Tutorial 001: Runaway Kate
How to make this icon in PSP7:
This is my first tutorial for a very simple icon - I don't believe all icons have to take a day and sixty downloads to make. This is purely a guide, and I'll be upset if I see people making copies of this icon.
The image I used is here.
Crop the image to whatever size you would like (remembering 100x100 is the biggest LJ will allow). Try and not center Kate's face; centering icons around faces leaves you very little room to be creative. Brighten and contrast your base to however your heart desires.
Duplicate your base and grayscale the second, and then increase colour depth to the highest possible one. Put the grayscale base on top of the coloured base. Select an eraser tool (for this I used a round eraser at 43) and erase the grayscale layer from the background, but not from the face.
Now, play with the opacity of the grayscale layer to give the face a little bit of colour, but not too much - I believed I used around 60-70 opacity, but it's your preference.
Now, to add the tinytext. Select Georgia size 1, Kerning 1000 and Leading 1000. Write whatever you want and position on the icon - if it's too faint, try layering text or turning it Bold.
Select a decorative brush in a bright colour and voila! You're done :)
Let me know what you thought, if it was useful or whatever :D And if you do decide to make an icon with it, I'd love to see what you come up with. Feel free to ask if you have any questions :)
This is my first tutorial for a very simple icon - I don't believe all icons have to take a day and sixty downloads to make. This is purely a guide, and I'll be upset if I see people making copies of this icon.
The image I used is here.
Crop the image to whatever size you would like (remembering 100x100 is the biggest LJ will allow). Try and not center Kate's face; centering icons around faces leaves you very little room to be creative. Brighten and contrast your base to however your heart desires.
Duplicate your base and grayscale the second, and then increase colour depth to the highest possible one. Put the grayscale base on top of the coloured base. Select an eraser tool (for this I used a round eraser at 43) and erase the grayscale layer from the background, but not from the face.
Now, play with the opacity of the grayscale layer to give the face a little bit of colour, but not too much - I believed I used around 60-70 opacity, but it's your preference.
Now, to add the tinytext. Select Georgia size 1, Kerning 1000 and Leading 1000. Write whatever you want and position on the icon - if it's too faint, try layering text or turning it Bold.
Select a decorative brush in a bright colour and voila! You're done :)
Let me know what you thought, if it was useful or whatever :D And if you do decide to make an icon with it, I'd love to see what you come up with. Feel free to ask if you have any questions :)