Fantasy fish background

Deb's Photo Impact tutorials and more

Making an underwater background scene
Version 6

Needed items:
Caustic file
Optional items:
amazon sword plant
Other plants
Shells

Thanks to Linda White for tips on shapes for the plants and filters to use.
Visit her site
http://ais.coffee-hs.coffee.k12.tn.us/jones/digitalart.html
for more inspiration.
Also thanks to Nathalie for tips on the use of a caustic file.
Other caustic files to download
Caustic 1
Caustic 2
Caustic 3
Caustic 4
Caustic 5
	1. Open a new image, 400 X 400
	2. Go to edit/fill, and fill with a gradient from light blue to dark blue. I used these rgb values. If you want to follow along exactly, right click in each box, and click ulead color picker. Along the right side of this box you will see the RGB values. Just replace the numbers there with these. Light blue Dark Blue R 205 R 6 G 214 G 8 B 255 B 108
	3. Click on the path tool. Under shape, click the rectangle, and click this option. (shown)
	4. Click on a point about 3/4ths of the way down your canvas on the left side. Now move down and to the right, and click again. Click again up and further to the right. Keep clicking, outlining an irregular sea bottom until you get almost to the right side. Before you click the last time on the right side, press down on the control button. Hold it down while you click the bottom right side, the bottom left side. Now, still holding down the control key, point to the first square where you began, and double click. When working with the spline tool, any time you want a sharp point or a corner, just press the control key and hold it down. And remember that a double click always ends the path, so be careful to only click once unless you are done outlining the shape.
	5. Now use the color command in the attribute bar to set the color for your sea bottom. I used these RGB values R 228 G 214 B 190
	6. Go to the easy palette, painting gallery. Find the thumbnail named decoupage, and double click it. Please note: Each painting effect should also be applied to the background. The parts should not be merged, so you will have to change your selection and apply again.
	7. Find and double click splatter. 8. Change to the pick tool, and hold down control while dragging downwards. This will duplicate your sand.
	9. Change to the transform tool. Click rotate and flip/flip horizontally.
	10. Right click on the sand piece in front and add a shadow. Click the third button from the left. Change the X-offset to 0. Click ok.
	11. At this point, you have the basics of your background done. If you like, you can use the burn tool to shade the edges of the sand pieces, to make them look curved. Now we need to make or add some plants. I am not going into a lot of detail on the plants because to tell you every step would be a full tutorial in itself. For all of these plant shapes, it is best to work on a separate canvas while assembling them. You can make an amazon sword plant by modifying the brushtip2 shape with the transform/perspective tool . Here is one I made this way. I used the paintbrush, and added a texture to it. For this one, I used paper 38.jpg in the brush textures to simulate the naturally wavy leaves of the Amazon sword plant. I drew veins on the leaves, then blurred and burned the leaves to add shading. To add a more 3d appearance, use the quick color commands to darken the leaves that would be furthest away, and lighten the leaves closest to you. If you want, you may download this plant here. Click the image to download. This is ufo format.
	Another way to make plants is to use the vertical waves shape. Use the transform tool/perspective to bring the bottom closer together after drawing. Again, use the burn and dodge tools to add dimension to your leaves.
	Yet another way to make a sea plant is with decoration 4.
	After drawing on your canvas, use the transform tool to change the angle. Rotate by degree 45 degrees. Then duplicate and flip horizontally. Arrange these one on top of each other, and group. Duplicate the group and stack on top of the first group. Make some more smaller decoration 4 shapes, and rotate them to make the side shoots. Move to join with the large plant. When satisfied with the arrangement, select all objects and group. Duplicate this sprig, and flip horizontally. When done, don't forget to highlight and shade the leaves so they don't look flat like this one.
Dixie Lady	Or you may choose to use the tubes from this site to decorate your underwater scene. Several of the plants here closely resemble the water plants sold for aquariums.
Sue's objects	There are some nice shells you can download from this site also if you would like them for your sea bottom.
	Now to finish your picture, bring out your fish from your easy palette. Put him where you want him to be. Right click/merge all. If you haven't made your fish yet, go to this tutorial for directions. When everything is positioned as you want them to be, right click, merge all.
	Go to the easy palette, particle gallery, bubbles. Right click on bubbles 4, and click "Modify properties and apply".
	Leaving all settings, default, point your cursor to the left window, and to a bubble. you will be able to move the bubbles around to place them where you want them. When a bubble is selected, a box will appear around the bubble. If you want to change the size of a particular bubble, you can do that with the size control in the right half of the window. When you are satisfied with the placement of your bubbles, click ok. Be aware that bubbles will be merged to your canvas, and cannot be moved once you press ok.
Caustic file	Right click on the link to the left, and click save target as... Open the file caustic.jpg in PI and right click and copy it.
	Go to edit/fill/image tab. Click the circle in front of clipboard. Make sure it is set to tile the image. At the bottom right of the fill dialog box, there is a setting to change the transparency. Set this to 90% transparency. This will cause the image to be overlaid with a mostly transparent copy of the cuastic file, which simulates the look of water.
	Now, if you like, you can also go to the filter gallery, light and apply light 05 or light 10 for a little more shading.
	Have fun, and may your fish stay healthy! Click the image to see full size.