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Colorful Fantasy Dragon Battle Scene Photoshop Tutorial

Step 1

On the document of 1500 pxl wide and 1500 pxl high, firstly I created the scratch of the dragon.
step1

Step 2

Next, we have to make the scratch into a clear shape by changing it into an outline. I decided to work on different layers for each part of the dragon’s body. Create five new layers in the layer panel. The top most layer is the one for the left leg, the layer underneath the left leg layer is the one for the main body and head, then, the layer below the main body is the one for the left wing, next below the left wing is the right wing layer, finally, the lowest layer is the one for the right leg. Let’s outline the left leg first. With the left leg layer selected, go to the Pen tool (P) in the tool panel. Start to click the leg area to create the starting point anchor and keep on clicking to trace the leg until the path is closed which is indicated by a thin line around the traced area. Right click on the closed path. There will be an option command box, choose Fill Path and fill it with color of light grey (#acaaaa)
step2

Step 3

Now select the main body layer, and take Pen Tool again. Trace the whole body (including the head and the tail) and right after the path is closed, fill it with the same color as the one used for the left leg. Please refer back to the previous step 2.
step3

Step 4

Do the same as in previous step 2-3 for the other parts of the dragon body until we get the complete outline of the dragon.
step4

Step 5

From this step on, we will give the dimension on the outline to define the detail shape of the dragon. This means that we will give some highlight and shadow on it and we can achieve this by applying Dodge and Burn tool. I decided to work on the left leg first. Select the left leg layer. Then, take Burn tool in the tool panel. Set the Range to shadow at very low exposure: 10%. With very soft brush, stroke the edge of the leg. Then, switch to Dodge tool. Start giving highlight to the leg area. Make sure to always use a very soft brush when stroking.
step5

Step 6

By combination usage of the Dodge and Burn tool, try to define the detail of the dragon’s face and proceed to work on the whole body.
step6

Step 7

This is the complete result of the dragon I created after being given Dodge and Burn.
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Step 8

Next, open the source picture. Cut out some part of the picture. We need this part to be used as the skin texture for the dragon.
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Step 9

We will give the texture for the left leg first. With left leg layer selected, drag the cut out into the dragon document. This will be a new layer in the layer panel. Create this layer Clipping Mask. Then, set the blending of it to Overlay at 100% opacity. Finally, duplicate (Ctrl+J) this layer one time and set it to Soft Light blending at 100% opacity. Group the left leg layers.
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Step 10

Cut out the other part of the source picture in step 8, and drag the cut out to document. We will begin to apply textures to the main body.
step10

Step 11

I started to give the texture to the area around the neck and the back. Duplicate the cut out layer some times as needed. Make sure to create clipping mask for each duplication layers. Try to arrange the positions of them in such way that they will not look uniform. To get good result, vary the blending of the duplication layers to hard light, overlay or multiply. Then, I decided to hide the texture around the chest area. Give each duplication layer a layer mask and then hide the part of the textures on the chest area.
step11

Step 12

With the same way as in the previous step 11, proceed to work on the face and tail area. Finally group the main body layers.
step12

Step 13

Cut out the other part of the source image again (step 8). We will apply the texture for the chest and some areas round the tail. Please refer back to previous step 11-12 for similar steps. The result is determined by the variations of the blending for the textures. Try to vary the blending of the duplication layers that we make to overlay, hard light, or multiply.
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Step 14

Here is the result I created for the main body after doing about 15 duplication layers at various blending.
step14

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