Signature 3.0 Tutorial feat. Miori from Alice Parade
Tutorial is image heavy, so check out the cut for the full tutorial! Please forgive me for the dozens of screenshots!
So I decided after doing a few graphics here and there tonight to make yet another tutorial for a signature, although I think it could be applied to wallpapers and other kinds of graphics with some scaling edits involved. I previously in March made my Miori cosplay from Alice Parade, which is an ultra-cute visual novel I really like! I had a wonderful time wearing it and will wear it again soon, but it inspired me today to try something cute and friendly for the springtime. I think it might have something to also do with reading too much Fruits Basket!!
The tutorial basically took me about a half an hour of thinking and saving all of the images, and then shopping around my folders for some decent textures to try out. As with my previous Kasumi tutorial, I tried to keep brushes as a final touch, but I am considering after this to do a signature with a brush-heavy element yet with a lot of manipulations to them to create really cool effects. This tutorial focuses on working with color editing, layers, some textures I included with credits to some amazing designers, and then working on redefining a simple image to something airy, wonderful, and appropriate for a fun spring and summer theme.
This tutorial is mainly for people to get started on some color ideas and how to take a lovely picture and use it for their personal use. With that in mind, all textures/brushes/images mentioned here are credited to their respective owners. If you see any of your goodies and I've made a mistake on whom to credit, please let me know and I'll be glad to fix any errors. If you would like to visit the owners of such goodies, I'll be listing them through names, but be sure to visit them and check out and or comment on their nice items. <3 Feel free to ask any questions, leave comments, but please refrain from taking the final product or the entire tutorial completely without my notification/permission.
Tutorial is placed under the cut since it's really image heavy! Please forgive me!
I'm assuming that because this is relatively beginner's work, that the color manipulation settings are translatable, with the exception of the Divide tab in the Layers Mode tab. I didn't add basic tutorials on how to resize, crop, and move images since the tutorial is meant to build upon the basic use of typical Photoshop tools.
Unfortunately, I off the top of my head do not know a workaround, though I assume that you can either omit that layer of set it to something like Soft Light or Overlay or another filter to fit your choice. You don'y have to copy this tutorial word-for-word! This was done in Photoshop CS6, but most steps are available for 7.0 and beyond.
1. CHOOSING AN IMAGE
So for this tutorial, I ended up taking my inspiration from a cute CG of Miori from Alice Parade jumping and looking completely in character ~ cute, airy, and friendly. Naturally, this doesn't have to be your image choice however, most of the color edits made for this image rely on modifying the image's primary colors. Her uniform is orange, so my focus around this color palette was mostly orange, yellow, and white edits with some cyan edits for the sky. This would work best on an alternate image that has a similar focus on orange/yellow dominant colors.
Squee! I love this image. Although it's small, I actually used a rather large version of this image (somewhere around 1200 by something) so that resizing it won't compromise the image's quality. If you are working with an image that is a bit smaller and already showing some pixel issues, you can also always try to sharpen the image using the Sharpening Filter in your Filters Tab. You can remove some of the filter by reducing it on the Edit's tab to a desired percentage under 100%.
2. PREPARE YOUR CANVAS
Here is my canvas:
This is a blank 400 x 150 canvas I prepared, and I added the stroke just to differeniate from the rest of the journal text body. Some people like to add strokes as well in different colors as a form of a colorful border at the end of their work, so the best way to do this is stroke your canvas in a separate layer from the background by duplicating your background, stroking it using the Edits tab and set it to the desired color and width. To keep it on top of your final image, always keep this layer at the very top in your palette and work underneath it. It shouldn't affect the rest of your image as long as you work in layers.
Working in layers is very important! To achieve your desired look and not struggle with a confusion of elements and effects in the same layer, always do different effects in their own layers. You won't be able to edit certain items specifically without much hassle unless otherwise. Also, it's forcing you to be organized so that you can go back and edit items independently if needed. This works best when wanting to change text or colors or rotate items later on.
3. RESIZE YOUR IMAGE AND INSERT INTO CANVAS
(Image is over the stroke layer. I'll move it in the end to the top.)
