Create Magical Figure in Surreal/Fantasy Environment in Photoshop

In this tutorial, I will show you the steps I took to Create this great looking Magical Figure in Surreal/Fantasy Environment in Photoshop. This is an intermediate level tutorial so some steps can be tricky, but why not have a try :)

Along the way, we use a lot of selection and masking techniques, as well as lighting effect and image adjustments. We will also revise the techniques such as cloud warp, custom brush creation in Photoshop.

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Here is a preview of the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

Create a new document sized 1440px * 900px with black background, load the sand image into Photoshop and select a portion of the image as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection onto our document, resize it to fix the canvas size.  Then use the free transform tool to perspective it to form the ground texture, apply a gradient mask on this sand layer so the top edge fades into the background:

Let's add some rock/stone texture onto the sand. Load the rock image into Photoshop, use a 30px feather Lasso Tool to select a portion as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection onto the sand, use the free transform tool to distort and compress it down as shown below:

Duplicate this rock layer a few times, and move them to different places of the sand texture:

Apply the following 2 adjustment layers on top of all previous layers:

Black and White

Levels

Layer mask on the Levels adjustment layer:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 2

Now let's add some more effect onto the sand. Use the crack brush you downloaded, paint some black crack onto the position shown below (on a new layer):

Create a new layer and paint some white crack texture onto it: (Use the free transform tool to perspective and compress it down, and use a soft eraser to remove the edges so it blends into the sand texture)

Create a new layer and add some soft light with a soft brush brush:

Hint: Set the brush flow and opacity to 40% for a subtle, glowing light effect.

Step 3

Now let's add the mountain part onto the image. Load the stock image into Photoshop and select the top portion of the image as shown below:

Copy and paste the selection onto our document, resize it to the fit the canvas size. Use a soft eraser to fade the top and bottom edge, then reduce the layer opacity to around 60%:

Add the following 3 adjustment layers on to this mountain layer as clipping mask:

Black and white

Levels

Curves

and here is the effect so far:

Step 4

Create a new layer and use a grey soft brush to paint a spot light in the centre of the canvas:

Now let's add the model onto the image - load the model stock into Photoshop and resize it to a smaller scale and place it in the centre:

Use a soft eraser to remove the bottom part so it fades into the sand ground:

Add some highlight to the top left of the model with a soft white brush (set blending mode to "soft light"):

Then, add the following 2 adjustment layers as clipping mask for this model layer:

Black and White

Levels

Add some cloud around the model using either a cloud brush, or the cloud filter, reduce the layer opacity of this cloud to around 40% for a subtle effect:

Step 5

Now let's add some great aura/smoke to the top of the staff. Create a new layer and use the lasso tool (set feather to 40px) and draw a selection, render some green cloud (set foreground colour to green) inside the selection:

Warp the cloud a bit as shown below:

Change the blending mode to the "overlay", you will have the following effect:

Duplicate this layer once and change the blending mode of the duplicated layer to "Screen", and you will have the following effect:

Use a soft white brush (around 20px) to paint a shining dot on the staff as shown below:

Step 6

Now let's add some light strips around the model - check out this video tutorial below for the steps of creating this light effect:

Add some cloud effect on the top of the model - Use a soft eraser tool to remove the edges so the cloud forms a flowing effect:

Now let's add some planetary objects to create the surreal effect. Create a new layer and use a 5px feather elliptical tool to draw a circle as shown below:

Apply the following blending options to the circle layer:

Outer Glow

Gradient Overlay

Use a soft white brush (set its flow and opacity to around 40%), paint a small white dot on the top left of the circle on a new layer (set it as a clipping mask to the circle layer):

and you will have the following basic planetary effect:

Create a new layer folder and put those planetary layers into it, and duplicate this folder a few more times - adjust the layer opacity of each duplicated planetary layer for more depth:

Add some cloud over the planets for some dramatic effect:

Also add some star on the sky with a 1 - 2px brush, and use the rain brush to create some star falling effect:

You can check out the following video tutorial for creating this star falling brush in Photoshop:

Step 7

Ok we're almost done! For some final adjustments, I add some more green smoke to the staff tip area:

I added some red colour on the foot area (set layer blending mode to "Color Dodge"):

I also applied some dodge and burn effect with the dodge/burn tool for lighting adjustment:

Dodge

Burn

I then applied some subtle colour effect (with colour balance adjustment layer) and adjust the levels of the image a bit. Here is the final effect I have for this tutorial: (click to enlarge)

That's it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful :) Till next time, have a great day!