Using Gradient Maps to Color Icons Tutorial (ft. Pretty Little Liars)
How to go from 
to
or
using gradient maps, fill layers, and textures in The GIMP (and Photoshop I believe).
Difficulty: Easy
Translatable: Yes, as long as you have gradient maps, but there's no selective color.
psd?: YES!
Other examples:
(please redirect all questions and comments here, thanks).
DO NOT COPY THIS TUTORIAL EXACTLY! USE YOUR OWN IMAGE!! I'm putting the psd up, but if I see copies I will take it down!
This is very simple if you know what you're doing and one of my favorite ways to color icons! Especially Pretty Little Liars ones!
First, take your image (or base). I got my image from lucy-hale.org and cropped it.
Duplicate the layer once and set the top layer to Screen. This lightens up the image; you may not even need the screen layer, depending on how light your image is or how bright you want it. For this image I set it to 49.8%. In another instance, the image I used in the second example was already pretty bright, so I lowered the opacity to 50%-70%. Other screencaps I've had to use 100%. It all depends on your image. Depending on the episode, some of the PLL screencaps or stills can be pretty dark.
Next, if you're using GIMP, you're going to use the "high pass method" as I taught in this tutorial (or if you're lazy you could download the high pass plugin, but it doesn't look as clean and sharp). In Photoshop just use a High Pass filter, but in GIMP go to Layer>New From Visible. Then duplicate that layer again. Blur the top one by going to Filters>Blur>Blur, then set that layer to Grain Extract 100%. After that go to Layer>Merge Down. It should look like this:
Then set that layer to Soft light 60%-100%. For this particular icon I set it to 60%, but normally I use 100%. This looks like the equivalent of the Photoshop High Pass filter and makes the icon sharp yet clean and more neat looking, whereas sharpening sometimes looks tacky. I almost always use this on my icons as opposed to sharpening.
Now we get to the fun part. Instead of just making a gradient map on a new layer, go to Layer>New From Visible. NOW we can get to the coloring. Before making a gradient map, change your foreground and background colors. You'll want to do this based on the colors already in your icon. For this icon, because of all the browns, I changed my foreground color to #ff0000 and my background to #2b7300 to give it some coloring variety. (As an example of the many colors you can use though, for my second example icon of Hanna I used a tan color [#d2c277] and a navy color [#084454] because of her skin and hair. For the Aria and Hanna icon, I used purples and blues I believe because of their dresses, and because of the colors I wanted the icon to be). Experiment with colors. If you know what general color you want your icon to be, use those colors.
After you've picked your colors, go to Colors>Map>Gradient Map. It should make your image the two colors you picked.
Set the gradient map layer to Softlight. Don't set the opacity to 100. Experiment with opacities. For this icon I made the opacity 51.0%.
Now this is very pretty, but I still wasn't satisfied. I wanted Aria's skin to stand out a little more. So next make a new skin colored layer for this icon I filled it with a very light yellow #fff496. (For the Aria and Hanna Homecoming icon, I filled it with a tan color [#d2c277 I think] to make their skin even more natural looking and give the icon an overall tannish-dull color). However, this step will also effect the entire icon, so you can omit if you'd like, unless, like me, you love even more color. Set this layer to Multiply. For this icon I used 49.8% opacity, but lower or up it to your liking.
Now, for the first result take this texture (by emonet25 ) and set it to Screen 34.9%. This gives the icon a very pretty light effect in the middle of the texture. Again, change the opacity at your discretion. This step can be skipped; I didn't use any textures on the other 2 icons.
For the second result, take this texture (by ohfreckle ), drag it under the screen light texture, and set it to Soft light 40%. This adds, obviously, more color to the icon, so that it looks brighter and less brown.
Then go to Layer>New From Visible, and set the top layer to Soft light (technically you can do this for either result, it just adds even more contrast). For this I set the opacity to 29.8%.
And you're done!
.psd
Other examples:
(with different color gradient maps and multiply layers [for the Hanna icon I also added a blue/cyan burn layer to add more blue-ish color, and for the Miranda icon I added light blue and light pink burn layers to add color to her skin, with a pink color layer on her lips to give them color and a softlight brush layer])
to
or
using gradient maps, fill layers, and textures in The GIMP (and Photoshop I believe).