So if you go to my Kasumi tutorial, the third step goes in depth on how to copy and paste the image from your image folders to the canvas. Basically, you can open your image on Photoshop, or as I do it nowadays, I usually open my folder separately on my desktop and drag my image towards the top of the main Photoshop tabs. If you drag it to the canvas directly, it tends to do a special item paste that doesn't allow the image to be in its own layer. You need it in its own layer. Dragging it to the top of the Photoshop tabs will add the image as a new file, then you can select the entire image, copy, and then go to your main canvas file and paste it on there. Resize using the Free Transform tool and hold down the Shift key to keep the same proportions. I resized mine to have Miori more towards the right side and enough to see her cute hair and outfit.
4. DUPLICATE YOUR IMAGE LAYER
So basically this is where the fun begins! Take your image layer and right-click it and select Duplicate Layer. Immediately take that layer and set it to Screen at 50% Opacity. It has added a lot of color, light, and depth to the picture already!
5. SELECTIVE COLOR #1
Selective Color is going to add a lot more focus and depth to certain colors. As I said before, I really sought to brighten and bring up the orange and blue colors. The selective color option can be found in Image > New Adjustment Layer > Selective Color.
Here are the settings I used for each tab:
Reds -
Cyan -40
Magenta +3
Yellow +27
Black +3
Yellows -
Cyan -30
Magenta +14
Yellow +13
Black -25
Cyans -
Cyan +67
Magenta -21
Yellow: -23
Black -11
Neutrals -
Cyan -4
Magenta +7
Yellow +4
Black -3
Whites -
Cyan -57
Magenta -18
Yellow -16
Black +3
While there are also other tabs for magentas, greens, and blacks, these are the ones that I used for this particular picture. Depending on your image of choice, and or your overall objective for the image, feel free to play around with the other colors to get even more interesting new effects.
6. RAINBOW GRADIENT LAYERS
After selective color, I added a rainbow gradient in a separate layer. This originally came in a preset set from years back I found online, so if you know who made this custom one, please feel free to let me know and I will credit you! Nonetheless, this gradient can also easily be created through the gradients tool on your main tools palette and by selecting these colors and working through the dials to achieve the right look. You can save your looks as well using that tool to create a new custom gradient.
I used my gradient tool with these colors and swiped my cursor across the canvas in a new layer from left to right so that the blue color started on the left, and I let go of the cursor when I reached the right side to let that soft pink-red color have a nice amount of room. I duplicated that layer before anything and I set the original first gradient layer of the two to Soft Light 40%. I then went to the new duplicated gradient layer and set to Divide 76%.
The current result should more or less look like this:
With second gradient layer on top as well.
I personally love this current state of the image. Although the final product hails quite differently, I definitely love this look so far. The gradients added a nice depth to the image.
7. LEVELS ADJUSTMENT
I adjusted the Levels just a bit to allow the image to be a bit brighter and have less white along her face. You can edit the levels by going to Layer > Adjustment Layers > Levels.
I only edited the very first dial on the left, which I set to 14. Feel free to play with them as you please to adjust to your liking.
8. ADD SMALL LIGHT TEXTURE
After my rainbow gradient layers, I added this small texture from a livejournal contributor whom I didn't get the chance to get the name of again. I will credit if someone can let me know the name of them! Please forgive me! These kinds of light textures are great for icons as well.
I pasted that in a simialr fashion as I did with my initial signature image of Miori by copy and pasting, and then set it immediately to Screen 100%. I moved it around to my desired place where it wasn't obstructing the face.
Here's the current result:
9. ORANGE BRUSH #1
In order to get a little more yellow/orange out of the image, I took an soft round brush from my standard brush palette and used a color like #ff9c00 in a single large stroke along the upper quarter of the image. I then set that layer to Soft Light 53%.
10. ADD THE TEXTURE #1
I used this texture by azurememory and resized it to allow for parts to fit nicely within the canvas. This was a bit of an experimentation, since I can already see that it's a busy texture. In hindsight, I would have picked somethin not as busy but learning something new is always part of awesome design!
I copied and pasted the texture like the other textures and images from before. Then, I set it to Overlay 32%.
Here's the result:
Major edit not featured in this preview: I didn't realized until after that I forgot to set the layer to Divide at 51%. I noticed something was a bit too dull. The edited version has a bit more definiton.
11. LEVELS #2
I once again made a new Levels Layer by going to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels, and setting the left dial to 23.
12. ORANGE BRUSH #2
So I took another large soft round blush and used a darker orange I got from using the eye-dropper tool along some of the shadows of her skirt. I would up with something around #ff6633. Then I set that layer to a Soft Light 53%.
