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Painting grass

Tutorial realized the 19th of June 2004.
Skill level required : beginners
Tools needed : Photoshop


00. Introduction

An image doesn't look credible without anything on the first plan, and without any integration of the character into the background. Sometimes adding grass on the floor is a little trick that works.
Here's how to paint grass easily and quickly with Photoshop.





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01. file preparation

When you create your image, be sure you work with layers - having your character(s) on seperated layers helps for lots of postwork operations (hair painting, glowing effects on character, etc) because you work behind it without messing your whole render. With this tutorial, we will be creating two layers, one behind and one before our character.We will call them "grass 1" for the one on the top, and "grass 2" for the one on the bottom.



[ click to enlarge ]

02. photoshop grass brushes

Photoshop has a neat selection of predefined brushes : there are two already existing ones for grass.

Select your brush tool, then, in the brush options, select the first one for grass, like shown in the screenshot aside. Finally, choose the size that corresponds better to your image.		  




02

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03

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03. painting

I usually take two colors that are similar : one lighter and one darker, but in a very subtle manner. I also tend to pick the colors directly from the background of my image.

So with this brush we will be sketching a bit of grass on the "grass 1" layer, on the character (see screen capture 02). Don't do too much, you can always add later. For more realism, don't hesitate to work with smaller brushes also and vary the lenght of the strands.

Then, go on your "grass 2" layer, the one behind your character, and do the same (see screen capture 03).





 


[ click to enlarge]





04. correcting / adjusting

The colors aren't exactly what we were looking for - the grass needs more merging with the background.
To search for the right color, you can use the "Hue and Saturation" (Image > Settings > Hue and Saturation), and you will have to apply the same settings on both layers. Don't check the "Redefine" option (see screen capture 01).

The I use the "Brightness and Contrast" tool.
Play with the settings until you find what you were looking for.



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(c) Corinne Stoppelli - ExileDesigns 2004 . It is forbidden to copy the content of this page (partial or complete) without written authorization.