Here is a little something that I created using Photoshop. I’m definitely a sucker for all things fantasy related. Fantasy art, movies, games, stories.. Magic, unicorns, faeries, wizards, elves, hobbits… You name it, I love it all! You can bet I’m super excited to see the new Harry Potter movie tomorrow! In this post I’ll go through all the stages that the above image went through before looking like that! Read on to see the progress from beginning to end. Enjoy! (:

These are the two photos that I started with, a nice forest shot and a pretty white horse. I found these stock images on DeviantArt.com. There are lots of quality stock images to choose from, and it’s free!

I was feeling that the photo of the forest was a little flat, so I’ve added the above forest photo to the background to give it a little more depth. Check out the differences below:

Big difference huh?!

After I was happy with the background image, I used the channel mixer to make the colors a bit more dreamy looking. Then I added in the white horsey in and adjusted the levels a little bit.

Here’s a closer view of the horse. Not looking very magical yet..

I added a white glow behind the horse, you can just feel it’s power amplifying. It’s about to go super saiyan on you! AHH!

The Horsey finally leveled up into Unicorn! I added it’s horn just by drawing it inside Photoshop and I’ve also added more white glow. At this point, I am finished with the unicorn and just need to add some finishing touches. I fixed up the colors a bit more by adding a gradient fill on top and then added a clouds layer on top of that to give it that misty look! Take a look at the final image below:

Do you believe in unicorns?