Wanna make an artsy fartsy fire? Here's how.
I will be using ImageReady, which is essentially the same exact thing as Photoshop. It's even packaged with PS in the free trial.
All the colors are optional. If you wanna make a blue and green fire, go right ahead. I'll be using red-orange-yellow, so it'll look somewhat realistic.
All the blending modes are also optional. I'll put what I think looks best, but feel free to experiment with Luminosity, or Screen, or whatever your heart desires.

Step One:
Make a document with a black background. I used 500•500, but if you wanna go smaller, go right ahead. Void of Doom

Step Two:
MAKE A NEW LAYER and do some orange scribbles with a big fat brush. Color is up to you, but like I said I'm doing orange. Ph34r the orange-scribbly-ness!

Step Three:
Go to Filter --> Texture --> Craqueleure (or however you spell that). I used the default settings.
Wooo Craqueluer!!

Step Four:
Go to Filter --> Liquify and doodle around til you have something sort of like this. Ooh... Liquidy

Step Five:
MAKE A NEW LAYER and do some red scribbles. Again, pick whatever color you want. Yay sprinkle dirt

Step Six:
Craqueluer and Liquify it, just like you did with the orange one. Woo... Deja Vu

Step Seven:
CHECKPOINT: Right now, your fire should look somewhat like this. If it doesn't, you did something wrong!

Step Eight:
Pick a blending mode, I like Soft Light, and set the top layer to it.

Step Nine:
Merge the red and orange layers. They should come out looking like this. Oh the mergy-ness!

Step Ten:
THIS STEP IS VITALLY IMPORTANT to the completion of your artsy-fartsy fire. It's what makes it so artsy-fartsy! And matte. Which is cool. For this picture, matte works better than shiny. (Sorry
Vespi!) YAY!!! YOU'RE TECHNICALLY DONE!!!

It should look like this! Yay

SOME ADDITIONAL STUFF YOU CAN DO:

I like to add another layer of yellow, I feel like it adds some depth. Also, some of the effects that make black smudgies look good. THIS STUFF IS OPTIONAL!!

Optional Step 1:
Add a new layer and do yellow scribbles. Crac and liquify it.Yellowy goodness

Optional Step 2:
Gaussian blur it so the edges aren't so standy-outyWoo blurryness

Optional Step 3:
Pick which blending mode you like best. I like Hard Light at 45% Opacity. But that's just me. Experiment around, see what works best for you.Woot

MERGE EM UP AND YER DONE!!

Some cool effects you might try:
Fresco
Sumi-E
Those two are my favorites. But pick one you like, and go with it!


I hope I helped!