We'll be creating a fantasy illustration in this tutorial, I'll show you how to merge two images into one using layer Masks and reshape a picture using the Liquify Filter. We'll take an image of a baby iguana and another of a bat, then combine the two to create a fantasy dragon. Let's get started!
Final Image Preview
First, take a look at the image we'll be creating. Want access to full PSD files and downloadable copies of every tutorial, including this one? Join PSDTUTS PLUS for just $9/month. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.
Step 1
I've always liked dragons, this time I've got the chance to create a dragon using a few real life pictures and mock-up the creature into a realistic landscape. First of all, find your pictures. The scene isn't a problem, you can use any picture, I'm using this, which is a nice ruined castle to put my dragon on it.
We'll see forward how to pick the right pictures to make a good composite. I must say that this isn't always a step by step process. I'm writing the steps according to my creative process, but you can follow your instinct to get a very similar result without following the same order.
Create a new document, 1440 pixels by 900 pixels RGB. Paste the castle picture into a new layer. Using the Eye dropper select a sample color of the sky and create a new Fill layer with that color (in this case #EAEFF5). Then go to Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal all, and fill the mask with a black to white (#000000 - #FFFFFF) vertical gradient. Finally, merge both layers and name the resultant layer "Castle."
Step 2
Let's add the main part of our dragon. After two hours searching for an image that matches the castle shape I've found this beautiful picture of a baby iguana. Paste it into a new layer and make it smaller, then move the picture above the castle.
Step 3
Select the "Lizard" layer, and bring down its Opacity a little bit, maybe to 65%. Resize the picture trying to place the iguana's legs over the castle. Next comes the hardest part of the entire process: extract the lizard shape. I tried to find some easy and quick way to extract the iguana from the background using a color channel, but I didn't like the result. So, I just grab the Lasso Tool and extract the shape in a classic way. It took about twenty minutes. Also, remove a little bit of the neck skin.
Step 4
Maybe this baby iguana is the nicest lizard ever, we need to reveal its dark side though. Go to Filter > Liquify and select the Pucker Tool, then set the Brush size to 150 and Brush Density to 50, and make a few clicks over the lizard's eye to make it smaller. Also, ensure the Show Backdrop option is disable. Click OK to see the result.
Step 5
Go to the Liquify window and select the Forward Warp Tool (W). Set the brush size to 50 and Density to 50. Then start warping some little areas of the lizard's head. Pull the neck inside, make the nose wider, and the nose hole a little bit higher. Try to get something like the bottom of the image below. Since this is a test and error process you can edit the shape as many times as you want until you find the desired look. Also, you can play with the brush sizes and density values.
Step 6
The liquify process make some areas a little bit blurry, so select the Sharpen Tool (R) and sharpen the lizard's nose hole, eye, and mouth.
Step 7
Now let's add a couple of wings to our dragon. Since the dinosaurs has gone, there's no way to take a picture of a reptile wing, so we'll use the most similar image we can find, in this case a bat wing. Find your bat or download this one, then extract one of the wings. You can use the Lasso Tool this time. Try to get a piece of then bat's body when you're extracting as well.
Step 8
Go to the Liquify window and select the Forward Warp Tool (W). Then sharpen one of the points of the wing.
Step 9
Select the wing and go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Then apply a Layer mask > Reveal All, and using a soft Brush paint with black (#000000) over the layer mask to hide the extra wing. Try to get something like the bottom of following image.
Step 10
Now change the "Wing" layer's Hue / Saturation by clicking Command + U. And set the following values.
Step 11
Now Warp the wing a little bit to make it stretch. To warp an image, just use the Free Transform options, click on a corner and select Warp form the menu options. Hit Return when you have finished.
Step 12
Next, Use a white (#FFFFFF) brush to paint over the wing's layer mask to reveal some little areas of the wing, try to create a nice join between the wing skin and body skin. Also, improve the wing shape especially on the wave next to the body. Switch the brush size making it smaller or bigger anytime you need to.
Step 13
Duplicate the "Wing" layer and place it behind all the other layers. Then Free Transform the second wing a little bit to make it smaller.
Step 14
Clone some areas of the second wing to hide the tendons.
Step 15
Warp the second wing a little bit just to make it look different. Then go to Filter > Blur > Blur and apply it a few times.
