[Home] [Tutorials][Gallery] [Oekaki] [The Hatchery]
Forest Scene Tutorial

Make a simple and beautiful forest background for your pictures!




Start with a canvas of a width of 500 and a height of 400. Make a new layer (Layer > New > Layer... ; then name it 'back green' and hit 'ok'). Colour the entire canvas dark green on this layer, such as the colour #2A690B. Now, take your round-soft brush and make it size 500. Change the colour of it to a lighter green, such as #4F9F27. Then in the top left corner click once, so you have what's starting to look like a glow from the sun entering what's going to be the forest. Then, do the same thing again, except with a size 400 round-soft brush, with the colour #D4F14D. Now, with the round-soft brush at size 500, with the colour #163D03, click at the bottom right corner. This will show depth later on.



Now that you have your background finished, make a new layer and name it 'Leaves'. This will be the tree tops/leaves. I'm too lazy to draw the trunks and all that detail, so jst a few leaves at the top will do. xD Click your leaves paint brush, make it's size 55, then both colours #385F16. Now, just put some leaves on the top on the canvas. Now, take the Burn tool (Screen Shot), and pick the same leaves at size 55, and the colours do not matter. Now, colour them near the top right of the leaves. Then choose the Dodge tool, and colour some leaves near where the sun will be coming in.



Now, make your active layer the back green one. Now, take your Burn tool again, and put it's exposure at 20%. Now, with the size 35 leaves, put some leaves in the background, to give it more depth, like there are more trees in the background.



Make a new layer, inbetween the layers back green, and your Leaves layer. Name this layer 'Grass'. Now choose your grass tool with your paint brush, and with the size 70, with the colours #A4D479 and #385F16, make a line of grass, kind of thick, but not touching the bottom of the canvas.



Now on the same layer, make your grass brush size 112, with the colours #629633 and #1B3405, and go over the grass, and fill it to the bottom.



It's almost done. :) Now to add some beams of light. Inbetween the Grass layer and the Leaves layer, make a layer and call it 'Light'. Now, click your Gradient tool (g). Make your two colours both #FFFED5. Now, click the third button, then click the colourful bar: Screen Shot. Now, Change your settings as followed: Screen Shot. When you change that, say ok, then take the beams, start in the top left corner, and go down about half way: Screen Shot. It should now look like this:



Now, these beams are too bright, so set the opacity to 20%.
Screen Shot
.



Now make the grass layer active. Go Now go (Layer > Merge Down), so your grass layer and back green layer are the same. Now go (Filter > Render > Lens Flare...). Now change the settings to this, and position it like this: Screen Shot.



Your finished product! Enjoy your forest background! :D

Credits:
This tutorial is copyright © Kaykaykit www.kaykaykit.com
Go here to see her gallery on Deviant Art: