Publication Magazine Volume 2 Art And Soul | Page 18

5. Find the details
6. POLISH AND DISTRIBUTE DETAILS
The next step can easily be the most time-consuming:
we need to find the details in each layer of the composi-
tion. Here, Photoshop’s clipping layers will be helpful. If
you create a new layer above the layer with a silhouette
on it, you can alt+left click the space between the layers
and clip the new layer to the existing layer. Any paint
applied to the new layer will now only be visible where
the silhouette layer underneath it has opaque pixels.
By doing this you can begin to quickly apply paint to
the new layer without worrying about cleaning it up
later. Now using the Hard Round brush, start by adding
some random organic shapes to define the tops of all
the rock faces. These will be the portions of the rocks
that the light illuminates the most. If the silhouette layer
underneath isn’t dark enough, you can then follow up
by painting some shadows between the recesses in the
rocks. Repeat this process for each of the defined lay-
ers of the composition. Remember, as you move further
back in the composition details should become less and
less apparent and colours should desaturate.
During this step, the first thing you should do is
to take a hard look at the painting and ask your-
self what could be better. Maybe a detail you’ve
already painted could use a bit more work. May-
be you feel like the image is missing something.
For this painting, I wanted to add some ships
flying through the canyon and some clouds to
break up the sky a bit. For the ships, use the
exact same process you used earlier with the
rocks: silhouettes or shapes first, then detail.
For the clouds, start with the Hard Round brush
and in the Brush pop-up adjust the Hardness to
around 50%. On a new layer begin painting your
clouds using the pressure-sensitivity of your
tablet to create variation. Don’t forget to define
colours for the lightest areas and darkest, shad-
owed areas of the clouds. If your clouds feel too
bold, adjust the opacity of the layer in the Layer
panel. If your painting doesn’t turn out just like
this one, don’t be discouraged. Digital painting
(just like traditional painting) is something that
takes a lot of practice. If you’d like a resource to
help in your journey make sure to check out the
Photoshop: Digital Art and Illustration skill path
over at Pluralsight.
The first thing you should do is to take a hard
look at the painting
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