159 | Abaddon Tutorial
This is a tutorial for an Abaddon icon asked for by monstersinyou from my January icon post.
I use CS5, so depending on which program you use, some things may not be transferable. I am going to refer to things the way that I know them so if you don't know what I am talking about or how to get to the tool I am using, please feel free to ask.
1. First we start out with this screencap: Abaddon
2. I don't know why but I am a big fan of center cropped icons, which is why a lot of mine have a center crop. I use an auto contrast/tone/color layer because this is what I always do although I don't think it had a huge effect on the outcome of the icon. It does take out some of the purple of her face.
>>>
3. Now I use the preset copper Gradient Map (I like this gradient map a lot) to bring some copper and red tones into the icon. I set it to Reverse, Soft Light and 46% opacity.
4. Now I kind of see where I want the icon to go. I add some a solid pink/red coloring layer to the icon (#e69898) and set it to 100% Overlay.
5. I want to tone the color down a bit and add some shadows so I add another solid color layer and fill it will a dark blue color (#1a4865). Set to Soft Lgiht, 71% opacity.
6. Now that I have some shadows and a coloring that I like I want to lighten things up a bit so I add yet another solid color layer and fill it with a light beige color (#f0ddbf). Set to Soft Light, 46% opacity.
7. Now I see that the coloring is a bit too bright pink/red so I add a solid color layer and fill it with a brown color (#501c0a) to 'flesh' out the coloring a bit. Set to Color, 27% opacity.
8. Now I want to start trying to get the red coloring I want. I add a color balance layer as follows:
- Midtones: Cyan/Red -2 / Magenta/Green +2 / Yellow/Blue +6
- Shadows: Cyan/Red +10 / Magenta/Green -5 / Yellow/Blue +3
9. WOW, a whole step without a solid layer color. Well here ya go...I am going to add a red solid color layer (#850707). Set to Soft Light, 40% opacity.
10. I want to lighten it up a bit so I add some light the bottom left using a texture. I blurred the texture so much that I don't recognize it. However, I do know the texture came from the demon download HERE.
11. So far I am liking the coloring but the icon is flat and lacks contrast so I add a black and white gradient map and set it to Soft Light, 56% opacity.
12. Now I want to add more shadows of the right side of her face so I use a texture to do that. I took one of the textures from the demon download from step 10 again and blurred the crap out of it so again I don't know which one it is. I also changed the coloring of the texture.
13. I want a little bit of a different red coloring and darker shadows so I am going to add a Selective Color layer.
- Reds: Cyan -20 / Yellow +1 / Black +1
- Whites: Black -23
- Blacks: +7
14. I want to get a bit of a glow to Abaddon so I add a Diffuse layer (Filter->Stylize->Diffuse) set in Anisotropic. I learned this tip/trick from this TUTORIAL by absolutelybatty. Set layer to Soft Light, 29% opacity.
15. Things are getting a little dark so I add...yep, you guessed it, a soloid layer color of a brownish/red (#2f0908). Set to Screen at 60% opacity.
16. Now I am going to add a Curves layer to add more contrast and darken the shadows.
17. I want some things on Abaddon to stand out a bit more so I add a dark color to her throat stitches to darken it (soft light 40% opacity). I add a orange color to the little strands of hair on her left side (soft light, 25% opacity) and then I add a dark color to darken her lipstick (soft light, 77% opacity).
18. I want to tone down the reds again so I add another black and white gradient map set on normal at 28% opacity.
19. I want the left side to be a little lighter so I add a white gradient fill layer set to Soft Light at 14% opacity.
20. We are almost done. I want to add some final touches so I brighten up the icon by adding another curves layer.
21. I wanted this icon to have a grainy type of look and feel so I sharpened the next layer with Paint Daubs, brush and sharpness both set at 1.
22. And for the last two steps. I wanted just a touch more sharpness for this icon so I used a High Pass layer (radius 1.1) set to soft light, 100% opacity and then I added a brightness/contrast (set on 5 and 8 respectively) layer for the final touch
Well... that seemed way too over complicated but we finally made it to the end! Hope it made some sort of sense and thanks for asking for the tutorial. =)
I use CS5, so depending on which program you use, some things may not be transferable. I am going to refer to things the way that I know them so if you don't know what I am talking about or how to get to the tool I am using, please feel free to ask.
