Thanks go out to digital artist Tim Shelbourne for the Photoshop tutorial. See Part 1 here.
10: Expressive Strokes
To indicate the dark areas within the trees and bushes, use lots of pressure on your stylus to create leaf-like strokes. Release your drawing pressure at the end of each stroke to finish with a nice sharp point. The outline of the main tree on the left needs a nice broken outline.
11: Overall Colour
Click on the Paper layer and add a new layer (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N). For the Foreground swatch choose colour ‘#ebd0b3’. Go to Edit>Fill, choose Foreground Color for Contents. Set the blending mode for this layer to Multiply and reduce its Opacity to around 50%
12: Clouding Over
From the Wet Media brushset choose the Dry Brush On Towel brush. In the Brushes panel, ensure that Opacity Control is set to Pen Pressure and Size Control is set to OFF. Choose colour ‘#c37f43’ for Foreground and quickly indicate a few subtle clouds using the brush at quite a large size.
13: Added Interest
Now, using less pressure on your stylus, add some lighter strokes of this colour where the mountains will be in the final painting, and a little over the foreground area. You can adjust the adjust the intensity of this layer via the Opacity value in the Layers palette.
14: Solid Colour Layer
On the top layer in the stack, go to Layer>New Fill Layer>Solid Colour. Choose colour ‘#585757’ for the fill. Set the blending mode for this layer to Colour Burn and reduce its Opacity to 50%. Fill the mask on this layer with Black via Edit>Fill. Now choose the Oil Medium To Large Tip brush.
15: Mountain Midtones
Use this brush with lots of pressure variation to add the darker brown tones to the mountains. Use long sinuous strokes here, using the finished image for a reference. Use a very little pressure for the fine, vertical details. On a new layer, paint with white using similar strokes to add a little snow to the peaks.
16: Midtone Interest
On another layer, choose the Large Texture Stroke brush. Ensure that the Size and Opacity Controls are set to Pen Pressure in the Brushes palette. Choose colour ‘#2d2d2d’. Use this brush at around 80 pixels and with light pressure to start brushing in some areas of midtone in the building.
17: Keep it Simple
Remember, we’re not actually copying the original photograph here, but adding some quite random areas of midtone here. Leave the roofs of the building clear of shading, as this will separate the building from the background.
18: Less is more
Vary your brush size as you go to add smaller areas of midtone here and there. For the foreground, a couple of broad, simple strokes will suffice for Foreground midtones, to keep this area nice and clean. Remember, you can always reduce the Opacity of this layer for a more subtle effect.
19: Review and Refine
At this stage, review your drawing from a distance, and using the inking brush we used earlier to add any final touches of detail. It’s vital here that you don’t add too much detail, but keep things nice and simple for an authentic appearance.
