This month sees us tackling the subject of fire and smoke, another rather tricky element to deal with. The main problem with this topic is that both fire and smoke are very ethereal in essence and have no tangible form and can be neither touched nor examined. As they do not have any real volume [...]
This month sees us tackling the subject of fire and smoke, another rather tricky element to deal with. The main problem with this topic is that both fire and smoke are very ethereal in essence and have no tangible form and can be neither touched nor examined. As they do not have any real volume to speak of it is hard to set any concrete rules as to how they should look. Similar to a previous tutorial on rock, fire and smoke are also defendant on a number of factors that are interrelated. The color of smoke depends entirely on what is burning and the shape it adopts relates to the intensity of the fire and off course weather conditions as does fire. For the purpose of this tutorial I am going to keep the actual fire reasonably small and concentrate on the smoke aspect.
The first step is to get rid of the white background and put in a gradient that blends from a pale to a mid grey with the lightest area being the sky (Fig01).
I decided to place the fire at the base of the image so as to provide plenty of room for the smoke. I chose a near white to represent the centre of the fire and blended this with a pale orange to show the flames (fig02). What also helps the intensity is duplicating the white section and setting to an Overlay mode on a separate layer which is what I did here. To create the sensation of movement apply a Gaussian Blur in order that the lines are not too sharp or alternatively you could use the smudge tool.
With the fire blocked in it is time to make a start on the smoke. To begin with I have decided on a rather nondescript grey colour. It is then a case of using a soft airbrush with a light and dark tone to create roughly spherical shaped volumes (Fig03). Whilst doing this remember where the light source is (in this case the top right), as this will have an effect on the apparent volume of the smoke plume.
We now have both the fire and smoke in the picture but they somehow feel a little unrelated. The way to connect the two is by using a pale orange colour in some of the smoke which will serve to echo the warmth of the fire and unify the image. In Fig04 you can see the effect of this on a new layer set to overlay.
We began this tutorial with a gradient so as to very vaguely suggest a land mass and sky as a background but now we have the fire in place it looks as if it is floating in a void somewhat. To rectify this we are going to increase the contrast of the gradient and add some rough brush work at the base to help “root” the flames (Fig05). The background can remain hazy as it will contribute towards the sensation of a smoke screen. On the smoke layer I also added some definition to the shapes using a smaller brush and emphasized the orange glow. You will also notice that the fire is now more intense due to an additional layer set to overlay which you can see in Fig06. The flames can be seen in normal mode in the upper half of the picture.
Fig07 shows a further enhancement to the smoke and in this image I have given the plume some more volume by darkening the left side more and creating some more defined shadows on the right. The idea here is to paint in a small scale level of detail across much of the smoke which shows the tiny cloud patterns it adopts but at the same time define some larger shapes and forms where the main shadows and highlights fall.
The smoke started off as grey colour but now it is time to add some warmth to it, not because grey is wrong but rather just as a personal preference. This is done by simply adjusting the colour balance of the layer more towards yellow and red. To suggest that some of the flames are leaping upward inside the smoke I have enhanced the orange glow on the left and also painted in some more distant smoke in the upper right drifting across the sky (Fig08).
The main components are already in place and from now on it is a process of refinement and adding more detail. I am reasonably happy with the glow on the underside of the smoke but it does at present lack a little definition unlike the right side and so I have added more detail here. I also wished to exaggerate the thickness of the smoke and so have added a new layer which is set to multiply and uses a mid grey brown to increase the darkness of the shadows (Fig09).
In response to this I have also added another layer which I have named “Highlights” and set to normal mode. Here I have painted in lighter accents across the right side to reflect the sunlight filtering in from the right corner, also adding some more drama and contrast.
That about concludes this tutorial and hopefully it will help you paint your own versions of the subject. There are a few changes that could further improve the picture such as integrating the flames better with the smoke and painting in some finer details in the plume but most of the crucial stages have been covered I think. You can see the final version below.
