The Joy of Photoshop

 Are you one of those people who always wanted to paint like Bob Ross?
Now is your chance!! Grab the brush set from the download section and get started!

First of all make sure you got the bob-brush brush set from the download section and you have them loaded. You should load them with the "replace brushes" command. You need Photoshop CS< to use the brush set. You can download a free trail version here.

Like this:

Create a new layer. (ctrl-shift-n)

Now select the brush tool and pick the Cloud brush (if you hoover over the brushes with your curser the brush name will appear) and set its size to 100px. Set the foreground color to a dark lavender (7a6676) and the background color to a darkish blue/grey (a4aab2) and paint in some basic cloud forms.

Set the foreground color to white(ish) and the brush size about 40 to 60px and add highlights the edges of the clouds.

Select the smudge tool and pick the smudge brush. Set its size to 40px and strength between 30 to 60%.
Now smudge the highlights in to the clouds with little circulair movements. Be careful to stay away from the edges from the clouds.

He's just a big cloud that lives there.

Now select the burn tool and select the cloud brush. Set the size to 200px. Set the range to Midtones and fill in some dark edges. Now paint some dark spots in the clouds to let them stand out better.

Time to add some bushes.

Create a new layer.

Select the brush tool and select the foliage brush preset. Pick two shades of grey/green as foreground and backrground color (a9c2af/8e9a8f).
Now paint in the some distant trees, create some interresting shapes and forms so the little squirrels have an nice spot to play!

Let's try something interresting!

Select the brush tool with the coarse liner brush preset. Set the size to 8px (4px if you use a mouse instead of an wacom tablet) and set the opactiy to something around the 30%. Select white as foreground color.

Now draw in some tree trunks and other interesting things. Make little swoosh sounds when you do that, it will help you to create lovely trunks!

 

Those are some happy trees!

Let's add some grass.

Create a new layer. (ctrl-shift n) 

Select the brush tool with the grass brush preset. Set the size to something around 20px and the opacity at 100%. Set the foreground color to black(ish). We want it dark so the colors will shoot out! Create a nice hilly form, don't worry about the it too much, this is just a base for the colors later on.

Those colors we are going to apply now.

You still should have the brush tool selected with grass preset.
Select a nice green color as foreground color and and a lighter shade of green as background color.(44673d/6c8a56) Start to give the hills some color. Work from hilltop to hilltop. Make sure you leave darker areas to create the illusion of depth. (if you use a mouse you may need  play with the opacity to create an bit of interresting surface)

When you finishd with that select a bright yellow, set the opacity to 50% and add some highlights on the hilltops.

Let's add some evergreens!

Create a new layer. (ctrl-shift-n)

Select the brush tool with coarse liner brush preset. Set the size to 6px and the opacity to 70 or 80% and the foreground color to black(ish).

Add some thin tree trunks. I like to start from the top to the bottom and apply more presure to the bottom, but you can start at the bottom if you wish, its your own special world.

Next select the brush tool and the evergreen preset set the size 93px and the opacity to 100%. Set the foreground color to black  and the background color to dark green (164716).

Draw over the trunks in zig/zag lines moving downward applying more pressure to the bottom. (you may to need to practise this an few times but if you get it right you draw the most beautifull evergreens in a heartbeat) Don't do the middle one yet.

 If you use a mouse, (get a tablet!!) Set the size to 20px and increase the size manually downwards a few times.

Now select the dodge tool with the evergreen brush preset and add some highlights to the trees on the side towards the center, or where ever you like to place you light source. Now select the burn tool with the evergreen brush preset and darken the left tree from the bottom to halfway up the tree. You could also darken the bottom of the trees to create an bit of shadow.

Now paint in an evergreen on the third trunk and highlight it as explained above.

Create a new layer. (ctrl-shift-n)

Select the brush tool with the leafs brush preset. Set the size to 20px and the opacity to 100%. Set the foreground color to black and the background color to green. (4fbe35)

Paint some happy little bushes in front of your evergreens. Think about the little creatures that live there. This helps you to visualize the bushes.

Press x after that (switch foreground and background colors) and fill in some highlights. Work bush by bush to create more depth. Change the foreground color to different shades of green(ish) to create seperate plants. You could also go over it once or twice with the dodge tool to create more depth.

Lets do something fun! Lets add some water.

Select the smudge tool with the smudge brush preset. Set the mode to normal and the strength to 50%

Go to the cloud layer.

Smudge the clouds beneath the grass straight down and than pull the color back and forth to create some ripples.

Finally smooth it with the blur tool set to use the smudge brush preset.

Create a new layer. (ctrl-shift-n)  (on top)

Select the brush tool with the coarse liner brush preset. Set the size to 9px and the opacity to around 60%. Set the foreground color to black.

Draw a water line once from left to right and once from right to left, don't make it too straight, wiggle it an bit.

Select the smudge tool with the smudge brush preset. Set the mode to normal and the strength 50%.

Smudge the lower part of the line straight down. Make sure you leave the upper part as untouched as possible.
Create some sideways ripples by lightly smudging sideways.

Create a new layer. (ctrl-shift-n)

Select the brush tool with the grass brush preset. Set the size to 50px and the opacity to 100%. Set the foreground color to black and the background to green. (256d15)

Paint a hill on the forground, covering the empty space in the bottom left.

Select yellow as foreground color and set opacity to 44%.
Add highlights to the hill, and add some color to it lightly (mouse users may have to set there opacity to 10% or 20%)

Time to put the dots on the i.

Create an new layer. (ctrl-shift-N)

Select the brush tool with the coarse liner brush preset. Set the size to 3px and the opacity to 75%. Set the foreground color to white.

Draw the edge of the pond at the bottom of the black and white. Use only short horizontal strokes.

I think that's a finishd painting!

I would really like to see your efforts, send them to me and I will put them here on the site!

See you next time, until then, happy painting!

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