Smoking - Smoke Effect 2

I have come back to have another go at the smoke effects that I had experimented with previously, this tie using a college mac so that it wont take as long to produce- this has proved to make the process of creating it a lot faster (yay!). This is the first one I've done.

On the website where I found the tutorial explaining how to do this, they said on there that it gets better with practice, so I will do a few different ones I think to see if I end u with any that's any better. I also experimented with this to make it more subtle on the page which is what I am looking for by adding an extra full solid white layer above it and trying out the different blending options. Some work really well and is something to consider using.

I've had another go with the effect, this time not taking the original line to the edge of the art board so that the 'smoke' starts and finishes in the area. It turned out quite nice actually.

I spent a bit more time with this one on the dodge and burn tools to create more definition to the smoke and I think it has made it look a lot better. I think by having it not go off the edge of the page it looks pretty effective. I guess it could work coming from off the bottom of the page and not going off the top. I think I may try this to see.

I went to have a go at inverting the image to see if it would work the opposite way around even if I created it this way around, and I forgot to flatten the image so it only inverted the layer, and it actually look really good. 

Depending on where I take things, this could be a good possibility of what to use for the smoke. Actually inverting the whole thing doesn't work, but it has made it even more subtle.

I tried another experiment this time starting off with two beginning lines. It has turned out better than I expected actually as it looks more like a cloud of smoke. 

It fills the page more than one line does. Might be worth trying it with 3 or 4 lines to see how that turns out. I inverted this one as well like I did before and then experimented with the blending options again. I really like the ones where the 'smoke' has gone more of a pure grey colour below.

I tried using three beginning lines but it just didn't work as it just basically turned into a big grey blur and didn't get the smokey look effect. So I decided to do some more of the same as one above with one line in the center of the page. I definitely prefer these ones as they could really work at any scale and on any format.