Step 16
At this point our dragon has taken shape, but we must improve the details. Go to the Liquify window and select the Bloat Tool to inflate the leg a little bit. Then select the Sharpen Tool and sharpen the fingers a little bit.
Step 17
Now this is an important step, using the Lasso Tool copy a big piece of the "Castle" layer and paste it above the "lizard" and "wings" layers, name it "pieces of castle." Next using the Magic Wand Tool, select the sky above the "pieces of castle" and delete it. Using a small Eraser delete the borders and try to obtain a natural effect on the wall's rocks.
Step 18
Take a look at the lighting, our dragon doesn't match with castle's lightening. Let's fix that!. First of all we need to create two copies of the entire dragon. Create a new folder, put "Lizard" and "Wings" layers on it and name the folder "Dragon", then duplicate the folder and merge the copy, do not delete the original "Lizard" and "Wings" layers because we'll using them later, just hide the original folder. Once you have created two copies of the dragon, let's change their lightening, press Command + L to adjust the levels of the first copy, and make it lighter. Then select the second copy and adjust the levels to make it darker. Then apply a Layer mask > Hide all to each copy and finally, put both copies above the original dragon on layer's palette.
Step 19
Lets grab your Brush Tool, and start painting with white in (#FFFFFF) the dragon's light copy layer mask. Paint the left areas of the dragon according to the light source (see the castle's shadows for reference), Change the brush sizes anytime you want, also if you make a mistake when painting, just switch the color to black (#000000) and paint over.
Step 20
Now repeat the previous step on the dragon's dark copy this time. Remember you'll be painting on the layer mask. When you have finished this process you'll notice the lightening is a lot better than before.
Step 21
Select the "Castle" layer, grab the Burn Tool and paint over the dark areas of the castle, just a little bit. Also, Burn the "pieces of castle" layer too.
Step 22
Put all the dragon's layers into a new folder, duplicate the folder and merge the copy, then hide the original. This is a good moment to Dodge and Burn the merged dragon. I like it just the way it is, but the front leg needs to be less saturated, so I'll use the Sponge Tool.
Step 23
Now we're gong to add a dramatic style to the sky. Use the Magic Wand Tool and select the sky on the "Castle" layer, also holding the Shift key select the sea too. Crate a new layer above the "Castle" layer and name it "Clouds1."
Set the foreground color to black (#000000) and the background color to gray (#A8A8A8), then go to Filters > Render > Clouds. Then change the "Clouds1" layer Blending mode to Color Burn and hide the bottom of "Clouds1" layer adding to it a gradient (#FFFFFF - #000000) Layer Mask.
Step 24
Now we'll need to fix some imperfections on our dragon's face. Hide the big white circles on the dragon's neck by using the Clone Tool.
Step 25
Now we'll paint some shadows over the dragon, reference Step 18. Go to the original folder and Command-click over the "Lizard" layer miniature, then hold the Shift key and Command-click the "Wing" layer. Then hit Command + Shift + I to invert the selection.
Step 26
Now use a soft black (#000000) Brush and paint some shadows areas on a new layer named "Shadows." Also, change the "Shadow" layer's Blending Mode to Multiply. By using the selection, you'll only be painting on the selected area leaving the rest clean.
Step 27
Deselect the previous selection and paint more dark areas all across the dragon's shape and over the castle. You can use the Smudge Tool to smooth your painting.
Step 28
Use a smaller brush to draw some dark details over the face, mouth, and eyes.
Step 29
Now add some light details here and there using several sizes of white (#FFFFFF) brushes. Use the Smudge Tool if it's needed.
Step 30
At this point, we have the design almost complete. Here is a trick to create a more dramatic scene. Hit D on your keyboard to load the default palette. Create a new layer above all the other layers and name it "Clouds Top." Go to Filter > Render > Clouds and change its Blending mode to Overlay and it Opacity to 85%.
Step 31
Put all your layers into a new folder named "Dragon," then duplicate the folder and merge the copy. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur, set the radius to 2px and hit OK. Next, change the "Dragon copy" layer Blending Mode to Overlay and Opacity to 35%.
Step 32
Finally, if you want to, add a new Adjustment layer > Photo Filter, select the Color option, and set the color to #D5A461.
Conclusion
That's it, try to make your own fantasy creature. You can view the final image preview below or view a larger version here.
