Grass Elements

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This tutorials follows my scenics tutorial. In my scenics tutorial I described the basics to illustrating an image of a sunny day, In this tutorial I will go into more detail in creating the elements that could appear in grass. I will teach you how to illustrate small flowers, the different ways to add in shadows to objects and lastly how to give the grass more depth without using shadows or a noise texture.

What's your pick?
Flowers
Objects And Their Shadows
Adding Depth

Flowers

(Top ↑) Creating flowers is extremely simple and there are many different ways to create so many different types of flowers. I already currently have a tutorial on illustrating flowers here, this tutorial will differ in the way that I use a different technique and the way that these flowers are smaller (as they are only elements and not the main image)

First open up a new blank image on paint shop pro, my image is sized 92 x 87. It's big at the moment but when adding it into the grass it will be resized. Take the Pen Tool (V) ( and making the first colour pallet transparent, match the second pallet to a colour you want; I am using the colour #FD9127.

Use this to trace the shape of one petal. First of all match your pen tool settings to mine below:
Segment type: Point to point
Meter limit: 15
Create as vector
The line width is not important as the top pallet has been made transparent

In order to trace your shape with curve, click where you want the shape to begin, click at a different point and then drag the mouse (Example (from illustration guide tutorial). You may also choose to draw petals which do not curve, in this case you don't drag the mouse after clicking in your second place.

Now that we have one petal, we can create identical petals and save time. Right click the vector layer that holds your flower and convert it into a raster layer. Then duplicate that layer four times. With the first duplicate go to Image > Flip. However with the other two duplicates use the Deform Tool (D) to rotate and move them into to place.

The flower at the moment looks incredibly boring; however it is just an element in the grass so if you were to add it to your main image now all you'd have to do is resize it and the image will be ready to use. However you could make it more interesting by playing with layers and layer properties.

Firstly duplicate the layer that hold your petals and use the Deform Tool (D) to rotate this layer. Then change the colouring of the petal to make it stand out; I've done this by accessing Adjust > Brightness/Contrast > Brightness and Contrast. I brightened the duplicated image to 41 and changed the contrast to 13, I then (after pressing OK), dragged the duplicated layer below the original petal layer in order to make it appear behind.

This makes the image more interesting - but there's still more we could do! Duplicate your original petal image and like before use the Deform Tool (D) to rotate this layer, then using the brightness/contrast feature again, change the brightness to it's lowest number in order to make the petal black; then change this layer to Soft Light at 74% (the percentage of this layer may change depending on what colours you've used for your flower - you don't want the percentage to make the flower look like too much).

To learn how to implement the flower onto your image scroll down to the section 'objects and their shadows'.

Objects And Their Shadows

(Top ↑) Once you have made the objects for your grass (this may include a flower or small 'tuffs' of grass), you simply resize them and add a shadow. Adding a shadow to these images makes them look more believable and more interesting.

I've only shown you how to create flowers, but (as shown below) there are so many different objects you can make; you just have to be creative. I won't walk you through creating all of them, but each of these can be created using the Pen Tool and the Shapes Tool. Just use what you've learned in creating a flower to create these different elements. Below are different ideas for what you could add to your grass:



I usually make the shadows in one of two ways:
OPTION ONE: Option one is very simple. Say I was adding this image to my grass; I'd first of all paste the image as a new layer - I'd then highlight the bottom layer. Next I'd take the Shape Tool (P) and I'd make the colour black. I'd do this by making the first pallet transparent (example) and matching the second pallet to the colour #000000; finally I'd draw a reasonably sized circle near the bottom of the image. I'd set this vector layer to Soft Light at around 70-100%. Sometimes I may also choose to blur this circle using the Gaussian Blur setting in order to make the image look softer.

OPTION TWO: This option, although more complicated is still very simple. Like before I start off by pasting my object as a new layer; what differs this time however is that I will duplicate this layer. There are now two different layers of this object, I will highlight the bottom one and use the brightness/contrast feature. In order to make the image black I will change the brightness to it's lowest number (the contrast doesn't matter). After this take the strong>Deform Tool (D) to deform this image and make it look like a shadow. Using the 'shear' mode is very useful when doing this. Just play around with changing the position of the top corners and also use the scale mode to adjust the size; it is important that the bottom corners remain mostly touching the bottom corners of the object you are shadowing as that is the way it's like in real life. Like before; set this layer to Soft Light at around 70-100%, you may also choose to apply Gaussian Blur setting to the image in order to make it look softer.

Adding Depth

(Top ↑) When I'm not in the mood to 'spice' up my images with either a noise effect or an inner bevel, this is the technique I use. It is so simple, so quick and very effect. Firstly open up your blank canvas, then select the Pen Tool (V) ( and match your settings to mine below:
Line Style: Solid
Width: 50.00
Meter Limit: 15
Segment Type: Point to Point
Colour: White
Now simply draw lines accross the image and once you are done adjust the opacity (I adjusted mine to 4%). Next, duplicate this layer and use the brightness/contrast feature and make this duplicate black, change that to Soft Light at a low percentage (mine is at 6%), also mirror this image so that it doesn't cover the previous image. This effect is something I have used in many of my illustrations. Examples: 1, 2, 3.