Difficulty: Easy
Translatable: Yes, as long as you have gradient maps, but there's no selective color.
psd?: YES!
Other examples:
(please redirect all questions and comments here, thanks).
DO NOT COPY THIS TUTORIAL EXACTLY! USE YOUR OWN IMAGE!! I'm putting the psd up, but if I see copies I will take it down!
This is very simple if you know what you're doing and one of my favorite ways to color icons! Especially Pretty Little Liars ones!
First, take your image (or base). I got my image from lucy-hale.org and cropped it.
Duplicate the layer once and set the top layer to Screen. This lightens up the image; you may not even need the screen layer, depending on how light your image is or how bright you want it. For this image I set it to 49.8%. In another instance, the image I used in the second example was already pretty bright, so I lowered the opacity to 50%-70%. Other screencaps I've had to use 100%. It all depends on your image. Depending on the episode, some of the PLL screencaps or stills can be pretty dark.
Next, if you're using GIMP, you're going to use the "high pass method" as I taught in this tutorial (or if you're lazy you could download the high pass plugin, but it doesn't look as clean and sharp). In Photoshop just use a High Pass filter, but in GIMP go to Layer>New From Visible. Then duplicate that layer again. Blur the top one by going to Filters>Blur>Blur, then set that layer to Grain Extract 100%. After that go to Layer>Merge Down. It should look like this:
Then set that layer to Soft light 60%-100%. For this particular icon I set it to 60%, but normally I use 100%. This looks like the equivalent of the Photoshop High Pass filter and makes the icon sharp yet clean and more neat looking, whereas sharpening sometimes looks tacky. I almost always use this on my icons as opposed to sharpening.
Now we get to the fun part. Instead of just making a gradient map on a new layer, go to Layer>New From Visible. NOW we can get to the coloring. Before making a gradient map, change your foreground and background colors. You'll want to do this based on the colors already in your icon. For this icon, because of all the browns, I changed my foreground color to #ff0000 and my background to #2b7300 to give it some coloring variety. (As an example of the many colors you can use though, for my second example icon of Hanna I used a tan color [#d2c277] and a navy color [#084454] because of her skin and hair. For the Aria and Hanna icon, I used purples and blues I believe because of their dresses, and because of the colors I wanted the icon to be). Experiment with colors. If you know what general color you want your icon to be, use those colors.
After you've picked your colors, go to Colors>Map>Gradient Map. It should make your image the two colors you picked.
Set the gradient map layer to Softlight. Don't set the opacity to 100. Experiment with opacities. For this icon I made the opacity 51.0%.
Now this is very pretty, but I still wasn't satisfied. I wanted Aria's skin to stand out a little more. So next make a new skin colored layer for this icon I filled it with a very light yellow #fff496. (For the Aria and Hanna Homecoming icon, I filled it with a tan color [#d2c277 I think] to make their skin even more natural looking and give the icon an overall tannish-dull color). However, this step will also effect the entire icon, so you can omit if you'd like, unless, like me, you love even more color. Set this layer to Multiply. For this icon I used 49.8% opacity, but lower or up it to your liking.
Now, for the first result take this texture (by emonet25 ) and set it to Screen 34.9%. This gives the icon a very pretty light effect in the middle of the texture. Again, change the opacity at your discretion. This step can be skipped; I didn't use any textures on the other 2 icons.
For the second result, take this texture (by ohfreckle ), drag it under the screen light texture, and set it to Soft light 40%. This adds, obviously, more color to the icon, so that it looks brighter and less brown.
Then go to Layer>New From Visible, and set the top layer to Soft light (technically you can do this for either result, it just adds even more contrast). For this I set the opacity to 29.8%.
And you're done!
.psd
Other examples:
(with different color gradient maps and multiply layers [for the Hanna icon I also added a blue/cyan burn layer to add more blue-ish color, and for the Miranda icon I added light blue and light pink burn layers to add color to her skin, with a pink color layer on her lips to give them color and a softlight brush layer])