How to Use Tree Brushes to Paint Human Hair in Photoshop

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use tree brushes to paint human hair in Photoshop by working through an interesting human photo manipulation project. The tutorial is suitable for beginner – intermediate skill Photoshop users.

This tutorial requires prior knowledge of layer masking, selection, brush & eraser tool.

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

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:

Background texture

Model by MariaAmanda

Tree Brushes

Explosion Brushes

Bird Brushes

City Buildings by Random-Acts-Stock

Step 1 – Background Preparation

Create a new document sized 830px * 1140px with white background. Pick any one image from the background texture pack we downloaded, load it into Photoshop and add it to our canvas:

Use a soft eraser, set its flow & opacity value to be around 50% respectively, erase parts of the background texture as shown below:

Apply the following Black & White image adjustment setting to this background texture layer:

and here is the effect so far:

Step 2 – Working on Model’s Face

Load the model image into Photoshop and make a selection of the model’s face as shown below:

Copy and past the selection to our document, place it at the centre of our canvas. Use a soft eraser to fade the edge of the face so it blends into the background:

Apply the following image adjustment layers as clipping masks to the face layer:

Black & White (set layer opacity to 75%)

Levels

Curves

Use the explosion brush set, paint some smoke/cloud effect around the face:

Step 3 – Paint Hair with Tree Brushes

Use the tree brushes we downloaded:

Paint the hair for the model as shown below. Use Free Transform Tool to adjust the shape & size of the trees for best result:

and this is my effect so far:

Step 4 – Flying Birds Addition

Use the bird brushes we downloaded, paint some birds around the canvas as shown below:

Fade the birds with a soft eraser to add depth for the image:

Step 5 – Urban Buildings Addition

We can add some urban elements to the image. Load the city building stock image into Photoshop, select one of the buildings from the image:

Copy and paste the selection to our document. Use the free transform to rotate/resize it as shown below:

Fade the building edges with a soft eraser:

Apply the following Black & White image adjustment to the building:

and here is the effect so far:

Repeat the above process, add a couple of more buildings around the face:

Step 6 – Final Touch-ups

We’re almost done! For final touch-ups, I flattened the image and duplicated the background layer, then applied the following Accented Edges filter to the duplicated layer:

This filter adds a nice glowing edge to our face:

If you don’t want this glowing edge effect in certain area (such as hair, building, etc.), you can simply erase them with a soft eraser.

I further added some colour to the image, and this is my final result (click to enlarge):

That’s it for this tutorial! Leave me a comment below if you have any questions. Enjoy it? Help me share it around by using the share buttons at the top of the tutorial!