing with the tools at this time, be-cause you’ll learn a lot by just fiddlingaround with them! (The best way tolearn is to play ... kids know this.There’s no reason they should have allthe fun.)

For this project, leave the gradientfill tool set up on its defaults, andwhen you have your colors pickedout, draw a line on the “canvas.”

Ah ... But do you draw from the topdown, or from left to right? Well, giveit a go and see what happens! Cool,right?

This is a good time to adjust yourbasic colors, if you find they’re notquite right. Tweak until you have justwhat you want, and then ...

You probably guessed. Create a newlayer. Each individual element of thepainting is done in its own layer.

Create a new layer. You can do thisfrom the LAYER menu, at the top ofthe screen, but as the layers accumu-late they stack up in the bottomright corner of your workspace.

Here’s a handy tip: nameeach layer! As you go on,getting more and moreused to working with layers,you can wind up with proj-ects involving scores ofthem, and any one layermight have a tiny effect orjust a few brush strokes init. It can get very difficultto find just the layer youwant to work with. If youforget to name the layerswhen making them, youcan do it later. Double-click on the layer (whichwill have an exotic defaultname such as Layer 9,Layer 10, and so forth) andtype in the dialog.

With your second layer created ... I’vecalled mine “hillside” ... it’s time topaint in the next thing you’d expectto be stacked up in front of the basicsky layer. So...

Create a new layer...

On the face of it, this onelooks like a bit of a nobrainer! Just select yourbush tool set the size of it,and the opacity, and, uh,paint the outline of a hill-side.

There’s only one thing thatcan go wrong, and it’sworth mentioning here.Folks new to Photoshopcan inadvertently pick oneof the other tools hidingbehind the brush icon:

And you can wonder wherein the world your brushvanished to. Luckily, it’seasy to get it back, so longas you know the menu ishiding back there.

However, if you’ve neverexplored the brush tools(or if it tends to be potluck when you do this),it’s time to take commandhere, rather than lettingPhotoshop take you alongfor a ride. So...

When it comes to brushes, in Photo-shop you name it, you can configureit; which is where a lot of new userscan become rather overwhelmed. It’sone thing spotting color onto a phototo touch it up, but what’s all the restof this stuff?

Well, Hardness is just what it soundslike: how much is the brush blurred orsoftened? Fade – same deal. “Spacing”is not so intuitive. You can paint adotted line by setting the spacing high,or an unbroken line by setting it low,or zero. Angle sets the angle of thebrush “point” you’re painting with,and you notice there’s a dynamic tool,looks a bit like a compass, to set this.

Handy! Roundness sets the degree towhich the brush’s impression, or ap-pearance, is squished. 100% on theRoundness means you get the wholebrush. 50% on this setting gives you abrush impression that is only half ashigh. By playing around with thesesettings, you can make most .abrbrushes do amazing things.

You’re going to be painting with thosein a moment, so it’s a good thing toknow about Angle and Roundnessbefore you start.

So choose a nice big, hard brush andpaint in your hillside. Done? Great.Next...

Create another layer ontop of the hillside. Call itsomething like “Mist on thehillside.”

Now, you want to pick acolor for the mist,and in my paint-ing it was blue-gray, but yourswill be affectedby the colors youchose for the sky.Pick over andover, till you getit just right.

To paint the mist,you can set yourdefault brush tosoft and semi-transparent andhand paint it. Oryou can do itsuper-quick, anduse an .abr brush.I used “Ron’sFog,” which youcan find at theDAZ marketplace.The brushes arefrequently onsale there and atRenderosity; it’sworth starting a

wish list and keeping tabson what you like.

Paint in your mist withmouse clicks, not by drag-ging out brushstrokes...

Painting with .abr brush-es is a bit like that oldgame you played as a kid,where you cut shapesout of a potato and usedposter paint to stampimpressions onto paper.(You never did that? Youmissed half the fun ofbeing a kid!)

The only big thing youneed to know about thisis that you click themouse to make an im-pression. Don’t drag themouse ... you’re notpainting with your ownbrush strokes, you’restamping pre-made imag-es into the canvas. So...

Create a new layercalled (!) Trees, andload up your trees brushset. Pick what you needand stamp them in overthe mist in silhouette, inblack. My trees are win-try, skeletons. Yourscould be summertimetrees. For this, I usedsome of the brushesfrom Leaves And Trees ...I’d love to tell you whodesigned them andwhere to get them, butthe artist put nothinginto the brush set, and Ican’t remember. Googlefor “.abr tree brushes!”

Next, yep, you guessed ..Make a new layer. Call itsomething like “Mist infront of the trees.” Loadup your mist/fog brushes,choose one you like, andpaint/stamp it in.

