I would love any advice you can give me on figuring out what font to use and text placement. Cause I totally have no idea what I'm doing with those unless it's like the icon I'm currently using.
When I ponder what font(s) to use in an icon, I consider how much space I have to cram whatever text I want. If there's lots of space, I can definitely use a thick font, like Chunk Five or Nouvelle Vague. (See: Example 1.) If there's not as much room, I think about a super thin font, like Vevey, or cursive/calligraphic fonts, like Fantasia or Lavanderia. (See: Example 2.) Of course, you can also use bolder fonts in a very small size if there's not too much open space, and in reverse, you can use thin fonts when you've got a ton of room for text. (See: Examples 3 and 4.)
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I learned this close cropping trick from other people: Open up a blank 200x200 or 300x300 canvas and paste the original image you're working with onto that canvas. Then just move the image around until you find a crop you like and re-size it to 100x100. Very simple! I don't use that technique all the time, but it's definitely helped me achieve some wonderful close crops before, so hopefully, it'll be of use to you and others as well, Avi! :)
As for blending, I don't really ever blend so I have no business giving tips to anyone. There's an excellent blending guide from sarisafari over here that's helped me once or twice in the past year though. I recommend it to anybody who's curious about how to blend more efficiently!
I wish I had a good answer for that, Beth, but I really don't. I've just always enjoyed experimenting with textures ever since I began making icons back in '08, and I think countless hours of setting all different kinds of textures on various modes (Screen, Soft Light, and Color Burn being most used) just helped me practice. It can definitely lead to tons of frustration, especially when you're dead set on using a specific texture that just won't work for your image. However, when you nail that perfect combo of image and texture, it gives you the most satisfying feeling!
One thing to keep in mind is what vibe or emotion you want to convey in your icon. In the following icon from my latest post, I knew I wanted to evoke devastation and pain and invisibility, so I hunted through my folders for a texture that would obscure a great portion of the subject's face. Luckily, I found one by 24-amends that I felt would be just right, and I set it to Screen, masked away the small bit that covered up too much of her face, and threw a B/W gradient map
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In general, I am crazy for B/W textures. Setting them to Screen or Soft Light can truly transform whatever images I'm working by infusing them with light and contrast! Lately, I've been using the following textures by bitterbird a lot to develop a starker balance between shadow and light in my icons:
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Hmmm, I can't say I actually have one. I usually crop my image down to 100x100, copy the base twice, set the first copy to Screen and the second to Soft Light, and then use Color Balance to completely change around the natural tones of the image. I often use 2-3 Color Balance layers to get the shades I want, and then throw a Vibrance layer over everything to make everything bolder and more eye-catching. If the image still doesn't look exactly as I want, I use Curves to boost the contrast and make the lighter parts brighter and the shadowy parts darker. Every now and then, I utilize Selective Colors in between one of my Color Balance layers, usually to decrease the yellow or magenta in the image. Not really the most interesting answer, but I'm hoping it'll be of assistance to you somehow, Amanda! :)
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As for blending, I don't really ever blend so I have no business giving tips to anyone. There's an excellent blending guide from sarisafari over here that's helped me once or twice in the past year though. I recommend it to anybody who's curious about how to blend more efficiently!
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One thing to keep in mind is what vibe or emotion you want to convey in your icon. In the following icon from my latest post, I knew I wanted to evoke devastation and pain and invisibility, so I hunted through my folders for a texture that would obscure a great portion of the subject's face. Luckily, I found one by 24-amends that I felt would be just right, and I set it to Screen, masked away the small bit that covered up too much of her face, and threw a B/W gradient map ( ... )
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