So now I'm selecting the bridge which is our main actor. You can see there are some other colors here which I didn't want, but they are also selected. So I'm de-selecting everything on this area to make sure I only have my bridge selected. Control age to hide my selection. I still have the bridge selected. We just cannot see it. So I'm going to create a new layer for the bridge and pay attention now because I'm going to use a new feature. I'm going to feel the bridge with the surrounding color and I'm going to hit "Control F" which is the fade function in Photoshop. So I'm going to select this color, field the bridge control F. So my last action can be manipulated with the fade option. I can make the color a little bit more transparent. I can even change the blending mode of what I did last by doing this. But it's only good for your last action, your last stroke, your last gradient. So whatever you paint, or fill last, you can use the "Control Shift F" which is the fade function. So now we'll begin painting this with a slightly brighter color because again I want all the emphasis of my image to be here on the bridge. So I'm gradually relieving the pressure on my hand actually on the tablet so I can have more transparent colors. Now I'm picking colors which I already established to create this gradation. This is much more organic than just use the gradient feel or the airbrush. So my brushstrokes will somehow be apparent after I finished this. Even though they are not predominant, you see that they are there to create this artistic feel and it's a much more pleasant and much less mechanic kind of gradation if you do it like this. So pick colors from the surrounding areas and try to make them transparent by relieving the pressure of the styles on the tablet and create a transparency speak color from these areas and try to merge with the surrounding areas. So let's continue. I'm going to create the shadow on the border of the bridge and to do so, I actually just selected a shadow color clicked on my origin point and click with a mouse on my finishing point, and then I have a straight line in between the two. By holding Shift and clicking with the mouse between two points you, have a straight line. A little bit of bouncing light on the shadow on this portion which is brighter. Again following the logics of light, wherever you have the light heating an object, this object becomes a secondary source of light. This light, the secondary source of light is very likely to feel the shadows around it. So I'm filling the shadows around this area with basically darker version of the color of the light. So here I'm going for a much brighter portion of the light. But again, I'm merging this with my surrounding areas by color picking from the image. So whenever you introduce like an alien color or a color which is not intended to be there, you can integrate this color with the surrounding areas by color picking from the canvas other colors and merging them. So that's pretty much what I'm doing here. I'm using this new introduce color to merge with my surrounding colors and create this gradation. Trying to keep this clean and beautifully brushed, and be very careful when you create this kind of gradations. Don't rush it. Try not to put too much pressure on your hand, try to make a light statement, or light strokes on your tablet. You can see when we zoom out, there's pretty much a gradation, but with some imperfections which are excellent for this stone bridge we want to create. Now the upper portion of the sides actually of the bridge, they also receiving the same source of light, so they should be also lit, and of course they should be grid dating into the shadow pretty much as the body of the bridge. So I'm trying to create the same impression here. A little bit of shadow accents and a brighter color on top of this geometry here which makes this much more believable. Let's go for the highlights. The highlights are actually the brightest reflection of the light source. There actually the brightest accent of color we have, not always the most saturated, but quite frequently the brightest. So I'm creating here disk accents to create the tiles on this bridge, the stone tiles actually and to create the rims of these side portions which are like rails, but not hand rails because they are low, close to the ground but they're a little bit of elevation. So yeah, they catch the light and we create this highlights on the sides as well. Now, I'm just trying to create the brightest highlight right where it meets the shadow. This is actually a nice way to create a focal point on your scenes. If you manipulate the contrast and keep the contrast on a single specific area, that point of contrast will be the main focal point of your concept of your illustrations. So try to manipulate this very carefully, try to manipulate the viewer's experience by selecting points of contrasts and making them stand out. So I'm trying to create a nice gradation here. Now, with a more saturated and darker color and you notice that I changed it to the L. So I can have the brightness or lightness. That's why it's L, the lightness slider. I could make my color darker, but still I cap it very saturated. So this works like a transition of color in-between the light and this deep shadow. We are going to have some color inside the shadows, but you're not going to be as saturated. Only in this transition and this makes it much more lively and much more natural. Again, it's almost an perceivable when you look at this from a distance, you almost don't perceive that blue accent of color but it's there. Our brains, they process it. So again following the perspective, I'm creating this tiles here. I'm not trying to be too precise, or too mechanic with this, I want this to be more like an old stone-tile bridge which is a little bit more organic. So try not to be too precise and to even in your placement of highlights and tiles and everything. Remember this was done by hand by an ancient culture, or something of the sort, so they didn't have access to modern tools and they did the best they can. Of course this is the story I just came up with. But you should also have this in your mind whenever you create something, you should have a story in your mind because this makes it much more interesting. You can add subtleties, you can add like symbols, you can add specific colors because you know there's a story behind it. So now I'm ongoing to continue painting the details. Let's create some cracks on this bridge as well, because I want to convey the information that this is not a secure place to cross. We can actually create that kind of anxiety on the players. Should we go through here? Is it he going to be safe and does it going to stand up or is it going to fall? So I'm just trying to create by new highlights and actually with the background color, I'm trying to create this cracks. Every time you create something like this you should have the same rules and logics of light applying to that. So I just created another surface and this surface will also receive lights, cast shadows, bow slides, have highlights. So I'm trying to make this simple. I'm not going to overrun their days, but I need to conveyed information that there is a different plane here. There is a portion of the bridge that has gone out. So we have this uneven surface at the edge. So once again I'm painting the shadow of this cracks and then the highlights right to the side of the cracks, and the more you do this, the easier of course it gets. So try to be very organic with this, try to create like different levels of erosion, different sizes for the cracks on the rock. So here I'll create the highlight not as bright as that outer one since the main source of light is actually shining on that specific spot. So I'm going to have a brighter section here, but not as bright as the outer one closer to the main contrast of the scene. So I'm trying here to increase the level of detail while keeping the structure intact. Little bit of shadows here, and we can have a main and secondary cracks on the rock. So that's pretty much what I'm doing now. Trying to create this breakups in the shape so we can have variety on the reading of shapes. Just by adding this highlights, you can see that the cracks become dimensional. It looks like there's something going on on the surface.
