Drawing and Painting a Lava Monster in Photoshop

In today's lesson we were told that we were going to be learning how to draw lava. This was something that I was extremely looking forward to as lava is such a unique thing, its full of many different colors, like reds, yellows and oranges and every single streak of it tells a story and is unique to itself. 

We were told to start the lesson of by going onto the internet and grabbing a source of reference, instantly, we I went to Google and grab a piece of lava that really interested me. I was caught to it by the many different shades of red and how it goes up the colour spectrum as you go up.

Starting to replicate the lava.

At first, I created a black background. By doing this, It means that I could emphasis the glow of the lava which also means I could show different temperatures of heat easily. The contrast between the such bright colours and the dark background is perfect because the viewer can see clear;y what work has been done by me to get to a certain detail.

The next thing that I went on to do was selecting a bright yellow, with this, I would brush streaks of the paint all over the page, to get an interpretation of what I would think a creak of lava would like.

A way of showing heat in images to put in white, bright colours. You cannot go any brighter than white, so it is seen as the hottest point. As lava is extremely hot and taking note from the reference that I had, I proceeded to paint in different places onto the streaks, getting an interesting effects, but defiantly the ones that I wanted.

Just as white is seen as way of showing high temperatures, the further down the spectrum that the go, the cooler the temperature of the colour actually is, Such as red, although it will still be extremely hot, it is much cooler than that of the white centre. Too create a much more realistic looking lava, I added in streaks of red to merge the colour.

Adding a slight background to the lava.

The next thing that I wanted to do, to create realism, was add a crust to the lava. This is when the lava has gotten too cool and started to form a solid. I got a much darker and deeper red than that of the lava and started to paint away. I also wanted to add different loops and bumps in the crust. By selecting a darker red, I could lightly brush the parts which I felt could be raised.

Adding a glow to the lava.

The lava streaks that I had made were finished and I must say, I was pretty impressed with what I had created but instantly we were told by our tutor that there was a much easier way of doing it. Excited that we could learn a different way of creating lava, I set to work and followed the instructions that he had gave us.

We had to go and paint white streaks, by doing this, it meant the white was already in and the centre was already done and the hottest point was selected. The next that we had to do go onto the shadow settings and select "Outer Glow". in this selection you can select what colour you want it to be. As red is mainly located on the outside of the lava, I selected it and tuned the settings so that it wasn't too large, but just there so you slightly see it. The same is replicated on the "inner glow" but with yellow.

What is so fantastic about doing this is that if we keep the white brush selected and paint onto the layer, it keeps the same properties and paints like lava essentially creating its own brush.

A screenshot of the painting.

Using the techniques that we have learned, we were told that we were going to be creating a lava monster out of a sculpture that was ready for us. We had to warp the sculpture to look as if  covered in lava and was extremely hot.

I went onto the file that was set out for us and took it into Photoshop. I cut the background out by using the lasso tool and just selecting the creature. Now I had just the creature I was ready to set up the paint brush that I had used earlier and paint this golum.

The sculpture that was ready to paint.

The first thing that I went on to do was create a brush, exactly like the one that we had done earlier and start to mark out the places where the lava was going to spill out of. I then proceeded to exaggerate them a lot further and create the spillages. I wanted it to make it look like the rock structure was still there, holding the creature together and make sure that it wasn't getting consumed by the lava.

Once the lava had been placed the next move was to adjust the hue and saturation of the golom creature. I wanted to make it look like the rocks have been burning and have taken a fair bit of damage over the years. I also adjusted the brightness settings to give this character plenty of scorch marks. After the creature had been completed, I decided that I wanted to give him a background. This way the creature has a sense of realism to him. I got an image off of the internet of like a volcanic planet and placed it. I wanted to add a fore shadow to the piece, so using the blur tool, I completely covered the background.

As I only had the top half of the sculpture, I wanted to add something that would cover it up, so again, using the internet, I gained a photo of a rock and modified it to my liking.

The last thing that I had left to do was to create a sense of distance. I wanted this creature to fairly big, so using the smudge too, I washed it with his back hand. This also created moment in the piece, like he was swinging his arm.

Adding the final touches.

Overall I am extremely happy with how I got on in today's lesson. It seems that the further along this course I go, the easier it is for me to work independently. I find that the new skills that are being gained are perfect in the way that they are being taught and I can only hope that as more and more lesson go by, I continue to learn at this rate.

If I were to do this creature again, I would first start off by creating a slightly more realistic mouth. The aim that I was going for wasn't too great compared to the final product. I would also make the rock in front perhaps slightly less visible on the page as it starts to draw away attention from the creature itself.

Overall though I am happy with what I have done and hope it continues.

My final Monster.