tutorials: 02;
the_silverdoe asked for a tutorial on this icon, so here we go. It's actually pretty straightforward. (:
We'll be going from
to
This was another icon for the icon_talk icon battle, so the screencap was provided.
The screencap is basically perfect for a negative space icon, but at the same time I didn't want Natasha to be too small since I wanted to focus on her expression.
So sideways crop it is! I also rotated the screencap a little, to make her face line up with the side of the icon better.
With the cropping done, it's time for prep work.
Because the background is very smooth, you can just use the Smudge tool to smudge the machine away.
Now duplicate the base layer twice. Gaussian Blur the first duplicate (I don't remember the exact Radius, but it was around 6px) and set it to screen at an opacity of 50%. Then set the second duplicate to Soft Light.
This is what we have so far:
The sky looks alright, but Natasha is of course far too bright.
I turned this texture (by fancifull) black and white with a b/w Gradient Map layer.
Then I set it to Soft Light an an opacity of 30% and dragged it under the Screen Layer.
This is what your canvas should look like:
That's better, but still not good enough. So I took this texture (by bloodstream7) and set it to Soft Light.
I'm sort of semi-satisfied with the lighting for now, but the colours of the icon, especially around Nat's face, are too cold for me.
I rectified that by taking this texture (by twinstrikeish) and setting it to Exclusion at an opcacity of 50%.
To get the blues and the contrast back into the picture, I duplicated the texture layer and set it to Soft Light, again at 50% opacity.
We're left with this:
At this point I was kind of annoyed with the lighting, so I fixed it up with several light blog layers.
Gaussian Blurred, Soft Light, 35% opacity
Gaussian Blurred, Soft Light, 57% opacity
Gaussian Blurred, Soft Light, 100% opacity
Gaussian Blurred, Soft Light, 20% opacity
With those I "fixed" the way light falls onto her face and brought her hair out more (because it's fabulous).
Next I used this texture (by lookslikerain) to bring some more blue back into the icon and to emphasize the lighting on her face.
To make the colours and lighting pop out, I first used a black and white Gradient layer at an angle of 90° and set it to Soft Light with an opacity of 43%. Next, I created a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer and set the contrast to +41.
For some more colouring/lighting work, I used this texture (by lookslikerain) and set it to Soft Light at an opacity of 30%.
The next step is really only a minor change, but I'm a pretty fussy person. I was pretty satisfied with the colouring, but thought Nat's face was too pinkish.
So I created a new Photo Filter layer and used the third Warming Filter at a Density of 25%.
I set it to an opacity of 43%.
Then I created a layer mask and erased everything but Nat's face.
For the final lighting/colouring work, I duplicated the Base layer, dragged it on top of all the other layers and set it to Soft Light with an opacity of 50°.
Then I duplicated the Base layer again (keep the duplicated layer where it is though), used the Sharpen filter on the duplicate and set it to an opacity of 25%.
Aaand we're done.
This is your result:
I hope this tutorial helped somewhat! c: Feel free to ask any remaining questions you may have.
We'll be going from
to
This was another icon for the icon_talk icon battle, so the screencap was provided.
The screencap is basically perfect for a negative space icon, but at the same time I didn't want Natasha to be too small since I wanted to focus on her expression.
So sideways crop it is! I also rotated the screencap a little, to make her face line up with the side of the icon better.
With the cropping done, it's time for prep work.
Because the background is very smooth, you can just use the Smudge tool to smudge the machine away.
Now duplicate the base layer twice. Gaussian Blur the first duplicate (I don't remember the exact Radius, but it was around 6px) and set it to screen at an opacity of 50%. Then set the second duplicate to Soft Light.
This is what we have so far:
The sky looks alright, but Natasha is of course far too bright.
I turned this texture (by fancifull) black and white with a b/w Gradient Map layer.
Then I set it to Soft Light an an opacity of 30% and dragged it under the Screen Layer.
This is what your canvas should look like:
That's better, but still not good enough. So I took this texture (by bloodstream7) and set it to Soft Light.
I'm sort of semi-satisfied with the lighting for now, but the colours of the icon, especially around Nat's face, are too cold for me.
I rectified that by taking this texture (by twinstrikeish) and setting it to Exclusion at an opcacity of 50%.
To get the blues and the contrast back into the picture, I duplicated the texture layer and set it to Soft Light, again at 50% opacity.
We're left with this:
At this point I was kind of annoyed with the lighting, so I fixed it up with several light blog layers.
Gaussian Blurred, Soft Light, 35% opacity
Gaussian Blurred, Soft Light, 57% opacity
Gaussian Blurred, Soft Light, 100% opacity
Gaussian Blurred, Soft Light, 20% opacity
With those I "fixed" the way light falls onto her face and brought her hair out more (because it's fabulous).
Next I used this texture (by lookslikerain) to bring some more blue back into the icon and to emphasize the lighting on her face.
To make the colours and lighting pop out, I first used a black and white Gradient layer at an angle of 90° and set it to Soft Light with an opacity of 43%. Next, I created a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer and set the contrast to +41.
For some more colouring/lighting work, I used this texture (by lookslikerain) and set it to Soft Light at an opacity of 30%.
The next step is really only a minor change, but I'm a pretty fussy person. I was pretty satisfied with the colouring, but thought Nat's face was too pinkish.
So I created a new Photo Filter layer and used the third Warming Filter at a Density of 25%.
I set it to an opacity of 43%.
Then I created a layer mask and erased everything but Nat's face.
For the final lighting/colouring work, I duplicated the Base layer, dragged it on top of all the other layers and set it to Soft Light with an opacity of 50°.
Then I duplicated the Base layer again (keep the duplicated layer where it is though), used the Sharpen filter on the duplicate and set it to an opacity of 25%.
Aaand we're done.
This is your result:
I hope this tutorial helped somewhat! c: Feel free to ask any remaining questions you may have.