Tutorial 001: Full Icon
Huzzah! Let's see if I can do this. A full tutorial for this icon:
I use Paint Shop Pro 7, but I'm fairly sure you can translate this to other programs. Also, you're gonna have to have basic knowledge of the tools in a graphic program.
First we find our picture. I used this one from AngelinaJ.Net.
Then I resized, cropped, sharpened it once, then merged. So far there's this:
Mmm, pretty. But there's not enough contrast for my taste. Now, everyone works their bases in different ways. Here's what I do:
- Duplicate the image, paste it over the original and set it to Screen at 20%.
- Paste the original again, this time set it to Hard Light at 44%.
The opacity will vary depending on the picture. Usually, because I like contrast, Hard Light is higher up on the scale than Screen, but it all depends on what you prefer.
This is what it looks like now:
Now Angelina is deliciously vibrant. Yay! This is the layer palette so far:
Now I start playing with colors. This picture is already colorful on its own, so I'm not gonna have to do much. After messing around with colors, I discovered that a purple layer (#9A409A) at Soft Light brings a really nice shade to her skin tone and hair color:
Now comes my favorite part. Saturation. I LOVE the saturation layer. As long as you don't overdue it, it adds gorgeous color to an image. I chose an orange color (#FF9A09) at 49%.
Again, the opacity really depends on the quality and color of your image. Try different colors! Experiment!
Here's the layer palette now:
Now I added brushes. When creating vibrant colors, I've learned it's a good idea to use colors already in the image.
I used this brush (I can't find the credit right now, but I know it's in my resources somewhere) in a purple color drawn from the icon, mirrored it, used the lasso tool to cut out the part obscuring her shoulder and lowered the opacity to 85%.
Then this brush by inxsomniax in a yellow color drawn from the image, mirrored and cut out where it didn't fit:
Then this brush by ruuk in an orange color drawn from the icon:
This is the layer palette now:
The final step is the text. I chose 'sassy' with the font Broken Planewing.
And voila! That's it! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I hope this was thorough enough. :/
I use Paint Shop Pro 7, but I'm fairly sure you can translate this to other programs. Also, you're gonna have to have basic knowledge of the tools in a graphic program.
First we find our picture. I used this one from AngelinaJ.Net.
Then I resized, cropped, sharpened it once, then merged. So far there's this:
Mmm, pretty. But there's not enough contrast for my taste. Now, everyone works their bases in different ways. Here's what I do:
- Duplicate the image, paste it over the original and set it to Screen at 20%.
- Paste the original again, this time set it to Hard Light at 44%.
The opacity will vary depending on the picture. Usually, because I like contrast, Hard Light is higher up on the scale than Screen, but it all depends on what you prefer.
This is what it looks like now:
Now Angelina is deliciously vibrant. Yay! This is the layer palette so far:
Now I start playing with colors. This picture is already colorful on its own, so I'm not gonna have to do much. After messing around with colors, I discovered that a purple layer (#9A409A) at Soft Light brings a really nice shade to her skin tone and hair color:
Now comes my favorite part. Saturation. I LOVE the saturation layer. As long as you don't overdue it, it adds gorgeous color to an image. I chose an orange color (#FF9A09) at 49%.
Again, the opacity really depends on the quality and color of your image. Try different colors! Experiment!
Here's the layer palette now:
Now I added brushes. When creating vibrant colors, I've learned it's a good idea to use colors already in the image.
I used this brush (I can't find the credit right now, but I know it's in my resources somewhere) in a purple color drawn from the icon, mirrored it, used the lasso tool to cut out the part obscuring her shoulder and lowered the opacity to 85%.
Then this brush by inxsomniax in a yellow color drawn from the image, mirrored and cut out where it didn't fit:
Then this brush by ruuk in an orange color drawn from the icon:
This is the layer palette now:
The final step is the text. I chose 'sassy' with the font Broken Planewing.
And voila! That's it! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I hope this was thorough enough. :/