The Current Result:
13. ADDING TEXT
Text is such a subjective thing to me, because we can all come up with cute phrases, quotes, and ideas for th text. I usually leave this up to the designer themselves to write whatever they want with whatever fonts they want. To make that stylized W, I used another font ad typed the W in a separate later to manipulate it separately from the rest of the image. I chose a dark orange from her skirt and then some nice san serifs for the main text and subtext. Be creative here!
14. REPEAT STEP #4 AGAIN
Self-explanatory. Basically take duplicate the second layer you made with the duplicated original image set to Screen 50%, and then drag it all the way on top of the text layers you just made. Set this new layer to Overlay 50%.
15. BRUSHES
Be creative here too! Brushes vary from person to person, but use your brush palette to add any extra bits that you feel are right for the image. I ended up using an Anime Rain sparle brush that you can still find at the site in an amazing pack! I brushed it along the bottom and moved and rotated it around.
Make separate layers for each brush effect you make! This makes it easier to remove or add exclusive effects to each layer without harming the others.
16. SIGN AND REARRANGE LAYERS
So as you can see in this final product, I began to rearrange other layers to see if I could get some different effects here and there. I ended up changing the initial color of the W there and rearranged some of the last minute touches.
17. SELECTIVE COLOR #2 AND COLOR BALANCE
So quickly, do Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Selective Color. Go to the Cyans tab and then set the first Cyan subtab to 100%. You're done with selective coloring.
Now go to Layer > New Adustment Layer > Color Balance. This will now be a great place to add some more depth!
Were are the settings:
Midtones -
- Red +19
- Magenta -24
- Blue +26
Shadows -
- Cyan -10
- Magenta -28
- Yellow -15
Highlights -
- Cyan -19
- Magenta -19
- Bue +13
18. FINISHED!
And finished! As you can see here, more layer rearranging and edits resulted in lowering the opacity of the text to not make it as obvious. This final product also reflects the edit I made to the texture layer by setting it to Divide 56%. Feel free to marvel at your creation and use it as a chance to make any new edits or experiment on it. Save your .psd if you can so you can rework it and refer to it in later projects.
Thankfully, if you follows the steps and made separate layers for each step, it'll be easy to go back and see the step-by-step process of your creation!
Now go enjoy a nice lemonade or a fun visual novel! Thank you for reading! <3
Happy Springtime! <3
So I decided after doing a few graphics here and there tonight to make yet another tutorial for a signature, although I think it could be applied to wallpapers and other kinds of graphics with some scaling edits involved. I previously in March made my Miori cosplay from Alice Parade, which is an ultra-cute visual novel I really like! I had a wonderful time wearing it and will wear it again soon, but it inspired me today to try something cute and friendly for the springtime. I think it might have something to also do with reading too much Fruits Basket!!
The tutorial basically took me about a half an hour of thinking and saving all of the images, and then shopping around my folders for some decent textures to try out. As with my previous Kasumi tutorial, I tried to keep brushes as a final touch, but I am considering after this to do a signature with a brush-heavy element yet with a lot of manipulations to them to create really cool effects. This tutorial focuses on working with color editing, layers, some textures I included with credits to some amazing designers, and then working on redefining a simple image to something airy, wonderful, and appropriate for a fun spring and summer theme.
This tutorial is mainly for people to get started on some color ideas and how to take a lovely picture and use it for their personal use. With that in mind, all textures/brushes/images mentioned here are credited to their respective owners. If you see any of your goodies and I've made a mistake on whom to credit, please let me know and I'll be glad to fix any errors. If you would like to visit the owners of such goodies, I'll be listing them through names, but be sure to visit them and check out and or comment on their nice items. <3 Feel free to ask any questions, leave comments, but please refrain from taking the final product or the entire tutorial completely without my notification/permission.
Tutorial is placed under the cut since it's really image heavy! Please forgive me!
I'm assuming that because this is relatively beginner's work, that the color manipulation settings are translatable, with the exception of the Divide tab in the Layers Mode tab. I didn't add basic tutorials on how to resize, crop, and move images since the tutorial is meant to build upon the basic use of typical Photoshop tools.
Unfortunately, I off the top of my head do not know a workaround, though I assume that you can either omit that layer of set it to something like Soft Light or Overlay or another filter to fit your choice. You don'y have to copy this tutorial word-for-word! This was done in Photoshop CS6, but most steps are available for 7.0 and beyond.
