In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a scene with a sea monster attacking a flotilla in Photoshop. The concept of the picture is to create a fleet of ships sailing in unknown waters and attacked by a sea monster. So let’s get started!
This lesson refers to the average level of difficulty, so some steps may be difficult, but why not try it!
Note: This lesson is done in Photoshop CС – so some screenshots may differ slightly from previous versions of the program. Some brushes are only available in this version of Photoshop CS6 or higher.
The final result:
Step 1
Create a new document with the following dimensions 1440 px * 750 px, background color is black. Open the original Nebula image in Photoshop. Select the entire image (Ctrl + A), and then copy (Ctrl + C) / paste (Ctrl + V) the copied image of the nebula onto our working paper. Using tool Free transformation (free transform tool), adjust the scale of the nebula to the size of our document. Next, using the soft eraser
(Eraser Tool), hide the bottom of the nebula, as shown in the screenshot below.
Open the original image with Ocean in Photoshop. Highlight the following fragment of the ocean, which is shown in the screenshot below:
Copy / paste (Copy / Paste) highlighted image of the ocean on our working paper.
Using a soft eraser, create a shading at the edges of the image of the ocean, as shown in the screenshot below.
Apply the following adjustment layers to the ocean layer as clipping masks.
Black-white (Black and White).
Levels (Levels)
The result of the current lesson:
Step 2
Open the original cliff image in Photoshop. Select a fragment of the rock:
Copy / paste (Copy / Paste) highlighted fragment of rock on our working paper. Place the rock as shown in the screenshot below:
Using tool Dimmer 
(Burn tool), darken areas of rock. Set the settings that are shown in the screenshot below:
Add adjustment layer Black and white (Black and White) to discolor the image of the cliff:
Repeat the previous process, adding 2 more rocks to our scene. Do not forget to resize, as well as the shape of the rocks with the free transformation tool so that they do not resemble each other:
Step 3
Open the Rocks texture in Photoshop. I used the following texture, as shown in the screenshot below, which you can download from the link at the beginning of this tutorial, but you can use any other image that you like at the same link. Select part of the Rocks texture:
Step 4
Still using the original Rocks texture, select a few small fragments of the rock texture, and then add them to our working paper, arranging them as shown in the screenshot below. Place the layers with fragments of the texture of the rock on top of the layer with the ocean. Carry out discoloration of these layers with fragments of rock using correction Black and white (Black and White):
Use the Clouds / Smoke brush to add the gentle effect of clouds around rocks and over the ocean. These clouds will add dramatic effect to sinking ships, which we will add in the next step:
Step 5
In this step, we will add a ship image to our scene. Open the original image of ship 1 in Photoshop. Select the ship image:
Copy / paste (Copy / Paste) selected fragment of the ship on our working paper. Zoom out the ship by positioning it as shown in the screenshot below:
Apply the following adjustment layers to the ship layer as clipping masks.
Black-white (Black and White)
Levels (Levels)
The result of the current lesson:
Repeat the whole process, add a few more ships to our scene. Correct their scale and opacity of the layers with the ships, respectively:
Step 6
In this step, we will add a second image of the ship to our scene. Open the original image of ship 2 in Photoshop. Select the image of the ship (do not worry if the selection will be inaccurate).
Copy / paste (Copy / Paste) selected fragment of the ship on our working paper. Reflect the image of the ship horizontally by placing it as shown in the screenshot below:
Apply the following adjustment layers to the ship layer as clipping masks.
Black-white (Black and White)
Levels (Levels)
The result of the current lesson:
Repeat the whole process, add another ship, just zoom out the image of this ship, placing it as shown in the screenshot below:
Using the Clouds brush, add a cloud effect around the ships:
Step 7
In this step, we will add an octopus as a sea monster. Open the original Octopus image in Photoshop, then select the image of the octopus. Copy / paste (Copy / Paste) selected octopus image on our working paper. Flip the octopus image horizontally, and then slightly rotate the image clockwise:
Apply the following adjustment layers to the octopus layer as a clipping mask.
Black-white (Black and White)
(reduce value Opacity (opacity) for this adjustment layer up to about 75%)
Levels (Levels)
Using a soft eraser, shade areas of the octopus where it touches rocks. The octopus should look like the screenshot below:
Next, I added an octopus tentacle to our scene (don’t forget to discolor the octopus tentacles):
The result should be as in the screenshot below.
Step 8
In the final step, I added a splash of water around the tentacles with the Brush Spray brush, which you can download from the link at the beginning of this lesson:
Also add the effect of scattering chips around ships with the Particle brush.
For color correction of the entire image, I used the following adjustment layers:
Selective color correction (Selective color)
Color Balance (Color Balance)
Hue / Saturation (Hue / saturation)
So, we have completed the lesson! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and it was useful for you. See you, have a nice day!
The final result:
