Icon tutorial
So, I promised tutorials. I must have been out of my mind, because what I do with my icons doesn't really make any sense in tutorials, especially afterwards when I cannot remember what I did when. XD
When I start and icon I always try to bring out the colors as best as possible and bring "a bit of life" into the picture, which results mostly in a very saturated icon. Sometimes I also screw around with the colors and change them to my liking, because sometimes it just looks better with a green background or something (I call that cheating ^^).
Anyways, the following will hopefully be of use for some people. I'm also giving up the secret around the really red hair Addie always has in my icons as well as a few others, so don't make me regret it people!
How to achieve a coloring like this:
First off, I always work with the full cap or picture when I color and only later move it to a 100x100 canvas. If the cap is wider than 700px I will resize it a little, but otherwise it stays the way it is. Why? It gives me a better overview over the complete colouring and I have all possibilities you can think off when it comes to cropping. I also NEVER flatten anything, because then later I can't go back and change things. (I do that a lot)
So, I have this cap here from dj_capslock:
The first thing we have to do is make it brighter because it is, as most caps, pretty dark, so:
1.) Duplicate, set to screen at 86%.
2.) New adjustment layer --> Levels:
RGB: 0 | 1,10 | 246
RED: 0 | 1,05 | 255
Now comes the part where I try to bring out the colors, and I wanted to make it really red, so:
3.) New adjustment layer --> Levels:
RED: 0 | 1,44 | 255
GREEN: 0 | 1,09 | 255
BLUE: 0 | 0,77 | 255
4.) New adjustment layer --> Selective Color:
WHITE: Cyan -4 | Magenta -1 | Yellow +31
GREY: Cyan +40 | Magenta +15 | Yellow +10
So, now it looks like this:
Which is a bit too yellow now and still hasn't much contrast, so we need to change that:
5.) New adjustment layer ---> Curves, see screencap (sorry for the german)
The result should look like this:
So, now more color!
6.) New adjustment layer --> Hue / Saturation
Saturation: +23
7.) New adjustment layer --> Curves , see screencap
8.) New adjustment layer --> Levels
RGB: 8 | 1,24 | 254
RED: 0 | 1,13 | 255
BLUE: 0 | 1,10 | 255
---> set the opacity of the level layer to 44%
9.) New adjustment layer ---> Selective Color
RED: Yellow +25
YELLOW: Cyan +1 | Magenta + 16 | Yellow + 4
GREEN: Cyan +100 | Magenta + 100 | Yellow - 100 (this makes everything that is green blue)
GREY: Cyan +1 | Yellow - 17
10.) New adjustment layer ---> Levels
RGB: 15 | 1,32 | 239
RED: 0 | 0,93 | 255
GREEN: 0 | 0,97 | 255
BLUE: 0 | 0,92 | 255
Now we have this:
Woot, colorful, pretty and VERY VERY red. Too red for my taste. Means, we have to take a bit away, and I chose to do that this way:
11.) Make a new layer, fill it with #76aab0, and then set it to soft light at 86%. Move it down in the layer palette and set it on top of the very first level layer. (From bottom going up: base layer, base layer set to screen, first level layer, and then the blue one and so on.)
Now the blue has kind of washed out everything...it always does. So,
12.) New adjustment layer --> Hue/Saturation
Saturation: +23
13.) Duplicate the saturation layer from #12
Still a tiny bit too red, so:
14.) New adjustment layer --> Levels
RED: 0 | 0,85 | 255
BLUE: 0 | 1,10 | 255
So now, done with the colouring, now follows the tweaking and all kind of neat tricks.
15.) New layer ---> Press CTRL + Alt + Shift + E
And you have a new layer with your complete colouring without losing all the layers underneath like when you flatten it.
If you look at the finished thing you'll notice that with the heavy coloring you unfortunately brought out a lot of the pixels, so there are now ugly raw regions on Addie's face and throughout the whole picture.
16.) Take the lasso tool and circle all background regions, make sure not to include Addie's or Alex's faces. (>Like this)
Go to Filter --> Blur ---> Smart Blur, leave everything as it is, but set the radius to 2.1 or something around it and then press OK.
Now we still have all the pixelated regions in Addie's and Alex's faces that we need to get rid of.