1. CHOOSING AN IMAGE
So for this tutorial, I ended up taking my inspiration from a cute CG of Miori from Alice Parade jumping and looking completely in character ~ cute, airy, and friendly. Naturally, this doesn't have to be your image choice however, most of the color edits made for this image rely on modifying the image's primary colors. Her uniform is orange, so my focus around this color palette was mostly orange, yellow, and white edits with some cyan edits for the sky. This would work best on an alternate image that has a similar focus on orange/yellow dominant colors.
Squee! I love this image. Although it's small, I actually used a rather large version of this image (somewhere around 1200 by something) so that resizing it won't compromise the image's quality. If you are working with an image that is a bit smaller and already showing some pixel issues, you can also always try to sharpen the image using the Sharpening Filter in your Filters Tab. You can remove some of the filter by reducing it on the Edit's tab to a desired percentage under 100%.
2. PREPARE YOUR CANVAS
Here is my canvas:
This is a blank 400 x 150 canvas I prepared, and I added the stroke just to differeniate from the rest of the journal text body. Some people like to add strokes as well in different colors as a form of a colorful border at the end of their work, so the best way to do this is stroke your canvas in a separate layer from the background by duplicating your background, stroking it using the Edits tab and set it to the desired color and width. To keep it on top of your final image, always keep this layer at the very top in your palette and work underneath it. It shouldn't affect the rest of your image as long as you work in layers.
Working in layers is very important! To achieve your desired look and not struggle with a confusion of elements and effects in the same layer, always do different effects in their own layers. You won't be able to edit certain items specifically without much hassle unless otherwise. Also, it's forcing you to be organized so that you can go back and edit items independently if needed. This works best when wanting to change text or colors or rotate items later on.
3. RESIZE YOUR IMAGE AND INSERT INTO CANVAS
(Image is over the stroke layer. I'll move it in the end to the top.)
So if you go to my Kasumi tutorial, the third step goes in depth on how to copy and paste the image from your image folders to the canvas. Basically, you can open your image on Photoshop, or as I do it nowadays, I usually open my folder separately on my desktop and drag my image towards the top of the main Photoshop tabs. If you drag it to the canvas directly, it tends to do a special item paste that doesn't allow the image to be in its own layer. You need it in its own layer. Dragging it to the top of the Photoshop tabs will add the image as a new file, then you can select the entire image, copy, and then go to your main canvas file and paste it on there. Resize using the Free Transform tool and hold down the Shift key to keep the same proportions. I resized mine to have Miori more towards the right side and enough to see her cute hair and outfit.
4. DUPLICATE YOUR IMAGE LAYER
So basically this is where the fun begins! Take your image layer and right-click it and select Duplicate Layer. Immediately take that layer and set it to Screen at 50% Opacity. It has added a lot of color, light, and depth to the picture already!
5. SELECTIVE COLOR #1
Selective Color is going to add a lot more focus and depth to certain colors. As I said before, I really sought to brighten and bring up the orange and blue colors. The selective color option can be found in Image > New Adjustment Layer > Selective Color.
Here are the settings I used for each tab:
Reds -
Cyan -40
Magenta +3
Yellow +27
Black +3
Yellows -
Cyan -30
Magenta +14
Yellow +13
Black -25
Cyans -
Cyan +67
Magenta -21
Yellow: -23
Black -11
Neutrals -
Cyan -4
Magenta +7
Yellow +4
Black -3
Whites -
Cyan -57
Magenta -18
Yellow -16
Black +3
While there are also other tabs for magentas, greens, and blacks, these are the ones that I used for this particular picture. Depending on your image of choice, and or your overall objective for the image, feel free to play around with the other colors to get even more interesting new effects.
6. RAINBOW GRADIENT LAYERS
After selective color, I added a rainbow gradient in a separate layer. This originally came in a preset set from years back I found online, so if you know who made this custom one, please feel free to let me know and I will credit you! Nonetheless, this gradient can also easily be created through the gradients tool on your main tools palette and by selecting these colors and working through the dials to achieve the right look. You can save your looks as well using that tool to create a new custom gradient.
I used my gradient tool with these colors and swiped my cursor across the canvas in a new layer from left to right so that the blue color started on the left, and I let go of the cursor when I reached the right side to let that soft pink-red color have a nice amount of room. I duplicated that layer before anything and I set the original first gradient layer of the two to Soft Light 40%. I then went to the new duplicated gradient layer and set to Divide 76%.
