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Members Area Tutorial: Digital Painting Lesson: Scarecrow’s Joyride

Warning: This tutorial is NOT FOR BEGINNERS, it’s for people who know their way around Photoshop and are looking to further their design knowledge/skills. If you aren’t comfortable with radial gradients, overlay layers and clipping mask layers and have a good foundation level of artistic skill this tutorial probably isn’t for you. Oh, and you should definitely have a graphics tablet; it would definitely be more of a trick than a treat to try this with a mouse!

Final Image:

Here’s the final image that we will be creating:

Halloween, the time of year when Tim Burton blends in with the rest of society, and we all get to indulge our love of all things spooky from trick or treating, dressing up as monsters or watching the Ghostbusters films on TV! To get into the spirit of the season (no pun intended) this tutorial will take you through how I made this Halloween inspired illustration in Photoshop as well as throw in the odd bit of useless (but fun) trivia to help you along the way. There are also some great custom brushes for you to download to help you with this tutorial.

Fun fact: At the risk of stirring up a can of worms in the comments section, I actually like Ghostbusters 2 more than the first Ghostbusters film!

Step 1: Roughs

Start off by opening a new A4 PSD at 300 dpi. Whenever you start an image (well, as soon as you have your idea) you should always think about composition first. If you just start scribbling you could end up with some frustrating corrections to change down the line, which nobody wants, so draw yourself out a “rule of thirds” guide in red.

Draw two equally spaced lines both horizontally and vertically across your image, your main focal points should be somewhere near where the lines intersect.

In illustrations we want to avoid symmetry because the human brain concentrates on things it finds conflicting and unbalanced; the rule of thirds shows us where to place our focal points.
Once you’ve got your rule of thirds guide in place create a new “Roughs” layer and draw a rough layout using my custom ‘dc rough pencil’ brush (in the brushes download pack) with a light blue colour.

Composition tip: Pointers

To aid your composition you can use more than just the rule of thirds; you can use subtle pointers to guide the viewer’s eyes where you want them to go. Try to have as many elements as you can point towards the focal points and avoid things leading the viewer off the end of your image.

Step 2: Lines

When your roughs are drawn, lower the layer’s opacity to 65% so the layer is a bit faded and create a new layer above it called “Lines”. Use the ‘DC Drawing Pencil’ brush (or ‘DC Inking CS5’ if you have CS5) to draw in the lines of the Pumpkin and Scarecrow. Don’t draw any lines for the background elements that you’ve sketched in though. The human eye is drawn to definition so having the main characters drawn with solid lines will make them appear to be above the background which we will paint in more subtly at a later stage.

Step 3: Filling the background layer

If you’ve read one of my tutorials before you’ll already know this, but for the new people here’s a small but essential tip: Never start colouring characters against a white background as it distorts your perception of colour. Always fill the background layer with a neutral colour first as it helps sets the tone and will even assist you with the under painting. Press Shift + Backspace then select ‘Use Foreground Colour’. I’ve gone for a lilac colour here because it will complement the bright orange colour of the pumpkin. Press ‘G’ to select the Linear Gradient tool (found in the paintbucket flyout menu) and set it to ‘25% opacity’ and ‘Foreground to Transparent’. Add a dark purple gradient to the bottom left of the image, followed by adding a light orange gradient to the top left to indicate where the setting sun is.

Quick Tip: Using a colour wheel is a great way of choosing your colour palettes for images, I still keep one in my desk draw to this day. If you don’t already have one just Google it, you’ll find one immediately.

Step 4: Painting in the scenery

Create a new layer above the “background” and below the “Roughs” called “Scenery”. Use an airbrush to start loosely colouring in the background elements such as the field and barn. Change the blending mode of the “Roughs” layer to Colour Burn and reduce the opacity to 32%; this will make the rough lines much less intrusive when colouring the scenery.

Fun fact: The more observant of you will have noticed that I’ve already started under painting the pumpkin on the scenery layer as I got carried away with my painting. I recommend you paint this on a separate layer to make life easier for yourselves, I occasionally get forgetful when I’m “in the zone”.

Additional Fun fact: I think that could be the first time anyone has said “in the zone” since the 1990’s!.

Step 5: Colouring the characters

Change the blending mode of the “Lines” layer to Overlay so that they change from black to react with the paint underneath them. Hide the visibility of the “Roughs” layer by clicking the eyeball icon in the Layers palette. Create a new layer (above “Scenery”) called “Scarecrow” and use the “DC Magik 3” brush (in the brushes pack) to lay down some basic colours for both the Scarecrow and the Pumpkin. This brush is textured and set to 59% Opacity as a default so that you can naturally build up the colours and it doesn’t look ‘too digital’. Use local colours (colours established in the background) as a starting point for the characters’ colour schemes.

Quick tip: It’s helpful to paint the background *before* you start your characters as the environment affects every colour we see as light is influenced by the colours it bounces off. Try to get into the practice of using local colours when painting a scene; it will make your images much more cohesive.

