Step 1
Create a new document sized 800px * 1100px, fill the background with black colour. On the background layer, render some fibre texture via Filter > Render > Fibre with the following settings:
Reduce the layer opacity to around 30%, you will have the following effect:
Step 2
Load the "Mountain" stock image into Photoshop,
I decided to add a trace of cloud to the bottom of the mountain. To do this, we can use the Lasso Tool with (50px feather) to draw a selectin, then render some cloud inside it:
Hit Ctrl + L and bring up the Levels tool, apply the following settings to the cloud:
Then Warp it as shown below:
When you are done with the cloud warping, attach it to the bottom of the mountain as shown below:
Step 3
Group all these layers created in Step 2 into a layer group. Name it as "Mountain Group" and duplicate this group once, resize it to the small scale:
You might also want to use the dodge tool to add some highlight to the top left part of the mountain, for some lighting dynamics:
Duplicate the mountain group again and flip the group horizontally, move it the left part of the canvas, as shown below:
Step 4
Use a cloud brush, or texture image to add some cloud onto the mountain:
Load the Model stock image into Photoshop, cut out the model and paste it to the position below:
Now we're on the vexel hair part. Use the Pen Tool to draw a work path as shown below, and select a 3px hard brush for stroking later on:
Now pick a dark hair colour from the model layer:
Stroke the path with this dark color:
Now go back to the model layer and pick a lighter colour:
Then stroke the path with this light color:
Duplicate the dark and light stroke layer several times, bind them together as shown below: (merge those layer together afterwards)
Duplicate the hair group, move the duplicated layers to different positions, also resize, rotate them for best result:
Step 5
Now let's paint some splash and star texture on the image to spice it up a bit. No doubt you have downloaded a few brushes from the internet - now it's the time to use them!
Create a new layer under the model layer and paint some splash to the position shown below:
also add some star texture to the position shown below:
Use the same cloud warping technique mentioned in previous step for some nebula effect:
you will have the following effect so far:
Step 6
Ok we're almost done. Let's add a few adjustment layer to fine-tune the image a bit:
Black and White
Color Balance
Layer Mask on the color balance adjustment layer:
Also I added a few focal points with soft white brush to the spots shown below: (Adjust brush blend mode to "Normal" or "overlay")
Step 7
Now we can do some final retouches of the image. As you can see, by using all the brushes we created a lot of noise on the image, would be great if we can reduce the noise a bit.
Flatten the image, duplicate the background layer and apply the following "Reduce Noise" options:
As you can see, by using this filter we soften the hair we created before, plus getting rid of a large portion of the unwanted noise on the image:
and here is my final effect for this tutorial:
That's it for this tutorial! Hope you enjoy it and find it interesting and inspirational. Until next time, have a nice day!
