Ask the maker 6.0 || Tutorial #04
Here we are again ♥
This tutorial was requested by setentpet whom I thank very much - and I still apologize for the other tutorial request >.<
#01 Base
This are the caps I used for this icon - which you can see have really different colors XD
This time, instead of nothing as a background I had a solid black color to help me with the blend since the Nogitsune image is cutted in a half and it faded well into the black giving the impression it was all part of the picture.
I started my icon with Stiles, I flipped him to the other side to have him in contrast with the Nogitsune position, and then I cut out the background with a Quick Mask -as you can see it was very sloppy, LOL.
#02 Let's Blend it in
Then I added the Nogitsune. I moved the Layer under Stiles' and I ereased part of his hand and torso to blend it with Stiles' hair and with my soft brush I ereased the bottom of the cap to make it look like it was fading into the blackness.
Since this cap was very dark I had to duplicate it on Screen 100% to have it match, sort of, the amount of light Stiles had.
As you can see the two pictures are really different in colors so I took my Photo Filter, I added a Clipping Mask to make it work just on Stiles. I used the Cooling Filter (80) at 37% to have him match as much as it could be the Nogitusune's colors.
#03 A bit of textures
At this point I realized I didn't like at all all that black in the background that made it all look a bit dead so I added two textures.
The first one I used is this one xxx. I dragged it behind all my layers, except the black, so it would affect just the background and not the images and I setted it on Screen 35% - after that I used the Hue/Saturation filter to turn the red string into cyan.
Then I took this texture xxx (from innocentlexys), I dragged it under all the layers except the black one and the other texture one and I setted it to Screen 12%.
I know you can't see a lot of difference, but I kept it there because it turned a bit more blue the other texture x3
#04 Coloring Part
Since my base was done I turned to the coloring part so what I did first was bringing some lights into the icon since it was very dark and I used the Levels Filter to do so.
Next I used the Vibrance Tool to bring more saturation to the composition. I setted the Vibrance to +13 and the Saturation to +18
My coloring part ended with the Photo Filter that I used to turn the colors a bit more blue (since that was the color I wanted to reach).
I used the Deep Blue at 39%
#05 Adding text
I decided at this point that I was going to add some text and I used the phrase "I'm underneath your skin, the devil within" from the Digital Daggers' song "The Devil Within" that I find very appropriate for the whole Stiles/Nogitsune storyline.
For my text I used the color #17bcc2 which is a cyan pretty much similar to the lines of the texture I used before and the font called American Purpose (that you can find here).
The Devil Within part is on 30% of the opacity so the text looked like fading to the bottom of the composition.
When I have all this words I take all the layers and group them so I can add a mask to all of them and erase what I don't wanna have in front of the subjects.
#06 More textures, oh yeah
At this point I decided to do some digging in my icon text files and came up with three more textures that helped me getting to a more vibrant and bright coloring.
The first one I used is this xxx, setted on Multiply 19% which gave to my icon a greener/underwater look.
Then I used this one xxx - I haven't been able to find the original one and this is the one I modified with the Smudge Tool >.< and edited with the Hue/Saturation to make it look that blue-ish - on Overlay 25% to bring up the blue colors. I erased Stiles from the mask -face and torso, no shoulders!
At this point I brought back some dark areas with this texture xxx (of midnightroad) setted on Overlay 28%
I erased Stiles from this texture too.
#07 Last Adjustments
At this point I was pretty sure I was done with the icon itself so I worked on the coloring to make it look less dead and dark.
As first step I used the Brightness/Contrast Filter bringing the Brightness to +41 and the Contrast to +12
By looking at the icon I though that the right bottom looked to dark and so did Stiles so with a soft brush a painted white that area with one stroke, blurred a little bit and setted it on Overlay to bring up some light.
I used the Brightness/Contrast Filter again adding a +10 and a +12 - because I don't like going back, so I prefer adding more layers to what I already have ^^
I used one last texture, which is this one xxx, on Screen 100% - I edited it with the Hue/Saturation Panel to make it blue so that my icon could look more intense and vibrant.
I took another time the Brightness/Contrast Filter - LOL - adding a +9 and +12.
Looking at what I had I thought I wasn't liking the font so much so what I did is go back to the group and turn the Opacity down to 60% and that was it!
This are all my steps together so you can see the progress of the icon :3
xoxo,
Tris
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