q&a 002.
So about a month ago I asked you guys to leave me questions at my Icon/graphic Q&A post, and I bet you all thought I forgot about it, but I didn't! I might be lazy and unmotivated, but I remembered! :P I received a lot of the same questions in different variations, so here you'll find some answers combined together. A lot of people wanted to know about my coloring and how I achieve it, and I got quite a few people inquiring about the icon I'm using now, so I'm including a bit of a tutorial, which is more of a guide, for this icon and some tips for coloring in general. I hope you find this post useful! :)
(Everything I make is done with Paint Shop Pro 9, so hopefully you Photoshoppers will find this useful as well.)
First of all, the quality of your icon is usually dependent on the quality of your cap. This doesn't mean you have to use gigantic caps to make good icons, but it helps. What I mean is however my icon/graphic comes out is usually directly connected to the quality of the cap. If it's too red, it usually ends up looking too grainy and pixelated and I tend to trash those icons. If I'm using promotional pictures that are so big you think the celeb is in your room, my icons tend to come out too sharp for my liking. I prefer to icon screencaps, just because I know how to work with them.
001. I usually start with a screencap about this size. I resize it but 80%, three times, because the more you resize a image affects the quality. If you resize a blurry image this many times, it will become more blurry. But if you take a blurry image and resize it by 60% maybe twice, it'll come out looking sharper.
Now, I can tell you coloring this cap will be easier because it's so clear and bright already, but that's fine, cause I hate difficult screencaps. lol There's only so much you can do before you have to just give up and call it uniconnable.
002. Duplicate your image layer four times. Set the top layer to screen, the second layer to soft light, the third to screen, and the fourth to multiply.
I do practically this same set up to every image I color. Screen brightens the image, sometimes you might need to change the opacity of the layer or add a few more. Soft light changes the image's contrast and makes it more defined, and multiply brings out colors lost beneath all the screen layers.
After this I use curves ONLY TO DARKEN THE CONTRAST. lol I don't go in for color curves, I just don't really understand that stuff. :P
003. Instead of curves I've taken to using the channel mixer in PSP, which I think might be a bit like selective color in Photoshop but I'm not sure. This is more of a trial and error thing, you really have to play with the reds and the greens and the blues to find what works for each particular image. For this image, there was already a lot of green, so I wanted to up the reds, and I upped the blues a bit more too.
004. I've taken a texture I found on a texture group on flickr, which originally looked like this, and duplicated the original layer and set it to soft light. Don't be afraid to edit textures before you use them, you can play with their colors and things too!
005. Now here's where we experiment a bit. I'm really fond of setting layers to multiply, I just think it gives an image more contrast and more definition.
I took my original layer and duplicated it, setting this layer to multiply at 50% opacity. I pasted the texture on and set it to soft light at about 40%, remember to play with settings and stuff to fit the image you're working with. I duplicated the original image again and brought it on top of all the layers to set it to soft light at 30% to make the texture less overpowering. Sometimes you might need to erase bits of the texture, I believe I erased a bit off of Rose's gorgeous face.
I also like to use levels in PSP to darken an image a bit, and give it more contrast.
006. Here I played with the color balance in PSP, I'm not giving out settings because I think it's a bit pointless. Every image is different, you just have to experiment. I changed the color balance's layer opacity to 70%, which is a good way to tone down coloring if you need to. Then I merged the image, duplicated it once more, set it to soft light at around 20% for just some more brightness and contrast, and merged again, and sharpened!
A tip about sharpening, I usually duplicate my completed graphic and sharpen it, then change the opacity of the top layer to adjust the sharpness. I'm sure there's a different way of doing this, but I find it easiest. :P
007. Now we get to the iconning bit! I resized some more, first by 70%, then 80%. I pasted the image onto a new 100x100 canvas. At this point, you can do whatever you like. I relied on coloring and creative cropping to make this icon special, but you know. Go nuts!
You can even mess with the coloring some more, since once you resize things to 100x100, some colors can need brightening or something.
008. I used this texture (found at flickr again!) to make the bottom edge of the icon smoother, and I liked the glowy bits in the corners which can give an icon more depth. I set it to screen, merged the layers, sharpened, and ta dah!
(I had to recreate this icon and for the life of me couldn't figure out which texture I used for the bottom dark stripe but you know, I can't tell you everything! lol)
A few fun tips, that I think are fun anyway. :P
It's always good to experiment with the light/dark areas of a image. It's a good way to bring focus to a certain part of a image.
Here, all I've done is again, duplicated the image and set the layer to multiply, and erased the bits of the layering covering what I feel are the most important parts of the image. It brings your attention to the main subjects, and adds depth and even emotion to it.
