I repeated this step to complete the figure’s arms, making sure I altered the Brightness and Contrast to suit the new areas accordingly. A good tip to remember is to try focusing on aligning the edges of the cloud segments with the edges of the figure, which will help to define the shape of the figure, creating a more distinct cloud formation. As your Layers Menu can quickly become filled with excessive layers, a good tip is to merge some of the layers, such as all the layers that compose an arm, into one. To do this, select all the layers you want to merge in the Layers Menu by holding Command while selecting the layers, then select Merge Layers from the Options drop-down on the Layers Menu.
When creating the smaller detailed areas, such as a finger, it’s a good practice to select smaller areas of the clouds themselves. And just as I did with the larger segments, I used the Transformation Tool to resize and rotate the pieces to align with the finger.
I repeated this process to complete all the fingers and the thumbs. It’s also worth noting that it’s a good idea to select varying areas of the clouds to copy, instead of copying from the same area over and over, so you don’t end up with too many similar-looking segments. Obvious cloning tends to make images look less real than desired.
I continued this process to complete the figure’s face. With the Transformation Tool selected, you can drag any of the bounding boxes on the sides to the left and right to make pieces narrower and wider. In this case, I selected a cloud segment and made it narrower to assume the shape of the figure’s nose.
When assembling pieces for the face, some key areas you may want to focus on are prominently protruding areas, such as the nose, cheekbones, orbital ridge, hair, and lips. I copied and pasted segments for these areas to complete the face.