The current result should more or less look like this:
With second gradient layer on top as well.
I personally love this current state of the image. Although the final product hails quite differently, I definitely love this look so far. The gradients added a nice depth to the image.
7. LEVELS ADJUSTMENT
I adjusted the Levels just a bit to allow the image to be a bit brighter and have less white along her face. You can edit the levels by going to Layer > Adjustment Layers > Levels.
I only edited the very first dial on the left, which I set to 14. Feel free to play with them as you please to adjust to your liking.
8. ADD SMALL LIGHT TEXTURE
After my rainbow gradient layers, I added this small texture from a livejournal contributor whom I didn't get the chance to get the name of again. I will credit if someone can let me know the name of them! Please forgive me! These kinds of light textures are great for icons as well.
I pasted that in a simialr fashion as I did with my initial signature image of Miori by copy and pasting, and then set it immediately to Screen 100%. I moved it around to my desired place where it wasn't obstructing the face.
Here's the current result:
9. ORANGE BRUSH #1
In order to get a little more yellow/orange out of the image, I took an soft round brush from my standard brush palette and used a color like #ff9c00 in a single large stroke along the upper quarter of the image. I then set that layer to Soft Light 53%.
10. ADD THE TEXTURE #1
I used this texture by azurememory and resized it to allow for parts to fit nicely within the canvas. This was a bit of an experimentation, since I can already see that it's a busy texture. In hindsight, I would have picked somethin not as busy but learning something new is always part of awesome design!
I copied and pasted the texture like the other textures and images from before. Then, I set it to Overlay 32%.
Here's the result:
Major edit not featured in this preview: I didn't realized until after that I forgot to set the layer to Divide at 51%. I noticed something was a bit too dull. The edited version has a bit more definiton.
11. LEVELS #2
I once again made a new Levels Layer by going to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels, and setting the left dial to 23.
12. ORANGE BRUSH #2
So I took another large soft round blush and used a darker orange I got from using the eye-dropper tool along some of the shadows of her skirt. I would up with something around #ff6633. Then I set that layer to a Soft Light 53%.
The Current Result:
13. ADDING TEXT
Text is such a subjective thing to me, because we can all come up with cute phrases, quotes, and ideas for th text. I usually leave this up to the designer themselves to write whatever they want with whatever fonts they want. To make that stylized W, I used another font ad typed the W in a separate later to manipulate it separately from the rest of the image. I chose a dark orange from her skirt and then some nice san serifs for the main text and subtext. Be creative here!
14. REPEAT STEP #4 AGAIN
Self-explanatory. Basically take duplicate the second layer you made with the duplicated original image set to Screen 50%, and then drag it all the way on top of the text layers you just made. Set this new layer to Overlay 50%.
15. BRUSHES
Be creative here too! Brushes vary from person to person, but use your brush palette to add any extra bits that you feel are right for the image. I ended up using an Anime Rain sparle brush that you can still find at the site in an amazing pack! I brushed it along the bottom and moved and rotated it around.
Make separate layers for each brush effect you make! This makes it easier to remove or add exclusive effects to each layer without harming the others.
16. SIGN AND REARRANGE LAYERS
So as you can see in this final product, I began to rearrange other layers to see if I could get some different effects here and there. I ended up changing the initial color of the W there and rearranged some of the last minute touches.
17. SELECTIVE COLOR #2 AND COLOR BALANCE
So quickly, do Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Selective Color. Go to the Cyans tab and then set the first Cyan subtab to 100%. You're done with selective coloring.
Now go to Layer > New Adustment Layer > Color Balance. This will now be a great place to add some more depth!
Were are the settings:
Midtones -
- Red +19
- Magenta -24
- Blue +26
Shadows -
- Cyan -10
- Magenta -28
- Yellow -15
Highlights -
- Cyan -19
- Magenta -19
- Bue +13
18. FINISHED!
And finished! As you can see here, more layer rearranging and edits resulted in lowering the opacity of the text to not make it as obvious. This final product also reflects the edit I made to the texture layer by setting it to Divide 56%. Feel free to marvel at your creation and use it as a chance to make any new edits or experiment on it. Save your .psd if you can so you can rework it and refer to it in later projects.
Thankfully, if you follows the steps and made separate layers for each step, it'll be easy to go back and see the step-by-step process of your creation!
Now go enjoy a nice lemonade or a fun visual novel! Thank you for reading! <3
Happy Springtime! <3