Another thing I love doing is setting textures to lighten on top of, you guessed it, multiplied layers. It can give your coloring a totally different feel to it.
Here is a half finished icon, colored and adjusted and it looks pretty hot, obviously because it's Billie. But it could use something.
I pasted both of these textures by aery on top of my icon, and set them both to lighten, playing with the opacity. I duplicated the original image layer and set it to multiply, to bring the contrast up beneath the lighten layers which can wash the image out.
See the difference? And the second version is after some more fiddling and adjustments, you have a deeper, richer looking icon. If that makes any sense. lol But some people don't go in for darker coloring, so whatever tickles your fancy. :P
And now we get to the actual Q&A portion! lol Enough of that rambling about multiply layers and such.
- I actually would like to know your pet peeves about graphic making!:) What are, for you, the most important do's and don'ts ?
This is the first question here and the last one I answered! lol I don't know what to say, I don't want to knock anyone's style or anything. One of the things that bug me the most is when people post loads and loads of icons that all look exactly the same. But then I wonder if some people just use icons differently. I love them too much, and I love making each of mine look different and unique, but I realize some people just want a picture of a celeb or stock image to post with their entry, and that's it. lol So really, it's all about preference.
Also, and I've done it throughout this post, graphics are not just icons, people! What about the wallpapers?! I love wallpapers. makeitlarger, ahem. We need more large graphic love on lj.
- Do you think about how you want your icon to look before you start making it, or do you just try out what works?
Sometimes I get an idea in my head for something, and I try to make it happen. Other times I just try random things and see what happens. Mostly when I'm frustrated and something just isn't working I tend to throw random textures or whatever onto an icon and see what happens.
Sometimes I have like the whole graphic planned out in my head, like for wallpapers. Certain things may pop into my mind and stick with me for a while before I finally open PSP and attempt to create what I'm seeing.
(I'm paraphrasing here, because mylittlepwny and I tend to speak in our special capslock language of love)
- What inspires you, and like, how did you become so consistently brilliant?
Melissa thinks I've been brilliant since I began posting icons but yeah, it's taken a while to get where I am and I don't even think I am brilliant, okay. :P
I've been making graphics since 2005, and I owe whatever talent I have to lots of free time and experimentation.
As for what inspires me, it depends. I think Doctor Who might, just a bit, and Billie Piper, Idk. :P But it could be a certain texture that I get an idea for about how to use, or a certain cap that has some coloring or just something about it that I feel I can work with. I only use images that really appeal to me, unless I get them for requests. lol Because the most important thing to me when making a graphic is that I feel I can end up with something I really like, otherwise I will trash it.
- What do you do to get your muse back?
This kind of goes hand in hand with inspiration. It's tough, because I've been extremely unmotivated lately and my muse fades in and out all the time. I tend to get a random burst of creativity that I feel the need to drain and make icons all day before I lose whatever inspiration I found. Looking for new textures and looking through screencaps, helps.
- What order of things do you do, like colour, then blend, then crop? or some other order?
It all really depends on the image I'm working with. I tend to resize and work with the color first. If I'm blending images together for a wallpaper, I always adjust the images separately before combining them because each image is different and needs it's own TLC. :P
- What do you use to colour everything, mainly? Curves, colour balance, burn layers?
Coloring comes from everywhere, as you can see. I use color balance, mostly, but coloring can change from contrasting, darkening, using different textures at different settings. It's really all dependent on your image.
- What textures do you find yourself using the most? Where do you find textures?
Please don't ask me for recs because while I credit everyone I can't really tell you what textures come from where. lol I tend to use mostly light textures for coloring, and scrap textures because I can't seem to get away from segmented type icons. Stock image sites are amazing, like stock.xchng, or veer. There are a lot of good free textures and stock images at Deviant Art, and you can find lots of stuff on flickr texture groups.
- How do you pick caps to work with?
I loooove uncommon caps. Like for a fandom like say, Doctor Who, who's episodes have been iconned again and again, I like to look for caps that you don't see iconned a lot. I tend not to icon something because it's a popular scene, I usually icon pretty over practical. lol Like, most of my userpics are not applicable to the comment I am making/post I'm posting because I don't make many scene specific icons. It's all about the artsy aspects, for me. I love caps of people moving, people in action. I tend to save a lot of close up icons because I love to make close up icons. And, I don't know, maybe something in the background might appeal to me, to use as a texture in the actual icon. It helps if Billie Piper is in the caps, too.
- Do you prefer to use the emotion of a cap or the natural colours to make icons?
