The creation of your digital fantasy art world continues with the help of some simple steps and your Adobe Photoshop program.
Steps to "Escape" with Photoshop continued...
You should have the base of your digital fantasy art world (to find out more about a base, visit Digital Fantasy World - Part 1)
The next step will be to add the other elements to this world.
For my sample, the next thing that I want to add is a pair of moons, as you will recall - one yellow and one blue.
The photo that I selected as the base for my digital fantasy art world already has a moon, the full white moon of Earth. I have decided to use this moon, but I want it to be blue, so I need to cut and copy it on a layer on top of the green shading layer. To make things easier for myself I am going to turn off the viewing of the green shading layer by going to that layer and click on the eye to the left.
Next click on the base layer so that you are cutting on the correct layer.
Select the magnetic lasso tool in your Adobe Photoshop program, click on an edge of what you want to cut (for me it is the moon) and slowly move around the outer edge of the moon. When you return to your start position a little magnet will appear on the cursor.
Click and the moon is selected (outlined in dotted line). Press the key combination Ctrl+C to copy whatever is in the area that is selected and then make a new layer by going to the layer toolbar and clicking on the new layer icon at the bottom of the toolbar (second from the right).
Paste the copy of the moon (or whatever object it is that you are moving) to this new layer by pressing the Ctrl+V key combination.
Move the layer so that it is sitting on top of the base layer and the shading layer as well. Turn the viewing of the shading layer back on.
Now you need to change the color of the new moon. For this I am going to use the paint bucket tool in my Adobe Photoshop program. Click the paint bucket tool and then the primary color swatch to change the color to what you want it to be. I select a smoky blue and click the tool on the white surface of the moon. The shape then becomes blue.
In order to have the moon blend more naturally to its background I use the blending options selector, using the overlay option so that the new moon blends more convincingly.
The second moon that I have picked for my digital fantasy art world is a crescent moon from another photo. I again use my magnetic lasso tool to select it and then use the pointer arrow to move it to my picture. Again, I use the paint bucket tool to make this moon yellowish and blend it using the blend mode menu.
Come back next week for Digital Fantasy World - Part 3. In Part 3, we will learn how to add other elements, including a castle and landscape to our digital fantasy world.
About the Author
Angelique Gervais owns and operates a graphic design business serving rural areas in Northern Saskatchewan, Canada. She recently completed editing and compiling an anthology for her local Writers' Group, of which she is an active member. Angelique holds a degree in Biblical Studies, and she is currently expanding her education in the areas of psychology and human development at the Masters level.
