Smoking Ruins

[IrishBandit]

I'm wondering if anyone has a good way to replicate a smoking ruins type effect, like in the Smoking Sea on the ASOIAF map. I'm using Photoshop CC. Perhaps there's some good looking generic smoke brushes that work?

[Poison]

To replicate that, I would scribble some dark grey on a layer, then use the smudge tool to blur and distort it. Then, on a new layer, I'd do the same with some light grey/white, and again smudge the hell out of it.

You might also be able to go with a smoke/cloud brush and no smudging.

Make your strokes thinner and more opaque near the source, and bigger/more transparent further away.

This is what I ended up with using the above technique. It's not 100% the same, but similar enough I hope!