Icon Tutorial #6: Kairi's Calling
My sixth tutorial to date. :3 Comment? ^^
** made in Adobe Photoshop CS2
** involves Selective Coloring, Color Balance
** beginner-intermediate knowledge
Welcome to my sixth tutorial! Wee! This is one featuring Kairi from the famous Kingdom Hearts game. (Image from Oritsuru) Please note this tutorial is not step-by-step, meaning you don't copy the EXACT steps. This is mainly for just inspiring and experimenting. :3
Show me your final result, if you ever get to try and experiment though! :3
Like what you see? Why not friend or join eden_dreamer? :D
So, let's start shall we? :D
:1: First step is ofcourse, to grab your base. I'll be using Kairi from Kingdom Hearts for this tutorial. I haven't done anything as of yet, except cropping it 100 x 100 for LJ standards. :3
Here it is now:
:2 Next, according to your icon, you can sharpen it once. Since the icon I'm using is a little dull and blurry, I sharpened it once. But if it's razor sharp already, you can always skip this step. :3
A little better huh?
:3 Now, since this icon is very dark, I had to use about 5-6 Screen layers in order to get it bright. So I duplicated the base and dragged it to the top of everything, setting it on Screen at full opacity. I duplicated the Screen layer about 5-6 times and got this: (Of course, this all depends on your icon. It might be Pearly Gates bright if you do this and your icon is bright to begin with ^^;; If that is the case, then about one Screen layer with messing opacities will do.)
I merged all the Screen layers with Merge Down so I was left with two layers of the base. The base and the merged Screen layers.
:4 Next up, I duplicated the base layer and dragged it all the way to the top. I desaturted it and set that layer on Soft Light, at 50% opacity. This is what I got:
:5 I made a new raster layer (New Layer) after and floodfilled it with a nice beigy brown. I set this layer on Multiply at 44% opacity. Of course, mess around with this. ^^
This is'll give Kairi a nice rosy complexion...NOT. >;) Kidding. :3
:6: I made another raster layer and this time, floodfilled it with a very bright blue. As in, light light blue. I set this layer to Color Burn at full speed. (XD) Again, mess around with the settings of the layers. ^^ Here's the outcome:
:7: Okay! It's starting to come up! :D The next step that I did was I put this texture by gender and flipped it horizontally. I slapped it on everything and set it to Screen at full opacity. Here's what I got:
:8: Now comes the albeit tricky part! ^^;; Click that eye icon beside the texture layer so it's visibility is now unseen. So it's still there, but we just can't see it. :3 Now, go to the Adjustment layers and select Selective Coloring. Make sure that the Selective Coloring layer is below the texture layer. All you need to do is mess up with the settings until you get your icon nice and tropically bright. :3 As for me, the icon I'm using has tinges of reds and greens so I messed with the Red and Neutral drop down menus only. This all depends on your icon, shall I now point out. ^^;;
Here's what I got:
:9: Create another Adjustment Layer above the Selective coloring layer, and this time, choose Hue/Saturation. I set the MASTER saturation on +25, so that the colors blend in more brightly. Again, mess with the settings. :3
Here's what I got:
:10: Atop those two layers, make another Adjustment layer, this time, a Color Balance layer and mess with everything. ^^;; The icon I have right now is too bright, so I used a lot of Cyan/Blue tinkering with the Shadows so that they would contrast to the reddish hues of Kairi and the sand. This is what I got:
:11: Yey, we've got it all set up! ^^ Well, now that we have the icon ready, you can click the eye icon beside the texture so it'll be visible again. :3 Using the texture as a guide, you can now re-edit any Adjustment layer settings you want, without having to edit the main texture itself. ^^ (NOTE on the texture, depending on your icon, you could set it either to LIGHTEN or to SCREEN. :3) This is my outcome as of now:
:12: Okay! Let's make room for text! (If you want any, that is. XD) So, I figured it wouldn't look as nice if I set the text right beside Kairi like that, so I made a new layer above it all and chose a 21 px soft brush. I set the color to white and a drew a small rectangular shape just beside her. This is what I got:
According to the amount of text I have, I could easily re-edit the whites to fit the text. ^^ You can do the same, if you're making an icon with the same style.
:13: Final step! ^^ I chose the TEXT tool and wrote the words Calling and you in the font Carpenter ICG at 36 px. (This is on top of the white rectangular shape I drew earlier.) At this step, you can add text, brushes or even more textures to your choosing! Flatten or merge and dun dun dun! You have your icon! :D
This is the final product:
I added a small gibberish text underneath it all as well and used Kairi's eye color with the eye dropper tool and brushed over it with a new layer, setting it to Overlay at 75%. :D Nice effect, no?