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Callum Martin October 15th
is the iguana stock full size as shown?
( )gopal sharam May 27th
great i have no word for itl
( )Bas October 15th
Great tut!
( )Duo October 15th
The only thing I like in this are the colors. Everything else just doesn’t speak to me. Mixing creatures is something I’ve seen many times before. Besides, this final image doesn’t look like a dragon. Looks exactly like a lizard with wings.
( )caiman October 15th
looks cool, but the wings are very thin
( )really realistic manipulation, i think i will make something like that on my own
Ariful Alam Khan October 15th
Nice Manipulation
( )Flashman7 October 15th
That isn`t one of the top tutorials
( )This is the best tutorial
spizak October 15th
the wings should been bigger, the mouth longer.
( )Tadd October 15th
Very nice. Some ideas in here are worth exploring. As usual, I enjoyed.
( )Howard Pinsky October 15th
Wow, amazing job! Very detailed and a great result!
( )Afrix October 15th
Very nice tut
( )i ill try to do it
DA
http://afrix99.deviantart.com/
Julien October 15th
Realy nice tut!
( )kaitalia October 15th
The techniques used are very helpful, but I’m not so sure about the final image. It looks like a lizard with wings. It would have been nice if an image of a dragon was used as reference and the iguana was manipulated more. But I will definitely try this, and perhaps work on the lizard more myself.
Great tut!!!
( )Limerance October 15th
People say it doesn’t look like a dragon, but the World of fantasy art allows you to create things which don’t necessarily have a structure or appearance of todays creatures.
Anyway, who’s to say a dragon doesn’t look like that, just because it’s not what the stereotypical image of a dragon looks like in childrens’ books etc. Has anyone seen a real life one to compare it to? I doubt it. Good manipulation though and you do learn interesting techniques from it!
( )Jigga October 15th
Massive..TY
( )Duo October 15th
The overall concept is good, but really, it has nothing incommon with dragon. Dragons have kinda sharp head, some horns etc. and their body is hard connected with tale.
I’m still disappointed with this, and I think if some details were added and touched up this could be something really cool.
( )ricardo October 15th
I think it looks cool it doesnt look like a dragon but still… Nice i like the warm color on the final piece it gives a nice final touch
( )Duo October 15th
Limerance, sorry to say this but you obviously don’t know what are you talking about. If I draw a pig and tell you it’s a new fantasy elephant, would you believe it? I doubt it.
The things that make arts looking good are based on reality and stereotypes. Why do I recognize a dragon when I watch TV or read comic book, and here I cannot say, what creature is this?
( )Lubes October 15th
Agree with Limerance.
What exactly are people comparing this fantasy dragon to? The ones in their back yard?
The image does look very lizard-ly, but perhaps that was the artists intent and not some perceived flaw with his skill or ability. It’s what I like about the image actually. How many more fantasy photoshop dragons — each and everyone wih the same shape and look — should we be forced to look at?
Personally, I’m sick of anything even remotely Boris Vellejo-esque, and this is a breath of fresh air.
Thanks for the great tutorial.
( )BlastBalastik October 15th
Amazing
Congratulations
( )bable October 15th
it need to be improveed it seeems like an iguana with wings nothing similar to a dragon
( )Craigsnedeker October 15th
WICKEDNESS!
( )Jeff M October 15th
Stop picking this poor guy apart like string-cheese! Obviously there’s only so much you can manipulate an iguana… (Fantasy means you can make ‘ish up out of thin air). Just focus on the main points and if you personally want to spend a year and a day illustrating a Lord of the Rings dragon and throw it into the castle scene, then go right ahead, we’d love to see that one as well.
When the last time you saw one of these tutorials pay this close attention to detail (manual shadows/highlights with the brush tool, etc.). Alvaro did a very nice job with blending the two images of the iguana and bat wing (stamping the texture to blend the skins). He also used the warp tool on the claw well to show the wrap-around the broken tower, as well as throwing in the shadows to show the size of the “fantisized” lizard.
I got the point of the tut’ Last time I checked, no one’s last name was Rembrant, VanGogh or Picaso.
Good job, Alvaro…
( )Ryan October 15th
@Duo – Your comparison to support your comment is stupid. I’m glad you are the dragon expert! Basing art on stereotype doesn’t make it good. It’s the creativity and vision and technique the artist uses behind his piece that makes it unique and great. Sound like to me you don’t know what you are talking about …
Cool tutorial, but ending effect with the warming filter needs to be thrown out for something else.
