xxx. tutorials - multiple

[fuuurs]

My Ask the Maker thread is here if you have any burning questions you need answered.  If anything in this tutorial isn't clear enough, don't be afraid to ask me about it. ♥

complex composition
I was asked about how I go about composing complex icons.  I tried to illustrate the process with gifs (so you get a general idea of what goes on) and then briefly explain what I do for my blocking and negative space icons.

blocking

 
 

I generally start out with two or more caps that are related (usually from the same scene).  Sometimes I'll do a little coloring/lighting to the cap before resizing/cropping, but very rarely.
My blocking icons are usually very free-form.  Sometimes I start setting up the blocking by leaving room, and other times I take up the entire 100x100 with the first cap.  Anyways, I usually light things with levels and then color them with color balance (or gradient maps).  Once I've got my images looking alright, I start copy-merging the caps (with lighting/coloring) and duplicating them all over the place.  I rotate them every which way, trying to keep things square and orderly.  I think the trick is to not have the same cap touch itself in the composition?  I don't think I've done a very good job explaining, so if there are further questions, just ask!

negative space

 
 


 
 

Negative space icons are really relaxing to compose.  Generally I start by choosing a cap that at least shows the subject from mid-chest up, and placing it where I want it on the canvas.  Fill in whatever you want to be the background color, and then try to find 3+ textures that are somehow related (similar shapes, similar colors, similar feel, etc) and experiment with resizing/cropping/masking them on the canvas (and play around with layer settings... I like to use multiply, screen, soft light and overlay the most).  Along the way, adjust any problems with coloring or lighting that might come up (I do this with color fill layers, color balance, selective color and levels.)

mini-tutorials
A few people have asked how I got certain colorings and stuff, and I don't have psds saved for the icons, so I've tried to put together an icon recipe if you will...

1. I remember when cropping this, I wanted to include a bit of her hair bow and get a lot of her hair in (it's so perfectly curly!)  That basically forced me to sacrifice her chin/mouth (because lbr, I would never think to do a close crop like this if the hair wasn't there to draw me in).
2. I don't remember exactly how I did the coloring, but I know it involved lots and lots of textures by innocent-lexys and slayground.  I'm not even sure which textures I used though... so here are a few guesses: 
3. 
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
4. I'm pretty sure the icon was solely colored by textures and then a vibrance layer.

1. This was mainly done with textures (which I had seen in a post somewhere but never saved, so I don't even know where to find them again or who they were by).  I used a soft-light/color blob/gradient texture (that had yellow, white, yellow-green, teal and black in it) set to soft-light (multiple times, I think I had it duplicated at least 3x.
2. I used the following texture (by blimey-icons) set to screen and soft-light (so duplicated twice).  This is what provided light. 
   

1. I was pretty tipsy when I made this, so I'm not quite certain what I did, but when making icons like this, I typically try to up the contrast of the image first.
2. Either a gradient (probably set to normal at an opacity around 30-60%, here it would have gone from blue to purple) or use a gradient texture (I'm pretty sure I used one of kawaii-chickens large textures from here).
3. Lots and lots of grunge textures would give it that grainy feel.
4. Set a curves level to soft-light and adjust the opacity to get back more contrast and definition.
5. I remember using the following textures (all by me) but they'd been heavily edited through levels, curves, hue/saturation, etc. 
    
    
   

1. First I want to say that the whole time I was making this I had no goal in mind and was just playing around in photoshop, so none of the things I did really make much sense.  For example, I did my lighting, then I applied a light green color fill layer, set to multiply.
2. I brightened it up with a brightness/contrast layer (which actually got rid of a lot of the green from the first step.)
3. I played around in curves (they look like this).
4. Color fill (e6abed), overlay, 40%.
5. Lots of playing around in selective color (these settings). Duplicate the selective color layer.
6. Color fill (3b0606), screen, 100%.
7. Set this texture (by me) to screen and move around. 
   

1. I was super trashed when I made this icon, and none of it makes sense, so I'll show 2 gifs at the end to give you a better idea of what was happening. Create base, duplicate base and set to soft light.
2. Selective colored to death.  I basically tried to make the reds more yellow and purple-y, the yellows more orange-y, the greens more green-y, cyans more cyan-y, blues more blue-y and magentas more magenta-y, and then I turned the whites yellow.  Duplicate the selective color again and mess with the colors more.
3. Brighten with curves.
4. Copper gradient map (with the colors changed using hue/saturation clipped to it).
5. Same, but with the gradient reversed.
6. Some giant mystery texture (that I think I inverted) and set to soft light.
7. Brightness/contrast.
8. Resized... (on to the second gif)
9. Up the vibrance by about +70 and brighten with curves.
10. Apply the warming photo filter.
11. Do some weird stuff for a border.
12. Use the same texture from step 6 at screen, 20%, change the color of it with hue/sat and the contrast with curves.
13. More selective coloring (I didn't really do much except push the colors through more...)
14. Take this texture (I think it's by raiindust but I'm not sure...), invert it, +100 vibrance it, and make it a lot darker with curves, and then set it to screen.
15. 
     
    
16. So as you can see this icon was just a giant clusterfuck of selective color, 2 textures and the copper gradient.  IDEK.  I think this is a testament to how badly I icon when I can't even explain the damn thing with the psd sitting right in front of me.

1. I don't have the psd and I don't remember all the settings and numbers, but I remember the basic gist.  No textures at all here.  All I did was some inital lighting (I think I duplicated the base and put it on screen), created a +75 vibrance layer set to color and then I went to town with selective color.  Basically I made the yellows a little more magenta-y, I made the cyans and blues VERY blue and decreased the yellow, I made the green VERY yellow and added in some blue and then I made the white more cyan-y.  I did this over and over (masking out gross parts) to bring out the colors (which is why he has a blue chin.
2. Then I added another vibrance layer for good measure.

1. This is another clusterfuck-y icon, so I'll provide a gif at the end.  Basically all you need to know is that I used the copper gradient and messed around with it's colors using hue-saturation.  I used  selective color to warm things up (and then to cool things down) and then to turn things green.
2. I used a teal color fill (set to overlay, 30%) to change the color of the background (I masked out Alishas skin).
3. 2 vibrance layers (1st set to +100, 2nd set to +50).
4. Another warming photo filter.
5. I used a brown texture (that was burned to create shadows in her clothing/face) set to soft light to warm things up, added a few grunge textures, sharpened and called it a day.
6. 
   

Somehow I don't feel this part was very successful. :\
note。
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