Ask the maker 3.0!

[aida_rose]

It's time for our third round of Ask the Maker!

Here you'll get the chance to ask icon makers who sign up, questions about their icons and other graphics. You can ask for tutorials, guides/"How to", or ask any other questions regarding their work so the makers can compile a Q&A post with the answers to all the questions they get. As always, .PSD

Comments

[tunaeverynight]

I'd say the biggest "trick" I use when it comes to blocking is re-using old icons. Sometimes I'll finish coloring an icon and decide it bores me as is, so I'll look back through old posts I've made for similarly colored icons and drag them to the sides as borders.

For example, the border of this icon:


Is actually this icon:


As for blocking when I don't use that trick - it tends to be a drag, drop and re-arrange process. I rarely set out to make an icon with blocking in mind. I usually start off making a "normal" icon and end up dragging new things into it once I get bored. Sometimes I'll combine two icons I'm working on separately, if they're similar color or theme wise, as was the case with these two icons:




Sometimes I'll shrink an icon to 70x70 and then rearrange it in different ways on a blank 100x100 layer.

As for coloring, I keep it pretty simple. I rarely if ever use selective coloring. I mostly stick to color balance and drag things around until they look right. My newest obsession is making a hue/saturation layer and dragging the saturation backward, essentially sucking the image clean of all brightness. That makes it easier to play with the reds in a color balance layer.

The biggest piece of coloring advice I can give is to make use of the burn tool! I use it on every single icon I make, no questions asked. I use it to shade faces, to amp up natural coloring, to darken corners. It's my favorite tool in Photoshop. Like, an icon such as this one exists purely because of the burn tool:


I didn't do any other coloring on that icon at all. Just a few curves layers, the burn tool and bam.

Hope that's helpful!!!

[erzsebet]

THANK YOU SO SO MUCH

I don't think I've used the burn tool for years, I'll have to start experimenting with that! Do you ever use the dodge tool as well then, or just the burn tool?

Also love the idea of using old icons for borders! Such an awesome idea.

[tunaeverynight]

I use dodge occasionally, but rarely. Usually just to even out something I did after using burn :)

You're welcome!!! ♥