This is an advanced tutorial. I am using Photoshop CS2, a.k.a. Photoshop 9.0.2. on a PC.

Today we’ll be drawing fire in Photoshop. You can draw this on a blank canvas, but to get the full effect, I suggest you start with a photo. I am using this picture:

paul.jpg

Step 1. Fireball
Add a New Layer.
Select a soft paintbrush in a medium size (I startd with 40).
Using a brick-orange color, make a dot.
Make another dot with a slightly lighter color and slighty smaller brush size (30).
Make another dot with a slightly lighter color and slighty smaller brush size (20).
Last time: Make another dot with a slightly lighter color (peachy/yellow now) and slighty smaller brush size (10).

Using the Smudge Tool in a small, soft size, click somewhere inside your dot, hold and drag it up. Repeat this to make fire tongues coming up out of your dots. Try making them “S” shaped. You can also change the Strength of the smudge tool to vary the effect. (Mine is about 65% and I avoid the lightest color area in this step.) Here are my settings:

smudge settings photoshop

Step 2: Fire’s Glow
Now we’ll add a soft glow around the fire.
Go into Quick Mask Mode (Q), select a big, soft brush (I used 80), and click. The brush selection should be aligned with the bottom-middle of your fire, going up and out from there.

Leave Quick Mask Mode (Q), and you will have a circular selection on your canvas. Right click and Select Inverse. Select your photo layer, and a Color Balance Adjustment Layer.

Adjust the midtones and highlights as shown:

color balance highlights photoshop

Step 3: Making Sparks Fly
Now we’ll prepare our brush to add some sparks to the fire.

brush scattering in Photoshop
With those settings, add a new layer, choose a medium orange from your fireball with the eyedropper and draw some sparks over the fire. Lower the Opacity of this layer (in my case it is 60%). Then drag the layer down so it overlays the top 1/3 of your fireball.

Step 4: Finishing touches
Change again to regular soft brush, use #ffff66 color (or similar light yellow), select a new layer, and make a bright dot inside of it.
Again, I lowered the opacity of this layer to 60%.
Right click on this layer for your blending option and select Outer Glow.

photoshop outer glow blending option

Now use your smudge tool just a bit to give this layer a teardrop shape. Here is my final image:

final fire in photoshop image