|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
by Frank Glodek
All Images and Graphics Copyright © 2004
|
|
| Step
9: Similar to the white overlay layer, I have made one above the initial
gray layer to create some minor details and smooth out some transitional
color sections. Once again, I do not use an actual gray, but a
grayish-blue swatch to build some details onto the clouds and fill in some
gaps.
Note: When working on the detailed sections, blow the image up to 100-300% and use a small hard brush at low opacity/flow to create nice texturing. |
 |
| Step
10: Some final touchup work to smooth out any glaringlyNext I create a layer called "Gray Cloud" (you can name them
whatever you want, but it helps when they are descriptive). I fill in the
other main bulk of the clouds with the darker colors. It can be corrected
later with adjustment layers, but it helps build the solid mass of the
clouds. If you look closely, I didn't actually use a gray swatch for the
dark parts of the clouds, I used a "steely Blue". It just looks
darker because of the high contrast from the white cloud sections and
bright blue sky.
At this step I also used a soft brush erasure at opacity 20%/ flow 40% to soften and fade some of the gray clouds into the background. Viola! The cloud tutorial is done! You have a great background sky, or a lovely sky compostion. I hope you have enjoyed the tutorial. It's my first I've done, so I would love to receive some comments on it. Please email me at frankglodek@yahoo.com
|
 |
| Bonus
Step: If you are using the clouds near a reflective surface, such as an
ocean or lake, you may have reflected blue light (or any color, really)
from the water. To create a nice overlay make a new layer above all of the
rest. You will drag and pull a circular gradient from the direction of
your light source up to the underside of the clouds. Don't worry if it
covers everything with the new color.
Next, select the erasure tool and use a soft brush on the newest gradient layer to clean up all the excess color spots. Keep the color overlay focused on one side of the clouds. You should be left with a soft reflective coloring on the underside of the clouds. I hope that this has been informative and you were able to learn something useful. Most of all, experiment and have fun with it!! :)
|
 |
Brothers Forever is hosted on Comic Genesis, a free webhosting and site automation service for webcomics.