( )Roshan October 15th
Very nice trick. Amazing tutorial for cool effects.
Thank you.
Roshan
( )http://www.instantshift.com
barlos October 15th
Amaizing effect. congratz.
( )andre October 15th
crazy
( )Duo October 15th
@Ryan, there was point I made this comparsion, but you obviously didn’t get it. Besides, you can dig your creativity if the creature lacks some basics. I really don’t care what you think, everything needs its basic fundament, to make people know what is this. Then you can play with your creativity.
If you cant get this, I don’t know how to make it more clear to you
( )datelus October 15th
yes. this is what im talking about. one of the best tuts here so far. long live psdtuts
( )Philip October 15th
I agree that you guys are being way too hard on the author. The end result might not be “perfect,” but come on this is a tutorial and there are some great techniques that can be gleaned from it.
( )Thomas October 15th
Yeah. Everyone who is complaining about the final image should cut the critique and just post a link to a better one they made themselves. That or not post at all.
It’s the techniques that we’re here for and this tut had nice ones regardless.
( )Zim October 15th
Excelent tutorial! Very nice!
( )BroOf October 15th
Very nice!
( )r4ge October 15th
ahahaha. as soon as i saw this i new you would use a lizard to create an dragon! but stunningly it does look good. nice work!
( )Tom October 15th
Its a decent tutorial… another one that is somewhat reminiscent of the photoshop top secret dvd, where the guy combined a lizard with a hippo head. I think it has some decent differences though…
I think everyone needs to relax about the critiques. This site provides an open forum for opinions. Every single tutorial here has someone say that they don’t like it for this reason or that reason, and then someone follows that with a statement like well you should totally like it whats wrong with you…
eh, open forum people. allow the critique, its what makes these tutorial writers better. its like posting an image in the psdtuts flickr pool and getting upset because someone offers suggestions for improvement.
( )Per October 15th
Awesome tutorial and website. I find a lot of inspiration here and I’ve learned so much!! Thank you!
( )Alen October 15th
The tutorial is great, but the creature does not look like the dragon.
( )VertigoSFX October 15th
This tutorial is awesome…lots of detail put into the project.
The only thing I don’t like is the warming filter you added in the end…I think it would’ve been better had you done a darker tone to the entire piece but not that filter…it looks artificial. Otherwise it looks fantastic.
( )Grafiko October 15th
This is not my favorite tutorial but there are some techniques that can be used in many other applications.
( )Neil October 15th
Nice tutorial, good job.
Many strange comments here… Critiquing the tutorial I can understand, but complaining that it doesn’t look like the imaginary creature they’ve got in their heads?! Making the dragon’s wings larger or the mouth longer would not improve this tutorial. These people aren’t offering suggestions for improvement, they’re basically claiming they could do better because they have a different notion of what a dragon looks like.
That isn’t useful critique, it’s vapid and petty criticism.
Nice tutorial, nice image.
( )Afrix October 15th
Yh i done but looks better then this lol
http://afrix99.deviantart.com/
( )Jad Graphics October 15th
Great tutorial! The final product is not the best, but the purpose of this tutorials is to try to get as to learn how to do a certain technique, and not the final effect.
Thank you very much PSD tuts.
Jad Limcaco
( )Jad Graphics
http://www.jadgraphics.net
DyNamicLinQ October 15th
Woah that’s a very nice idea! Gonna have to try that one
( )rjton October 15th
nice result
( )Dan October 15th
I agree about the lizard with wings bit, however the tutorial does cover some great concepts and techniques and is one of the few that has caught my attention recently.
( )Lubes October 15th
Wow. Is every tut going to be compared to the freakin’ Photoshop Top Secrets DVD by at least one person?
You own a $200 DVD set that teaches you common and necessary techniques — they’re not “secrets,” that’s a marketing gimmick — and suddenly anything remotely using some element of any technique on the DVD is rife for comparison! Too funny!
( )Moksha October 15th
great way to do it, i have got s DVD to do it, but here is somewhat different. thanks for sharing
( )Mothership October 15th
A brilliant article – well done!
