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[Tutorial] How to draw mountains (Photoshop)

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[Tutorial] How to draw mountains (Photoshop)

Postby RjBeals on Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:00 pm

This tutorial is not what I intended - but I'll post it anyway. These mountains sort of came
out abstract and sort of water-color painting style. But I'll post my screenshots and psd
anyway. I just sort of created these as I went.

I started with a background layer. I added a new layer and drew a curved line.
Image

I duplicated that layer, then flipped horizontal, then positioned to make the mountain.
Image

Then I duplicated that layer 9 times, and positioned those mountains so...
Image

Then I added a few smaller mountains.
Image

Then I adjusted the background colors so they were not a hard edge.
Normally a map wouldn't have a hard diagonal line for a border. Also, I didn't add the actual
border along the colors. I forgot, so it looks a little strange with the mountain borders.
Image

So here I took a 4 or 5 pixel brush and just painted black along the sides of the mountains.
I was being a little quick with my strokes so it would look a little natural. I actually like them
at this point. It looks like a pen and ink style map. Maybe in the Japanese tradition. (New Layer)
And.. looking back, I didn't need to adjust those backgrounds pattern, cause the black covered them anyway.
Image

But instead I added a color to that layer. A brownish color, which is meant to blend into the
color scheme of those 2 map background colors.
Image

I also did something similar to add highlights. This is another new layer. I dropped the opacity also.
Image

Okay here's where things take a turn. I didn't like the hard borders so I hid the border layer.
The mountains looked okay without. But I wanted them to blend into the map more, so I used
the smudge tool. I just smudged all the edges down to give the effect you see below.
I also added another black shadow layer, which was just a thick brush along the shadow side
of the mountains, lots of gaussian blur, blend as overlay, and opacity real low - like 10 or 20.
Image

Of course, to give it something special I added the grungy overlay to the whole thing.
I'm noticing that many of the newer maps in production have this effect, and they are
looking A+! Anyway - here's what I came up with. Not necessarily great for CC maps, but kind
of cool nevertheless.
Image
Image

Here's the file (zipped PSD CS3): http://www.rjbeals.com/files/mount-rjb.zip
Image
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Re: Abstract Mountains.

Postby LED ZEPPELINER on Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:03 pm

awesome, as usual
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Re: Abstract Mountains.

Postby InkL0sed on Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:16 pm

Very, very cool!
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Re: Abstract Mountains.

Postby AndyDufresne on Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:47 pm

I love both the finished product, but also that first ink style...:)


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Re: Abstract Mountains.

Postby InkL0sed on Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:51 pm

Ink style? I had nothing to do with this! ;)
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Re: Abstract Mountains.

Postby bryguy on Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:02 pm

InkL0sed wrote:Ink style? I had nothing to do with this! ;)


LOL that got me laughing!! :lol: :lol: :lol:



An excellent tutorial RJ! Ive really gotta try this sometime!
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Re: Abstract Mountains.

Postby yeti_c on Tue Feb 24, 2009 2:04 am

These look cool...
Image

f*ck me these look awesome...
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WOW...
Image

Great job again RJ.

C.
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Re: Abstract Mountains.

Postby sailorseal on Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:57 am

To anyone who is making a sand landscape map I recommend these mountains
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Re: Abstract Mountains.

Postby bryguy on Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:36 am

sailorseal wrote:To anyone who is making a sand landscape map I recommend these mountains



lol yes I agree, but it could also probably be done with different colors, could it not?
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Re: Abstract Mountains.

Postby mibi on Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:17 pm

of course it helps to have RJ's skillz.
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Re: Abstract Mountains.

Postby The Neon Peon on Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:21 pm

In my opinion, lack should start paying rj so he will make more maps.
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Re: Abstract Mountains.

Postby wcaclimbing on Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:23 pm

RjBeals wrote:Image

Image


...grunge always makes things look better.
I'll have to try that more.
Image
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Re: Abstract Mountains.

Postby bryguy on Tue Feb 24, 2009 9:31 pm

mibi wrote:of course it helps to have RJ's skillz.



lol I dont have RJ's skillz, yet (with slight tweaking) I can manage to make these in GIMP :)

Edit: Heres my attempt (my best at least :lol: ):
Image
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