tutorials: 3
to
to
to
requested by setentpet and daydreamshole
This is the base.
Basic coloring steps at the beginning: two screen layers and a soft light layer,
all at 100%. For dark, slightly LQ caps like Angel caps or similar ones, this is
a pretty standard first step. I hardly ever begin with coloring on caps like these.
I know I want the negative space around her to be dark so that she's the obvious
focus, so I use CS6's default watercolor build up brush in a light blue color and
paint this roughly around her, setting the brush layer to multiply 100%.
Now this particular challenge required the icon to combine both black and white
and colored elements, so I set a black to white gradient map over everything
set to normal.
To darken up the background a bit add this layer (soft round brushes in black,
erased as needed) to soft light 100%.
Next add this layer, which is another brush layer, a mixture of soft round brushes
and watercolor build up brushes, to soft light 100% and duplicate it so there are
two soft light layers and her face is framed. I'll add back definition in her hair with
brushes so precision doesn't matter.
Then I paint. I used a tablet for this, but it can be done with a mouse and gaussian
blur. This is a total of five layers, 1px hard brush, in a couple different blues, which,
when combined with the already present layers put the color into the icon and bring
back some of what was lost in the darkening of the background.
Small step: stamp all the layers and move them up a few pixels to change the crop.
Another requirement for the challenge was that the icon have text, so in a separate,
larger document, I wrote out the quote I wanted to use with my tablet in one of the
blues of her hair, and positioned it at the bottom of the icon.
Brighten everything up with +38 brightness in a brightness/contrast layer.
Next is a grungy texture set to screen 100% and masked over her face so as not
to wash it out.
And to make the blues pop a little more, add a vibrance layer set to color at +100,
and that's the finished icon!
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This is a pretty simple icon to make. Start with this as a base.
Using the polygonal lasso tool, select around his shoulders and hair (doesn't
have to be perfect), and mask out the background.
Add a brightness/contrast layer with +31 brightness and +16 contrast. It's a
pretty light cap to start with, so that's really all it needs for basic light correction.
Add a gradient from black to white on soft light to direct the light and give the
icon some depth and blacks.
Using a 1px hard brush and my tablet, I redraw the edges and higlights in his
hair that were lost in the masking step.
I want the general coloring of this icon to be blue, so add a gradient map
from a medium blue to a light blueish green. Set the gradient map to soft light.
I decided that his face needed more highlights, so with a small white brush
paint over the areas that already are natural highlights, and set the brush layer
to soft light.
Next is two textures, both set to screen 100%.
As a last step, add a brightness/contrast layer with +33 contrast, and
then the icon is done.
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For some reason in this icon I selected Olivia from a screencap and pasted her
onto the orange background instead of masking around her, so as far as a base
goes this is as close as I have. Again, the selection isn't perfect because I paint
over a lot of stuff.
The first (or second, I guess) step is to bring her face out from the background
a little with a small white brush on soft light.
Next, to pull some color into it, add a gradient map on soft light, in the default
purple to orange combo. This is one of my favorite combos, makes things nice
and orange if the image is light, and more purple if it's dark.
Next is the painting and again, you can do this with a mouse and gaussian blur,
it's just more time consuming. I'm using my tablet to put some colors into her hair,
and to smooth out the edges where the selection was rough.
Add a medium purple color fill layer on lighten, 48% opacity, to bring color to the
shadows.
Vibrance on color mode +100.
Next, stamp all the layers and gaussian blur them to .3 or so, and erase
everywhere except the background and the edges of her hair and shoulders. You
could also just use the blur or smudge tool, but for some reason in this icon I
blurred the whole thing.
The default 23px chalk brush is one of my favorite brushes for doing borders. Add a
border on the bottom with two oranges pulled from the background.
To finish it off, add a couple more brush strokes to outline her head, and then it's
done! I also had an alternate version with text in which I did the same thing as with
the Illyria icon and hand-wrote the text to paste onto the icon.
If you have questions about any of this, feel free to ask! More answers and guides from Ask the Maker coming up.