Both! But most of the time I go with the emotion. I always try to put emotion into an icon, as srs business as that sounds. Or if I'm making a wallpaper, I always try to tell a story with it, or show a theme rather than just trying to make something that looks pretty.
Phew. That is enough of me talking for a lifetime. But if you have any more questions, feel free to ask! ♥
(Everything I make is done with Paint Shop Pro 9, so hopefully you Photoshoppers will find this useful as well.)
First of all, the quality of your icon is usually dependent on the quality of your cap. This doesn't mean you have to use gigantic caps to make good icons, but it helps. What I mean is however my icon/graphic comes out is usually directly connected to the quality of the cap. If it's too red, it usually ends up looking too grainy and pixelated and I tend to trash those icons. If I'm using promotional pictures that are so big you think the celeb is in your room, my icons tend to come out too sharp for my liking. I prefer to icon screencaps, just because I know how to work with them.
001. I usually start with a screencap about this size. I resize it but 80%, three times, because the more you resize a image affects the quality. If you resize a blurry image this many times, it will become more blurry. But if you take a blurry image and resize it by 60% maybe twice, it'll come out looking sharper.
Now, I can tell you coloring this cap will be easier because it's so clear and bright already, but that's fine, cause I hate difficult screencaps. lol There's only so much you can do before you have to just give up and call it uniconnable.
002. Duplicate your image layer four times. Set the top layer to screen, the second layer to soft light, the third to screen, and the fourth to multiply.
I do practically this same set up to every image I color. Screen brightens the image, sometimes you might need to change the opacity of the layer or add a few more. Soft light changes the image's contrast and makes it more defined, and multiply brings out colors lost beneath all the screen layers.
After this I use curves ONLY TO DARKEN THE CONTRAST. lol I don't go in for color curves, I just don't really understand that stuff. :P
003. Instead of curves I've taken to using the channel mixer in PSP, which I think might be a bit like selective color in Photoshop but I'm not sure. This is more of a trial and error thing, you really have to play with the reds and the greens and the blues to find what works for each particular image. For this image, there was already a lot of green, so I wanted to up the reds, and I upped the blues a bit more too.
004. I've taken a texture I found on a texture group on flickr, which originally looked like this, and duplicated the original layer and set it to soft light. Don't be afraid to edit textures before you use them, you can play with their colors and things too!
005. Now here's where we experiment a bit. I'm really fond of setting layers to multiply, I just think it gives an image more contrast and more definition.
I took my original layer and duplicated it, setting this layer to multiply at 50% opacity. I pasted the texture on and set it to soft light at about 40%, remember to play with settings and stuff to fit the image you're working with. I duplicated the original image again and brought it on top of all the layers to set it to soft light at 30% to make the texture less overpowering. Sometimes you might need to erase bits of the texture, I believe I erased a bit off of Rose's gorgeous face.
I also like to use levels in PSP to darken an image a bit, and give it more contrast.
006. Here I played with the color balance in PSP, I'm not giving out settings because I think it's a bit pointless. Every image is different, you just have to experiment. I changed the color balance's layer opacity to 70%, which is a good way to tone down coloring if you need to. Then I merged the image, duplicated it once more, set it to soft light at around 20% for just some more brightness and contrast, and merged again, and sharpened!
A tip about sharpening, I usually duplicate my completed graphic and sharpen it, then change the opacity of the top layer to adjust the sharpness. I'm sure there's a different way of doing this, but I find it easiest. :P
007. Now we get to the iconning bit! I resized some more, first by 70%, then 80%. I pasted the image onto a new 100x100 canvas. At this point, you can do whatever you like. I relied on coloring and creative cropping to make this icon special, but you know. Go nuts!
You can even mess with the coloring some more, since once you resize things to 100x100, some colors can need brightening or something.
008. I used this texture (found at flickr again!) to make the bottom edge of the icon smoother, and I liked the glowy bits in the corners which can give an icon more depth. I set it to screen, merged the layers, sharpened, and ta dah!
(I had to recreate this icon and for the life of me couldn't figure out which texture I used for the bottom dark stripe but you know, I can't tell you everything! lol)
A few fun tips, that I think are fun anyway. :P
It's always good to experiment with the light/dark areas of a image. It's a good way to bring focus to a certain part of a image.
Here, all I've done is again, duplicated the image and set the layer to multiply, and erased the bits of the layering covering what I feel are the most important parts of the image. It brings your attention to the main subjects, and adds depth and even emotion to it.
Another thing I love doing is setting textures to lighten on top of, you guessed it, multiplied layers. It can give your coloring a totally different feel to it.
Here is a half finished icon, colored and adjusted and it looks pretty hot, obviously because it's Billie. But it could use something.
