(no subject)
Tutorial, by request of shadowserenity. And it's my first one, so please be kind...
*nervous*
I use Photoshop, but it should be easily transferable if you know what you're doing.
We're going to be making
I started with this picture from The Chronicles of Narnia. As with any icon, I didn't want to crop it in the center. I decided Lucy (the little girl looking at the paper Peter is holding) would be a good focus for the icon.
(I don't save my layers, because it takes up a lot of computer space, so I'm going to just be remaking the icon. The cropping won't be exact, but that's alright.)
Crop the picture to 100x100 pixels (if you're making an icon).
I decided I wanted to flip the icon to the other side.
Now, I was already thinking I wanted a little bit of red in this icon, so I decided to desaturate my base.
Now. Lucy's face looks a little bit pixelated, so I took the blur tool (in Photoshop, that's the one that looks like a teardrop.) and smuged her face out a little bit. This was sort of hard to do without making her nose look like a blob. Ususally it'll be a little easier. Subtle difference, but better, in my opinion.
Now we're going to make it a little bit sharper. I wanted her to stand out a little bit more. I duplicated the base and set it to soft light at 100%, and then duplicated it again and set it to screen at about 40%. Be careful when you do this- every picture is a little bit different. If you think it would look better with soft light at 50% and screen at 100%, go for it. You're probably right.
Now we're going to add
, a gradient made by crumblingwalls. Set it to lighten (one of my favorite modes) at 100%.
Very pretty, isn't it? But, as I mentioned before, I wanted the icon to be a little bit more red. This is easily fixed: make a new layer and fill it with 58372D, a crimson color, then set it to hue. Merge that layer with the gradient, and you should have a red-ish gradient instead of a blue one.
Now it's time for the hardest part of icon making- adding brushes, text, etc. For this one, I chose a splatter brush by meleada (thanks ekkers!).
I applied it in white. To do this in Photoshop, go to Filter>Adjustements>Invert. I think Control+I will do it as well. Then set it to screen.
Position the brush where you want it. I rotated it and resized just a little bit, and erased the little stray dots.
Now it's time for text. Lucy is looking a little bit sad here, and the icon is a dark color, so I wrote "take me far away," from "Shattered Life" by Seventh Day Slumber in white. The font I used was Harrison, which you can download at dafont.com, at 10 pt.
And you're done! Drop a comment if you've got any questions. I'd love to see what you made!
*nervous*
I use Photoshop, but it should be easily transferable if you know what you're doing.
We're going to be making
I started with this picture from The Chronicles of Narnia. As with any icon, I didn't want to crop it in the center. I decided Lucy (the little girl looking at the paper Peter is holding) would be a good focus for the icon.
(I don't save my layers, because it takes up a lot of computer space, so I'm going to just be remaking the icon. The cropping won't be exact, but that's alright.)
Crop the picture to 100x100 pixels (if you're making an icon).
I decided I wanted to flip the icon to the other side.
Now, I was already thinking I wanted a little bit of red in this icon, so I decided to desaturate my base.
Now. Lucy's face looks a little bit pixelated, so I took the blur tool (in Photoshop, that's the one that looks like a teardrop.) and smuged her face out a little bit. This was sort of hard to do without making her nose look like a blob. Ususally it'll be a little easier. Subtle difference, but better, in my opinion.
Now we're going to make it a little bit sharper. I wanted her to stand out a little bit more. I duplicated the base and set it to soft light at 100%, and then duplicated it again and set it to screen at about 40%. Be careful when you do this- every picture is a little bit different. If you think it would look better with soft light at 50% and screen at 100%, go for it. You're probably right.
Now we're going to add
, a gradient made by crumblingwalls. Set it to lighten (one of my favorite modes) at 100%.
Very pretty, isn't it? But, as I mentioned before, I wanted the icon to be a little bit more red. This is easily fixed: make a new layer and fill it with 58372D, a crimson color, then set it to hue. Merge that layer with the gradient, and you should have a red-ish gradient instead of a blue one.
Now it's time for the hardest part of icon making- adding brushes, text, etc. For this one, I chose a splatter brush by meleada (thanks ekkers!).
I applied it in white. To do this in Photoshop, go to Filter>Adjustements>Invert. I think Control+I will do it as well. Then set it to screen.
Position the brush where you want it. I rotated it and resized just a little bit, and erased the little stray dots.
Now it's time for text. Lucy is looking a little bit sad here, and the icon is a dark color, so I wrote "take me far away," from "Shattered Life" by Seventh Day Slumber in white. The font I used was Harrison, which you can download at dafont.com, at 10 pt.
And you're done! Drop a comment if you've got any questions. I'd love to see what you made!