( )Jimi October 15th
There’s some hating on the Dragon going on… But I’m glad you paid a lot of attention to the lighting because I see many manipulations where people don’t correct the lighting and it looks wrong.
( )Good techniques, doesn’t really matter if it looks like a dragon or not…
Lenon October 15th
Wow, great tutorial!
( )The end result is fantastic, congratulations!
Eric Thayne October 15th
Nice! Love it.
( )Tim October 15th
You should avoid raw filters like Photoshop clouds in your final composition, because it really decrease the depth of your work. And your dragon doesn’t look like a dragon. It looks a lizard with blended wings.
( )Abdul Akbar October 15th
Amazing tutorial.
Excellent image manipulation techniques.
Great work!
( )q October 15th
A lot of people complaining about this and that. Hence the word “tutorial”. Tutorials are to teach you the techniques, not to give you the outcome “you want”. I pretty sure if the author wanted too, he could of made it a whole lot better. Overall its a great tutorial. Lots of useful techniques that can be applied in many ways. GJ Author, pay no mind to these whiners who think they’re pro.
( )Conrad Gorny October 15th
This is really innovative. I always love looking at the tutorial straight up, always thinking its going to be really difficult but somehow the technique flow turns out quite simple. Wonderful.
Conrad Gorny
( )Freelance Graphic Designer
http://www.conradgorny.com
insic October 15th
wow! i didnt expect that the wings came from the bat wings. cool!
( )Drew Douglass October 15th
Hey there,
Thanks very much for taking the time and dedication to provide us with this free tutorial, I think sometimes people forget how much work and effort goes into these. Anyway, I surely learned some cool techniques and enjoyed the outcome, well done!
( )Skunkie October 15th
Okay, I’ve got something smart to say about the lizard / dragon issue as well:
The problem here is, that we judge fantasy creatures by our real world experiences. Our brain automatically checks if the context is right. That means a creature looks realistic to us when it “possibly could be” even though we know it’s fake.
We know what airborne creatures look like, we have a feeling for the right wingsize-bodymass-ratio that enables a creature to fly. And something in the back of our head tells us right away “this thing could never fly, it is way to massive for those small fragle wings”. That’s where the “lizard with wings” impression comes from.
If he had chosen a slim, fragile lizard – we would have a totally different story.
So here is my (well-founded) critizism: You picked the wrong lizard picture. Everthing else in this tutorial is very well done and of amazingly high quality for an internet turorial. Thank you very much for your work!
( )dragon October 15th
This does not look like a dragon.
( )geir October 15th
@Duo
You are as smart as a sack of potatoes, i am glad we have people like you here!
Agree with Limerance. anyway, i have seen many different interpretations of dragons, it is a fantasy animal, if you want it to have horns, put horns on it. I have seen dragons with no horns also.
( )geir October 15th
@Skunkie
what about the bumble bee, they have small wings and is not supposed to be able to fly, but they do.
agree on “That means a creature looks realistic to us when it “possibly could be†even though we know it’s fake.”
( )hans October 15th
looks still like a lizard for me. this is not a dragon. this is classic dragon: http://www.dragons-schiffsfotos.de/dragon.jpg for example.
( )Qbrushes October 15th
Great outcome. I think ill do this one this week
( )Duo October 15th
@geir wow your smart repost was like 10 years old kid’s. bravo
Everyone has a different point of view, it’s ok that it looks like a dragon to you, but to me it does not. I just said my opinion. You’re another person who can’t stand critisism and goes for childish insults against me.
The tutorial is written very well, but the final image is kinda weird. Why are you people arguing with me? I just said that this creature needs few details to become looking more like a dragon.
I know it’s “fantasy creature”, but even for fantasy it lacks something for me.
( )andi October 15th
Those clouds stood out INSTANTLY as being the standard photoshop filter, prolly better to use a photo of clouds instead
( )Jonathan October 15th
Very noble effort. I like the effects you used.
( )gNcWebmaster October 15th
Owwww ! Really Creative and Really Awesome Design. Thanks for…
( )ML October 16th
This is good…but I already know how to make a Winged Dragon:
You draw an S.
Then a more different S.
A head and teeth.
The legs.
Some wings.
CONSUMMATE V’s.
and a beefy arm for good measure…
TROGDOR!
( )kidlizard October 16th
Why dont you write a Tutorial for us then? Thanks for the effort Alvaro some nice tips in there.
