2.6 Refining Foliage

Okay, so I think now we're going to come to kind of a point of no return. And I'm going to kind of merge these two layers together. So now I'm just gonna paint directly on the foreground as I go. This is gonna kind of make my job a little bit easier in terms of adding, adding color and adding a little bit of detail. So I'm going to take some time to kind of block in a little bit more warm values. What's in the image, so I'm gonna spend a little bit, a couple of lessons on this part at least, but it's one of those things you kinda need to if this is going to be a focal point. You kinda need to have these pieces as nicely as possible otherwise it's just not going to look right. And then you're going to be unhappy, that kind of thing. And so if something doesn't look right, even if it takes you a long time, I'm a very big believer in trying to fix it as long as it takes, as long as you have the time. I think when you kind of ignore things and then you go you know what it's not that bad. That kind of translates into a lot of different things and then if certain things look bad then you're like what else is gonna look bad that you kind of ignore. So you kind of what to have that, the unforgiving be really really hard on yourself type mentality, where you kinda look at something and you say that has to be as good as possible. And if you can make it better then I suggest that you try to make it better, okay? So I'm gonna erase a little bit with some of these little edges here to kind of get a little bit more of a little bit of edge quality here. So you're gonna notice that I'm gonna pick a brush that has a lot of grit and tooth here, and just kind of erase in certain areas, and this will kind of help. What this will do is it will help kind of add a little bit more, kind of variety to it, you know seeming kind of. This brush, if I go like big, now you're going to see that kind of stuff and that's kind of what I want a little bit. I want some of these edges to be very very soft because I don't want them to be, and I want them to stand out, so that's where I'm going with this little bit here is if it's not important, then you probably wanna blend that edge out a little bit. So certain edges you're gonna see me especially like right here. I take that and say, that's not important. So that doesn't need to be very well rendered, I would say. So you definitely want to try to keep the proportions correct and the perspective correct, if at all possible. But, for the most part, that's not gonna be an issue, then I need to kind of let that fade. And so edges, the way that kind of works is like something's really, really sharp. Your eye will catch that edge every, very easily but. If it's very, very far away or if it's blurry the edge will be hard to see and that's when things kinda blur into each other a little bit. So you're going to kinda see me take some of these guys right here and say, what this edge is not does not need to be that defined. So I'm going to kind of, block some of that stuff out, a little bit, and that kind of helps with the depth, a little bit, I would say. You don't want things super far away to be super rendered. I think that's something that people kind of get lost in, as they look at something and they go, that has to be super detailed. It doesn't actually have to be. If you render out one thing and then you repeat it in the background, then what will happen is the mime will automatically kinda fill in the blanks. The mime will go, that's just something, I saw that in the foreground, saw something in the background, so I don't have to necessarily look at it, for a long period of time to understand that. I can just assume that and that's what the human mind does. It's pretty cool. So you don't have to develop a lot of things. If you just draw it one time really, really well in the foreground or in the mid-ground, then when it comes to the background, you don't have to worry about it. So, let's actually focus on the foliage here. And the foliage is interesting because I'm gonna actually want to obviously kinda fix up these edges. So these edges are terrible for the most part. So what I'm wanna do is I'm probably wanna grab a brush that will help me kind of fix that, and I got some reference too. Cuz I always kind of thinking about how going to do it, so I got some reference open that up right now, real quickly and let's see if we can go into that. So I have this reference right here. This is outside of my apartment again. My neighbor's place, and so I saw this the other day and I was like actually, that would be really really cool to kind of implement those kind of shapes into the environment. So I'm gonna put some on the side here, and I'm just gonna use that kind of help me with some of the forms, some of the shapes, all that kind of fun stuff. And so we'll just kind of go from there. So, not too worried about that I mean all I want to do for the foliage is just get a lot of variety. That's pretty much like, the name of the game here is variety, okay? So, doesn't need to be uniform, doesn't need to be crazy, it just has to show variety, you may kind of make the brush bigger, and softer in certain areas and I'm just trying to get that realistic, not so realistic, but it just has to feel right, you know what I mean, if it doesn't feel right, it's not gonna read. Especially when you're adding this kind of stuff as kind of an afterthought, you want that to have a nice read. So notice how I'm using that brush, again to break up the edge. You know what I mean? So this edge has to kind of be interesting, right? So before we had this, but now we're going more with something like that. So that's kinda where breaking up that edge can be really effective here. So you're gonna see me kind of do that and just kind of keep going here, so there isn't much to talk about in terms of this, but it's very much a feel kind of thing here. And I may switch up the brushes here as well to kind of make it feel a little more interesting, but for the most part you pick a brush that works for you. You could paint in all this detail. Only if you wanted to but you know I don't think we have