Tutorial 02 - Harry Potter - Emma Watson
This is a tutorial on how to achieve the blend effect illustrated below
Made using Photoshop 7, only basic knowledge of blend modes required.
01/ Begin by finding an image that you want to use. I chose an image of
Emma Watson that I liked. Ideally use a hi-res image, to avoid
poor quality when we begin to re-size later on.
A note on cropping, I always find some icons that could look
awesome are often let down by people slapping images central, and
assuming they look best. No, no, NO! Experiment, be creative,
try chopping off peoples' eyes, heards, sides; put them along
the top or bottom of your icon, turn them upside down or on their
sides, do whatever, but be original. :-)
Okies so this was my crop. I just chopped her eye off :-)
02/ We're going to prep the base before desaturating it. I find that
doing so gives a better tone quality when you do eventually desaturate.
Duplicate your layer, and set it to 'screen.' For my image, I set
the opacity at 17%, just enough to lighten the shadows. Use whatever
you think your image needs. Next, duplicate your original layer
again and drag it to the very top of the layer palette. Set this layer
to 'soft light.' I left mine at 100% opacity, but again experiment
to find what suits your cap best. When you're happy,
flatten (Ctrl + E) your layers into one.
03/ Ok some optional additions, I sharpened my cap once
because I felt that this cap needed it after being sized
down from a large file size. After doing so, I zoomed right
in and used the blur tool on 30% strength
to trace over large areas of tone and get rid of pixelated
mess. Don't go anywhere near clothing, etes, lips, even
shadows, when doing this, it can be perfect if done
properly, but is also easily overdone. Here all I did was
touch up Emma's right cheek, chin and nose.
04/ Eventually we get to the monotone prettiness. Desaturate
your image. (Image > Adjustments > Desaturate).
05/ Now for the blend modes. The soft effect created in
this icon is done by combining blurred and non-blurred layers.
Duplicate your layer. Set the top one to overlay on 100% opacity.
Don't panic, I know it looks terrible right now, but it won't
for long. Click on the bottom layer and open the Gaussian
Blur window. (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur...). Now here I find
comes in the element of personal taste. Try entering values and
using the preview box to see what happens. The blurred image
adds tone around the overlay layer above it to create the softness.
blur level 5 blur level 8 blur level 15
Obviously the differences are subtle but it's up to you
how much blur you apply. Insert a higher value to blur out
the tone more, or a lower value to darken tone around features.
And you're done!
Other icons from the same batch I made in this way
My original batch including these icons can be found here.
Please experiment and post your versions below!
If I've missed anything or you have any questions, comment
and I'll reply as best I can.