step by step Storm’s a-brewin’

Piece together images of clouds, waves and trees to create a storm in a teacup

01 Cut out the CUP

Open teacup.jpg and the Pen tool. Use it to trace the front edge of the teacup as shown (or, use the Quick Selection tool). Once done, right-click and Make Selection, then hit Cmd/ctrl+j to copy the selection to a new layer. Open the wave shot (Pixabay 3119563).

02 Add A wave

Grab the Quick Selection tool and paint to select the wave. Click ‘Select and mask’ and increase Radius to about 50px. Set Output: Layer Mask and hit OK. Copy the wave over with the Move tool and drag it below the top layer, then hit Cmd/ctrl+t and move it in the cup.

03 Select the trees

Right-click the wave layer and ‘Convert to Smart Object’ then add a layer mask and paint black to hide any areas that overlap the edge of the cup. Open the tree pic (Pixabay 3191872). Go to Select>color Range then click to sample the sky. Click Invert, then hit OK.

04 Position the trees

Click Add Layer Mask in the Layers panel to convert the selection to a mask. Copy in the trees and transform, move and mask. Add a Curves Adjustment Layer. Right-click it and ‘Create Clipping Mask’, then drag the right point downwards to darken the trees.

05 Copy the Clouds

Open the clouds (Pixabay 3158852) then make a selection of the clouds and copy in. Drag them below the trees, add a mask and paint around the edges, using a soft-edged brush. If you need to reshape the layer, right-click while transforming and choose Warp.

06 Paint SPLASHES

Copy in, position and mask the lightning (NASA 381727). Next add an empty layer. Grab a brush tool, set colour to white and choose a messy brush tip (like spatter 27px). Paint a few drops and spills of water around the cup. Finally, add a B&W Adjustment Layer.