Tutorial #3 -- Arwen's Tears
Okie dokely, this tutorial was requested by the lovely falling_silver. I don't know why she would ask a tutorial from me since her icons are awesome, but of coarse I was happy to agree to do it, for I also love this icon.
Now here's my attempt to try and recreate THIS icon.
Today we will be going from picture to this icon:
This icon was made using Photoshop CS2, though it is easily translateable to lower versions and other programs
1)
I first used my cropping tool in Photoshop set to 100x100 px and 72 px/in. I belive I found the picture from LOTR Image Library.
2)
Next I adjusted the levels of my base. All you have to do is hit CTRL+L or go to Image->Adjustments->Levels and then drop down to your red and drag the white arrow pointing up to where there is color and repeat with the other colors; example found here. The difference is just really amazing, the base is now much brighter.
3)
Arwen's face was a little pixely now so I grabbed my smoothing tool and set it to about 35% and smoothed out Arwen's face a little.
4)
Next I decided to sharpen the base a little bit, so I went up to Filters->Sharpen->Unsharp Mask and sharpened the base about 40% (leave the rest of your settings alone, they don't do much unless you wanted it mondo sharpened).
5)
Now I smoothed out her face once again, and then sharpened her eyes using the sharpen tool at about strength of 30% (don't over do it, or it will look pixely). I also used the dodge tool to brighten up her eyes and the tears too (exposure:24%).
6)
I then duplicated that layer and set the blending mode to Soft Light 100%.
7)
7a)
I created a new layer and filled it the color #0b183b and set the blending mode to Exclusion 100%.
8)
8a)
I decided that I didn't want to Cover Arwen's eye with the Exclusion layer so I created a layer mask (ask me how to make one if you don't already) and used a small round brush to have Arwen's eye and tears show through and not be affected by the layer (I love the masking tool!).
9)
9a)
I created a new layer and flood filled it with #c99f7d and set the blending mode to Multiply 100%.
10)
10a)
Again, I felt that I did not want Arwen's eye to be so dark so I used a layer mask in order to hide the parts of the Multiply layer that were cover her eye and tears. Now I know it looks yucky, but bear with me :D.
11)
11a)
I then duplicated my base layer and desaturated it (hit SHIFT+CTR+U or just go to Image->Adjustments->Desaturate) and brought it on top of all my layers. I then set the blending mode to Hard Light 100% (11a). Much better now ^__^.
12)
I did a few final touch ups to try and make it look more like this icon by using the dodge tool to brighten up her eyes and the sharpening tool to sharpen her lips (all of this was done on the top most layer. How does that look, not too far off :D.
I hope you guys liked this tutorial, it was fairly simple and I would love to see what you all did with it, especially falling_silver (can't let me down Elle ^__*). As you can see I didn't do much colorizing, it was mainly a tutorial to show you how much better an icon can look with the right prepping techniques.
If you want to check any of my other tutorials, click on the icons below:
~Maryam
Now here's my attempt to try and recreate THIS icon.
Today we will be going from picture to this icon:
This icon was made using Photoshop CS2, though it is easily translateable to lower versions and other programs
1)
I first used my cropping tool in Photoshop set to 100x100 px and 72 px/in. I belive I found the picture from LOTR Image Library.
2)
Next I adjusted the levels of my base. All you have to do is hit CTRL+L or go to Image->Adjustments->Levels and then drop down to your red and drag the white arrow pointing up to where there is color and repeat with the other colors; example found here. The difference is just really amazing, the base is now much brighter.
3)
Arwen's face was a little pixely now so I grabbed my smoothing tool and set it to about 35% and smoothed out Arwen's face a little.
4)
Next I decided to sharpen the base a little bit, so I went up to Filters->Sharpen->Unsharp Mask and sharpened the base about 40% (leave the rest of your settings alone, they don't do much unless you wanted it mondo sharpened).
5)
Now I smoothed out her face once again, and then sharpened her eyes using the sharpen tool at about strength of 30% (don't over do it, or it will look pixely). I also used the dodge tool to brighten up her eyes and the tears too (exposure:24%).
6)
I then duplicated that layer and set the blending mode to Soft Light 100%.
7)
7a)
I created a new layer and filled it the color #0b183b and set the blending mode to Exclusion 100%.
8)
8a)
I decided that I didn't want to Cover Arwen's eye with the Exclusion layer so I created a layer mask (ask me how to make one if you don't already) and used a small round brush to have Arwen's eye and tears show through and not be affected by the layer (I love the masking tool!).
9)
9a)
I created a new layer and flood filled it with #c99f7d and set the blending mode to Multiply 100%.
10)
10a)
Again, I felt that I did not want Arwen's eye to be so dark so I used a layer mask in order to hide the parts of the Multiply layer that were cover her eye and tears. Now I know it looks yucky, but bear with me :D.
11)
11a)
I then duplicated my base layer and desaturated it (hit SHIFT+CTR+U or just go to Image->Adjustments->Desaturate) and brought it on top of all my layers. I then set the blending mode to Hard Light 100% (11a). Much better now ^__^.
12)
I did a few final touch ups to try and make it look more like this icon by using the dodge tool to brighten up her eyes and the sharpening tool to sharpen her lips (all of this was done on the top most layer. How does that look, not too far off :D.
I hope you guys liked this tutorial, it was fairly simple and I would love to see what you all did with it, especially falling_silver (can't let me down Elle ^__*). As you can see I didn't do much colorizing, it was mainly a tutorial to show you how much better an icon can look with the right prepping techniques.
If you want to check any of my other tutorials, click on the icons below:
~Maryam