Abstract Smoke

Step 1:

Open up a new document, any size is fine (I used 500x500px). Fill the Background White.

Step 2:

Create a new layer, then select a small soft bush and make a smudge like so:

Step 3:

Go Filter -> Liquify and mess with it till you get a nice smoke effect going. (Note: I use the default Liquify settings, brush size 100.)

Step 4:

Create a new layer and repeat the process, this time using a dark gray.

Step 5:

Repeat the process a few more times, each time using a different shade of gray.

Step 6:

Hide the white background layer and merge all the smoke layers (Ctrl+Shift+E). You can un-hide once they're merged.

Step 7:

Duplicate the smoke layer twice. Then use free trasform (Ctrl T) to rotate each a random direction filling up the whole screen.

Step 8:

Change the background layer to black:

Step 9:

Merge the 3 smoke layers. Now open hue/saturation (Ctrl+U) and set lightness to +75

Step 10:

Go to filter ->liquify and mess with it doing all upstrokes you should get something like this.

Step 11:

Duplicate that layer and go to filter -> Blur -> Gaussian blur on the bottom one. Set amount at 2.5.

Step 12:

Duplicate the unblurred layer again, this time go motion blur. Set the amount at 120 and select an angle the lines seem to be going.Use a 65px soft brush with 75 opacity for the eraser.

Step 13:

This is very important, erase parts of all three layers till you archive something like mine (Note, this is a second attempt of mine it takes several times to get a nice effect).

Step 14 (optional)

Now its time to add some color! Create a new layer and apply a gradient of 2 bright colors. Set the layer mode to color.

Please note: every time you follow this tutorial it will come out different. Sometimes good sometimes bad, so stick with it.