Blending two images, contrasty greeny colouring - My first tutorial
Tutorial to make this icon:
I used PSP8, but it's probably translatable. You'll need to basically know your program and what it does. I'm working from the .psp file, so I'm not *quite* sure what I did, so bear with me if some of the details are a little iffy. Follow along, if you can follow my trains of thought. (I am so intensely brilliant that I have multiple trains. ;))
So, we start with these two pictures of the ever sexy Boyd Holbrook ( http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b61/star-girl22/boyd.jpg ) and the lovely Emmy Rossum ( http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b61/star-girl22/emmy.jpg ). Look at the pretty people fest!
Anyways. Crop the image of Boyd down to 100 x 100 - I have:
Duplicate that three times, and set the layers to screen, screen, and soft light. This just preps the base and ups the contrast and makes it...pretty! I have this:
I opened the picture of Emmy in a new image, and then desaturated her to about -85. Around there. I then duplicated the layer three times, and then changed the layer blending modes to screen, multiply and soft light. Now, apparently I cannot capture that white glowy look that I had originally, but it's close enough. You can fiddle with it by adding extra multiply/soft light/screen layers if you like so it's tailored to your specifications. Sharpen it once. Now, Emmy looks like:
The original was a bit big, so I resized it to 44%. Surprise, surprise, that was what the original Emmy's size was! What a surprise.
Add the picture of Emmy on a new layer. Mirror the image so she's facing the other way (towards Boyd, yay.) I resized the picture until her head was the same size as Boyd's - because otherwise it would look weird, or at least not the effect I wanted to achieve. However, you already know that a good size would eb 44% of the original. Move the picture until only a bit of her face is facing him. You'll want to adjust the opacity for this, seeing as you won't know what Emmy looks like in relation to Boyd if you can't *see* Boyd. Set the layer opacity to 86% - enough so she's still visible, but a wee bit transparent, to add to the ghostly effect I wanted. You know, because Hermione's just *that* (14 percent, to be exact) out of Draco's reach? ;)
Then, make a layer mask on that layer. Taking your airbrush tool, pick black, and make a big stripe down the layer so only a little of her is left. We now have this (all of this 'we now have this!' makes me feel vaguely like the dude on Art Attack):
Aww, don't they look cute together? DHR = <3 Also, notice how the colouring looks (mostly) the same? This is so they look as if they're from the same picture when you're done - that's why I upped the contrast and desaturated it. Copy merged, paste as new layer. I like to do this so I have a base of them that I can just copy and paste if I need to paste the base to modify it. Then, duplicate it four times. Set it to multiply, screen, soft light, screen. This makes it lovely and contrasty. Now, we have:
Make a new layer, and flood fill it with #C0C0C0. Coco, hehe. Set that layer to soft light, 50%. Duplicate that layer, change the 'soft light' to 'colour' and the opacity to 18%. Now it's more desaturated-y. Make a new layer. Flood fill it with #F5CBCB, and set it to Burn. It should look something like:
Yeah, pinky, I know. So, the magic layer that makes it teh pretteh greeneh? Flood fill a new layer with #0B5112, and set it to soft light. Yay, green tones. Then I set this brushy looking thing that I honestly cannot remember where it came from -
and set it to burn. Then I added 'DRACO & HERMIONE' in some font in what is probably size 5 or 6 - it's probably Day Roman, Georgia or Palatino Linotype - in some sort of yellowy colour I extracted from the picture. Save, and then you're done! Yay.
Compare my tutorial version with the original:
Not quite perfect, but pretty damn close. Comment if you like, credit if you use. I'd love to see stuff you make out of this! Don't, obviously, make the same exact icon - use your OTP! Substitute your 'shippy colours! (Green because Draco's Slytherin and Hermione has Slytherin tendencies. Plus, Hermione looks good in both green and red, but can you *imagine* Draco in red? Yeah, he'd still be hot, but nevertheless, ew.)
I used PSP8, but it's probably translatable. You'll need to basically know your program and what it does. I'm working from the .psp file, so I'm not *quite* sure what I did, so bear with me if some of the details are a little iffy. Follow along, if you can follow my trains of thought. (I am so intensely brilliant that I have multiple trains. ;))
So, we start with these two pictures of the ever sexy Boyd Holbrook ( http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b61/star-girl22/boyd.jpg ) and the lovely Emmy Rossum ( http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b61/star-girl22/emmy.jpg ). Look at the pretty people fest!
Anyways. Crop the image of Boyd down to 100 x 100 - I have:
Duplicate that three times, and set the layers to screen, screen, and soft light. This just preps the base and ups the contrast and makes it...pretty! I have this:
I opened the picture of Emmy in a new image, and then desaturated her to about -85. Around there. I then duplicated the layer three times, and then changed the layer blending modes to screen, multiply and soft light. Now, apparently I cannot capture that white glowy look that I had originally, but it's close enough. You can fiddle with it by adding extra multiply/soft light/screen layers if you like so it's tailored to your specifications. Sharpen it once. Now, Emmy looks like:
The original was a bit big, so I resized it to 44%. Surprise, surprise, that was what the original Emmy's size was! What a surprise.
Add the picture of Emmy on a new layer. Mirror the image so she's facing the other way (towards Boyd, yay.) I resized the picture until her head was the same size as Boyd's - because otherwise it would look weird, or at least not the effect I wanted to achieve. However, you already know that a good size would eb 44% of the original. Move the picture until only a bit of her face is facing him. You'll want to adjust the opacity for this, seeing as you won't know what Emmy looks like in relation to Boyd if you can't *see* Boyd. Set the layer opacity to 86% - enough so she's still visible, but a wee bit transparent, to add to the ghostly effect I wanted. You know, because Hermione's just *that* (14 percent, to be exact) out of Draco's reach? ;)
Then, make a layer mask on that layer. Taking your airbrush tool, pick black, and make a big stripe down the layer so only a little of her is left. We now have this (all of this 'we now have this!' makes me feel vaguely like the dude on Art Attack):
Aww, don't they look cute together? DHR = <3 Also, notice how the colouring looks (mostly) the same? This is so they look as if they're from the same picture when you're done - that's why I upped the contrast and desaturated it. Copy merged, paste as new layer. I like to do this so I have a base of them that I can just copy and paste if I need to paste the base to modify it. Then, duplicate it four times. Set it to multiply, screen, soft light, screen. This makes it lovely and contrasty. Now, we have:
Make a new layer, and flood fill it with #C0C0C0. Coco, hehe. Set that layer to soft light, 50%. Duplicate that layer, change the 'soft light' to 'colour' and the opacity to 18%. Now it's more desaturated-y. Make a new layer. Flood fill it with #F5CBCB, and set it to Burn. It should look something like:
Yeah, pinky, I know. So, the magic layer that makes it teh pretteh greeneh? Flood fill a new layer with #0B5112, and set it to soft light. Yay, green tones. Then I set this brushy looking thing that I honestly cannot remember where it came from -
and set it to burn. Then I added 'DRACO & HERMIONE' in some font in what is probably size 5 or 6 - it's probably Day Roman, Georgia or Palatino Linotype - in some sort of yellowy colour I extracted from the picture. Save, and then you're done! Yay.
Compare my tutorial version with the original:
Not quite perfect, but pretty damn close. Comment if you like, credit if you use. I'd love to see stuff you make out of this! Don't, obviously, make the same exact icon - use your OTP! Substitute your 'shippy colours! (Green because Draco's Slytherin and Hermione has Slytherin tendencies. Plus, Hermione looks good in both green and red, but can you *imagine* Draco in red? Yeah, he'd still be hot, but nevertheless, ew.)