Introduction and Configurations

Welcome to my tutorial, i hope that this content may be useful to all of you.

In this tutorial i will cover the principles of how to make a glow axe, sparks and cold landscape.

First of all, we are going to configurate the settings of our canvas.

Canvas

I chose "Illustration" template, the size in stardard A4, with 300 dpi resolution.

Rough Sketch

When i'm sketching landscapes i like to work just with a few lines, so, like this i don't waste too much time and i have more control of the whole illustration.

I used the Pen Tool [Pen]>[Mapping Pen], i didn't change anything on brush.

In this step the work is in composition and leading the eyes of viewers. I used the Rule of Thirds is a guideline, i really like Rule of Thirds because it helps the composition not to be too stiff or boring.

Base colors and Contrast

Here i also used the Pen Tool [Pen]>[Mapping Pen], but feel free to use something that you prefer, like Selection Tool.

To the colors i strongly recommend that you use some references to build your palette. Be careful when painting the base colors, the contrast is easily lost.

TIPS:

To prevent this you can put a black layer on top and change the blending mode to "Color" and see if any shape is disappearing.

Rendering Background

Well, the base colors are done, now we going to render the background. I got the Brush tool for this [Brush]>[Transparent Watercolor].

I always begin from what is further away until what is closest, so this way i don't mess with the layers after i have finished it.

I put some textures to depict the rocks. To this step i used the Pen tool [Pen]>[Mapping Pen]. After that is just keep going on this untill you are satisfied.

TIPS:

When doing the shadows, i recommend that beyond getting a darkest color, you also choose a slightly different color from the base, because in nature these color aren't the same at all, even if they look this way.

Base Colors of Axe and Glow

Now i made some adjustments on the axe using the ruler tool [Ruler]>[Linear Ruler]>[Quadratic Bezier].

To make the Glow effect i chose a saturated blue and painting below the layer of the axe white shape, using the Airbrush tool [Airbrush]>[Soft].

TIPS:

If yout prefer you can use the Ruler Tool to make this glow effect.

After this i get a different kind of blue, more dark, and i paint below the previous blue.

Then i create a new layer above the axe white shape and turn on the "Clip at Layer Below" , this way we can paint just inside it. I also made a brighter line along the axe using the Ruler Tool.

Now i change to Pen Tool [Pen]>[Mapping Pen] and make the sparks. The Glow Effect follows the same way of the axe.

To paint the handle, the glow of the axe and sparks will bounce in it. So, make again the same Glow effect used before, but this time not so bright.

Below the layers of the handle, make some bounced light on the ground, first paint the blue using the Airbrush Tool and then the white inside it using a layer above.

I also decided to make some kind of runes using the Pen Tool and applying the Glow Effect.

The character was all redesigned in white and then applied the effect, i made some sparks at him to give some spotlight in composition.

Conclusion

About the layers, i really don't have a way to use them, it depends of what i'm doing, i prefer to put the layers inside folders to keep everything organized. For instance: Base colors, Background, Axe and so on.

 

That's it my friends, we made our illustration, i hope that you all like it, and apply all this knowledge in your future artworks, also take your time to practice and assimilate all the content.

 

Thank you!