Photoshop Tutorials

Create a beautiful painting of an aquarium in Photoshop. This detailed tutorial is the second part of the Seascape Painting series. Part II will teach you how to draw the fishes and add a finishing touch to the image.

Preview of Final Results

Seascape Painting Part II: Creating the Fish and Finishing the Picture Photoshop Tutorial

• Program: Photoshop 7
• Difficulty: Beginner
• Estimated Completion Time: 40 minutes

*This tutorial was meant to be completed using a pen tablet. If you are using a mouse, the brush sizes will be irrelevant. However, a good estimate for brush sizes when using a mouse is about 1/3 the size of the brush I am using.

Step 1

Make a new layer above layer “coral 3”.

Step 2

Use color #23001A to make a football shape (using a 70 pixel opaque brush).

Step 3

Make a connected crescent moon shape attached to the back of the football shape.

Step 4

Outline the fish in color #150600 using a 15 pixel brush.

Step 5

Use the burn tool (shadow mode, 15% exposure, 133 pixel brush) to add shadows to the figure, mostly along the bottom.

Step 6

Set the burn tool to midtones mode (exposure 64%) and add a shadow area to the top of the fish and along its tail.

Step 7

Use the dodge tool (118 pixel soft edged brush, 20% exposure, midtones mode) to highlight the fish’s body.

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