Tutorial #2 - adding a stroke to your icon subject
Tutorial Type: icon tutorial
Skill level: beginner
Program used: PS7
Notes:
The techniques used here can be used in larger projects like headers as well, they are not limited to icons.
Finished Product:
The focus of this tutorial is adding the stroke around Eric. I have seen some other tutorials for how to do this but I found them confusing and not very simple. Hopefully you will find this very simple.
1) Find the picture you want to use. I decided to use this one of Eric Szmanda from CSI.
2) Create and prepare your base. You should have something like this:
To get my base prepared I sharpened it twice and used the smooth tool on his skin and on the background colour where there were blotches.
Adding the Stroke
3) Using the lasso tool, select around your subject. To make sure there is no background colour between the stroke and the subject, select in a few pixels. I have zoomed in on the image so you can better see what I mean.
As you can see, the selection is not at the very edge of Eric and some of him will be left behind, that's fine because you won't be able to see it once we've added the stroke.
4) With your subject selected hit CTRL+X on your keyboard (or Edit>Cut) and then CTRL+V (Edit>Paste) to paste it back onto the image as a new layer. Right click the new layer and select Blending Options.
5) In the Blending Options window, select Stroke at the bottom. It will default to a red, 3px stroke around your subject. Change the pixel width and color to whatever you like. I have used a 4px stroke with a darker shade of blue taken from Eric's shirt.
You should now have something similar to this:
To finish off the icon, I used a brush by miggy and added the text. The brush layer is between the background layer and the stroke layer. The text is on top of all layers. "eric" is done using "CSI Cream Source Inside" at 30pt and "szmanda" is done using "BrushScrD" at 14pt.
Questions and comments are always welcome.
Skill level: beginner
Program used: PS7
Notes:
The techniques used here can be used in larger projects like headers as well, they are not limited to icons.
Finished Product:
The focus of this tutorial is adding the stroke around Eric. I have seen some other tutorials for how to do this but I found them confusing and not very simple. Hopefully you will find this very simple.
1) Find the picture you want to use. I decided to use this one of Eric Szmanda from CSI.
2) Create and prepare your base. You should have something like this:
To get my base prepared I sharpened it twice and used the smooth tool on his skin and on the background colour where there were blotches.
Adding the Stroke
3) Using the lasso tool, select around your subject. To make sure there is no background colour between the stroke and the subject, select in a few pixels. I have zoomed in on the image so you can better see what I mean.
As you can see, the selection is not at the very edge of Eric and some of him will be left behind, that's fine because you won't be able to see it once we've added the stroke.
4) With your subject selected hit CTRL+X on your keyboard (or Edit>Cut) and then CTRL+V (Edit>Paste) to paste it back onto the image as a new layer. Right click the new layer and select Blending Options.
5) In the Blending Options window, select Stroke at the bottom. It will default to a red, 3px stroke around your subject. Change the pixel width and color to whatever you like. I have used a 4px stroke with a darker shade of blue taken from Eric's shirt.
You should now have something similar to this:
To finish off the icon, I used a brush by miggy and added the text. The brush layer is between the background layer and the stroke layer. The text is on top of all layers. "eric" is done using "CSI Cream Source Inside" at 30pt and "szmanda" is done using "BrushScrD" at 14pt.
Questions and comments are always welcome.