| tutorial: mary from supernatural
From: 
to
program: photoshop cs5
translatable: maybe. if you skip the vibrance step. also, Topaz may have been used on this icon, but you could totally skip that too.
fandom: supernatural
requested by: chosenfire28 for ask the maker at icon_talk
First, a disclaimer. The coloring in this icon was completely inspired by fan_cifully. I also picked up some tips and tricks from the commenters at anon_icon. Also, this icon is a complete recreation of the original, it will not look exactly the same cuz I fail and don't save psds for any of my icons, lol.
STEP ONE
I cropped the image of Mary by pasting the full size cap into a 100x100. I then used Free-Transform to move and shrink the image onto the canvas until I got a result I liked.
STEP TWO
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I duplicated the base and set it to Screen. I used the Photoshop auto functions (contrast > color > tone) on the duplicate and lowered the opacity to 75%. I think I also applied a slight Topaz filter adjustment to this layer, but I can't remember right now. :S
STEP THREE
>
Duplicated the base twice more and set one copy to Screen (100%) and the other copy to Soft Light (100%). I blurred the second Screen copy with Gaussian Blur + Motion Blur. I blurred the top Soft Light copy with Surface Blur. You really have to play around with the blurring. Sometimes it can be too much. I recommend lots of fading! I also sharpened the bottom Screen layer and the top Soft Light layer with Unsharp Mask, I think.
STEP FOUR
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I added a Color Balance adjustment layer because I wanted more yellows for Mary's hair and a little red for her lips. In Midtones, I fiddled with cyan/red and yellow/blue to achieve this. I also adjusted cyan/red and yellow/blue in Shadows to deepen the contrast of her hair and lips. A slight yellow/blue adjustment was also added in Highlights. I set the Color Balance layer to Color for more intensity. Again, lots of playing around happened here! Most of the time I'm just fiddling with sliders, lol.
STEP FIVE
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I created a new layer and added some light blobs around Mary's hair and face with a large soft round brush at @ 65px in white. I lowered the opacity of the brush to @ 30%. I then blurred the blobs with Gaussian blur with a radius of @ 4.0 pixels.
STEP SIX
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I duplicated the base, dragged it to the top and set it to Soft Light (100%). I then blurred it slightly with Gaussian blur again. This time I faded the blurring because it overwhelmed things a bit.
STEP SEVEN
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I added a Levels layer. From the dropdown box at the top I changed 'Custom' to 'Increase Contrast 1'.
STEP EIGHT
>
I added a vibrance adjustment layer (+100, 0) at this point to really amp up the intensity of the colors overall. I set the Vibrance layer to Color.
STEP NINE
>
I copy-merged all of my layers and pasted. I then applied the High Pass filter (filter > other > high pass) with a radius of 0.4. I changed the blend mode of the layer to Hard Light and lowered the opacity to 10%. This is a great alternative to the Sharpen filter!
STEP TEN
>
Copy-merged again, because I'm OCD like that. I added a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer (+5, +5). I also added another Vibrance layer (+20, 0) and set it to Color (100%). Basically, this step preserves the colors and contrast in the icon so it doesn't get flat looking when you save it. I always save as .png and use the 'Save for Web and Devices' feature in Photoshop when I save my icons. It looks the best this way I've found! :)
FINAL ICON
>
And our final result compared to the original.
LAYER PALETTE
(layers palette)
A copy of my layers palette for reference.
to
program: photoshop cs5
translatable: maybe. if you skip the vibrance step. also, Topaz may have been used on this icon, but you could totally skip that too.
fandom: supernatural
requested by: chosenfire28 for ask the maker at icon_talk
First, a disclaimer. The coloring in this icon was completely inspired by fan_cifully. I also picked up some tips and tricks from the commenters at anon_icon. Also, this icon is a complete recreation of the original, it will not look exactly the same cuz I fail and don't save psds for any of my icons, lol.
STEP ONE
I cropped the image of Mary by pasting the full size cap into a 100x100. I then used Free-Transform to move and shrink the image onto the canvas until I got a result I liked.
STEP TWO
>
I duplicated the base and set it to Screen. I used the Photoshop auto functions (contrast > color > tone) on the duplicate and lowered the opacity to 75%. I think I also applied a slight Topaz filter adjustment to this layer, but I can't remember right now. :S
STEP THREE
>
Duplicated the base twice more and set one copy to Screen (100%) and the other copy to Soft Light (100%). I blurred the second Screen copy with Gaussian Blur + Motion Blur. I blurred the top Soft Light copy with Surface Blur. You really have to play around with the blurring. Sometimes it can be too much. I recommend lots of fading! I also sharpened the bottom Screen layer and the top Soft Light layer with Unsharp Mask, I think.
STEP FOUR
>
I added a Color Balance adjustment layer because I wanted more yellows for Mary's hair and a little red for her lips. In Midtones, I fiddled with cyan/red and yellow/blue to achieve this. I also adjusted cyan/red and yellow/blue in Shadows to deepen the contrast of her hair and lips. A slight yellow/blue adjustment was also added in Highlights. I set the Color Balance layer to Color for more intensity. Again, lots of playing around happened here! Most of the time I'm just fiddling with sliders, lol.
STEP FIVE
>
I created a new layer and added some light blobs around Mary's hair and face with a large soft round brush at @ 65px in white. I lowered the opacity of the brush to @ 30%. I then blurred the blobs with Gaussian blur with a radius of @ 4.0 pixels.
STEP SIX
>
I duplicated the base, dragged it to the top and set it to Soft Light (100%). I then blurred it slightly with Gaussian blur again. This time I faded the blurring because it overwhelmed things a bit.
STEP SEVEN
>
I added a Levels layer. From the dropdown box at the top I changed 'Custom' to 'Increase Contrast 1'.
STEP EIGHT
>
I added a vibrance adjustment layer (+100, 0) at this point to really amp up the intensity of the colors overall. I set the Vibrance layer to Color.
STEP NINE
>
I copy-merged all of my layers and pasted. I then applied the High Pass filter (filter > other > high pass) with a radius of 0.4. I changed the blend mode of the layer to Hard Light and lowered the opacity to 10%. This is a great alternative to the Sharpen filter!
STEP TEN
>
Copy-merged again, because I'm OCD like that. I added a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer (+5, +5). I also added another Vibrance layer (+20, 0) and set it to Color (100%). Basically, this step preserves the colors and contrast in the icon so it doesn't get flat looking when you save it. I always save as .png and use the 'Save for Web and Devices' feature in Photoshop when I save my icons. It looks the best this way I've found! :)
FINAL ICON
>
And our final result compared to the original.
LAYER PALETTE
(layers palette)
A copy of my layers palette for reference.