53. your eyes, they always sparkle
violateraindrop asked me to make a coloring guide. I think she might be the only person who likes my coloring,LOL, so this is pretty much just for you. Thank you for asking. It made me feel very special! :D
OVERVIEW
The way I do my icons: there are four parts -- lightening the image, Coloring, add some interest to the background, lighting/contrast -- usually in that order, plus a couple of Vibrancy layers thrown in here and there.
So, to start, the original images (except for the Peggy one where I had to smudge out Steve and Bucky on the left)
1. Lighten the image using Gradient Layers. I use three gradient layers, one atop the other, all set at Soft Light 22%. The three gradient colors are:
The results are:
(For Peggy, I copy+merged and then set to Screen and masked off everything except Peggy herself to make her stand out from the background)
2. The very next step is to color the images using Selective Coloring and Color Balance:
03. Then I use textures, and sometimes Solid Color layers, to lighten the background. I mask off the main person in the icon. I also use a soft brush on low opacity to remove any parts of the textures I don't like. I set the textures typically to Hard Light - like with Peggy -- or set to Soft Light - like with Magneto - and sometimes set to Screen or Lighten - like with Logan
For Peggy: this texture (
) set to Hard light 100%
For Magneto: this texture (
) set to Soft Light 65%
For Logan: this texture (
set to Lighten 100%
(I don't know the makers of any of these textures, sorry)
The results are:
04. Then I color some more, add a copy+merged layer on top and smooth away anything that looks to pixelated or doesn't blend well. I may add a Vibrancy layer here or a Brightness/Contrast layer, or change the Hue/Saturation, but any of those layers would be set on low opacity
- For Logan, the background was a little light, so I added some intense yellow for some color
- For Magneto, the background was a little dark, so I added a Solid Color layer and set it to Hard Light on a low opacity, like how it looked and tried it again with a beige texture
- For Peggy, I added a bright Yellow on Soft Light before coloring it some more
Final finishes:
05. Add shadows or bright light. I use Brightness/Contrast, a B&W gradient on Soft Light (usually at 100%), or I copy+merge, Filter/Gaussian Blur (usually set around ), on either Soft Light or Hard Light
- Peggy has a Soft Light and Hard Light layers
- Magneto had a Brightness/Contrast layer and a Hard Light layer
Logan has a Soft Light layer at the end
6. I add a Sharpen layer (Filter/Sharpen, lower opacity usually to 30-40%), and the copy+merged layer on top where I smooth the over-sharpened areas. I like controlling every little pixel which is why this is my favorite method. (Probably a little obsessive, I guess, lol)
7. Sometimes I switch the order a little. With the Logan icon, I added a Soft Light layer to add light/contrast at the end. With Magneto I added a B&W gradient set to Soft Light and two curves layers at the end. With Peggy, I liked the coloring, so I just made a flew layers by copying+merge to smooth out any part of the icon I didn't like (like I removed her purse).
Final icons:
And then I'm done. If anyone wants me to get more detailed about any of these icons, let me know (I have the psds so it would be easy to do).