This tutorial will show you how to create a “Pirate Bay” style island in Photoshop. All you need is a little patience and, well, Photoshop. There is also a custom brush I use for this tutorial which can be found here.

This tutorial will take you through the steps of creating an island in Photoshop.

This tutorial should run about 1 hour.

Step 1

Create a new document in Photoshop (I used 800×600). And create a New Layer.

Using the Pen Tool, draw the outline of your island, then rasterize the layer.

Step 2

Either fill the shape in, or use the style-color overlay to give the island a dark green base.

Using the Lasso Tool (I also used feather:3px), select the edges of the island where you want the beach to be. Then copy and paste as a new layer above the island. (I have turned off the island layer in the image).

Step 3

Open up the Layer Style Dialog, and give the beach a gradient overlay using dark tan to light tan and adjust the direction to suit your liking

Step 4

Now, download or create a new Brush in the shape of a palm tree (you can download the Brush I used here). Set the Brush scattering, size jitter, angle jitter, and color dynamics (background/forground jitter) to give you the sort of look in the image.

Step 5

Select a forground/background colour of lighter green/darker green respectively. I used a Brush size of 29px.

Use the Wand Tool to select the island shape, and create a New Layer with the selection still in place.

Now use the Brush to give a light coating over the island (mind the area close to the sand, and don’t worry that the selection cuts off some of the tree shapes).

Now change your FG/BG colours to dark green/darker green respectively, and Brush over the island again to give it a more varied colour depth (I also used a new layer for this).

Step 6

Now ctrl+D to deselect, and lightly go over the island with the Brush, near the edges to make some trees ’stand up’ off the island.

Step 7

Now, turn off the tree layers, select the island layer and using the Lasso Tool, select the edges of the island that will be ‘hill tops’, but do not select the volcano area.

Apply a Gaussian Blur to the selection. (I used 2.6px). This helps to ’round out’ and blend the hills into the trees.

Step 8

With the island layer selected, use the Lasso Tool again to select the area for the volcano, and copy and paste it as a new layer ABOVE the tree layers.

Step 9

Open up the Layer Style Dialog for the volcano layer and apply the following:

Gradient Overlay: Dark grey to Medium grey, Direction: -138 (or whichever suits your liking)

Bevel/Emboss: Direction: 151, size:54, soften to around half

Bevel/Emboss - Texture: select a rock like texture and a scale of 29%

Inner Shadow: uncheck ‘Global Light’, direction -113, size:29, dist:13. This is to give the appearance of the trees shadows on the volcano

All of these values are relative to your project, you may need to fiddle with them to get the result your are looking for. You should end up with something like this:

Step 10

Create a New Layer, and use the Lasso to draw the inner ‘hole’ of the volcano, then fill with black.

Step 11

Create a New Layer. Now select the Brush, and use a size of around 5px, I also used a charcoal style of Brush, and set the colour to red/orange.

Draw on the lava flow, keeping in mind to make it ‘flow’ around the contour of the volcano.

Now open up the Layer Style Dialog for the lava layer, and apply a small Outer Glow of orange, a small Inner Shadow, and Bevel/Emboss with the highlight opacity reduced to 0. You should get something that looks like this:

Step 12

Here we will create a waterfall.

Create a New Layer, and select the Brush Tool (medium grey, 7px). now draw on some rock to outline the waterfall.

Open up the Layer Style Dialog, and apply the following:

Bevel/Emboss: size 16, soft: 0

Bevel/Emboss - Texture: rocky pattern, scale ~6 ( or whatever looks best in your project)

Inner Glow/OuterGlow: dark green/ This helps blen the rocks into the trees.

Fiddle with the settings a bit until you get the result you like.

Create a New Layer, and using the Brush Tool (I used a soft Brush, 4px), draw in the waterfall and a small pool at the bottom, using a light blue colour.

I also added in some variance with a darker blue and whitish colour.

Now, apply a Gaussian Blur to the layer with a radius of around 1px(whichever looks best for you). Create a New Layer, and draw in some highlights with white and apply a Gaussian Blur to that as well, with a slightly lower radius. You should end up with something like this:

Step 13

Now create a New Layer UNDER the waterfall layer. using the same light blue you used for the waterfall, Brush in a slightly larger pool, and a stream leading out to the ocean, like so:

Step 14

Open up the Layer Style Dialog for the stream. and Apply the following settings:

Inner Shadow: adjust the direction and size to suit your project(the more foreground trees should appearr to cast a shadow on the river).

Inner/Outer Glow: Set to Normal and dark green, and adjust size to help blend the edges of the trees

Under Fill, check the box enables Layer Masks to hide the Layer effects. This will be important later on.

Step 15

New Layer, use the Lasso Tool (I used a feather of 3px) to draw in some smoke coming out of the volcano. And fill with a medium to dark grey.

Step 16

Open up the Layer Style Dialog, and apply a Bevel/Emboss with a size of 16, soften of 13, and set the highlight opacity to 0.

Then duplicate the smoke layer and use Transform:scale, and warp to shrink and shape the new layer to be the outer layer of smoke.

Adjust the layer style for the new layer to give the upper smoke a lighter look.

Step 17

Create a New Layer just above the background layer. Using the Brush Tool and whatever colour blue you wish for the ocean, Brush in the water behind the island.

Step 18

Create a New Layer just above the ocean layer and using the Lasso Tool with a feather of 10px, select the area around the outside of the sand(where the water is shallower) and fill it in with a light aqua/blue.

Step 19

Select the sand layer, and using the Lasso Tool (feather back to 1 or 2px), select the edges of the sand where it meets the water and applay a small Gaussian Blur(1-2px).

Step 20

Select the river layer, and using the same blue colour as the river, extend the water out into the ocean a bit.

Then apply a layer mask, and (this is why you selected to have layer masks hide the effects) using black, with a low opacity, paint on the layer mask to blend the water into the ocean.

Thats basically it. You can add touch ups and other objects to the island as you wish using the same techniques.

Here is the finished image. I have cropped it and added a few objects to the island.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!

Tags: Design, island, Photoshop, Tutorials