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 :)

The PSD file of this tutorial is available via the PSD Vault VIP members area.

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.

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

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To complete this tutorial, you will need the following stocks:

Sand

Rock texture

Mountain

Crack Brush

Model – by Kuoma-stock

Step 1

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!