111: Tips on lights and base preparation and pale colouring.
spg_spn_girls asked me a few tips on these icons:
Under the cut you'll find some tips about the base preparation, the lights positioning ans setting and a couple of information about my pale colouring.
Let's start with the first one:
I've started with a VERY DARK CAP and I cleaned it up on a 500px canvas, I don't have those process, but I remember most of them:
base -> duplicate on screen -> screen again -> levels pushing the black ups to have some definite colours.
Then I copypasted my image into a 100*100 canvas and this is where I started from:
I've picked a dark brown from my base and used a colour filled layer to paint all over the background so I could focus on my two idiots subjects. This process is ~explained a bit better in this tutorial, though you don't really have to take a look, just know that I've painted over the background with a colour fill layer and the mask.
As soon as I've got a very clean base to work with, I just added a few lights in the middle of my icon, mostly over their faces just to light them up, to do this I've used the same brown of my background, set on screen because I wanted a natural look. then I've added more light blobs. To add light blobs I normally use a soft rounded white brush and then the gaussian blur at 4 radius. If needed I lower the opacity of my layer (as in this case).
I've used some very warm tone to colour the icon because I thought that they'd go well with my brown background. To color this icon I've used mostly gradient maps, because they works really well. I've also used a gradient with two yellow tones on linear burn to have a yellowish base, the opacity was low though, because linear burn really leaves you with intense colours.
The text was made with the tablet using a fill layer (as usual), my handwriting sucks on this icon, but the text says "lost & alone you found me", which is really MEH, but whatever.
The preparation for this one is my classical base preparation which is:
base -> blobs -> multiply -> merged on screen -> screen -> multiply lower opacity
here's a gif that actually show you the progression!
After my final step, I've added more lights on the sides because I wanted my icon to be a bit more dreamy and light. Once more I've used some really warm colors to color my icon because it felt right! Once I've done with the colouring I've painted some last-minute lines over her face, hair and dress.
PALE COLOURS
On these two
the base preparation is the same as the icon right up here, so I'm not going to spend time on that; I'm not really fond on pale icons, or better, I don't make a lot of them because I think they're the hardest to manage, but these two has a very interesting edge on them and I like how they came out.
My main tool to make pale icons is DEFINITELY the gradient map tool, it's handy and you can use it on every possible blending mode. My favourite gradient to use to achieve a very nice brownish-darkpinkish pale is this:
#30211f and #b45e47
I usually set one on soft light and one on screen.
If I want a bit more vintagey-creamy tone I use a #23071b layer on screen with a mid-low opacity.
To deepen the shadow, I stamp my icon, blur it and set it on softlight on mid-low opacity; I don't really like what you can do with the levels, because the black tends to turn a bit to much defined!
I hope this replied to your questions, if not, feel free to ask!
my ask the maker thread is here
Under the cut you'll find some tips about the base preparation, the lights positioning ans setting and a couple of information about my pale colouring.
Let's start with the first one:
I've started with a VERY DARK CAP and I cleaned it up on a 500px canvas, I don't have those process, but I remember most of them:
base -> duplicate on screen -> screen again -> levels pushing the black ups to have some definite colours.
Then I copypasted my image into a 100*100 canvas and this is where I started from:
I've picked a dark brown from my base and used a colour filled layer to paint all over the background so I could focus on my two idiots subjects. This process is ~explained a bit better in this tutorial, though you don't really have to take a look, just know that I've painted over the background with a colour fill layer and the mask.
As soon as I've got a very clean base to work with, I just added a few lights in the middle of my icon, mostly over their faces just to light them up, to do this I've used the same brown of my background, set on screen because I wanted a natural look. then I've added more light blobs. To add light blobs I normally use a soft rounded white brush and then the gaussian blur at 4 radius. If needed I lower the opacity of my layer (as in this case).
I've used some very warm tone to colour the icon because I thought that they'd go well with my brown background. To color this icon I've used mostly gradient maps, because they works really well. I've also used a gradient with two yellow tones on linear burn to have a yellowish base, the opacity was low though, because linear burn really leaves you with intense colours.
The text was made with the tablet using a fill layer (as usual), my handwriting sucks on this icon, but the text says "lost & alone you found me", which is really MEH, but whatever.
The preparation for this one is my classical base preparation which is:
base -> blobs -> multiply -> merged on screen -> screen -> multiply lower opacity
here's a gif that actually show you the progression!
After my final step, I've added more lights on the sides because I wanted my icon to be a bit more dreamy and light. Once more I've used some really warm colors to color my icon because it felt right! Once I've done with the colouring I've painted some last-minute lines over her face, hair and dress.
PALE COLOURS
On these two
the base preparation is the same as the icon right up here, so I'm not going to spend time on that; I'm not really fond on pale icons, or better, I don't make a lot of them because I think they're the hardest to manage, but these two has a very interesting edge on them and I like how they came out.
My main tool to make pale icons is DEFINITELY the gradient map tool, it's handy and you can use it on every possible blending mode. My favourite gradient to use to achieve a very nice brownish-darkpinkish pale is this:
#30211f and #b45e47
I usually set one on soft light and one on screen.
If I want a bit more vintagey-creamy tone I use a #23071b layer on screen with a mid-low opacity.
To deepen the shadow, I stamp my icon, blur it and set it on softlight on mid-low opacity; I don't really like what you can do with the levels, because the black tends to turn a bit to much defined!
I hope this replied to your questions, if not, feel free to ask!
my ask the maker thread is here