Tutorial post 2
My first tutorial! I tried to make it as begginers friendly as possible, so I think it's pretty easy to follow! It has a lot of layers, though, so you have to at least know the basics of thoses.
Go from
to
(base by
scarlet_lilium )
Made on Paint Shop Pro 8; probably translatable. Uses Color Balance layers, but if you have any questions, I'll try to help!
1. Okay, first, take your base. Sharpen it, do what you need to have a good, clear base. I usually sharpen the whole thing, then soften the cheeks, neck and clothes, and use the sharpen tool a bit on the lips and eyes. But here, Kaoru's eyes are closed, so I only sharpened his lips. Doing it on his closed eyelids looked weird. When it's finished I duplicated it and set it to 'soft light'. I'm not explaining anything specific, as this depends a lot of your base.
2. Duplicate your base. On the second layer (your duplicated base), go to Adjust/Blur/Gaussian Blur. Set the radius between 2.00 and 3.00 (depending of your icon), and set the layer to Screen, 62%. It creates a sort 'soft' look for your icon.
3. Duplicates that blurry layer, and set it to Soft Light, again 62%. It darkens the base and makes the details look more clear.
4. Make a completly white (#FFFFFF) layer. Set it to Soft Light, 100%.
5. Make a dark blue layer, and set it to Exclusion. I used #070937 and kept it 100%, but you go with your personal tastes. It's for the 'yellowish' aspect of your icon.
6. Make a light pink layer, and set it to Burn. I used #F7C9E3 and kept it at 100%, but once again, you go with your own tastes, and how it looks on your base. It darken the dark parts of your icon, and make your icon look a bit more pink.
,
7. We're starting to get somewhere! Yay! But it gets a little bit more complicated. You need to create a Color Blance layer. Make sure the 'Preserve luminance' box is cheked. In 'midtones', the Color Levels must be 21, -26, 44. Keep it at 100%, or close to. You can play a bit with these until you are satisfied. Your icon should look more 'pinkish'.
8. Now, copy your base, drag it on top, and set it to Soft Light 100%. It darkens the too-light dark parts of your icon, and adds more contrast.
9. Create a Brightness/Contrast layer. Do I need to tell you what it does? ;-) I set the brightness to 18, and the contrast to 5. Not a big difference, but it's still there.
10. Almost done with the coloring! Take a round brush and lower the opacity and hardness. On a new layer, make a bright pink (I used #E61459) spot somewhere on your icon using that brush. Set that layer to Color (legacy), and you can lower the opacity a bit if you like. I kept it 100%.
Now, you can keep your icon like that, or add brushes. I explain the next part for my own brushes, but you can do it with you own.
11. I made a new layer between the last blurry one and the white one. I put this brush (I'm sorry, can't remember the maker) on the new layer, and erased the top part. I duplicated this layer, and used 'Gaussian blur' on it. I merged it down, and colorized the now merged layer bright pink. I set that layer to Multiply, 100%.
And with a few, normal brushes (don't need a tutorial on this, right?) it's done! :D Hope you'll make pretty icons! Don't forget; use your imagination and don't make your icon a perfect copy of mine; that's not the goal of this tut.
If you enjoyed, comment with the icon you did. I'd like to see them!
Thank you!
Go from
to
(base by
scarlet_lilium )
Made on Paint Shop Pro 8; probably translatable. Uses Color Balance layers, but if you have any questions, I'll try to help!
1. Okay, first, take your base. Sharpen it, do what you need to have a good, clear base. I usually sharpen the whole thing, then soften the cheeks, neck and clothes, and use the sharpen tool a bit on the lips and eyes. But here, Kaoru's eyes are closed, so I only sharpened his lips. Doing it on his closed eyelids looked weird. When it's finished I duplicated it and set it to 'soft light'. I'm not explaining anything specific, as this depends a lot of your base.
2. Duplicate your base. On the second layer (your duplicated base), go to Adjust/Blur/Gaussian Blur. Set the radius between 2.00 and 3.00 (depending of your icon), and set the layer to Screen, 62%. It creates a sort 'soft' look for your icon.
3. Duplicates that blurry layer, and set it to Soft Light, again 62%. It darkens the base and makes the details look more clear.
4. Make a completly white (#FFFFFF) layer. Set it to Soft Light, 100%.
5. Make a dark blue layer, and set it to Exclusion. I used #070937 and kept it 100%, but you go with your personal tastes. It's for the 'yellowish' aspect of your icon.
6. Make a light pink layer, and set it to Burn. I used #F7C9E3 and kept it at 100%, but once again, you go with your own tastes, and how it looks on your base. It darken the dark parts of your icon, and make your icon look a bit more pink.
,
7. We're starting to get somewhere! Yay! But it gets a little bit more complicated. You need to create a Color Blance layer. Make sure the 'Preserve luminance' box is cheked. In 'midtones', the Color Levels must be 21, -26, 44. Keep it at 100%, or close to. You can play a bit with these until you are satisfied. Your icon should look more 'pinkish'.
8. Now, copy your base, drag it on top, and set it to Soft Light 100%. It darkens the too-light dark parts of your icon, and adds more contrast.
9. Create a Brightness/Contrast layer. Do I need to tell you what it does? ;-) I set the brightness to 18, and the contrast to 5. Not a big difference, but it's still there.
10. Almost done with the coloring! Take a round brush and lower the opacity and hardness. On a new layer, make a bright pink (I used #E61459) spot somewhere on your icon using that brush. Set that layer to Color (legacy), and you can lower the opacity a bit if you like. I kept it 100%.
Now, you can keep your icon like that, or add brushes. I explain the next part for my own brushes, but you can do it with you own.
11. I made a new layer between the last blurry one and the white one. I put this brush (I'm sorry, can't remember the maker) on the new layer, and erased the top part. I duplicated this layer, and used 'Gaussian blur' on it. I merged it down, and colorized the now merged layer bright pink. I set that layer to Multiply, 100%.
And with a few, normal brushes (don't need a tutorial on this, right?) it's done! :D Hope you'll make pretty icons! Don't forget; use your imagination and don't make your icon a perfect copy of mine; that's not the goal of this tut.
If you enjoyed, comment with the icon you did. I'd like to see them!
Thank you!