17.) Take the smudge tool and set it to 13% intensity (I have no idea what that is in english PS) and use a soft small round brush. Brush over the pixelated regions very carefully in little, really tiny circles. Make sure you don't do it too fast or go too heavy on it, because the only purpose is really to get rid of the pixels. Never ever brush out folds or other creases, because then the thing happens that at the end you cannot recognize the person. I also do that with the hair and the clothes if it's necessary.
The result
So, that was secret Nr #1, which brings us to secret Nr #2: The cheating. If you look at Addie's face, there are greenísh parts on the left lower side of her face and her neck, which is like NO-nononono. So we need to get rid of them.
18.) Take the eyedropper and pick a color from a part of her face close to the greenish parts. Make a new layer, take a round, soft brush and brush over the greenish parts.
Looks like this:
Set the layer to Color. Lower the opacity until it looks right and you don't see the tweaking. Sometimes I also adjust the color a little bit afterwards, sometimes you need two different layers or more for different regions of the face. Anyways, this is my result:
Now the same thing with the skin happens with the hair: Addie's hair is red, but here it looks more greenish red-blueish. I actually like it a lot in this specific picture and almost kept it that way, but then I thought what the hell and made it red as usual. Which leads us to secret Nr #3, the color cheating with the hair:
19.) Take the eyedropper again and pick a tone of red from Addie's hair. There ALWAYS is some red somewhere, even if it's just a very tiny region. Never, never ever make up a tone of red from scratch because then it just looks wrong. Anyways, make a new layer, take a big round brush and brush over Addie's hair with the red.
Looks like this:
Now it completely depends on the picture. If there are lots of different colors in the hair I always set the layer to "color" to give the hair a more steady color. (I usually adjust the red to a dark brown for that case.) Then I duplicate it and set the next layer to soft light and then I play around with the opacity of both layers. In this case I have a brownish layer set to color at 23% and on top the original color I picked set to soft light at 69%. I also use the eraser to get rid of parts of the color that cover her face and not just the hair accidentally.
Voila!
Now make a new layer, press CTRL + Alt + Shift + E again and you have a layer with everything in it.
Then,
20.) Make a new canvas 100x100, sharpen and then drag the layer you just created into it. Now you can resize it to your liking and shift it around until you get something you like. I also added a few additional level layers to enhance contrast and brightness once again, but that's just personal preference.
Possible results:
Ugh, it's almost midnight now and I started this at 10pm. Clearly, my icons and tutorials take too much time. ><
When I start and icon I always try to bring out the colors as best as possible and bring "a bit of life" into the picture, which results mostly in a very saturated icon. Sometimes I also screw around with the colors and change them to my liking, because sometimes it just looks better with a green background or something (I call that cheating ^^).
Anyways, the following will hopefully be of use for some people. I'm also giving up the secret around the really red hair Addie always has in my icons as well as a few others, so don't make me regret it people!
How to achieve a coloring like this:
First off, I always work with the full cap or picture when I color and only later move it to a 100x100 canvas. If the cap is wider than 700px I will resize it a little, but otherwise it stays the way it is. Why? It gives me a better overview over the complete colouring and I have all possibilities you can think off when it comes to cropping. I also NEVER flatten anything, because then later I can't go back and change things. (I do that a lot)
So, I have this cap here from dj_capslock:
The first thing we have to do is make it brighter because it is, as most caps, pretty dark, so:
1.) Duplicate, set to screen at 86%.
2.) New adjustment layer --> Levels:
RGB: 0 | 1,10 | 246
RED: 0 | 1,05 | 255
Now comes the part where I try to bring out the colors, and I wanted to make it really red, so:
3.) New adjustment layer --> Levels:
RED: 0 | 1,44 | 255
GREEN: 0 | 1,09 | 255
BLUE: 0 | 0,77 | 255
4.) New adjustment layer --> Selective Color:
WHITE: Cyan -4 | Magenta -1 | Yellow +31
GREY: Cyan +40 | Magenta +15 | Yellow +10
So, now it looks like this:
Which is a bit too yellow now and still hasn't much contrast, so we need to change that:
5.) New adjustment layer ---> Curves, see screencap (sorry for the german)
The result should look like this:
So, now more color!