Step 6: Bring in a sea texture

Create a new layer called “Flame” and using a hard-edged brush draw in a quick flame trail to indicate the upwards path the Pumpkin is jumping/flying. Now open up a water texture (we have supplied one in the download pack) Press Ctrl + A, then Ctrl + C to Select All of the photo and Copy the contents of it, then close the image and Paste the sea into our painting with Ctrl + V. We don’t want the blue of the photo to interfere with our painted colours so desaturate it by hitting Ctrl + U and moving the Saturation slider all of the way to the left. Set the layer to Soft Light and lower the Opacity to 76% then press Ctrl + T to Free Transform the sea texture into place, erasing any of the bits that cover the land.

Quick tip: Don’t solely rely on photographs to give texture. Just adding a few brushstrokes to the sea will help it integrate with the painted image.

Step 7: Building the barn

Use the DC Painting brush on the “Scenery” layer to paint in the barn, its surrounding fence and the angry farmer. I’ve gone for a stylised farm here as we’re quite clearly not *too* worried about reality in this image (unless scarecrow’s regularly ride giant pumpkins around where you’re from, in which case please send in a photo!). I’ve made the windows and door look like a face to make the building more interesting. Draw in the barn’s roof so that it points back to the scarecrow and the scarecrow’s scarf (which in turn leads back to him as well). See the composition tip for more advice on “pointers”.

Fun fact: It’s remarkably tricky not to make a joke about pointers! Yes, I am basically an oversized child most of the time.

Step 8: Field work

Use the “scrub floor” brush (in the download pack) on the “Sea Texture” layer to add some texture to the field using a mixture of dull orange, purple and maroon. It doesn’t matter that this doesn’t exactly look like a proper field as we’ll be altering it significantly in a minute to give the suggestion of a field’s texture; because it’s some distance into the background it needn’t be exact.

Use the lasso tool to make a selection of the ground as seen in the screenshot and go to Filter>Blur>Radial Blur… and apply a Radial Blur with the following settings: Amount: 10, Blur Method: Zoom. Drag the blur centre to the position as shown in the screen shot and press okay.

Step 9: Improve the background

Using both the “Magik” custom brush (created by the excellent Thierry Doizon – www.barontieri.com) and the “DC Magik 3” brush (created by the remarkably handsome David Cousens – www.CoolSurface.com) start painting in the details in the background. Make the cliff rocks darker and suggest patches and clumps of grass by using light and dark purples making small brush strokes. Also throw some dark oranges and browns into the mix as grass and fields are never a uniform colour.

Fun (random) fact: One Halloween when I was about 9 I hosted a party for all of the boys in my class at school. In preparation for any trick-or-treaters we made over 100 water balloons to defend my house. Sure enough some teenage trick-or-treaters arrived, not in costume but wielding some eggs menacingly. Upon not receiving a treat they pelted our window with an egg. Seconds later they were met with 16 boys (and one father that should know better) launching an entire arsenal of water bombs on them from both floors of the house. They stood there shocked before we chased them down the street completely saturating them as they ran into the distance trying to hide from their watery retribution. They didn’t come back the following year.

Step 10: You knew it was coming – The Overlay layer!

Use a small yellow radial gradient on the flame layer to make the base for the flame’s glow, then create a new layer called “Overlay” and set the blending mode to Overlay. Sticking with the Radial Gradient, pick a pale light yellow colour and start simulating the glow of the flame by dragging the gradient from the centre of the flame outwards (any source of fire or light is normally bright white in the centre, the coloured part of the light is further out). Repeat this procedure on the pumpkin’s eyes and mouth, dragging the gradient slightly over onto the orange sections of the pumpkin to make them glow.

Fun Fact: The mask Michael Myers wears in the film “Halloween (1978)” was actually a spraypainted mask of William Shatner!

Step 11: Enrich the colours

The main reason I always use an Overlay layer in pretty much every image I make is because they are wonderful for adding depth and vibrancy to your illustration without obscuring any of the details you’ve already painted. Use the Radial Gradient to add light to the “eyes and mouth” of the barn to draw more attention to the barn and the farmer who will stand out on the field thanks to the added contrast from the light cast on the floor. Also add radial gradients to make areas all over the image lighter or darker as you see fit; hold Alt to colour-pick from the background and use a mixture or yellows, reds and purples to make your established colours richer. For example, use a dark purple gradient to make the barn’s shadow on the floor, and use a pink to make the pumpkin’s cheeks slightly red.

Quick tip: The human eye is drawn to contrast so make sure there is a decent amount of contrast near all of your focal points.

Step 12: Edits

Add another new layer called “Edits” above the “Lines” layer. This layer is for any alterations you want to make that you don’t want to be affected by the layer blending modes below (eg, altering something underneath the Overlay layer can have unwanted colour variations). In this case we want to change the appearance of some of the lines on the “Lines” layer, so Ctrl + Click on the Lines thumbnail in the Layers palette to make a selection of all of the Lines. Hide the marching ants by pressing Ctrl + H and then colour in the appropriate area on the “Edits” layer (for example the light being cast on the back of the Scarecrow’s shirt and the back of the pumpkin: refer to the final image if you want a guide on which lines you should colour)

Step 13: Bounce!

