Hermione Tutorial
We're starting out with this base and if we're lucky, we'll come out with this: 
. It's for PSP8 and you need to know
where the tools are, how to handle layers and all that jazz.
1. Crop your picture to a perfect square. Then sharpen it twice. Use Edge Preserving Smooth, set the strength to 1. Duplicate the base, set it to Screen 100%, desaturate it. Flatten layers and resize it to 100x100 px.
2. Go to the Automatic Contrast Enhancement and set it to Bias Darker, Strength Normal, Apperance Bold. Then for the Automatic Saturation Enhancement, set it to Bias Less Colourful, Strength Normal.
3. Find the Sharpen tool, set it to an opacity of about 70-80%. Set the size to 11 and click once on each of her eye and then her lips. I went over Hermy's hair because I simply found it a bit blurry. As you will be using another base, things might be different.
4. Now for the colouring. Create two new layers. Fill the top one with #5A7AAA, which should be a shade of blue if I haven't mixed up my hex codes, then set it to Saturation (Legacy) at 100%. Then the layer above the Background should be a light red, in this case #FF4040. Set that to Soft Light. Now it looks a bit funky, so duplicate the Background layer and place it in-between the colour layers and set it to Soft Light. You should now have a sepia-like tone on your icon.
5. Add this gradient by the lovely detoxcocktails [
] (download the full set here) and set it to Saturation (Legacy).
6. Next, place these two light textures by dimensicons (full set downloadable here) [
(mirror 'Ctrl + M' and flip 'Ctrl + I' both], set them to Screen and move them so that they don't obscure Her-Her's face.
7. Add some tiny text and a square brush by ingenu0us (download full set here) and you're all set!
Remember that this, like every other, tutorial is for inspiration and not exact copying. Use different textures, gradients; experiment! Icon is snaggable, simply credit me in your userpic comment. Death to all hotlinkers. Feedback's my crack. I would also love to see what you come up with! (Also, remember that most HQ icons are made from HQ bases ^_~).
Yours truly,
serenitynoire
. It's for PSP8 and you need to know
where the tools are, how to handle layers and all that jazz.
1. Crop your picture to a perfect square. Then sharpen it twice. Use Edge Preserving Smooth, set the strength to 1. Duplicate the base, set it to Screen 100%, desaturate it. Flatten layers and resize it to 100x100 px.
2. Go to the Automatic Contrast Enhancement and set it to Bias Darker, Strength Normal, Apperance Bold. Then for the Automatic Saturation Enhancement, set it to Bias Less Colourful, Strength Normal.
3. Find the Sharpen tool, set it to an opacity of about 70-80%. Set the size to 11 and click once on each of her eye and then her lips. I went over Hermy's hair because I simply found it a bit blurry. As you will be using another base, things might be different.
4. Now for the colouring. Create two new layers. Fill the top one with #5A7AAA, which should be a shade of blue if I haven't mixed up my hex codes, then set it to Saturation (Legacy) at 100%. Then the layer above the Background should be a light red, in this case #FF4040. Set that to Soft Light. Now it looks a bit funky, so duplicate the Background layer and place it in-between the colour layers and set it to Soft Light. You should now have a sepia-like tone on your icon.
5. Add this gradient by the lovely detoxcocktails [
] (download the full set here) and set it to Saturation (Legacy).
6. Next, place these two light textures by dimensicons (full set downloadable here) [
(mirror 'Ctrl + M' and flip 'Ctrl + I' both], set them to Screen and move them so that they don't obscure Her-Her's face.
7. Add some tiny text and a square brush by ingenu0us (download full set here) and you're all set!
Yours truly,
serenitynoire