G . E . P: how-to-create-surreal-scene-part5

Step 15: Add the pedestal

Open the pedestal stock and use the Quick Selection Tool to extract it. Then copy and paste it into our project.

Resize the pedestal with the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl/Cmd+T) while holding the Shift key. Then place the pedestal layer between the ‘Invisible Man’ and the ‘Plants and Bird’ groups.

Create a new layer pressing the button in the Layers panel or using the shortcut Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Alt/Opt+N. Name this new layer Shadow and place it below the pedestal layer.

Select a soft brush (Shortcut: B) with the black color and start painting shadows like this:

Then add a Gaussian Blur by going to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Set the Radius to 11px.

Here is the result:

To finish this step, group these two layers into a new group called Pedestal. We’ll return to this group later.

Step 16: Add the planet

Open our last stock, the planet, and use the Elliptical Marquee Tool (Shortcut: M) to make a round selection on the planet in the left.

Hold Shift to make a perfect circle
While making the selection, press and hold the Space Bar to move the selection around

Copy and paste the planet into our project (place this layer below the ‘Plants and Bird’ group. Use the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl/Cmd+T) to make it smaller and place it above the pedestal.

Double click the planet layer to add some layer style.

To change the Contour don’t click in the thumbnail, click in the arrow on the right

The Gradient Editor:

Back to the Layer Style:

Here’s the result on the planet:

Create a new layer pressing the button in the Layers panel or using the shortcut Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Alt/Opt+N. Name this new layer ‘Planet Light’ and place it below the planet layer.

Load the Light Beam brushes again and select this one:

Select a light yellow (#ffff62) and click once behind the planet. Remember to adjust the size of the brush before you paint.

Now go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and set the radius to 13px.

Here is the result:

To finish this step, group these two layers into a new group called Planet.

Step 17: Adding the light chains

Create a new layer pressing the button in the Layers panel or using the shortcut Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Alt/Opt+N. Name this new layer ‘Chain’ and place it above the Planet group.

Grab the Pen Tool (Shortcut: P) and make the path shown below:

Then go back to the Brush Tool (Shortcut: B) and open the Brush Presets (you can go to Window > Brush Presets if you can’t see it). Set 12px for the brush size and select the highlighted brush.

Make sure the opacity of your brush is at 100%

Select a light blue for the color (#a0edee) and hit A to select the Path/Direct Selection Tool. Then right click the path we made and select Stroke Path.

Check Simulate Pressure and click OK.

Here is the result:

You can accept the path now (just click the check button on the upper toolbar). This will make the path go away. Now duplicate this layer two times (Shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd+J) and use the Move Tool (Shortcut: V) to place them like this:

If you’re not happy with the results you can use the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl/Cmd+T) to stretch them a little bit

Double click the Chain layer and add an Outter Glow with these settings:

Now right click the Chain layer and click in ‘Copy Layer Style’.

Then right click ‘Chain copy’ and ‘Chain copy 2’ and click in ‘Paste Layer Style’. You should have something like this now:

Create a new layer pressing the button in the Layers panel or using the shortcut Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Alt/Opt+N. Name this new layer ‘Middle Chain’ and place it below the other Chain layers.

With the same type of brush, the same color and opacity, draw the path (Pen Tool shortcut: P) shown below and stroke it (Press A > Right Click the path > Stroke Path) without checking the ‘Simulate Pressure’ box this time.

Like we did before, right click in one of the three chain layers we created before and click in ‘Copy Layer Style’. Right click the Middle Chain layer and select ‘Paste Layer Style’. You should have something like this now:

Now create a new group with the layers ‘Chain’, ‘Chain copy’ and ‘Chain copy 2’. Name this new group ‘Right Chains’.

Create a new group called ‘Left Chains’ and create a new layer inside it called ‘Chain’. Place this new group above the Right Chains group.

We’re going to repeat the exact same steps we did with the chains in the leg of the invisible man, so I’m just going to add all the images of the process and you can follow along.

Copy the Layer Style of any of those chains we already did

After I created ‘Chain copy 3’ and ‘Chain copy 4’ I resized them with the Free Transform Tool (Ctrl/Cmd+T) to fit the body of the pedestal right.

And here is what you should have so far:

And the layers:

We’re almost done with the chains. Create another layer (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+Alt/Opt+N), name it ‘Pedestal Chain’ and place it above the other chain layers.