Sparkles & Stars

One of the special effects that I get asked a lot about is my "magic sparkles" and stars. Here is a tutorial that gives the basic way to make a sparkle. This tutorial was created with Photoshop, but if you have other art programs with an airbrush tool you might have some luck with it.

The first step to making a glowing sparkle is to choose a wide, fluffy airbrush to create the outermost glow. The sparkle taht I am creating for this tutorial is VERY lage, so I'm choosing a 200 width brush.

I want for my sparkle to be mostly blue, so I select a hue that is along the top of the color chart, but that is not too close to white. Choose a high value hue for whatever color you decide to use.

I set the brush to operate at a low flow, or pressure. Something around 30% is usually good. I then click where I want for the sparkle to appear. I click just once, and I release immidiately so not too much paint is released.

To create the innner glow, I select a color that is brighter then my first, but is not pure white.

I then select a smaller brush - 100 pixels, and I click in the center, just once. Note how the center is now much brighter, like something inside of it is radiating the light.

Choose a very small brush. Your brush can be soft or hard edged, depending on how dominate you want the inner sparkle to be. A hard edged brush will give you a very crisp inner light.

Turn up the pressure or flow on your airbrush to 60% and click once in the center, holding down for about half a second. The sparkle is now complete! This sparkle is very large, and would be appropriate for a single ball of light in a magic spell. Stars will not have nearly so large of an outer glow, nor will they be as bright.

I have filled my night's sky with stars. For doing multiple sparkles, it is best to do all of your outer glows at once "click, click, click!". Then do all of your inner glows, and finally the origin of the light. Doing it this way will save you lots of time switching between each color, brush, and pressure. Happy magic-making!