( )mike October 16th
Seeing as how no one even knows that dragons existed or what they looked like, I don’t think anyone should be complaining about its legitimacy.
This was a great tutorial outlining many different tips and strategies that can be applied in many situations. THAT is what you should be commenting on.
( )Youssef Sarhan October 16th
some nice techniques
( )katsrac October 16th
this tut…. sooo controversial… it’s very nice … the concept is amazing..
( )Johnson Koh October 16th
Nice colors at the end!
Maybe can enlarge the wings, add some horns and a really large tail to enhance the features of a dragon.
Thanks for sharing
( )Zeusandhera October 16th
Awesome! I’m glad you found my bat picture useful and thank you so much for linking to it! Your tutorial and images look great!
( )Skunkie October 16th
@geir
“what about the bumble bee, they have small wings and is not supposed to be able to fly, but they do.”
Well, yes – the bumble bee certainly is one of God´s great miracles. I suppose it can fly because no one has told them that by any means they can´t. So don´t tell them either, they are having so much fun!
( )John October 16th
Just came across this: http://www.elfwood.com/farp/dragons/dragon.jpg
… and it totally reminded me of this post.
LOL.
( )Rob October 16th
Nice tut
Someone said it just looks like a lizzard with wings… Isnt that what a dragon is? lol
( )Dainis Graveris October 16th
Damn, so detailed and long tutorial!! Really master level – this just shows, that You can do everything ..I like the style and detail You got here.. Thanks for sharing, because I love this one!!!
( )Laurent October 16th
Nice, I like this tutorial
Thanks for your job !
( )Servant October 17th
Great tutorial but, the wings are too small, and head is too fat for my taste.
( )5ivedance October 17th
Winged Dragon？ A little fat -___,-
( )Jason Wilson October 17th
Nothing on the author here, this is more directed to the editor. Didn’t we have a tutorial already that showed you how to merge other elements into a photo to create a fantasy scene with an Iguana? I can’t see that there’d be too much difference in the techniques.
( )Spyece October 17th
Awesome Tut.
( )RealXPower October 18th
Truly great tut I am impressed
( )I think people didn’t read the name of tut on first place. it says
“Dramatic Winged Dragon”
Who said it is realistic dragon I say it is drag-on lol =P
Endgrafix October 18th
Very Good.—–Thanks—-Beravo—-Marhaba
( )Tom Ross October 19th
Really nice tutorial
( )b.r.o.o.d.y. October 21st
Funny comments from people. This picture could be a great fit for a children’s book where you don’t really want to scare them with a demonic-looking dragon. Besides tutorials are about the technique, it doesn’t really matter that this looks like a winged lizard or a dragon or a donkey/Will Ferrell hybrid.
I think the finishing techniques used to blend the dragon with the background are excellent. A great tutorial for me.
( )Shockcharge October 22nd
Not bad.. I might try and do this later on..
( )Duff October 22nd
Wow… great tut! really liked the result.
( )Will definitely try this tut later, really liked what you did there, great job!
Alvaro October 22nd
@Zeusandhera: Thanks for sharing your picture!!! you have no idea how hard was to find a good image of a bat.
@everyone, thanks for all the good and bad comments, I really enjoy reading your feedback!
( )Ricardo Abreu October 22nd
People sometimes, are a bit stup** !!! …
Because, everyone has its own opinion, the respect and recognitions for the others works and dedication is what makes a work to be special …
Dragon or not , the creativity work is on TOP …
I liked this Tut , i accept all the the others opinion, but the true is that this tut show us techniques and knowledge tricks , and share this is what matters !!!
The final work, its just a relative output of all that together !
Regards to everyone, that so much apply their efforts to teach others !
( )Takumi86 October 23rd
Another great Tut!!! I’m so stumbled at this one, and OMG i never thought we could actually manipulate it so far as it may looks so real
( )pau-pau October 24th
wow! what a great idea! by the way, ms.insic..can i get your friendster account?^_^ thanks!
( )Fenrir October 27th
Fantastic tut, very pleasant and detailed. Thanks a lot!
( )dwarkesh October 27th
its nice
( )kim hyun jin October 27th
oh very good image!!!
very impression !!!
