dacort - Bubble Tutorial

This tutorial illustrates a couple of simple techniques I've used to paint bubbles. I have one technique for tiny bubbles (must... resist... bad Don Ho joke...) and one for big bubbles. They're both pretty simple.

This tutorial assumes that you are using a drawing program like Photoshop which works with layers and lets you use an eraser with a paintbrush tip.

Atomized Bubbles


Create a new layer and start by airbrushing some white over the background image (plain blue in this case). Use "dissolve" mode to create the spatters.	Use the blur filter or blur tool to soften the bubbles.	Use the eraser tool with a large feathered brush to soften the edges of the bubble swarm. You can also adjust the layer's opacity to blend the bubbles with the background. That's it!

Large Bubbles


Create a new layer and use a hard-edged round paintbrush to make some dots. I used pure white here with the opacity set around 60%. You can make them different sizes if you want.	Use the eraser and pick a soft-edged brush just a bit smaller than the dots to hollow the bubble centers. I would set the eraser opacity to around 50% for starters.	(optional) Use a tiny brush and some pure white at full strength to make highlights. Try to place the highlights so that they agree with the lighting in the picture. That's it!

See? I told you it was simple. You can of course use these techniques in combination. The only other thing I can suggest is to make sure the bubbles make sense in context of the picture. Bubbles generally travel upward in water, but having them trail to one side or the other can suggest motion. A thin swarm of bubbles flowing from the tip of a mermaid's tail would be an example. The more horizontal the trail, the faster the implied motion.

The atomized bubble technique works equally well for other kinds of particle swarms, kind of a low-tech alternative to using sophisticated particle rendering software.

Thanks for visiting dacort and I hope you've found this tutorial useful!