Part 2 of our watercolour spectacular!
Select the topmost layer in the stack and press Cmd/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+Shift+E. This merges all visible layers onto a new layer at the very top. You have the option now to address any tweaks such as colour adjustments. Use Filter>Liquify to slightly reposition the waves to your liking.
With the merged layer selected, grab a big Soft Round brush in white, and gently with a low-opacity brush, paint over the backgrounds waves to lightly fade them, pushing them further into the distance.
Create a new layer on top and use the Hard Round brush to sketch out the general placement and shape of the birds. Reduce the layer’s Opacity so that it’s transparent but still visible.
Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N and use the rough sketch as a guide to draw in the birds with more accuracy. When the drawing is done, hide or delete the rough sketch layer, as it’s not needed.
We can see the waves through the birds. Fix this by grabbing the Brush with 100% Opacity and make a new layer under the sketch. Cover the entire body of the bird with the Background colour (white) so that the waves can’t be seen.
Make a new Multiply layer just under the clean bird drawing. Use the watercolour brush to paint in some colour on the birds. Since the birds are white, we’ll add some shadows with cream and grey-blue brushes.
On a new Multiply layer at the very top of the stack, use a sandy orange to paint a beach in the distance behind the waves. Use lower brush opacities on the beach as it goes upwards into the horizon to give the impression of distance.
On the same layer as the beach, use a light grey an daub some hills in the far distance. From here, make a new merged layer with Cmd/Ctrl+Alt/Opt+Shift+E to make adjustments to colour, if necessary, to complete the scene.