In this tutorial we will demonstrate how to create a surreal upside down mountain illustration using digital painting techniques in Photoshop. This piece was part of SlashThree’s latest Paradigm Shift Exhibition.

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial.

• Brushes

Before You Begin

This piece has been completely done with the help of a graphic tablet, to be precise a Wacom Bamboo Fun. Since I know that some of you don’t have one, I’ll try to explain during the whole tutorial, when it’s needed, how to achieve the same results using a mouse (and a lot of patience).

Brushes Used

These are the brushes used in this tutorial. The first two are standard brushes. The others can be downloaded above.

Step 1 – The Sketch

This sketch was made directly in Photoshop using a tablet and a small round brush. If you don’t own a tablet and want a sketch like this, just do it on paper. You can always use a scanner and then import it on Photoshop.

You don’t have to be the best artist in the world to do this. It’s a mountain; it’s made of rock. Rocks are not perfectly shaped!

I made this piece by thinking about how I could make a mountain that could work as the focus of the piece. I drew a lot of sharp cliffs, I tried to make them interesting to the eye. I also made a lot of small "paths" starting from the top of the piece and leading to the bottom, at the tip of the mountain. This was made in order to give to the viewer’s brain something to follow. If you’re occidental, you read from left to right; if you’re oriental, from right to left; but everyone reads starting from the top. This is the key: our eyes will start looking at our piece, even if it’s only for a tenth of a second, from the top. When they (our eyes) do this, they will be looking for a road, which is, for our brain, a logical connection to something. So our brain starts following those roads, they’re a lot, but whatever road the brain chose, it will eventually lead to only one point. That point is where I wanted to have the full attention of the viewer, where he or she had to focus the most.

This will be more obvious once the painting is completed, in step number 2.

Step 2 – The Mountain

Sketch is done, we’ve put some thought into it, let’s start painting. I decided to start this in black and white, colors were added later. It helped me focus only on the painting action, without worrying too much about other things.

I made a new layer and moved it under the sketch layer so I’m able to see the sketch while I’m painting. If you’ve sketched over a white layer (or a piece of paper) just set the layer on Darken or Multiply.

Using the Brush tool (B) and the brush number 2 I started painting the mountain. I used a light gray for the light areas and a dark gray for the shaded areas.

Don’t spend too much on details, they will be added later. At the moment just try to block the shapes, decide where’ll be shadows and where there’ll be light.

Now you can start to add some contrast and value to the cliffs. Using a lighter gray I made the highlights, and with a darker gray, almost black, the shadows.

Using the same brush I painted the bottom of the mountain and started painting details. I also added some textures at low opacity to add further details. Just have fun in this step: I love adding small details. Take your time, don’t rush it. If you feel that a tiny brush stroke is needed, do it. Even though it’s been two hours since you started adding those tiny brush strokes. (editor：photoshop1)