7 Checking the value and colours

I create a group of adjustment layers. I think it’s appropriate for this particular artwork, although I’ve not taken this approach on every digital painting I’ve completed. Curves, Selective Color and Hue/ Saturation are the most important Photoshop adjustment tools for me. They may be basic components of the software, but when used correctly they can achieve amazing results. I also experiment with the brightness, colours and the saturation in the scene.

8 Ice structures and environment textures

In this illustration I’m not using any photo textures or other external media - just custom brushes. To make a ground texture, I select a square on a separate layer with the Selection tool. I fill the selected area with a custom brush, which gives me an interesting texture with transparency. Next I select the Free Transform tool and adjust the layer to match the perspective of the scene, by clicking the corner of the selection while holding down Ctrl.