A lot of Photoshopping involves just editing multiple pictures together to create your desired final image. Because of this, there’s usually multiple ways to achieve specific effects. Editing multiple images together is usually faster and easier, assuming you can find appropriate stock photos to work from.
But, it’s not nearly as fun.
There’s a certain magic/slight ego trip you get from adding something to your project that you created from nothing. And you should! It’s super cool to know you have that power. It can also save you time from sifting through a bunch of stock photos, trying to find the right one.
So, how do you create clouds from scratch? Let’s find out!
Step 1
As always, you’ll want to start a new project, and it’s helpful if you start with a background image that clouds wouldn’t look out of place in.
For this tutorial, I chose the following image:
But, you can start on a plain coloured background, if you don’t want to work on an image. Just make sure you change the background colour from White so that you can actually see the clouds.
Step 2
Once you have your background sorted, you’ll want to select the Brush tool.
After you’ve got the Brush Tool selected, go up to the menu at the top, so we can change some of the Brush attributes.
In the Brush Menu, we’re going to change the Hardness to 0% and the size to a roughly big one. The exact size will depend on the size of your document. For me, the Size was 55 pixels.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll want to click on the button beside the Brush Preset Picker. In my version of Photoshop, the button is a folder background with what I’m assuming are paint brushes in a cup over top of it.
This button is called the Brush Panel button. And, you may have guessed, clicking it will open the Brush Panel.
We could’ve also changed the Size and Hardness from this panel, but for most Photoshop things, using the Brush Preset Picker is faster.
From this panel, we’re also going to change the Brush’s Spacing to 35%.
Step 3
Depending on the size of your document and the picture you chose, that might be all you need to change before you start adding clouds to your image!
To add the clouds, now that you’ve got your brush set up, all you need to do is paint them in using your mouse.
To help make them look like they belong, you’ll want to draw the shape of the clouds that go with your image. For the picture I chose, white, fluffy clouds would work, so that’s the type I’ll paint in.
I’ve also added a New Layer to paint the clouds on, instead of adding them directly onto my background image. This way, if I mess up or don’t like the shape of a cloud, I can easily erase it, without also erasing the sky.
I’ve also gone ahead and renamed the layer to Clouds. This is optional, but renaming layers to keep them straight is a good habit to form, especially when you work on more complicated effects that have a lot of layers.
Also, don’t forget to make sure this layer is on top of the background layer, otherwise you won’t be able to see the clouds you paint!
Keep adding clouds to your image until you’re happy with it, then save the PHSH file and PNG/JPEG file and boom! You’re done.
This additional step is 100% optional, as it depends entirely on the type of cloud you’re attempting to create.
Step 4
For this step, you’ll want to go back to the Brush Panel, and check-mark and change the following options:
Shape Dynamics:
Size Jitter: 50%
Control: Off
Minimum Diameter: 30%
Angle Jitter: 0%
Control: Off
Roundness Jitter: 20%
Control: Off
Minimum Roundness: 1%
Scattering:
Both Axes: Check Mark, 120%
Control: Off
Count: 10
Count Jitter: 100%
Control: Off
After you turn on and change these values, you can go ahead and test out your new cloud brush, to see the difference it made.
Once you finish adjusting the Scattering, you can go ahead and hide/close the Brush Panel again by clicking the double arrow button at the top of the panel.
Then, you can go ahead and test out the new clouds brush, to see the difference it made. If you like the look of these clouds better, go ahead and erase the Step 3 clouds and repaint them with the Step 4 settings.
Or, if you didn’t notice a difference, or don’t like the way the new clouds look on your image, you can un-check the Shape Dynamics and Scattering settings to revert the brush back to the Step 3 settings and repaint the clouds. Or, if you painted the Step 4 clouds on a different layer, you can go ahead and just delete that layer, keeping your Step 3 clouds.
Or, if you want to get crazy with it, you can paint a mix of both setting’s clouds.
As I said above, it’ll all depend on the image you’re trying to create!
Of course, you can play around with the settings above to find what value changes work best for you.
After you get the hang of painting white, fluffy clouds, feel free to keep experimenting! Change the percentage values, the Size of the brush and even the Hardness! That’s how you’ll learn to create different kinds of clouds, like… long, white clouds.
Or wispy, barely-there clouds.
Or cloud writing.
Or even… different coloured magical clouds!
Like this tutorial? Check out the rest of the series here!
If you noticed my Layers panel has an extra layer, this is because I created 2 tear drop shapes. The first one I forgot to fill with white, and then wondered why Step 3 wasn’t working. I had to go back and re-draw the tear, so it will be a different shape for the rest of the tutorial. Also see? Even us pros mess up!
The option Merge Layers shouldn’t be greyed out if you have both selected. My option is greyed out because my computer is dumb sometimes and won’t show a click drop-down menu when I want it to. The picture above is my options while only having 1 layer selected.
Gradient Editor
Double click Colour Stop to bring up Colour Picker
