• Photoshop Version Used: CS3
• Difficulty Level (out of 10): 5
• Time to Complete: 25 minutes

Sometimes images just need a little something extra. While playing around with brush settings in Photoshop one day I realized that you could really have some fun when you combined the power of a stroked path with different brush setting combinations and layer effects. This tutorial was created in Photoshop CS3 but should work for the last few versions (and hopefully upcoming versions) of Photoshop as well. Let’s get started.
Note- I did this on a laptop with a trackpad (no mouse, no tablet) so no special hardware is required.

The Original Image
If you’d like to follow along with this image, click on it to view the full size version and then download it.

1. Create a Path with the Pen Tool.

Using the pen tool (P), click on the path button in the toolbar (see image above). Start to create a path, point by point, keeping in mind any areas that might wrap around or travel through the existing objects. To create smooth bezier curves, just click and drag as you create a new point. This will extend handles from the point that you can manipulate to adjust the path. ideally, you’ll want to keep your curves smooth and graceful. Below is the start of my path.

Continue the path until it is complete. The images here show the points and handles used to make my path. If a point doesn’t come out just how you’d like it to, simply use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to grab either the points or their handles and drag them until you’ve got a good looking path. Be sure to use the white arrow direct selection tool- the Path Selection Tool (black arrow) will not work.

2. Prepare the Brush Settings

Once the path has been created, we need to get our brush ready. We’re going to start by selecting a solid orange color. I used #ff8a00 in this case. Set it as the foreground color.

With the color loaded, select a brush shape that has some unbalance to it. The grass brush, the leaf brush or one of the faux finish brushes will work fine. If you select a round brush, there won’t be much texture or flame on the path. The next set of adjustments will vary based on the size of the image you’re working on and how big a flame path you want.

Open the brushes palette (F5) and check the Shape Dynamics box. Set the Size jitter to 100% and the Minimum Diameter to 30% or less. Set the Control method to Pen Pressure. This will allow the ends of the path to taper down. Set the Angle Jitter and Roundness Jitter to around 10-20%.

Next, click on Scattering and set as shown below. Adjust as necessary to get a jagged path.

3. Create a New Layer(Shft Ctrl N). For the sake of reference, I’ll name this layer brush1.

Activate the Paths tab (Windows>Paths) again and right click on the path that you created. Select “Stroke Path”.
Make sure that the “simulate pressure” box is checked as this will cause the tapering at the ends. Voila! You should now have a textured line of orange fire.

Because the paint that we just laid down is on its own layer, we can manipulate it at will without effecting the path that we have stroked. In this example, I’ll actually be manipulating additional copies of the original image rather than the stroked path.

Copy the iphone image layer (layer 1) using ctrl j (command j on a mac) and drag this newly created layer above the brush1 layer. I chose to rename this layer “coverup”.
Using a selection tool, such as the marquee tool (m), polygonal lasso tool (l) or any other method you choose, create a selection around the object that the fire will wrap around. You really only need to focus on the areas where the fire will go behind or in front of the object.
Then, use the eraser tool (e) to erase the section of the object where you want the fire to be visible. Once that is erased, invert the selection (ctrl i, command i on the mac) and erase the rest of the path that is outside the object, as shown below.
The object of this layer is just to cover up part of the path where the object is (the iphone in this case) to make it look like the fire wraps around the object.

The next step is to apply an outer glow to the fire whip. To do so, double click on the ‘brush1′ layer (the fire layer) and select “outer glow”. I chose a red glow with the settings shown below:

Now it’s time to create the next part of the fire path. Duplicate the brush1 layer and name it brush2. Delete the contents of the layer by selecting all (ctrl a, command a on a mac) and hitting the backspace key (delete key on a mac). Now activate the brush tool (b) and select a round solid brush, about 9px in diameter.
Choose a nice orange or yellow color as your foreground color. Open the paths palette and stroke the path just as you did the first time. You may want to go back to the layers palette and play around with the transparency of the brush2 layer that you created. We’re just about finished.

To finish the image off, we’re going to create a reflection of the fire whip at the bottom of the object. To do so, use the polygonal lasso tool (l) and select the area just outside the iphone. Be sure to select more of the fire whip than you think you’ll need as we’ll be erasing a bit of it.
When you’ve got it selected, copy merged (edit>copy merged or ctrl shift c, cmd shift c on a mac) then paste it (ctrl v, cmd v on a mac). Make sure the newly created layer is above the other visible layers.

To make it look reflected, Transform the reflection layer (ctrl t, cmd t on a mac), right click on it and select “flip vertical”. Hit Enter to apply the transformation. Use the move tool (v) to drag it just below so it lines up with the existing iPhone reflection.
With the new fire whip reflection in place, activate the eraser (e) and soften the edges all the way (shift [) and make sure the eraser is large enough to create a soft and light erasing. You may decide to adjust the opacity of the brush to make this task smooth but even at 100% opacity you should be fine.

That's it! Hopefully your "fire whip" turned out well. Please feel free to leave any comments or suggestions below. Thanks and have fun designing!

Tags: photoshop, tutorials //