67. an icon tutorial for word_never_said
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Standard Disclaimer: I always work on a 400x400 canvas, but I've made them smaller them for the sake of this tutorial(you can click through to see the full-size image though). I also love pictures so this is VERY picture heavy(as in, pictures for every single step).
So, I love LoTS but damn, the icons are hard to color. For this icon (which is a bit older), I actually used layers of painted color to get what I wanted, as well as color balance and selective color with heavy masking. I knew going into the icon that my goal was to make a colorful Kara icon, to contrast how she's always so stoic and basically the opposite of the pink and yellow happy colors. So I picked the cap with that in mind, and I cropped close on her face to emphasize the emotions from the scene.
I always prep my bases the same way; a curves layer set to screen and another with the curves set to auto and the layer set to soft light. For this icon I had two layers set to screen(just duplicated that initial one) and the final soft light layer set to fill at 77%. I wanted a lot of light to help with my coloring, so that's why I did this.
At this point things are washed out, but that's okay because we can always add color in and darken things up. To get started on the coloring I threw in a new selective color layer to drop down the reds and futz with her lips and flatten out her face so it was as washed out as her hair, and then, because I'm me, a vibrance layer with vibrance at +70.
Now begins the coloring part, I'd say. I painted over her hair with a yellowish color I took from the icon and set it at soft light, then painted over her face with a very light color and an even lighter hand and set that to soft light too. I duplicated that layer and set it to color at 20%. Now she's lighter and a bit softer and her hair has some color again. Yay!
Next is another vibrance layer at +62; this amps things up a lot. From there I add another selective color layer for the yellows and mask it out; you can see how I wanted it to mostly be focused on her face with just a little bit of it on her hair.
A black to white gradient map set to soft light at 35% fill gives her some contrast and darkens up the dark parts a little bit, while a new curves layer adds more depth and gives me a chance to boost the blues, which is the opposite of yellow, which kind of again tones down the yellow in her face.
If you've ever read any of my tutorials you know I love to go back and forth adding color and then taking it away and then adding it back. It makes it easier to work on if you have less color to start with; you can always add it back.
More vibrance at +55 to make her pop some more, and now my other favorite technique; blurring a new stamped layer! Stamp a new layer, blur that mofo until you're happy with how glowy it looks, and set it to overlay at 23%. Normally I do soft light, but I wanted the intensity of overlay this time.
Remember way back when I painted over her face and set it to color to tone down the intensity of her facial coloring? Yeah? Duplicate that sucker and set it to color on top of the blurred layer, at about 17% fill. Subtle, but nice. Also, more vibrance, +43.
Next is some BS that I'm not sure why I did, but eh. Wasn't happy with her lips, so I did some messing with them. First a color balance layer masked just to her lip area, and then another one to clean up around it because I masked wrong and I wasn't digging how part of her skin was turning yellow again.
Next I worked just on her lips; I wanted them pinker so I threw some selective color on there to change it pinker, and then dropped a vibrance layer on -10 to lighten it up.
Home stretch! Vibrance layer at +15, new curves layer to brighten things up and kind of lift her eyes a little out of blackness. I think I then used maybe the unsharp mask or topaz to kind of smooth things out but I'm not sure which. It's very subtle and probably could have been done differently, idk.
Sharpen and resize and you're done!
The takeaway I think is that selective color, masking, and painting are your friends. Don't be afraid to suck out almost all of the color out of your image because then you can add it back in how you see fit.
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