Realistic fire in Photoshop only using the Smudge Tool

Difficulty: Intermediate.
Following this tutorial, you will learn how to draw fire, with the only help of the brilliant Smudge Tool(R) .
1. Open a 1024x768 px new Photoshop document.(Ctrl+N)
2. Pick a normal 83 px normal brush(B).
3. Set you foreground color to #ff6900;
4. Draw a small circle, wherever in the canvas where you want to draw the fire.
5. Smudge the shape, until you have something like this:

6. Use the Burn Tool(O) to create some shades;
7. Set your foreground color to #ffc100;
8. Pick up again the Brush Tool (B).
9. Draw an other small circle inside your fire, and smudge it again.
You should obtain something like this:

10. Let’s draw the wood now. Pick up the Brush Tool(B) again. Set your foreground color to # 994002;
11. Create a new layer.
12. Draw a small circle, and smudge it to make it look like a stick. Use Dodge, Burn(O) and different shades of brown, to make it look more realistic. In the end, make the both ends of your stick brighter, to imitate the cut. Duplicate the layer several times, and use Marquee Tool (M), to change their position. Here’s my result:

13. Download some smoke brushes (Use Google );
14. Create New Layer.
15. Set your foreground color to black;
16. Draw some smoke.

Using the described technique(Smudge Tool), I’ve also drawn a background(Moon,sky,clouds,stars and mountains) - just some rough sketches to emphasize the fire.
Here’s my result:

That’s all folks. Thanks for visiting my blog, hope this is useful and..share it if you like it:)
If you have any questions, please feel free to post a comment!
Cheers!