Ah, I really enjoyed making this icon. It was great fun. I also amde this for a 20in20 icontest on LJ, for the theme air, so you'll find a lot of little vibrance and later strong vibrance in this icon.
So, shall we begin?
The original screencap:
Of course, you first have to crop your image. I wanted to go with her eyes and neck first, but that didn't work out well, so I only cropped it above her lips.
Like I said, I made this for an 'air' theme, so what I had in mind was not a very bright coloured picture, yet not a b&w one, either. So, of course, I used a vibrance layer.
Vibrance: 0, Saturarion: -49.
To dull it up even more, I used a color balance layer. The only thing I changed was the first slider in midtones. I set it to -9.
I guess here I decided to go for a different technique and pumped up the saturation. I did that sa pamamagitan ng making a new Hue/Sat layer and setting the saturation to +23.
Then, to bring out her neck, I created a brightness/contrast layer and set the contrast to +41.
I then used one of my paborito adjustment layers, color balance. I pag-ibig it because it can bring out colours of the colours that you want. I prefer it to colour balance layers because it's way madami precise, but I don't back down from colour balance, either.
Anyways, I selected the 'yellows' preset and set the magenta to +19 and yellow to +29. Next, I added a vibrance layer.
Vibrance: +54, Saturation: +15.
A brightness/contrast layer.
Contrast: 28.
A gradient map.
First colour: #5357a4 segundo colour: #adcde4.
A levels layer:
8, 1.62, 255
I masked (or erased, if you prefer) it away from her neck and only kept it on her hair.
And here comes the fun part; painting.
I first made a new layer, then selected a dark brown colour (#1f0808) and painted it on the left side of her face and neck.
I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves here. The settings of the layer are the same for every one. (soft light, 51 % opacity). Each colour has a different layer.
Another really fun part: variations. Stamp the layers again and go to Image > Adjustments > Variations. Click on 'original', then on cyan, magenta, green, blue in that order. Make sure it's set on midtones and the slider is exactly in the middle.
Afterwards, I used another texture of these pretty little wings, set it on screen and 86% opacity, and moved it near her necklace.
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v
I guess the reason I did that was because I couldn't get the mga kulay I wanted into the icon for it to fit 'air', but when I did this I also realized the icon didn't look exactly good. So I came to textures for help, and these little guys helped me.
First, I used this texture.
Then this one (I resized it to fit my canvas: 100x100)
And that's it.
OPTIONAL
When I looked at the icon again earlier, the sharpening above her mouth couldn't stop bugging me, so I sharpened it again. You do the same if you are having this problem.
Stamp the layers, go to filter > sharpen > smart sharpen, and set whatever you prefer as long as the 'reduce noise' slider is high, this makes the icon seem sharpened and soft all at once. I just pag-ibig this feature.
However, it does not always help completely. This is where the smudge tool is useful. For those of you who don't know, the smudge tool is on the left toolbar of photoshop. Below the bucket tool is the blur tool. Right click that and choose 'smudge tool' from the menu that pops up.
Then, stamp the layers again, zoom in really well to the part you want to get rid of, set the size to about 6px, strength to 50%, and begin smudging sa pamamagitan ng simply painting on it like with a brush. Don't smudge too much, though, it will distort your icon. Don't smudge the same place madami than once. If you've made a mistake, go back and do it all over again. Don't attempt to fix it sa pamamagitan ng smudging it more.
The End.
If you have any questions, do ask me.
So, shall we begin?
The original screencap:
Of course, you first have to crop your image. I wanted to go with her eyes and neck first, but that didn't work out well, so I only cropped it above her lips.
Like I said, I made this for an 'air' theme, so what I had in mind was not a very bright coloured picture, yet not a b&w one, either. So, of course, I used a vibrance layer.
Vibrance: 0, Saturarion: -49.
To dull it up even more, I used a color balance layer. The only thing I changed was the first slider in midtones. I set it to -9.
I guess here I decided to go for a different technique and pumped up the saturation. I did that sa pamamagitan ng making a new Hue/Sat layer and setting the saturation to +23.
Then, to bring out her neck, I created a brightness/contrast layer and set the contrast to +41.
I then used one of my paborito adjustment layers, color balance. I pag-ibig it because it can bring out colours of the colours that you want. I prefer it to colour balance layers because it's way madami precise, but I don't back down from colour balance, either.
Anyways, I selected the 'yellows' preset and set the magenta to +19 and yellow to +29. Next, I added a vibrance layer.
Vibrance: +54, Saturation: +15.
A brightness/contrast layer.
Contrast: 28.
A gradient map.
First colour: #5357a4 segundo colour: #adcde4.
A levels layer:
8, 1.62, 255
I masked (or erased, if you prefer) it away from her neck and only kept it on her hair.
And here comes the fun part; painting.
I first made a new layer, then selected a dark brown colour (#1f0808) and painted it on the left side of her face and neck.
I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves here. The settings of the layer are the same for every one. (soft light, 51 % opacity). Each colour has a different layer.
Another really fun part: variations. Stamp the layers again and go to Image > Adjustments > Variations. Click on 'original', then on cyan, magenta, green, blue in that order. Make sure it's set on midtones and the slider is exactly in the middle.
Afterwards, I used another texture of these pretty little wings, set it on screen and 86% opacity, and moved it near her necklace.
|
v
I guess the reason I did that was because I couldn't get the mga kulay I wanted into the icon for it to fit 'air', but when I did this I also realized the icon didn't look exactly good. So I came to textures for help, and these little guys helped me.
First, I used this texture.
Then this one (I resized it to fit my canvas: 100x100)
And that's it.
OPTIONAL
When I looked at the icon again earlier, the sharpening above her mouth couldn't stop bugging me, so I sharpened it again. You do the same if you are having this problem.
Stamp the layers, go to filter > sharpen > smart sharpen, and set whatever you prefer as long as the 'reduce noise' slider is high, this makes the icon seem sharpened and soft all at once. I just pag-ibig this feature.
However, it does not always help completely. This is where the smudge tool is useful. For those of you who don't know, the smudge tool is on the left toolbar of photoshop. Below the bucket tool is the blur tool. Right click that and choose 'smudge tool' from the menu that pops up.
Then, stamp the layers again, zoom in really well to the part you want to get rid of, set the size to about 6px, strength to 50%, and begin smudging sa pamamagitan ng simply painting on it like with a brush. Don't smudge too much, though, it will distort your icon. Don't smudge the same place madami than once. If you've made a mistake, go back and do it all over again. Don't attempt to fix it sa pamamagitan ng smudging it more.
The End.
If you have any questions, do ask me.