One mistake new folksmake with this kind ofwork is that they can getthe picture elements outof scale. Remember thatto look good all elementsin the shot have to be theright size ... so look hardat the mist you’re paintingin, and make sure itdoesn’t look like a smallobject seen up close. Youcan have brushes givingyou wisps of smoke orsteam, but if you usedthese to represent mistfaaaar away, they’ll justlook wrong (and the re-verse is just as true ...mist/smoke/fog far awaydoesn’t look right comingout of a candle a few feetaway). It’s a simple rule,but you’d be surprisedhow often it’s overlooked.

You might like to playaround with the opacityon this mist layer ...Notice, you can configureeach of your layers...

Down in the bottom right corner ofyour screen, your layers are stackingup. Now, notice that you have somecontrols right on top of them: yourmerge mode, and your opacity.

Clicking the merge mode will cause amenu to fly up ... and here’s whereyou can either find yourself in candy-land or in a world of confusion, alldepending on how much fn you’rehaving playing around with this stuff.

Alas, there’s no way I can give you aRoyal Road to learning this. You haveto play. You have to make like the kidwith the building bricks, and try every-thing. See what works, what doesn’t,and slowly but surely, it’ll all “stick”in your mind to the point where you’lldo it without even thinking about it.

Messing about with your Mist OverTrees layer is a great place to start. Ifnothing else, play with the opacity onthe mist layer.

As you on on, leaving behind thesimple process of touching up photosand starting to actually paint in Photo-shop, you’ll use layers more and more,and you’ll come to rely on the mergemodes, the opacity tool, and oneother tool that we’ll be looking atsoon: the Filters.

More about that in a moment. For now,if you have your mist looking good, it’stime to make a new layer. Call it Moon,and get ready to learn one more neatthing about layers!

In my painting, you seehow the moon is BEHINDthe trees, even though Icreated the Trees layerfirst. Here’s the neattrick: Layers can bedragged up and downthrough the image. Thisis going to save you loadsof work in your futureprojects, and will alsofree you to create lay-ers in any order and thendrag them this way andthat to experiment withdifferenteffects.

Right now, load up yourMoon brushes and selectthe full moon. I used theMoon Brushes by an artistcalled Hawksmont, whichI think are available ateither Renderosity or atDeviantart. I’d love toremember which, but thememory escapes me. TryGoogling “HawksmontMoon Brushes”. You’resure to find them.

Set your color; set yourbush opacity; get the sizeright. Click, don’t drag.Then select the little im-age of the moon you justpainted, drag it into theright place. Then grabthe whole layer and dragit UNDER the trees.

The next item up is thering around the moon.Create a new layer andcall it Ring Around Moonor similar. Drag the layerUNDER the trees, be-cause any glow in the skyought to be behind thetrees, right? Right.

To paint in the glowaround the moon, youwant a big brush. Choosesomething the right sizeon your brush size picker.Choose something closeto the color of the moon,and paint a good, hard,solid disk right on top ofthe moon...

At this point, don’t worryabout the transparencyon the disk or the lovelyblur you see on this. Justwhop a sold disk of palecolor onto the painting,right where the moon-glow ought to be,because you’re going todo everything else byconfiguring the layer.

Trust me, it’s actuallyeasier this way, and I’llshow you how on thenext page. When you seehow easy it is, comeback to this page to seethe lovely result!

1. Paint the disk

2. Opacity

3. Blur

Opacity and GaussianBlur. Tweak them tillthey look good. Goback one page to seethe results. Rememberfor next time!

Painting in a skein ofgeese across the face ofthe moon is just a nicetouch; you don’t have todo this, but I liked it.

The geese are painted intheir own layer; they’redead black, in silhouetteand clicked in with themouse.

If you’re adding birds todaytime skies, you canadd them in dark blueor purple. As a basicrule, the further awaysomething is, the bluerand paler it will lookdue to the volume ofatmosphere betweenyour eye and it. The waymountains look bluewith distance.

These birds are from afantastic set calledRon’s Birds, which youcan find at the DAZMarketplace. Numerousbrush sets of birds areavailable; the qualityvaries, so shop aroundand have a look atreviews before buying.The price will usuallyreflect the quality.Cheaper brushes can bea bit “rough,” and freeones...!

The last layer of all topaint is the stars. Just setyour brush to white, small,and 100% and start click-ing. As you go, makesome stars smaller andfainter by changing theopacity and brush size.

If you were working on apainting that was photo-realistic, you’d also workin faint colors and givesome of the stars a misti-ness, but I left them veryplain here because thispiece was never intendedto be photo realistic. It’sart, and it was very quick,but the number of tech-niques rolled into it isquite considerable. Get agrasp on these aspects ofPhotoshop and you haveplenty of skills to apply tofuture projects.

http://3d-adventures.blogspot.com | http://www.dream-craft.com/jade-gallery/

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Copyright by Jade,November 2012.

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