STEP I: GETTING STARTED
Before we get started on the fun stuff, gotta know what we're going to use for it, yea? For this drawing I only used the #FF0000 ">first hard brush, though if you want to get some more effects later on and want to play with brush feathering and edges and stuff, have at it. Hard brush is nice for sketch-y drawings though, which is why I used it. Now, when you have the brush selected, you should see the mode and opacity/flow boxes. Those are your bestest friends. YOU + MODE/OPACITY/FLOW = BFFs. Capisce? Get ready to see a lot of them.
Now, this method I'm showing right now only requires one layer. It's lazy, and it's also risky, therefore Duplicate Layer (or CTRL+J) is your other best friend. I usually make a new layer every time I get to a new stage (which you will see as we move along this), so number of layers increases with the complexity of the drawing (cf. #BF00FF ">8 vs #BFBFBF ">10 layers used).
This said, get yourself your new image and fill it with a solid color (gradient could work too, I suppose, but would complicate matters). Ideally, that color should be around the midtones of what you expect your finished result to be--not too dark, not too light.
Got it? K, let's get this party started.
STEP II: LINEART WHOOOO
See up there? Say hello to the delightful Screen mode, which you get by moving your little eyes down the drop-down menu obtained by clicking the arrow next to Normal. Your brush color should be set to that of your background: screen will cause every stroke of the brush to make the background (or anything that's happens to be under its path, really) lighter. Now, we're only making a rough sketch here, so opacity should be low: I used 10%, see how you like it. Flow's even more about personal preference, though for that sort of low-opacity, thin-lined work I find something around 40-60% works best. Why am I making the lines light instead of dark?
Cuz I felt like it. Deal.
STEP III: PRELIMINARY SHADING
About darn time, I can hear you saying. Sheesh. This is what you should get at the end of this stage:
Oh noes, there be filling in the lines D: Do not fear, Jag's here.
This, kiddos, is how you do it: choose yourself a base color, and SAY HI TO DEAR OLD SCREEN MODE (also, guess what the F and the O stand for):
OMG JAAAG IT'S GOT A SHAPE NOW.
Awesome, I know. Now hang on to your seatbelts, cuz things are just about to get better. MULTIPLY MODE, I CHOOSE YOU!
Whoa, shadows. Oh em gee, it looks like a tree. Kinda. If you squint.
Shush, I did that in two minutes for demonstration purposes. Anyway, I did that for all the trees. Switching base colors, for ~diversity.
STEP IV: WHEEE LIGHTING
Pick some light-ish color. Not, for the love of all that is good and holy in this world, white. Or 10% grey, you cheaters. Or that so-pale-I-could-swear-this-isn't-yellow-anymore color thingum. Something like, say, a dull aqua. Set it to SCREEN :D
And then like, go happy. Light is good. Just remember that there is a whole section of physics devoted to light, and that it therefore follows a certain set of rule (Light: The Abridged Version: LIGHT LEAVES FROM THE LIGHT SOURCE, AND IDEALLY GOES STRAIGHT. PLZ TO NOT MAKE IT INTO SOME CRAZEH FLEXIBLE THING.)
Done? Step back and admire:
STEP V: I CAN HAZ LEAVES NAO?
Choose yourself some nice base colors. Different from those of the tree trunks, por favor. Now go screen, and go happy again.
WARNING: don't take too light a color at first, or you'll pwn yourself. Why? Look at this:
I started with the light blue at the left of the little pile of colors. Probably had my opacity too high too. What happened? It turned the whole thing almost white, so that by the time I got the other colors out, screen was lightening something that was pretty much, well, white. Can't get much lighter than that. Pwnd Jag was pwnd.
Anyway. At this point, you're doing leaves so whatever, switch shades and settings (here, let's have a little tangent on what flow does, exactly: it affects how much of the brush's predefined shape is going to come out. Ish. Low flow with hard brush is soft; high flow is sharper. EXPERIMENT, CHILDREN), go to multiply to add some shadows to that terrifyingly bright mess, go back to screen when it's getting too broody, and then go to *gasp* normal, grab some green and put some chlorophyll in there.
End result:
Brilliant, I know.
(by the way, if you're wondering, this is the color palette I'm using:
)STEP VI: DIIIIRT
Easy peasy. Grab some brown, screen for the light parts, multiply over the screen for shadows/irregularities/textures. And then like, grab your original background color and ADD SOME MORE SHADOWS THAT ARE NOT TREES (YES THAT MEANS MULTIPLY MOAR).
STEP VII: JESUS CHRIST IT'S A BACKGROUND GET IN THE CAR
Grab some green again, in normal. You've got leaves, now you need some grass, or else where will the bunnies gambol? Think of the bunnies.
At this point, you shouldn't need me to tell you to then proceed to screen/multiply the crap out of it. Strands of grass happily standing out, yay :D
This is also the good time to fix any ooopsies. Like that #FFFF40 ">*tree that was waaaay too red/orange for the rest of the place and therefore got liberally swabbed in dark-green-blue-thingy. Or that poor empty background in the distance, where I sneakily added a couple #FF4040 ">*trees.
Sneeeaky.
(no, I'm not sure why that image is so small either *shakes fist at 'toshop*)
STEP VIII: ALMOST-FINISHING TOUCHES
So ya know, at this point you've got a pretty nice little forest and trees and all. BUT.
We need moar pretty.
The sun's pretty, kinda. Especially when it's like, hitting the leaves or sumthin.
What's 2+2, dears?
NEEDS MOAR SUN, obviously.
This is how it goes, more or less:
Screen to death, yadda yadda, you know the drill. Play with opacity here, as you can get some pretty nice highlights and get some depth for cheap.
Totally cool, amirite.
STEP IX: LET THERE BE MORE LIGHT
Darn right we need more. Like the sun's gonna let himself get stopped by some measly leaves.
Same color as the light earlier. Lower opacity, cuz light's been ~filtered. HELLO MR. SCREEN.
CONGRATS, YOU'VE JUST OWNED.
Final notes: you might be wondering why I'm only using Screen and Multiply when there's like a kajillion modes just sitting there. It's because Screen and Multiply are the ones that have the most reliable results--the others tend to get overly bright or dark, or just be weird. For basic shading, stick to those two. After that, if you want something a bit more intense, gogogo.
(for added fun: change not brush mode, but layer mode :D)
((Screen does have a bad tendency to not work very well when used red on red. Avoid.))