that kind of time to sit there and paint every single brush and so that's kinda why we invent these things. Because it just helps kinda speed up the process, so. If I know what I want then I don't have to sit there and figure it out in terms of like painting it for hours and hours and hours on it. So that doesn't seem very fun to me. So I kinda wanna get to the fun part of the painting, and this is kind of the fun part. So, I mean, I have a bunch of foliage brushes, I mean I can use any of these if I really want to. I just wanna kind of go in there and kinda just mess with some of the edges. And again, I'm gonna I wanna vary up the detail here. I want to erase a lot in certain areas, because I want there to be that separation, when you look at trees, a lot of like negative shapes in there. I want all that, so I gotta kinda go in there and paint it back in. So it's kind of an interesting layering process and actually looking at it, I could probably make this guy a little bit thinner here. So I want this to kind of fit in. Yeah, so So you kinda use Photoshop to your advantage here guys. There really is no kinda right or wrong. And just kinda pick what you think is gonna work. Here for the image. So I might actually get rid of all of this for now. But I wanna focus on how this is affecting it, right here. It's kind of an important thing here. And there, there we go. I think that works. To flip it. I'll kind of flip it a little bit. Why not? And then maybe this guy will kind of have a little bit of a, a little bit of overgrowth here, kind of happening, so, that would be kind of of cool, I would say. I don't know, what do you guys think? Okay, here we go. So you're going to see me just, kind of tap it here a little bit. It's kind of a tappy tap tap, if that's a word, if that's a phrase, but that kind of what I"m doing. I don't know if you can hear my stylus hitting the way on the tablet but I"m just kind of tapping here to get that variety so I"m not just dragging it across. I want to create that irregularity and create that organic feel, so. And again that comes from traditional background. When were kinda painting in trees you kinda do it in that Bob Ross kind of stippling a little bit where you kinda just like tap the brush until you get these kinda irregularities in the form. And you kinda just, work your way around that, so that's starting to look good. For a second I was getting kind of worried. I was like, take this offline and kind of fix it, but no, it's actually looking like it's doing pretty well. So that's a good sign. Okay that looks good. We'll turn the ball on now just so you can kinda see that and let's actually figure out the, I guess the branches. Cuz there's gotta be branches here. So that's definitely a must. So let's actually take a look at these branches. I kinda like this form here that it's kinda showing me. So it's going all over the place. Place, so that's cool. So let's see if we can keep that within the image. So underneath it I'll just turn this off, I'll make a new layer just so we can see it. We're gonna make it red so we can see what it's looking like here. And we're gonna see if we can. Let me use a line tool. And we're just gonna make this, as big as possible. And kind of just have that kind of go up. And so, using the line tool, right? You're, like, what the hell? But it's actually kind of cool. Because what. But after you erase from it, it kind of keeps that motion a little bit and it's actually kind of interesting. So now when I kind of erase from it, right, you can kinda see how now if I combine that with a little bit of painting, now we can kind of get in this little bit of, kind of a curl I guess. And now it kinda gives it that kind of patronly kind of feel that we're looking for here. And that's exactly what we want now. So and you kind of want this to kind of follow, if at all possible, throughout the image. And this is where reference can help out like tremendously. If you're unsure, go take a picture. And I walk by this thing every day when I walk my dog, and not once did I ever kind of look at it and be like, that could actually help me solve a problem. So a lot of times, problem solving is right there within you if you can If you see it. So look around you. That's the biggest thing too. Just be aware of the world around you. Because chances are there are problem solving solutions in your everyday life that you would never know could possibly you serve as that. So that's why I always have my camera phone around me. Just in case or I always have my phone on me, just in case I want to take pictures and stuff like that of things that i think are going to be interesting. So that's kind of the cool part here. So now i'm going to put this guy. Turn the layer back on so I can now see it. And this will help me understand what's happening here. And so we definitely want to use that stuff. And I always put it behind it. And then now look at that we have some stuff. And then now we'll go back here. And let's see. See if we can kind of add some more details, details, and I think this will be in a pretty good spot, I imagine, to start kind of adding some form and value to the trees. Definitely kind of want to have some of these overhanging shapes here. A little bit, and see what we can do. You have to layer that pretty well. If you don't layer it well, if you don't take your time with that, it can look ugly. And so I want this to be kinda, and like some ruin forest that has some ancients fountain of youth type thing and you wanna create that wonderment and awe that this thing is still here and all that kinda stuff and that nature has really kinda claimed this thing, that's kinda what I'm going for here at any point in time. Sometimes doing little circles can kinda help as well. I think that's a good start. So you get that kind of rawness to it. So, all right, so we added some foliage, I think we are good to go. I think for now we'll take a break from the foliage and we'll talk about kind of adding texture here to the environment to kind of give a little more oomph to it. So we'll stop it right here and then we'll see the texture part, okay? All right, see you then.