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

Step 23

Use the dodge tool (highlights, 10% exposure) to highlight the top fin.

Step 24

Using the eraser tool (73 pixel soft edged brush, 12% opacity) make the fin slightly transparent.

Step 25

Use the same steps to create two smaller fins on the bottom of the fish.

Step 26

Outline all of the fins in color #3A003S

Step 27

Take the same color (set to 35% opacity) and add vertical lines to the fins.

Step 28

Now make a new layer above the “fish” layer.

Step 29

Temporarily turn of pen pressure and make a black (color #000000) circle where the eye should be (62 pixels).

Also, erase an eye-sized hole in the scales layer where the eye is located. This will keep the eye from having scales on it later on.

Step 30

Now using a 15 pixel brush, outline the eye with white (color #FFFFFF).

Step 31

Erase the top half of the eye.

Step 32

Use the elliptical marquis tool to select the eye area (including the top half we erased.)

Step 33

Now, going to the “fish” layer, use the burn tool to add shadows to the eyelid, and the dodge tool to add highlights.

Burn Tool: 42 pixels, highlights mode, 34% exposure

Dodge Tool: shadow mode, 69 pixels, 24% exposure

Step 34

Make a new layer above the “scales” layer and title it “fin”. On this layer we will make the dorsal fin.

Step 35

Block in the fin with color #610089. The fin is a sort of elongated triangle.

Step 36

Use the burn tool and dodge tool (dodge tool set to highlights) to add shadows and highlights to the fin.

Step 37

Take color #2B003D and outline the outer three sides of the fin.

Step 38

Make semi-transparent horizontal lines on the fin using the same color and a 55% opaque brush.

Step 39

Now go back to the “scales” layer and erase the scales off the tail.

Step 40

Use the same technique for the other fins to finish the tail (steps 24, 37-38).

Step 41

The last step for the fish is to add a highlight to the eye using the dodge tool on shadow mode.

Step 42

If you wish to create more fish, follow the same steps but vary the color and shape of the body and fins. Even making small changes like those will give you all kinds of beautiful fish!

(I created a single gold fish and copied and pasted it is several different places. I also made a few larger and on different planes (i.e. layers), and they did a great job of tying the image together.)