1. First we start out with this screencap: Abaddon
2. I don't know why but I am a big fan of center cropped icons, which is why a lot of mine have a center crop. I use an auto contrast/tone/color layer because this is what I always do although I don't think it had a huge effect on the outcome of the icon. It does take out some of the purple of her face.
>>>
3. Now I use the preset copper Gradient Map (I like this gradient map a lot) to bring some copper and red tones into the icon. I set it to Reverse, Soft Light and 46% opacity.
4. Now I kind of see where I want the icon to go. I add some a solid pink/red coloring layer to the icon (#e69898) and set it to 100% Overlay.
5. I want to tone the color down a bit and add some shadows so I add another solid color layer and fill it will a dark blue color (#1a4865). Set to Soft Lgiht, 71% opacity.
6. Now that I have some shadows and a coloring that I like I want to lighten things up a bit so I add yet another solid color layer and fill it with a light beige color (#f0ddbf). Set to Soft Light, 46% opacity.
7. Now I see that the coloring is a bit too bright pink/red so I add a solid color layer and fill it with a brown color (#501c0a) to 'flesh' out the coloring a bit. Set to Color, 27% opacity.
8. Now I want to start trying to get the red coloring I want. I add a color balance layer as follows:
- Midtones: Cyan/Red -2 / Magenta/Green +2 / Yellow/Blue +6
- Shadows: Cyan/Red +10 / Magenta/Green -5 / Yellow/Blue +3
9. WOW, a whole step without a solid layer color. Well here ya go...I am going to add a red solid color layer (#850707). Set to Soft Light, 40% opacity.
10. I want to lighten it up a bit so I add some light the bottom left using a texture. I blurred the texture so much that I don't recognize it. However, I do know the texture came from the demon download HERE.
11. So far I am liking the coloring but the icon is flat and lacks contrast so I add a black and white gradient map and set it to Soft Light, 56% opacity.
12. Now I want to add more shadows of the right side of her face so I use a texture to do that. I took one of the textures from the demon download from step 10 again and blurred the crap out of it so again I don't know which one it is. I also changed the coloring of the texture.
13. I want a little bit of a different red coloring and darker shadows so I am going to add a Selective Color layer.
- Reds: Cyan -20 / Yellow +1 / Black +1
- Whites: Black -23
- Blacks: +7
14. I want to get a bit of a glow to Abaddon so I add a Diffuse layer (Filter->Stylize->Diffuse) set in Anisotropic. I learned this tip/trick from this TUTORIAL by absolutelybatty. Set layer to Soft Light, 29% opacity.
15. Things are getting a little dark so I add...yep, you guessed it, a soloid layer color of a brownish/red (#2f0908). Set to Screen at 60% opacity.
16. Now I am going to add a Curves layer to add more contrast and darken the shadows.
17. I want some things on Abaddon to stand out a bit more so I add a dark color to her throat stitches to darken it (soft light 40% opacity). I add a orange color to the little strands of hair on her left side (soft light, 25% opacity) and then I add a dark color to darken her lipstick (soft light, 77% opacity).
18. I want to tone down the reds again so I add another black and white gradient map set on normal at 28% opacity.
19. I want the left side to be a little lighter so I add a white gradient fill layer set to Soft Light at 14% opacity.
20. We are almost done. I want to add some final touches so I brighten up the icon by adding another curves layer.
21. I wanted this icon to have a grainy type of look and feel so I sharpened the next layer with Paint Daubs, brush and sharpness both set at 1.
22. And for the last two steps. I wanted just a touch more sharpness for this icon so I used a High Pass layer (radius 1.1) set to soft light, 100% opacity and then I added a brightness/contrast (set on 5 and 8 respectively) layer for the final touch
Well... that seemed way too over complicated but we finally made it to the end! Hope it made some sort of sense and thanks for asking for the tutorial. =)