I got some questions about how I draw out-of-focus tree backgrounds, such as the one to the right of this picture (100% GIMP by the way):



It's actually really easy once you've seen it done!

In this tutorial all thumbnails below are clickable. I used GIMP 2.2.13 under Linux Debian for this tutorial, but this works the same also for later versions of GIMP. I use a Wacom tablet for imput which I cannot recommend enough. But I've done things like this with a mouse too, and it works well, you just have to work a little slower. This tutorial assumes some basic understanding of GIMP, if you are completely new you should probably do the [Beginner GIMP tutorial] first.



My setup in GIMP. Note how I have airbrush tool selected with an opacity of 50%.l NEVER change this setting throughout this tutorial. The airbrush is a very powerful tool. The advantage of an airbrush set to 50 % is that you can get much more flexibility on what colours end up on the canvas. If you want it more saturated you don't change to a darker colour -- just draw you brush a few more times over the same area. Arguably the effect of this is biggest with a pressure-sensitive drawing tablet, but the idea can be applied in many situations to get a more "relaxed" feel to your work.

I have picked a huge hard-edged brush with a size of 231 x 231 pixels. You can easily create such a large brush in GIMP (it's not available initially) by just going into the brush editor and making it as large as you want. If you have rescalable brushes set up (see my [Setting up GIMP for artistic work / Basic Airbrushing] tutorial), just size it up with a key stroke.

Another important thing to note here is how low zoom I have on the image. The image is an A4 at 300 DPI (2480 x 3508 pixels), but I'm working on it at only 18% Zoom, exactly like you see in this image. This means I will be able to make strokes that cover the entire canvas (this is where the huge brush comes in too). It speeds up work immensely. Details and zooming can come later, if you really need to.



I wanted to make trees in a slope, so I made a slope in a dark green using the lasso and the fill tool . The bright region (you get that by inverting your selection and filling the upper part, again with the fill tool) is the "counter-light". This could come from a low sun or could simply mimic the effect of you standing in darkness looking out at a bright day. The colour can be very bright but you shouldn't make it entirely white since a forest reflects and changes the colour, most often giving it a green tint. You might also want to make certain points brighter later. So stay away from pure white for now.



I wanted some structure to the light, so I airbrushed a few thick lines across the image, all still on the same layer. These might look bizarre now, but will help as inspiration later.



Time to start making the trees. I create a new layer for this. The huge brush works nicely for making a few large trunks. Make sure you use the transparency of the airbrush by letting outer parts of the trunks be transparent (will look like they are blurred by the lbright light passing them) whereas the "core" of the tree gets more strokes and is completely opaque. Stay with the huge brush and play with colours very close to the background sky-colour to create trees that seem "further away". You can often use colours that are brighter than you would think, just make a few more strokes with the airbrush to flesh out the trunks.



Guided by the lighter strokes I did earlier on the ground I established one of the trees as being closer to us than the others. Those lighter strokes makes a natural basis for ground structure and the shadows from the trees come naturally.
Now you switch to a smaller brush to sharpen up the "cores" of trees and to make branches that are smaller and sharper. The sharper, the closer, but the airbrush will stop you from making it too sharp.



Time for highlights. Put strategic highlights on tree trunks to make them come forward from the background. Establish light lines on the ground, in the same colour as the sky. Make sure to move the brush parallel to the horizon when making lights on the ground. If you just draw lights in straight lines in the direction of the light, it can easily look like a water fall rather than unevenness in the ground catching rays of light.

If you just wanted an out of focus background for some cool foreground image you have, you can probably stop here ...



... but if you want some more details you will need to start zooming. Close in those huge strokes you just did don't look very good. Each stroke is made out of large circles (the further apart they are, the faster GIMP can lay them down, you set this using the "Spacing" slider at the bottom of the brush list). So zoom and start airbrushing with a bright colour to remove the obvious brush artifacts (you need to click the thumb to see these details in the image above, compare trees to the left (unfixed) to trees to the right which I've fixed).



This is a finished background. You can flatten the image now (right-click layer list, choose "merge all") and start making your foreground if you want -- put in your wood elf, forest spirit or whatever.



If you want to experiment more, having the slope and background light on a separate layer (as we have) helps a lot. Here I tested with a bright light playing along the horizon. All I did was painting white on the underlying layer and brushing with white along the tree edges on the upper layer. One could make the light more extreme if one wanted to, maybe putting fog and having rays of light play among the trees (rays of light are hard to get right though, so beware).

The point is that this is very easy and quick to do. Hope someone gets some inspiration to make variations on the theme.
.
Griatch

A few of my other Art tutorials:

Beginner GIMP tutorial
Setting up GIMP for artistic work / Basic Airbrushing,
Advanced Airbrushing,
Character artwork,
Drawing Cyborgs,
Penciling characters,
Adding light and mood to a picture,
Paint a futuristic city,
Draw an eye in 5 minutes (video)

More of my art tutorials you can find on DA, [here].