( )Shilpa October 27th
Its very nice. Cool
( )B A D - M A N October 28th
man! its so hard! i hate you alvaro guzman! and it really stinks! bah!
( )ravi October 30th
very nice !
( )Alejandro October 31st
Hey Duo……
Can you share some of your “greats” dragons,,, I think you talk tooo much…. please show uss your fantasy work….
( )Digital Refugee November 4th
@Duo.. OMG STOP TROLLING THE COMMENTS. If anyone is acting like a 10 Yr old it’s the person whose looking for an argument over something so stupid it’s like calling an invalid lazy!
Artist: I think the tutorial is great. I’ve managed to do some great hack images myself, mainly cause I never dedicated my time to learning the channels and such effects. Guess now that I got CS4 Master I really should pay attention to that. Thank you very much as I have already learned to do a lot more then I had before, and it saves me quite a few hours trying to do similar projects.
Critics: Those who at least acknowledged the ACTUAL fact its a tutorial, thank you. Those those bickering semantics. A DRAGON IS A LIZARD.. FFS WHO CARES.
“Oh my god, my dragon has 6 horns more then yours does!”
( )-”NAH UH! You.. You can’t!… You can’t cause dragons don’t have that many horns!”..
“Yeah fine, I have 5 horns but MINE has a impenetrable force field!”…
-”YAH?!.. Well… mine just blew fire all over yours!”
“NAH UH! MISSED!”
-”HEY YOU CAN PLAY LIKE THAT!! MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Carlos November 4th
@Digital Refugee: LOL !!!
( )shazad mirza November 4th
excellent tutorial i think even if the end result is not to everyones liking (you can never please everyone) the instruction and effects demonstrated in the tutorial are great and some good amount of hours must have been spent creating and writing it up. well done
( )pradeep November 4th
very good software….!
( )ironflex November 6th
Overall it has been a success, and I thank all of you subscribers for hanging in there with me, I shall now reward you with another Daily Web Developer Resource List! This one is actually pretty huge too, yesterdays was humongous, so this one is keeping up with that trend. Hope it serves you well! Enjoy!
( )DataMouse November 6th
@Duo
I look forward to your version.
We bow to your expertise….
@Author
Great job.
( )I couldn’t care less if you told me it was a puppy climbing over a Ben & Jerry’s tub – the techniques you used are very good and worth practicing.
Keep it up!.
property for sale November 6th
fantastic tutorial
( )Si83 November 15th
I have to say that reading everyones comments has been a wonderful way to pass my down time at work. I love the fighting over someone else opinions and all the arguments. Some of them even made me laugh.
As I was looking through the tutorial I saw things I didn’t like too. If I was doing it I probably wouldn’t have used curtain things or done things different.
But thats not the point. This is someone else’s artwork. They can make it how they like. And if someone else does not like it they have no right to say they it was incorrectly made. If constructive criticism is attempted to be made it should be made as suggestions for an alternative way of creating it. Not as being made incorrectly.
Also the only reason I’m leaving this comment is due to the lack of work to ocupy me at this current time.
Smile, it’s not as bad as you think…
( )The Passion Of PS November 18th
Ok…for all the people that are saying this and that on how the lizard looks or what not. This is a tutorial and you are suppose to learn from this and make your own creations. Its a great “tutorial” not a “piece”. If you critique a tutorial you are not willing to learn. Tutorials are not here for somebody to critique but are here to let you learn. This tutorial was free, so appreciate it and learn from it instead of trying to be a want to be guru of Photoshop because it is not what you know in Photoshop its how you use it.
( )Regina November 18th
Wow. I don’t even know what else to say. This tutorial is as amazing as the artwork itself is. Definitely one for the books.
( )————————–
Gini’s Magic
http://www.ginismagic.blogspot.com
turtlelover November 20th
that’s an amazing looking turtle..lol just messing with you nice tutorial keep it up
( )GT November 30th
i found the lizard here:
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/348485
( )Hasas December 5th
I made on here C:
http://fc79.deviantart.com/fs38/f/2008/339/f/7/Dragon_by_fsufan266.jpg
I didn’t really follow the tutorial but It did give me the idea and helpful hints, Thanks
( )Toufik December 11th
Hey man,i’ve done your tutorial and posted it at deviant art.com
( )hope you don’t mind
http://tfk1990.deviantart.com/art/Dragon-105979013
Thanx
MikeM January 9th
Growing up I’ve always loved dragons. The technique used is very effective. I always mess around with the levels of graphic projects like this. Thanks, chicago website design.
