xxxix. tutorials - multiple

[fuuurs]

I'm allergic to psds and I have a very hazy memory of how I made these, so instead of full-blown tutorials, I present you with 14 "mini-tutorials."  My apologies, guys.  Always saving a psd will be my icon resolution this year, I guess.  I think for now I'm declaring a moratorium on specific icon tutorials because I feel bad that these are so not helpful.  But if you have any questions about how I did something in general or something, my thread for ask the maker is here.





a.  The original cap was pretty dark but already had some nice lighting/shadows going on, so I think I just duplicated the base and set it to screen, duplicated it again and set it to soft light.  I don't remember doing much coloring, I think I basically just rotated and set this by innocent_lexys) to screen (and soft light, so the texture was there twice) and then set this (by innocent_lexys) to screen (twice).  Flattened it all and sharpened.
b.  Drunk icon, hollaaaa.  I remember the cap for this being pretty bright so I didn't do any lighting.  Unfortunately I was pretty far gone when I made this so I don't remember the textures I used, but I remember using at least one really huge paint texture by blueymcphluey and inverting it and messing with the hue/texture and setting it to a whole bunch of different layer modes while resizing and moving them around to get that nice grainy feel.  Then I used selective color and adjusted the NEUTRAL channel while masking off different sections (I remember there being 3 different selective color layers... one yellow-y one for his hair, one peachy one for his skin and one really cyan-y one for everything else.)  Then I did a dark blue color fill layer set to screen.  &&&&& flattened and sharpened.
c.  I masked off the background so it was just Lana and her flowers.  Put a cyan color fill under her layer.  I brightened it up a little using levels and then I added a vibrance layer.  I added a selective color layer where I pumped up the cyan/magenta/yellows.  Next I applied the "copper" gradient in a gradient map layer set to soft light.  Duplicated that layer and checked the box to reverse the gradient.    Then I painted a big white dot in the upper left corner, and smudged it diagonally down towards the bottom right.  I guassian blurred the dot layer quite a bit (so it was very very faint) and then duplicated it until it got to the opacity you see.  Then just flatten and sharpen!





d.  I did my basic lighting (2 duplicates of the base, 1 on screen 1 on soft light).  I remember that I used lots of selective color layers.  LOTS OF THEM.  Like probably 10.  Basically the gist of them was to push the yellows as far as they would go (and add a little magenta to them to get that nice orange-y yellow); to make the reds and magentas a very purple-y red (basically just bump up the cyan and magenta and decrease the yellow in both the red and magenta channels); bump up the cyan/blues and then add some magenta and some blue from the neutral channel.  Add a dark purple color fill layer on screen, flatten and sharpen.
e.  Now that I think about it, I think I used the same method as the one described for "d" but I went back and took a lot of the magenta out of all the selective color layers.  I think I used this on screen too.
f.  I don't have the psd for this anymore, and I remember this being a 70+ layer icon.  So a looooooooot of little steps, but there are some important ones that really changed the look.  Basically I had this 1 cap, and I colored two versions of it.  One I used a yellow-green color fill layer set to "overlay"... and the other was the same thing but reddish-orange instead of yellow-green.  Then I basically copied these two versions into my 100x100 canvas and went crazy duplicating and resizing them into the little grid that you see.  (Also I used a black/white gradient map on some of them, as you can see).  Most importantly (if only because this is the only step I remember CRYSTAL CLEAR)... to get the lighting you see, apply a linear black and white gradient fill layer set to overlay at 60%.  Mask it off so it only affects 1 little block.  Duplicate this twice.  Then repeat that gradient fill steps over and over so that each little block has this step applied to it.  Flatten and sharpen.





g.  This icon was really fun to make!  Basically I masked the background away from Shaun.  (I don't have any of the textures I used saved, I sort of just pulled them off google and one might have come from lostandtaken...).  I applied a loose-leaf paper texture set to multiply (not at full opacity if I remember).  Then I added like... a billion paint textures and paint brushes at screen, soft light, multiply and overlay (taking care to use hue/saturation to make them all orange/pink/red).  Next I sloppily painted an orange line around Shaun and his cricket paddle/bat/thing and set it to multiply.  I added the text (the font is Futura btw), flattened and sharpened.
h.  This icon is actually two different caps if I remember right?  I masked Eugenes background out and put in the one thats there now.  I don't think I did much lighting at all, I think I just used color balance to make things warmer and then used a warming photo filter.  I inverted and rotated this texture by cielo_gris nd set it to screen.  I don't think I even sharpened this one.
i.  I masked off the background and applied a black/white gradient map (using the gradient map to brighten things up and add more contrast).  I made the background a middle shade of gray.  I inverted and resized this and set it to screen.  Then I flattened everything and sharpened it.





j. It's another drunk icon.  Not 100% sure what I did with this one.  I do know that I took the original image, clipped a vibrance layer to it that was 100% vibrance and 100% saturation and then I merged it.  I guassian blurred this a lot and then I set it to soft light and overlay (so it's there twice).  I then went into selective-color and pumped up my blues/cyans/magentas and took out most of the yellow.  I finished by making the whites more cyan and magenta-y with selective color and adding a grunge texture.
k.  Very simple icon!  I made a gradient map layer that went from black to very light tan.  I set this to soft-light and adjusted where the tan was on the gradient line to lighten things up.  I added a warming photo filter and used a vibrance layer (where the vibrance was a negative number) to make things warm and pale.  Flatten and sharpen!
l.  Suuuuuch an easy icon.  Basically, paint colors over stuff (yellow over her hair, blue over pretty much everything, peach over her skin) and set it to soft light.  Throw a vibrance layer on to pump the colors up and then go into selective color just to pull the colors through a little more (I went pretty heavy on the yellows, cyans and blues and didn't touch anything else.)  Use a dark purple color fill layer on screen.  Flatten and sharpen.




m.  Mask out the background.  I used levels to brighten things up a little.  I didn't really color anything other than using a warming photo filter and using a vibrance layer (negative vibrance).  I added this texture (by pandavirus) behind April.  I clipped a blue color fill layer set to soft light to April just to make her match the background more.  Flatten and sharpen.
n.  I masked around Ron and then I made the background the same color as his suit.  I used levels to make things brighter and add some contrast.  I added a color balance layer where I pumped up the magenta-ness.  Then things devolved and I basically just used this over and over (multiply, screen, soft light, etc), sometimes masking over Ron and sometimes not.  Flatten and sharpen!

note。
credit bourbonate or fuuurs if you feel like it)
don't do anything stupid
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