Something the size and weight of the pumpkin would definitely affect the crops in the farmer’s field so create a new layer called “bounce” above “Scenery” and below “Sea Texture” and lower the opacity to 46%. Use the “hair brush 02” brush (in the download pack) to add a dark ring of crops and a lighter centre. Use a Google Image search for “Crop circle” to get an idea of what the effect of squashing crops looks like. Also add some track marks in the field to show where the farmer regularly ploughs his field.

Fun fact: I live in Wiltshire, an area famous for producing crop circles. Despite a lot of hype about them in the 1990’s Crop circles are not made by aliens. Opportunistic farmers however…

Step 14: Birds in the distance

Sometimes adding subtle details can make your image more convincing. To convey a greater sense of distance, add a flock of birds with the “j’s bird brush” (in the download pack) on the “Edits” layer. Although this brush is very helpful in setting up the birds position they’re far too detailed for our image so take a standard brush and paint over them to obscure their detail and add a few more yourself by simply drawing upside down v shapes that are longer on one side (have the longer side pointing towards the scarecrow as a very subtle pointer).

Once you’re done with the flock, use the lasso tool to draw a selection around them and go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur and apply a blur of 1.5 pixels to make the birds less defined, helping them to recede into the background, enhancing the feeling of distance.

Step 15: Motion blur tricks

Getting the sort of blur we’re after isn’t going to be as simple as just hitting the Filters menu. Make a selection of just the scarecrow and the pumpkin by Ctrl + Clicking the “Scarecrow” layer’s thumbnail, then Shift + Ctrl + Clicking the “Lines” and “edits” layer thumbnails to add to the selections. Use the lasso to tidy up any necessary areas holding Shift to add to your selection and Alt to subtract the birds. When your selection is ready Press Shift + Ctrl + C to copy from all visible layers and then go to Edit> Paste in Place to bring in the copy merged version of the characters. Go to Filter> Blur > Motion Blur and change the settings to Angle: -27 and Distance: 247 pixels. Click the Add layer Mask icon (the circle in the square in the Layers palette) and use a black airbrush to mask out the majority of the motion blur layer so that you’re only left with a small section on the right hand side of both characters.

Although the blur is suggesting the speed of the pumpkin, it doesn’t suggest that the pumpkin has come from the ground so Press Ctrl + V to bring in another copy of the characters and name it “Smudge Layer” use the Smudge tool to break up the line of the flame’s trail a bit so that it doesn’t look like a solid object and then switch back to your paintbrush and add orange coloured streaks pointing down to the crop circle on both the “Bounce” and “Sea Texture” layers

Step 16: Clouds

We’ve discussed depth a few times already in relation to the scenery on the ground, but to make the Pumpkin and Scarecrow look like they’re really flying through the air we need something between them and the land so select your airbrush again and let’s start painting some clouds. Again to suit the whimsical feel of this image I’ve decided to use stylistic clouds instead of photo-realistic ones.

To paint clouds, whether stylised or realistic, always start with the darkest colour first and draw the entire shape of the cloud with an airbrush. Then use the lightest highlight colour to paint in the form where the light is hitting the cloud. Finally add a more subtle colour to the other side of the cloud where reflected light is hitting it. Finally you should always apply a Gaussian Blur to the clouds as they never have sharp edges (in this instance use a blur of 2.3 pixels, but you should judge each set of clouds you draw by eye on a case by case basis. Clouds can be varying distances so alter their sharpness accordingly)

Quick Tip: To quickly change the size of your brushes on the fly, just use the square bracket keys ] and [ to respectively increase and decrease your brush. If you have a graphics tablet with programmable functions, you can use the left zoom strip to do this

Step 17: Luminosity

Now we want to select all areas of luminosity in the image. This process varies for different versions of Photoshop. For CS4 and CS5, use “Alt+Ctrl+2” (or “Opt+Cmd+2 on the Mac), for CS3 and earlier, use “Shift+Alt+Ctrl+~” (or the key equivalents if you’re using a mac). Press Shift+Ctrl+C to copy from every layer, and go to Edit>Paste in Place (or Edit>Paste Into for older Photoshop versions) and you’ll have a copy of all the brighter parts of the image. Set this layer to Soft Light to make all of the colours more vibrant.

Quick Tip: Although not necessary for this image as we already have established some prominent glows, the luminosity layer will create a nice light bloom effect if you apply a small Gaussian blur to it.

And there you have it, your final image ready for Halloween.

I hope this guide has been helpful to you and that you can apply many of these principles to your future work. You can keep up to date with my artwork at my art blog http://coolsurface.blogspot.com and website www.CoolSurface.com

You should follow me on Twitter too: http://twitter.com/DavidCousens

Have fun,
David

PS. If you enjoyed this tutorial you may also want to look at my previous game inspired tutorials for PSDFan, the Legend of Zelda themed “Broken Link”

And Monkey Island inspired “LeChuck’s Revenge”:

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Download the original .psd file for this tutorial here:

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