I pasted both of these textures by aery on top of my icon, and set them both to lighten, playing with the opacity. I duplicated the original image layer and set it to multiply, to bring the contrast up beneath the lighten layers which can wash the image out.
See the difference? And the second version is after some more fiddling and adjustments, you have a deeper, richer looking icon. If that makes any sense. lol But some people don't go in for darker coloring, so whatever tickles your fancy. :P
And now we get to the actual Q&A portion! lol Enough of that rambling about multiply layers and such.
- I actually would like to know your pet peeves about graphic making!:) What are, for you, the most important do's and don'ts ?
This is the first question here and the last one I answered! lol I don't know what to say, I don't want to knock anyone's style or anything. One of the things that bug me the most is when people post loads and loads of icons that all look exactly the same. But then I wonder if some people just use icons differently. I love them too much, and I love making each of mine look different and unique, but I realize some people just want a picture of a celeb or stock image to post with their entry, and that's it. lol So really, it's all about preference.
Also, and I've done it throughout this post, graphics are not just icons, people! What about the wallpapers?! I love wallpapers. makeitlarger, ahem. We need more large graphic love on lj.
- Do you think about how you want your icon to look before you start making it, or do you just try out what works?
Sometimes I get an idea in my head for something, and I try to make it happen. Other times I just try random things and see what happens. Mostly when I'm frustrated and something just isn't working I tend to throw random textures or whatever onto an icon and see what happens.
Sometimes I have like the whole graphic planned out in my head, like for wallpapers. Certain things may pop into my mind and stick with me for a while before I finally open PSP and attempt to create what I'm seeing.
(I'm paraphrasing here, because mylittlepwny and I tend to speak in our special capslock language of love)
- What inspires you, and like, how did you become so consistently brilliant?
Melissa thinks I've been brilliant since I began posting icons but yeah, it's taken a while to get where I am and I don't even think I am brilliant, okay. :P
I've been making graphics since 2005, and I owe whatever talent I have to lots of free time and experimentation.
As for what inspires me, it depends. I think Doctor Who might, just a bit, and Billie Piper, Idk. :P But it could be a certain texture that I get an idea for about how to use, or a certain cap that has some coloring or just something about it that I feel I can work with. I only use images that really appeal to me, unless I get them for requests. lol Because the most important thing to me when making a graphic is that I feel I can end up with something I really like, otherwise I will trash it.
- What do you do to get your muse back?
This kind of goes hand in hand with inspiration. It's tough, because I've been extremely unmotivated lately and my muse fades in and out all the time. I tend to get a random burst of creativity that I feel the need to drain and make icons all day before I lose whatever inspiration I found. Looking for new textures and looking through screencaps, helps.
- What order of things do you do, like colour, then blend, then crop? or some other order?
It all really depends on the image I'm working with. I tend to resize and work with the color first. If I'm blending images together for a wallpaper, I always adjust the images separately before combining them because each image is different and needs it's own TLC. :P
- What do you use to colour everything, mainly? Curves, colour balance, burn layers?
Coloring comes from everywhere, as you can see. I use color balance, mostly, but coloring can change from contrasting, darkening, using different textures at different settings. It's really all dependent on your image.
- What textures do you find yourself using the most? Where do you find textures?
Please don't ask me for recs because while I credit everyone I can't really tell you what textures come from where. lol I tend to use mostly light textures for coloring, and scrap textures because I can't seem to get away from segmented type icons. Stock image sites are amazing, like stock.xchng, or veer. There are a lot of good free textures and stock images at Deviant Art, and you can find lots of stuff on flickr texture groups.
- How do you pick caps to work with?
I loooove uncommon caps. Like for a fandom like say, Doctor Who, who's episodes have been iconned again and again, I like to look for caps that you don't see iconned a lot. I tend not to icon something because it's a popular scene, I usually icon pretty over practical. lol Like, most of my userpics are not applicable to the comment I am making/post I'm posting because I don't make many scene specific icons. It's all about the artsy aspects, for me. I love caps of people moving, people in action. I tend to save a lot of close up icons because I love to make close up icons. And, I don't know, maybe something in the background might appeal to me, to use as a texture in the actual icon. It helps if Billie Piper is in the caps, too.
- Do you prefer to use the emotion of a cap or the natural colours to make icons?
Both! But most of the time I go with the emotion. I always try to put emotion into an icon, as srs business as that sounds. Or if I'm making a wallpaper, I always try to tell a story with it, or show a theme rather than just trying to make something that looks pretty.
Phew. That is enough of me talking for a lifetime. But if you have any more questions, feel free to ask! ♥