Icon Help?

[katleept]

I've been making icons for a while now but am only just starting to get into it on a regular basis and in 20in20 comms.  I've got two things that have come up that I'm not really sure even what they mean and hope to get some explanations here.  One is levels, and the other is light spots.  Any help is always much appreciated.  Thanks in advance!

Comments

[rizbef]

Hey :) I'm not sure exactly what you mean about light spots, but to get a certain color in certain places, you can paint a red blob on a new layer, set it to Soft Light or Screen, and it can give the icon a rosy look in that area. Or use white to lighten that part of the image, and black to make it darker.

As for levels (or blocking), it means that there needs to be different levels, like floors in a building, within the icon. These are some examples,

[slavelabour]

Possibly what people are talking about when they mentions levels (as in 'adjusting levels') is a photoshop tool called levels. There are several photo adjustment apps that use levels, though, and it's very common to use levels to adjust your photo.

I'm not sure what they mean by light spots, other than selective brightening in the areas where you want a focus, sort of like adding a vignette to a photo. Maybe they're actually talking about bokeh.

[beetle_breath]

could you link us to what they're talking about?

[katleept]

Of course -- http://free20in20.livejournal.com/395294.html --, and thank you, all, for the help! I'm thinking this might work but am not sure.