Here's some lightning tuts for ya:

http://tutorialblog.org/lightning/

http://www.photoshopcafe.com/tutorials/lightning/lightning.htm

http://www.bluesfear.com/tutorials/lightning.htm?*

http://www.weethet.nl/english/photoshop_lightning.php

http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorial/Making-Lightning-in-Photoshop/7603

And one brush link:
http://www.easyelements.com/photoshop-lightning-brush-set.html

Here's my go at it... Not perfect, but gives it a little more atmosphere. The highlight on the right horn definitely needs some more tweaking.


Here's the psd:
http://www.box.net/public/d9yh2fmnck

how about the whole head!

Jeny, You're such a funny girl!

but i'm not a girl...really!

I actually like that! Definitely goes to the demigod theme I thought of.

How'd you do the lighting?

Mostly selecting certain areas with my lasso and using color balance or hue/saturation. I tryed to get the head and the body to match the best I could. After I felt I was close, I created another layer filling it with a solid color (in this case ac4aae) and then blended it in with vivid light filter to give the feel that both the head and the body are in the same room.... I suck at explaining stuff...

Interesting collaboration we've got going here...How about THAT head...and that body...on Tofu's original background...with more cowbell??

I agree DP. I like to see the different suggestions and takes that people would have on the chop. It's the only one I'm working on at the moment. Call it an obsession.

One thing should be true when this is all done. I'll know quite a bit more about Photoshop.

Worked a bit more. Went with a headdress instead of attached horns. I think it looks a bit better than where I had been going. I tried re-creating JT's head but couldn't pull it off fast enough to make me happy. I'll play with that more after I finish this version.

I also started playing with creating a "power orb" between her hands. I need to lookup a tut on how to do some lightning encircling the orb.



As always comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated. Current version of the .psd is here still (~31MB).

Edit: forgot about the links that DP posted earlier. Will check those out next.

indeed, it's looking good!!
Hey tofu, I downloaded your latest psd file and noticed that you were creating a layer, filling it with color and then masking it over the layer below.(ctrl+alt+G) example: the purple layer masked over the horns... I was just going to tell you that you can get that same effect by using a layer style color overlay. Choose the color you want to overlay and then add a blending mode you like... It's a lot less confusing when you're working on a large file with many layers like this one... Was that confusing???

Yeah I've used both techniques in this .psd on different layers at different times. Right now I'm just playing around to see which techniques I personally find easiest/quickest to do.

Yeah, I figured that. I was just making sure...

Grah that picture has no depth try blurring around everything in the order of

Closest none

in between well ya know middlish-ness-ness-ness-ness-ness...............................

Futhest loads

Don't know what 'Grah' means (similar to 'ugh' or 'bah'?) but I got the meaning of the next 13 words. Depth isn't something I'm forgetting. It's just last on the list after I get all the major components worked in.

Anyone up for translating everything after the "of"? I think m&m is referring to the layers (closest to furthest).