Free Photo Hosting - PicTiger



-----



From the thread:

Flying Penguin:


-josh-


ArchGoat:


budman:


lekkin:


Lothar:


hddnlfnnja:


darkshadowzx:


Forbidding:


Garfi:


JohannasGarden:


Demen:


sneaky_squirrel:

WHOA! Your tutorials are pretty good man. Instead of just sigs and stuff you teach very creative things. I really like this and have just thought of where it might come in handy. Thanks!

Cool, thanks

Yaeah i love your tuts!

Thanks! Would be fun to see, should you try this out somewhere.
.
Griatch

that's cool! :w:

Thanks! It really is quite easy too.
.
Griatch

Update: If you feel it's difficult to get used to the airbrush used in this tutorial, there is more help to be had. For setting up the GIMP airbush properly and for training to use it, there is now a special tutorial that might help you get on your way :

Tutorial.

.
Griatch

woot this got in the featured tutorial !!1!!!!!!!ONE!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!!
you are one of the best tut makers ive seen : (for lack of better smiley)

Nice tut.

But, I failed. Horribly. Oh well. I guess I'm just not cut out for making "artistic" things with gimp :s:

Btw, you have an AMAZING DA gallery!

do youi have a wacom pad

@WOWn00b

As mentioned in the tutorial, I use a Wacom drawing tablet. But I have also done this with a mouse and this tutorial works just as well using a mouse, you just have to work a little slower.
.
Griatch

This tutorial has quite little to do with "artistic" things, it's rather straightforward. Rather I would think that problems are mostly a matter of lack of training with using the mouse for high-precision work. The mouse is like any tool, it has to be trained before it can be used in this highly specialized function. In a previous post in this thread I link to a tutorial that might help you get better airbrushing with the mouse. Don't give up!

Thanks for checking out my DA gallery, glad you like it! :l:
.
Griatch

I tried, i tried twice all wern't good, i think its a matter of practice. ^_^

@rover

Keep trying ... Put up your attempt here, maybe we can come with some suggestions.
.
Griatch

Nice! I gotta try this out sometime

-Lunar Echoes

maybe the emmm pics bigger to make it easier

@dom_gold

The pictures in the tutorial you mean? Have you tried clicking on them? Are they still too small?
.
Griatch

This, along with your other tutorial I have seen are amazing.
I wish I had the kind of skill you have.
Great work, keep it up.

I'm gonna try this later on today. Awesome tutorial!

Okay here is my finish:

It's okay... Yours is a lot better.... but if I keep practicing I can hopefully get better! Great tutorial!!

I think it's looking good! The slope of the ground makes it look like the trees are placed along the ridge of a slope or crater. An interesting effect. The trees look dead and kinda omnious, befitting the black ground.

A criticism I have is that the rays of light passing over the ground all point in different directions and have no joint light source. Since you have a clear sky, the sun would have to be low on the horizon to cast such shadows, and then those shadows would all point in the same direction.

I like the structure you have retained in the tree trunks and on the ground. But you might want to blur the more distant trees to enhance the feeling of depth even more. It's not in this tutorial, but use the smudge tool at 30% opacity for this. Check out any of my two airbrushing tutorials (especially the Advanced one) for details on how to blur with the smudge tool.

At any rate, Good job! I'm putting up this version at the end of my initial post.
.
Griatch

I hope myns ok ^^

I got lazy ahahahahahaha



Now to try your next tutorial

@-josh-:

Good depth in this one. The iron-grey sky gives it a very moody feel, yet those green touches on the treetrunks makes them stand out and almost glow in the dusk. Cool effect! As for criticism, you could maybe have smoothed the obvious brush strokes on the trunks, as well as added a canopy. Also, the shadows on the ground don't really fit the sky; there would not be such clear shadows when the sky looks like that.

As I said, I particularily like the green tint to the trees (gives an eerie ghost-feel to it) as well as the depth you have created with the foreground trees. I'm putting this up at the top.
.
Griatch

So.. I tried out this tutorial as well. Great stuff! Getting the light right proved slightly diffucult using the mouse, methinks. Nothing a little more practice can't remedy though.

My result:



I posted the image as a thumbnail, as it is very big, and scaling down the image works in favor of the overall impression ; )

Hi,

This was really cool. I always wondered how to approach drawing in gimp.
I've tried other methods, but this airbrush effect is awesome. wow.. I can control the shading for a change.
Feels like I am sketching on paper. BTW, what tablet do you use - I always wanted to get one.. maybe someday soon.



I'm going to try some others when I get a chance.

Rich