This is the final piece of my work. Please see below to view my entire process.
Before any steps: Before any steps, things are quickly sketches as a thumbnail just to get an idea.
Step #1: I had to look for stock of a nice background that would go with my idea. I wanted a storm background and I knew I would have to do some editing. So i did not care about the lighting etc. I found a beautiful background (shown at the top). I then edited the colouring with some hue/saturation and colouring. I coloured over it with blue, set it to multiple and reduced opacity as well.
Step #2: My friend provided me with a photo of her dog. Sometimes when you receive a photo it may be more of a challenge to try and fit it in. When it is an animal, sometimes they can be too dark or the photo might be too small. in this case it was a dark dog. So I knew it would be a challenge. I made the background very dark but knew I might have to change that in case the dog did not blend well. Once the dog was placed, I had to cut it out.
Step #3: I had to edit the dogs colouring to fit with the background. The photo as a whole is more blueish because the sun has went down and the moon is going to be coming out. I made the dog blue as well but not too blue where it looks silly. I also made any edits to the dog that may have to be added.
Step #4: The dogs name is storm. So naturally I wanted some sort of storm. So I decided to add lightening. At first I made lightening which worked well but did not fit right with the photo. I do know of some free brushes you can get online even though I prefer to make my own. In this case, it just so happened to fit. So I used it and placed them in the correct places. In certain parts I did end up erasing some parts as well because it may not fit in where it goes.
Step #5: Eventually I want to add some rain, and I would prefer to focus in on the dog. So I simply make the lightening a little more blurred. Also I add a small glow around the dog to bring more attention to her.
Step #6: Now I add the rain! I created the rain by using some effects such as adding noise, clouds and motion blue. Then I created my own brush for the large drops of rain and placed them in.
Step #7: For this step, I did a lot of things. I made a new layer and darkened the edges to bring more attention to the photo itself rather than grass and mountains. I also lightening the photo. I found that the dog still needed to stand out. So by lightening the photo, it helped a lot. The dogs eyes were made to stand oout more by adding a brighter white to them. Also I made highlights to the dogs body as well as brightened her sides etc. Although she still blends in now, you still notice there is a dog.
Step #8: I wanted to add some fog to the photo, so I simply coloured some fog, used the wave tool and faded that and then I warped it all as well as did some smudging. Also, I changed the colour to blue (this photo shows what it looks like before I changed it to blue and reduced the opacity).
Step #9 (Final): For my final image, everything is now put together and made to match. The only thing that will now be added is the stock providers names. I enjoyed doing this and I really hope you enjoyed this post explaining my process.
