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Painting Rocks and Grass in Photoshop by Patrick Keith
I will start by describing what this tutorial isn't so
there won't be a disappointment if I fail to cover something. It is
not a tutorial for color theory, aesthetics or composition and the
examples provided are by no means attempting to be photo-realistic
in any sense. This is a tutorial to display one way in which
Photoshop can be used to simulate a type of natural media, similar
to oil paint, in a way. It is also a description of the way I paint
and can give some insight into the steps I use to create a digital
painting. Anyway, enough chatter....
For this example I am working at half the size I normally do and
will be creating this in RGB. Most of my paintings are created in
CMYK mode for print output. Working at a higher resolution, even
for web-based work, is more desirable since re-sampling "down" to say
72 dpi averages the pixels displayed and "tightens" up the piece,
much like printing a picture at a smaller size than it was painted
with natural media. It also means some details will be lost, so
expect that too.
 
Once the document is created I fill the background with a
neutral color avoiding painting over straight white since that
tends to affect how the eye sees the relative colors. For
particularly dark pictures I will of course fill it with a dark
warm or cool color to provide a good base for the other colors.
At this resolution the brushes I use most are the 5, 9, 35, 45
and occasionally the 100 size airbrushes with the hard edge. The
spacing is set to 1 to avoid any circular spreading that resembles
a coiled spring .
At this stage I create a separate layer to hold my sketch above
the other work as reference. If I am using a scanned image, I will
adjust the Layer setting in the drop-down menu from Normal to Multiply to create a transparent image I can see through.
Here I have suggested the location of the rocks just as a map or
guideline. For more complex subjects the sketch is more
detailed,
I use a small soft airbrush with a medium gray color dark enough
to show up against the background, but not straight black.
On another layer above the background layer, I usually do most of
my painting. This keeps me from disturbing the background, especially if there is
an elaborate image.
For this example I just used a muted, medium value for the
rocks and foliage. This will give a good basis to build shadows and
highlights. Rarely is anything so cut and dried in nature and it's
best to experiment with a variety of colors to simulate different
lighting effects.
Using a 100 pixel hard-edged airbrush, I set the Airbrush Options
to Multiply and sample the background color using the Eyedropper.
 
Here I am wanting to indicate where the shadows will fall and
also create a darker version I can sample later with the
eyedropper.
Usually as I paint I keep one finger on the Alt/Option button to
toggle the tool between the airbrush and the eyedropper.
After blocking in a few shadows, I set the Options to Screen and
spray some highlights indicating the direction of the light.
Here, the brown is a yellow-based color which is a little warmer
than I wanted, so I set the airbrush back to Normal and painted a
few strokes of a light, muted tan across the top.
Setting back to Screen, I sampled the yellow from the rock and
began to suggest the shapes of leaves in the shrub with a 5 and 9
pixel brush.
While working on the shrub I alternated between the Screen and
Normal settings as I sampled lighter and darker greens to define
the shapes of the leaves.
More definition is added going back to the Normal setting for
the airbrush.
At this point, I just sample dark and light colors as I paint,
defining the shape of each leaf with a 5 pixel brush.
Here, I suggest a few longer blades of grass by starting at the
base and making quick and curving upward movements with the pen.
The colors are sampled from the leaf color for convenience, but
additional colors should be used for variety.
Next, I move to the rock on the far left and scribble back and
forth to suggest texture using a 35 pixel brush.
You can compare how much it's changed by looking at the rock to
it's right. The shadow area is lightened and smoothed using strokes
of sampled color.
Generally I will paint some strokes, sample, paint, sample and so
forth until the desired effect shows.
On to Part 2 >>
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