How to Make a Starry Sky in Photoshop CS6

I'm sure you've all been wondering, "How do people make their scenes so realistic?" By using realistic brushes and colors, of course! Today we will be working on making a starry, but somewhat cloudy night in photoshop CS6.

The nebula is a touch of my own which I will cover in another instructable.

The Sky

Start a new document, and make it size 2480 wide by 3508 high.
Create a new layer, and click effects (photo 1)
select gradient overlay, going from #04030e to #140b0b to #1a1515 (photo 2)

The Clouds, a Brush.

Now for the clouds, we're going to create a new brush.
go to your brush window (photo 1)
select the soft round as your brush (photo 1)
set the brush size to about 500 px (photo 1)
click shape dynamics and follow what I have labeled (photo 2)
Follow the same directions for scattering and transfer (photos 3 and 4)
Uncheck all boxes except shape dynamics, scattering, transfer, and smoothing.

The Clouds, the Painting.

Now you're actually going to paint your clouds, Mr. Bob Ross.
Create a new layer, select your brush tool and paint white over the top of your image. (photo 1)
Clouds aren't all white, so create a new layer over your existing cloud layer, and darken your brush, and reduce your flow to about 40. then paint some more clouds near the bottom of the existing ones to act as shadows. (photo 2)
create a clipping mask by holding ALT, or the apple key on a mac, and click between the two layers to make a clipping mask, which should clean up your image nicely (photo 3)

The Moon

save the picture of the moon I have supplied, and drop it right into your document, below your clouds layer, and set the layer style to color dodge (photos 1 and 2)
after you set the moon layer to color dodge, duplicate the layer by selecting the layer, and pressing CTRL+J, or CMD+J on a mac.
Your Document should look like this afterward (photo 3)

Hint: You can move the moon anywhere, and rotate it by pressing CTRL+T on a PC or CMD+T on a mac

The Stars, Brush.

We're going to be creating another brush, but this time for the stars, so open up your brush window again and select the soft round again. set your brush tip shape to the settings I have in photo 1
follow suit with the rest of the images, but this time include the color dynamics option (photos 2-5)

The Stars, the Painting

Now that you have your brush, change up your colors, and paint away! Now you have a starry landscape that you can put on the fridge!