( )John Bacon January 15th
forget what people have been saying about the dragon, I actually like it, sure, it does not look like a “stereotyope” but then again, does it have to?? i like this, will have a shot at it.
( )QT January 23rd
Oh,My God,very very good…
( )adel January 26th
how can i do this
fill the mask with a black to white (#000000 – #FFFFFF) vertical gradient
( )mariO January 27th
man thats great… you got good tuts… keep going…
( )JonBoi January 31st
Great Tut, just finished it,
Heres my result.
Didnt come out as good as i thought it would but its decent nonetheless.
http://i42.tinypic.com/96hi6d.jpg
( )johnsmith February 5th
looks good, i think making the hand smaller would drastically improve it.
( )Me February 7th
ok and where is the tutorial or the enhanced image make by all the complainers, critics and bigmouthed that know much??
( )or at least show the picture of a dragon like it is?? hope you don’t burn in the try
Eugenio February 10th
Just incredible. I’m doing this tutorial for sure! I’m certain I’ll learn a lot from this.
Thanks for the effort!
( )m.udaya April 29th
Great cool
Thank you very much
( )ken June 11th
cool!! i like it!
( )Adriano June 14th
Great site…and very great tutorials..
Very Good….
( )suloara allokendek June 27th
Thx For Tutorial.. very Usefull.. Success 4 You
( )jake July 14th
looks fake.it needs some mone blending
( )pixie August 23rd
you are a wonderful artist and very creative sir i also saw one of ur tuts to make a tri fold broucher tht was amazing too ……..
m a fresher in psd just completed learning it ne useful tips for me
me grow to be able to think of things just the u do or to make myself a little better ….
i wonder if i could do things the way u do
( )Just another poster August 23rd
This is an awesome tutorial. I love the dragon, the creativity, the technique.
I am a 9 year veteran of photoshop, and I am giving you a major thumbs up, and adding you to my favorites.
its treatment like the fools who bad mouth you who make people not want to even bother trying, but i think they should put their pixels where their mouth is.
( )Arikaran October 7th
wow amazing i like this one. i’ll like try to it
( )faizal ummer November 15th
really nice tutorial- i liked it
regarding the Controversy -dragon or lizard with wings-it is not a matter at all.
first thing -it is the freedom of artist to give his prouct a caption
second thing- it is a tutorial to show how to implement various technique in
photoshop- in that aspect , it is really nice.
third thing- the people who were critisizing just do one thing- develop something new from scratch- then they will realise how difficult Creation is …..
( )تجريبي كوم November 21st
thank u
( )bMil December 10th
Great Tut!
I think people are being a little rough on you. Some of the areas you pointed out about the shading and highlighting were great tips.
The only thing that I mainly disagree with is the use of the warming filter. It looks a little extreme, otherwise good job!
( )Riffer December 14th
Nice, like the style and final outcome, scratch for the fact that i think that if the wings were somehow made larger, it would’ve been much better looking. i like the fact that you made a dragon not very comparable to the long-necked, evil-looking flying demon concept. i don’t understand how people say it doesn’t look like a dragon when quite frankly there’s no live reference to what a dragon looks like (komodo dragons don’t count) you can’t say any sort of fantasy creature doesn’t look like a -insert fantasy creature here- because it pure imagination. Realism is the place to do that. The tut was in depth, explaining all the necessary angles, and it taught those who needed to learn the techniques. To those of you who wish to criticize the “realism” of the dragon, take a moment to laugh at yourself.
( )Xtrminator January 29th
Ignore them all critics and complaints dude, you did an awesome job making dragon dude out of scratch!!
That being said, I say, For those of you who think y’all can do a better job than Alvaro, with an easy-to-follow tutorial AND user-friendly screenshots, i say come on!! Give it your best shot
And again, Alvaro, i’d like to thankyou for this wonderful tut.
( )EasyEye January 29th
I’m not an expert, but i think the background would have looked better and more realistic with an actual sky with real clouds with some brushes overlay on them…
( )But great tut nonetheless… I see a lot of hardwork in this… great job!
Photoshop Dude February 3rd
Great fantasy image!I like the dragon!
( )