Colourful tree (Pen, Coloured in Photoshop, Inspired by Illustration Friday)

Nov 13, 2012

Tasha ⋅ CS6, Decorative, Pen, Photoshop, Tree ⋅ colourful, decorative, Illustration Friday, Photoshop CS6, tree ⋅ 4 comments

Here’s another tree, technically for Illustration Friday, but really just for me. This uses the same technique as the Castle Town the other day, but I did more detail for the patterns.

I started with my pen drawing (which I put on its own layer, set to Multiply).

I then added a background textured layer (using a pattern overlay to the layer, set to multiply and 50% opacity) with a yellowed outside and white/grey tree area, which I set below the main sketch.

Then I selected the main tree area (without its leaves), using the Magic Wand tool and coloured it in a green (on a different layer. (Incidentally, I made a colour table from an autumnal photo I took on Sunday in one of our local parks, and used that for all the colouring in the image.)

I then selected individual leaves in groups and coloured them (on different layers for each colour).

And I did the same for the individual elements of the trunk, but limited them to browny red colours.

And then I duplicated the sketch layer, removed all the white, keeping only the outline black/grey, and placed that at the very top to give the outlines more depth.

I’m really pleased with this one. I’m still really liking the Multiply blend mode and am finding some nice textures. I also like making a colour table/swatch from a nature photograph, as the colours tend to work well together.