Photoshop Tutorial: Create an Awesome Wooden Fantasy Dragon

This tutorial shows the step by step process to turn a normal photo of a wood stock into a wooden dragon image, just by using creativity and some intermediate technical knowledge.

You'll learn how to transform a photo of a bunch of wood nto a fantasy image of a wooden dragon. Some intermediate photoshop knowledge is required to follow this tutorial.

I've used photoshop CS5 to create this image.

The only source used was the image 'To Burn' provided by pxleyes.

End result:

Author:

Views: 19739

Score: 8.46 / 10

Author earned: $50

Practice tutorial

Step 1

In the first step, you must draw a sketch. This sketch will be the base to our work.

You can save this image to your pc and use it as your base.

Step 2

1. From the image "To Burn" provided for Pxleyes, you must cut out some wood parts to be used in this work and save it in separate layers.

2. Keep a copy of each layer for future uses.

Step 3

Let´s do the dragon's face.

1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 1".

2. Adjust its form With WARP.

3. Put it in its place following the sketch base.

Step 4

Dragon's face (inferior part)

1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 1".

2. Adjust its form With WARP.

3. Put it in its place (under the face) following the sketch base.

Step 5

Dragon's "ears"

1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 2".

2. Cut out the white area of the image.

3. Adjust its form With WARP and duplicate this layer, you will need 2 parts to make the complete section of the "ears".

4. Put it in its place following the sketch base.

Step 6

Dragon's eyebrushes

1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 3".

2. Adjust its form With WARP.

3. Put it in its place following the sketch base.

Step 7

Dragon's Neck:

1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 5".

2. Adjust its form With WARP.

3. Put it in its place following the sketch base.

Step 8

Dragon's body:

1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 5".

2. Adjust its form With WARP.

3. Put it in its place following the sketch base.

Step 9

Dragon's spike:.

1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 3".

2. Adjust its form With WARP.

3. Put it in its place following the sketch base.
You must duplicate this layer many times as needed to fill all the spikes.

Step 10

Dragon's arms, legs:

1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 1".

2. Cut out the yellow area in the image.

3. Adjust its form With WARP.

4. Put it in its place following the sketch base.
This layer is used to make the arms, legs, hands and feet.
Duplicate it many times as needed.

Step 11

Dragon's claws:

1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 3".

2. Adjust its form With WARP.

3. Put it in its place following the sketch base.

You must duplicate this layer many times as needed and adjust its form to make all
the claws.

Step 12

Dragon's tail:

1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 5".

2. Adjust its form With WARP.

3. Put it in its place following the sketch base.

Step 13

Dragon's tail 2:

1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 5".

2. Adjust its form With WARP.

3. Put it in its place following the sketch base.

Step 14

Dragon's wings:

Wing base:

a1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 4".

a2. Put it in its place following the sketch base.


Wing "feathers":

1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 1" and cut out in the middle.

2. Adjust its form With WARP.

3. Put it in its place following the sketch base. Duplicate it 3 times to complete.

Step 15

The eggs:

1. From the source image cut out some extreme of wooden trunk.

2. Adjust its form With WARP.

3. Put it in its place following the sketch base.
Duplicate it many times as needed to complete all the eggs.

Step 16

The nest:

1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 2".

2. Adjust its form With WARP.

3. Put it in its place following the sketch base.
Duplicate many times as needed, with this layer you must fill all the nest area.

Nest details:

a1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 2".

a2. . Adjust its form With WARP.

a3. Put it in its place following the sketch base.

Step 17

Eye and tail:

1. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 1". Select and cut out only the circular area.

Adjust its form With WARP.

Put it in its place following the sketch base.


2. Take a copy of the layer "Trunk 1". Delete the circular area.

Adjust its form With WARP.

Put it in its place following the sketch base.

Step 18

The background:

1. Take the source image provided by pxleyes.

2. Apply GAUSSIAN BLUR with a value of 45,8 to give depth.

Step 19

The background 2:

2. Select the background layer and apply a color change.

Image - Adjust - Color Balance

with the values:

Midtones= Cyan = 0 / Magenta =0 / Yellow + 63

Step 20

Shadows and highlights:

1. With the BURN Tool add shadows to the dragon's body.

2. With the DODGE Tool add lightings.

Step 21

Shadows and highlights 2:

1. With the BURN Tool add shadows to rest of the image..

2. With the DODGE Tool add lightings to rest of image.

Step 22

1. Select thelayers that form the nest and change their color 1 by 1:

Image - Adjust - Color Balance

with the values:

Mid Tones= Cyan +22 / Magenta=0 / Yellow -20

Shadows = Cyan +30 / Magenta=0 / Yellow -20

This will give another color to the nest.

Step 23

Finishing the image:

1. Select all the layers.

2. Merge all.

3. Apply

Image - Adjust - Bright/contrast = Contrast +15

*******************************************************************************

Image - Adjust - Color Balance

with the values:

Shadows= Cyan = +10 / Magenta =0 / Yellow -10

*******************************************************************************

The image is finished... Enjoy!!!!!!

8 Comments:

Brian Jones says:

Wow!

Very creative. Great use of lighting, shading and depth of field. Job well done - kudo's!

(1 year and 102 days ago)

Guest says:

very nice

(1 year and 101 days ago)

Arter says:

So cool! I thought, you drawn the dragon! But, i dint thought assigning WOOD to its appropriate part, would do the trick!
Well laid, author!

(1 year and 101 days ago)

Eladine says:

I think it is a nice tutorial but not for beginners.

(1 year and 100 days ago)

shanghtin says:

never seen like this before so creatively ! brilliant..! absolutely awsome..

(1 year and 89 days ago)

karthikeyan says:

wow awesome.. actually its very difficult to create an artwork with some texture pieces, but u have done it with ease.. thanks for the share..

(1 year and 89 days ago)

Guest says:

wonderful

(1 year and 67 days ago)

Guest says:

amazing........ i am beginner of Photoshop.... can anyone help to create this type of images.. how you are trained.... where did u learn

(289 days ago)

Leave a Comment

Name:

Comment:

submit