Create a document of size 900 by 675 pixels. Sketch out your ideas for the final painting. This sketch is extremely abstract but it gives the vision needed to start the final. The sketch was created in a program called Alchemy.
Import your sketch into Photoshop. Next, paint out a rough silhouette of a deer. The deer is painted with a hard round brush. If you are not confident of your drawing skills then you can always take a photograph and paint a silhouette along its outline.
Download the Greased Lightnin' from SXC.hu. Extract the various parts of the gears and placed them with the deer's silhouette. Download Pipe Fittings Brushes from BrushesDownload. Paint a few pipes around the same area.
Download Gears from SXC.hu. Extract and place the gears around the pipe fittings. You may use Brush tool with #FFFFFF and 50% opacity to draft out the features of the deer along the way.
Paint on some tech-like designs or use custom brushes. There are some really cool brushes from PaulW on DeviantArt.
Create a new layer and set its Blend Mode to Color Burn. Start painting some colors to the gears and pipe fittings.
Let's hide the deer and its color layers for now and work on the background. Set your foreground color to #E9DE69. Set the Brush Opacity to 40%. Create a new layer and paint a few patches shown in the example below.
Create a new layer paint in some shadows with foreground #000000 and opacity 40%.
Download Cloud Brushes from Brusheezy. Create a new layer and paint in some clouds. I always like to change up cloud brushes by erasing portions and painting my own bits.
Next, start to paint in the mountains. The Thick Heavy Brushes category was used.
This is the turning point of the image. Unhide the deer and its color layers. Paint the photographs so that they blend together. Always remember to keep the light source continuous throughout the whole painting. Download Erniesthings Brushset 4 by ephat. Paint some structures with the brushes to the background. Download the Debris Brush from Qbrushes. Add flying debris around the deer.
Download Arteries of the Aeroplane from SXC.hu. Extract out the pipes and place them on top of the ears.
Add light coming from the antlers. Also, add the same light reflective color on to the metal.
Lastly, create a new layer and set it to multiply. Select black and paint the left side of the image with a shadow. Set the layer's opacity to 40%. Also, add more details to the foliage in the background and foreground. The canvas was stretched just a tad as well. Add a border with some finishing highlights and you're done.
Here is the final work. I hope you enjoyed reading this tutorial! Thanks.
