Tutorial 002
Here it goes the second tutorial I have ever made in my life. Hope you find it clear and useful!
I was asked about this icon in Ask the Maker:
Pretty easy, huh? I had in mind two things: that I wanted to use a frame and that I wanted the icon to be yellow. So I picked this texture by twinstrikeish, which I particularly love, to be the frame for the icon.
Then, I got this image of Paz Ortega, from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, resized it, sharpened it and set it to Lighten 100%. Next, I applied a layer mask. Why? Because I was going to delete some areas of this image, and the best way to do it without regretting any action is by applying a layer mask and erasing the parts we don't want with the eraser tool or a black brush. In case of mistake, you can always retrieve the image by using a white brush :D
So, I deleted some parts of the image in a way that the rest of it could fit inside the frame. This was the result:
Are we done with cropping? Now, time for colouring! As I explained in my first tutorial, I like first to apply some basic changes to the colour of the image. I do this by using a Selective Color layer and a Hue/Saturation layer to increase the colours. What I usually do with the Selective Color layer is something like this:
Reds: -50 | 0 | 50 | 0
Yellows: 50 | 0 | -50 | 0
Greens: 50 | 0 | -50 | 0
Cyans: 50 | 0 | -50 | 0
Blues: 50 | 0 | -50 | 0
Magentas: 50 | 0 | -50 | 0
Whites: 0 | 0 | 0 | -30
Neutrals: 0 | 0 | 0 | -5
Black: 0 | 0 | 0 | -5
Thus, the basic colours look brighter (the reds above everything, that's what I like), and by means of the Neutrals and Blacks, the lines of the icon are accentuated. After all this, I apply the Hue/Saturation layer. You can choose the variables that best suit your icon. Until now, our icon looks like this:
From now on, the rest is playing and trying different things. I applied two Colour Balance layers to make the frame bluer and Paz's image more yellowish.
Although I liked the colours, there was still too much difference between the two areas, so I applied a Gradient Map layer to make the icon more homogeneous. This gradient had the colour #e69588 in the front and #d5d5af in the background. The result was this one:
Time to play with lights and shadows! I used a Levels layer to increase the brightness and contrast of the icon. I used the parameters 14 | 1,05 | 254 in the RGB section.
I was not yet satisfied with the colours, so I repeated the first steps and added a Selective Color and Hue/Saturation layer to make the colours deeper and alive. I also added a Brightness/Contrast layer to make the icon a little lighter.
Finally, the last touches! I took this texture by mixedbag, resized it to 200x200 and set it to Soft Light 100% to make the icon a bit clearer. Last, but not least, I used this texture by noisette set to 150x150, Soft Light to make Paz de focus of the icon.
And, at the end, I added the lyrics. The font was Times New Roman, 12. I merged the text layers, placed the new layer below the textures and set it to Normal 80%. Aaaand done!
Hope you have enjoyed this tutorial :D You can ask me whatever you want, I'll try to answer everything as clearly as possible ;)
I was asked about this icon in Ask the Maker:
Pretty easy, huh? I had in mind two things: that I wanted to use a frame and that I wanted the icon to be yellow. So I picked this texture by twinstrikeish, which I particularly love, to be the frame for the icon.
Then, I got this image of Paz Ortega, from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, resized it, sharpened it and set it to Lighten 100%. Next, I applied a layer mask. Why? Because I was going to delete some areas of this image, and the best way to do it without regretting any action is by applying a layer mask and erasing the parts we don't want with the eraser tool or a black brush. In case of mistake, you can always retrieve the image by using a white brush :D
So, I deleted some parts of the image in a way that the rest of it could fit inside the frame. This was the result:
Are we done with cropping? Now, time for colouring! As I explained in my first tutorial, I like first to apply some basic changes to the colour of the image. I do this by using a Selective Color layer and a Hue/Saturation layer to increase the colours. What I usually do with the Selective Color layer is something like this:
Reds: -50 | 0 | 50 | 0
Yellows: 50 | 0 | -50 | 0
Greens: 50 | 0 | -50 | 0
Cyans: 50 | 0 | -50 | 0
Blues: 50 | 0 | -50 | 0
Magentas: 50 | 0 | -50 | 0
Whites: 0 | 0 | 0 | -30
Neutrals: 0 | 0 | 0 | -5
Black: 0 | 0 | 0 | -5
Thus, the basic colours look brighter (the reds above everything, that's what I like), and by means of the Neutrals and Blacks, the lines of the icon are accentuated. After all this, I apply the Hue/Saturation layer. You can choose the variables that best suit your icon. Until now, our icon looks like this:
From now on, the rest is playing and trying different things. I applied two Colour Balance layers to make the frame bluer and Paz's image more yellowish.
Although I liked the colours, there was still too much difference between the two areas, so I applied a Gradient Map layer to make the icon more homogeneous. This gradient had the colour #e69588 in the front and #d5d5af in the background. The result was this one:
Time to play with lights and shadows! I used a Levels layer to increase the brightness and contrast of the icon. I used the parameters 14 | 1,05 | 254 in the RGB section.
I was not yet satisfied with the colours, so I repeated the first steps and added a Selective Color and Hue/Saturation layer to make the colours deeper and alive. I also added a Brightness/Contrast layer to make the icon a little lighter.
Finally, the last touches! I took this texture by mixedbag, resized it to 200x200 and set it to Soft Light 100% to make the icon a bit clearer. Last, but not least, I used this texture by noisette set to 150x150, Soft Light to make Paz de focus of the icon.
And, at the end, I added the lyrics. The font was Times New Roman, 12. I merged the text layers, placed the new layer below the textures and set it to Normal 80%. Aaaand done!
Hope you have enjoyed this tutorial :D You can ask me whatever you want, I'll try to answer everything as clearly as possible ;)