Tutorial 02
This time we will be coloring and making a pretty nature icon, but I guess that you could use this coloring for any other icon as well =] We are making this icon in PSP8, but it should be easily translatable to any other version of Photoshop or PSP.
Dial up users may want to be careful, it's not image heavy but incase you wanted to be on the safe side..
Remember that tutorials are just guidelines.
Before-
After-
Welcome back to Tutorial school! XDD
Now, we'll be using this image: http://www.filelodge.com/files/hdd8/209734/bigfountainimage.png. It was found at http://www.freefoto.com under the nature section :D
1. Resize and crop your image. I'll be cropping mine to about 100x100.
2. Duplicate twice. Make the first layer (the one directly above "background") Screen at 46%. Then make the layer above that one "Softlight" and set it as 100%.
3. Create a new raster layer and fill it with #2D8C08. Set that layer to "Burn" and set it at 36%. As you can see the burn effect enhances the green in your icon.
4. Now create another raster layer and fill it with #0B205D. Set that layer to Lighten at about 76%.
5. Take a beige-ish color, create a new raster layer and set it to Multiply at 82%. However, I like to make use of gradients, so I have this beige one you can use:
6. Okay, now, duplicate the image you started with (the 100x100 background image on your layer pallette) and bring it to the top. Set that to Soft Light at 100%. Now your icon has that little glowy-ness about it =D Yay!
7. Duplicate the Soft Light layer, and set it to Burn at 5-8%.
8. Merge all your layers, and sharpen your icon to how much YOU want. I would suggest after merging the layers, duplicate the new image and keep the mode on "Normal". Then, sharpen once. If it's too much, use the opacity bar to tone down your sharpness.
9. We're almost to the finish! :D Now, create a new raster layer. Choose a round brush from your brush menu, I would suggest using one that is the default ones. Make sure the hardness is set to 0 so that your brush seems to have that glowy effect and is soft around the circumference, like this one:
The bigger your brush the nicer the glow effect is, but dont pick a huge brush. Around size 98-133 is good. Now, pick a bright color (I am using #FF0374) and using your brush, make a spot on your picture (I did mine on the right hand side).
10. Now, using a heart brush, make a little (and I mean little!) heart . I put mine by the fountain's sprays. The heart I used was about size 13. =)
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11. Now, merge all layers. Finally, duplicate your image one last time. Set it to Overlay but put it at 20%.
...guess what? You're finished!
Once again, post and show me what you made if you try my tutorial! =D I would absoloutely love to see what you came up with =]