6.) New adjustment layer --> Hue / Saturation
Saturation: +23
7.) New adjustment layer --> Curves , see screencap
8.) New adjustment layer --> Levels
RGB: 8 | 1,24 | 254
RED: 0 | 1,13 | 255
BLUE: 0 | 1,10 | 255
---> set the opacity of the level layer to 44%
9.) New adjustment layer ---> Selective Color
RED: Yellow +25
YELLOW: Cyan +1 | Magenta + 16 | Yellow + 4
GREEN: Cyan +100 | Magenta + 100 | Yellow - 100 (this makes everything that is green blue)
GREY: Cyan +1 | Yellow - 17
10.) New adjustment layer ---> Levels
RGB: 15 | 1,32 | 239
RED: 0 | 0,93 | 255
GREEN: 0 | 0,97 | 255
BLUE: 0 | 0,92 | 255
Now we have this:
Woot, colorful, pretty and VERY VERY red. Too red for my taste. Means, we have to take a bit away, and I chose to do that this way:
11.) Make a new layer, fill it with #76aab0, and then set it to soft light at 86%. Move it down in the layer palette and set it on top of the very first level layer. (From bottom going up: base layer, base layer set to screen, first level layer, and then the blue one and so on.)
Now the blue has kind of washed out everything...it always does. So,
12.) New adjustment layer --> Hue/Saturation
Saturation: +23
13.) Duplicate the saturation layer from #12
Still a tiny bit too red, so:
14.) New adjustment layer --> Levels
RED: 0 | 0,85 | 255
BLUE: 0 | 1,10 | 255
So now, done with the colouring, now follows the tweaking and all kind of neat tricks.
15.) New layer ---> Press CTRL + Alt + Shift + E
And you have a new layer with your complete colouring without losing all the layers underneath like when you flatten it.
If you look at the finished thing you'll notice that with the heavy coloring you unfortunately brought out a lot of the pixels, so there are now ugly raw regions on Addie's face and throughout the whole picture.
16.) Take the lasso tool and circle all background regions, make sure not to include Addie's or Alex's faces. (>Like this)
Go to Filter --> Blur ---> Smart Blur, leave everything as it is, but set the radius to 2.1 or something around it and then press OK.
Now we still have all the pixelated regions in Addie's and Alex's faces that we need to get rid of.
17.) Take the smudge tool and set it to 13% intensity (I have no idea what that is in english PS) and use a soft small round brush. Brush over the pixelated regions very carefully in little, really tiny circles. Make sure you don't do it too fast or go too heavy on it, because the only purpose is really to get rid of the pixels. Never ever brush out folds or other creases, because then the thing happens that at the end you cannot recognize the person. I also do that with the hair and the clothes if it's necessary.
The result
So, that was secret Nr #1, which brings us to secret Nr #2: The cheating. If you look at Addie's face, there are greenísh parts on the left lower side of her face and her neck, which is like NO-nononono. So we need to get rid of them.
18.) Take the eyedropper and pick a color from a part of her face close to the greenish parts. Make a new layer, take a round, soft brush and brush over the greenish parts.
Looks like this:
Set the layer to Color. Lower the opacity until it looks right and you don't see the tweaking. Sometimes I also adjust the color a little bit afterwards, sometimes you need two different layers or more for different regions of the face. Anyways, this is my result:
Now the same thing with the skin happens with the hair: Addie's hair is red, but here it looks more greenish red-blueish. I actually like it a lot in this specific picture and almost kept it that way, but then I thought what the hell and made it red as usual. Which leads us to secret Nr #3, the color cheating with the hair:
19.) Take the eyedropper again and pick a tone of red from Addie's hair. There ALWAYS is some red somewhere, even if it's just a very tiny region. Never, never ever make up a tone of red from scratch because then it just looks wrong. Anyways, make a new layer, take a big round brush and brush over Addie's hair with the red.
Looks like this:
Now it completely depends on the picture. If there are lots of different colors in the hair I always set the layer to "color" to give the hair a more steady color. (I usually adjust the red to a dark brown for that case.) Then I duplicate it and set the next layer to soft light and then I play around with the opacity of both layers. In this case I have a brownish layer set to color at 23% and on top the original color I picked set to soft light at 69%. I also use the eraser to get rid of parts of the color that cover her face and not just the hair accidentally.
Voila!
Now make a new layer, press CTRL + Alt + Shift + E again and you have a layer with everything in it.
Then,
20.) Make a new canvas 100x100, sharpen and then drag the layer you just created into it. Now you can resize it to your liking and shift it around until you get something you like. I also added a few additional level layers to enhance contrast and brightness once again, but that's just personal preference.
Possible results:
Ugh, it's almost midnight now and I started this at 10pm. Clearly, my icons and tutorials take too much time. ><