I didn't add any Gaussian Blur's to this icon because right now, I'm feeling razor sharp with Sharpen XD
So, how did you like it? :3 Was it good? Was it bad? Comment and lemme know whatcha think! :D You can use the final outcome of the Kairi tutorial with credit^^ Thanks for reading! :D
Enjoy experimenting~ ^^V
** made in Adobe Photoshop CS2
** involves Selective Coloring, Color Balance
** beginner-intermediate knowledge
Welcome to my sixth tutorial! Wee! This is one featuring Kairi from the famous Kingdom Hearts game. (Image from Oritsuru) Please note this tutorial is not step-by-step, meaning you don't copy the EXACT steps. This is mainly for just inspiring and experimenting. :3
Show me your final result, if you ever get to try and experiment though! :3
Like what you see? Why not friend or join eden_dreamer? :D
So, let's start shall we? :D
:1: First step is ofcourse, to grab your base. I'll be using Kairi from Kingdom Hearts for this tutorial. I haven't done anything as of yet, except cropping it 100 x 100 for LJ standards. :3
Here it is now:
:2 Next, according to your icon, you can sharpen it once. Since the icon I'm using is a little dull and blurry, I sharpened it once. But if it's razor sharp already, you can always skip this step. :3
A little better huh?
:3 Now, since this icon is very dark, I had to use about 5-6 Screen layers in order to get it bright. So I duplicated the base and dragged it to the top of everything, setting it on Screen at full opacity. I duplicated the Screen layer about 5-6 times and got this: (Of course, this all depends on your icon. It might be Pearly Gates bright if you do this and your icon is bright to begin with ^^;; If that is the case, then about one Screen layer with messing opacities will do.)
I merged all the Screen layers with Merge Down so I was left with two layers of the base. The base and the merged Screen layers.
:4 Next up, I duplicated the base layer and dragged it all the way to the top. I desaturted it and set that layer on Soft Light, at 50% opacity. This is what I got:
:5 I made a new raster layer (New Layer) after and floodfilled it with a nice beigy brown. I set this layer on Multiply at 44% opacity. Of course, mess around with this. ^^
This is'll give Kairi a nice rosy complexion...NOT. >;) Kidding. :3
:6: I made another raster layer and this time, floodfilled it with a very bright blue. As in, light light blue. I set this layer to Color Burn at full speed. (XD) Again, mess around with the settings of the layers. ^^ Here's the outcome:
:7: Okay! It's starting to come up! :D The next step that I did was I put this texture by gender and flipped it horizontally. I slapped it on everything and set it to Screen at full opacity. Here's what I got:
:8: Now comes the albeit tricky part! ^^;; Click that eye icon beside the texture layer so it's visibility is now unseen. So it's still there, but we just can't see it. :3 Now, go to the Adjustment layers and select Selective Coloring. Make sure that the Selective Coloring layer is below the texture layer. All you need to do is mess up with the settings until you get your icon nice and tropically bright. :3 As for me, the icon I'm using has tinges of reds and greens so I messed with the Red and Neutral drop down menus only. This all depends on your icon, shall I now point out. ^^;;
Here's what I got:
:9: Create another Adjustment Layer above the Selective coloring layer, and this time, choose Hue/Saturation. I set the MASTER saturation on +25, so that the colors blend in more brightly. Again, mess with the settings. :3
Here's what I got:
:10: Atop those two layers, make another Adjustment layer, this time, a Color Balance layer and mess with everything. ^^;; The icon I have right now is too bright, so I used a lot of Cyan/Blue tinkering with the Shadows so that they would contrast to the reddish hues of Kairi and the sand. This is what I got:
:11: Yey, we've got it all set up! ^^ Well, now that we have the icon ready, you can click the eye icon beside the texture so it'll be visible again. :3 Using the texture as a guide, you can now re-edit any Adjustment layer settings you want, without having to edit the main texture itself. ^^ (NOTE on the texture, depending on your icon, you could set it either to LIGHTEN or to SCREEN. :3) This is my outcome as of now:
:12: Okay! Let's make room for text! (If you want any, that is. XD) So, I figured it wouldn't look as nice if I set the text right beside Kairi like that, so I made a new layer above it all and chose a 21 px soft brush. I set the color to white and a drew a small rectangular shape just beside her. This is what I got:
According to the amount of text I have, I could easily re-edit the whites to fit the text. ^^ You can do the same, if you're making an icon with the same style.
:13: Final step! ^^ I chose the TEXT tool and wrote the words Calling and you in the font Carpenter ICG at 36 px. (This is on top of the white rectangular shape I drew earlier.) At this step, you can add text, brushes or even more textures to your choosing! Flatten or merge and dun dun dun! You have your icon! :D
This is the final product:
I added a small gibberish text underneath it all as well and used Kairi's eye color with the eye dropper tool and brushed over it with a new layer, setting it to Overlay at 75%. :D Nice effect, no?
I didn't add any Gaussian Blur's to this icon because right now, I'm feeling razor sharp with Sharpen XD
So, how did you like it? :3 Was it good? Was it bad? Comment and lemme know whatcha think! :D You can use the final outcome of the Kairi tutorial with credit^^ Thanks for reading! :D
Enjoy experimenting~ ^^V