Forest Mini-tut

[Ascension]

This is for Photoshop - not sure what the GIMP controls are but if you could probably figure out something similar.

1. Grab any size brush you want and go into the Brush Editor, I chose a 21-pixel hard round. Set the Scattering to anything you want (I maxxed it) and the count to 3-5. You can also increase the spacing if you want more distance between the dots. This step gives me some randomness to the edges so that my forest doesn't look like a big circle or a straight line. (Fig 1a) You get different results when using a mouse or a tablet when laying down this initial base.

2. Reduce the opacity down to 10-20% and create a new layer to draw on. Draw your squiggly outlines. Keep the loops small as that enhances the notion that you're drawing each individual tree. (Fig 1b)

3. Delete the dots layer. (Fig 1c) You can use this image to practice the next step if you choose.

4. Put in the interior trees by using squiggles. Don't put in too many and vary the length of the squiggle line. (Fig 1d)

5. Tree trunks are optional but if you put them in then make sure that they connect to the outline. If you want to draw larger trees then put a gap between the trunks.

6. Optional line shading. Using little crescent moon strokes put them at the bottoms where the leaf-bunch would be shaded.

7. Optional shading. Grab a larger brush, I went with 35-pixel soft round, reduce flow or opacity to 20% and add shading. It does not matter if you shade over the tree trunk area since there would be a cast-shadow there anyway. If you use the larger tree trunks you might want to erase where they get covered up. Also remember to erase where the shading overlaps a tree top. (Fig 1e)

Voila! Writing this tutorial took longer than drawing the forest.

~A~

[Hikki-Jin]

Aha. Thanks, man. Simple, but effective. This'll be useful.