Coloring Guide
Okay so I've never really done this thing, because I am not very eloquent when it comes to Photoshop and icon making, but I have grown as a maker, as well as have learned a lot from other makers sharing their techniques, so I have decided to ~try and do that myself.
applepips16 and emiels asked about my coloring (ty for asking, you guys ♥), so I'm going to walk you through it and hopefully you find it useful.
Tbh my iconing steps are a fucking mess. I never have a clear image or any type of vision in my head how I want my icon to look or what texture to use. For example, if I want to blend a thing, I will blend a thing. But since I have no idea what to blend, I randomly open 5, 6 caps or so and try to make them work together. It's basically like when a kid takes 2 puzzle pieces and tries to smush them together to make them work, but no matter how hard you try, and how far you got, in the end, it doesn't even matter. it's just no dice. So you gotta be smart about that. You gotta be smart about picking your caps to blend. I'm not smart like that. I like experimenting to the point of moronic trial and error and I get a pleasant surprise...y'know, once in a blue moon. Obviously you don't see much blending going on in my icons. And text is the same. And composition. And texture use. I just never know wtf I'm gonna do next and surprise myself with lol. I wing everything all the time. And I can't be serious business enough to stop joking around for even 0.3 seconds. This is why a guide is a horrible idea for me to give you. Guide you guys? LMAO pls I need a guide dog myself 99.9% of the time. But still, I will try to Gandalf you through Middle Earth as much as I can.
When it comes to natural coloring, I am on board. I am no longer a lost soul in the iconing universe. Because I've developed some steps that I never really change much, except when it comes to the settings, colors, textures, etc. And sure, just like everything else, I sometimes experiment a bit, but tbh all in all, when it comes to natural coloring, I stick to this way, because it's nice, I like it and it's my comfort zone. In the wise words of Sheldon Cooper - it's called comfort zone for a reason lol.
Doing unnatural colors does get me excited too, because it's my iconing outlet to the rebel in me. Like no, Sam Winchester is not purple, but I will make him purple. Watch me fuckin' make him purple and add some pink to it for good measure, yeah, I am spiraling out of control. But more on unnatural colors later.
Now it's time for
Natural Coloring
Like in these icons
I used to build up the icon with layers from the bottom to the top, as one usually does, but with this type of coloring, I quickly realized it's much more time consuming to do that. It's messy and it kind of makes you ~blind for the outcome of the icon until the very last 2-3 steps. So I make the icon and the layers from the top to the bottom.
I don't know if that was clear enough, you'll have my eloquent self to thank for this ???? of an explanation. But here's pics to show you what I mean in case it was unclear.
So, I'm going to take this cap and show you how I roll lol.
After cropping, I take this texture, desaturate it and put it on Soft Light.
I depend on gradient texture like that for adding lighting to my icon. So shoutout to vetica, because he made a texture set a while back and I use them all the time.
Like these for example
I don't always desaturate them and I don't always use them on Soft Light. Sometimes I go with Overlay, at a lower opacity.
Then I start playing around with the Curves. My settings are always different depending on the cap. Currently I am going like this at 50% opacity
And then Brightness and Contrast, set to Soft Light at 50%
Then I take the base, duplicate it and set to Soft Light. I know rn everything looks like a mess, but in the next step it gets better, I promise.
I add a color fill layer and set it to screen. Do not put it above your base with the Soft Light, put it under, like this.
From now on, all yours layers should go under the color fill layer.
Usually it's the color I want to ~lighten the icon without really changing the skin tone. I try to stay in the same range and just go up and down the color chart
I stick to greens and browns the most. I never go near the red spectrum, because it just makes the skin look burnt due to my really high vibrance and saturation.
So basically most of the time I rely on these colors, but honestly it's best to experiment, because obviously every cap is different than the other and needs its own settings.
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These ones don't have this step, or they do on a really, really low opacity and it's almost invisible.
Currently as the pic above, I'm going with this, on Screen at 100%. If I don't like it later, I can change it.
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I make myself some textures, similar to these
When it's a bit gradient-y like in the first 3, I usually leave it on Soft Light and play around with the opacity, sometimes lower sometimes higher. When it's more like the 4 and 5th texture, I leave on Screen on a low opacity, around 20-30%
I take the 1st one and duplicate it 3 times on Screen.
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Then Soft Light this bad boy, at 100%
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I take the 4th one and set it on Screen, at 32%
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Next thing I do is I add a Linear Burn layer. Depending on the icon I'm going for, the screencap etc, I differentiate the colors that I use. People have often commented on the slight green tinge that my icons tend to have, and this is how I achieve it. The color I'm going to use now is #d7e8d3. The darker I want the icon, the bigger opacity I leave. Currently I'm gonna go with 79%.
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Then we crank up the vibrance with these settings
I always use these settings, except when I'm working with animation or going for a b&w, or muted colors or unnatural coloring. I use the brush tool to mask out some parts that are too saturated, like her eyes.
And then I use a curves layer to make things bright and I set it on Screen, opacity 100%. This is what my curves layer looks like
Sometimes I just duplicate the base and set to Screen, then lower opacity or sometimes I just add some brightness. Anyway, here's Wonderwall that was the final step to the coloring.
Here's what I have
Now I play around some more with the settings if I'm not satisfied etc.
I add this texture by vetica on top of everything. I use it almost always, because it gives my icons such a glazed look. I eat this texture. I breathe this texture. I want to become this texture.
Andddd sometimes I like to add this one by likealight and set it to Screen.
I either add a b&w gradient layer set to Soft Light or I do some selective coloring and amp up the black's black option.
And it comes out like this
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Now moving on to
Unnatural Coloring
In previous icon posts I've received comments that people like my gradient work when it comes to unnatural colors. Which is gr9, I appreciate you and thank you :3 However that's not really how I achieve the unnatural tones. I use a b&w gradient layer, and then use textures set on Multiply or Hard Light.
Like for example in these
Let me show you by recreating the Riley icon
Base >> Curves >> Color Balance >> this texture on Multiply >> Selective Coloring >> this texture on Screen >> this texture on Soft Light
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It's not really the same, but it's close enough lol.
Usually, after I crop and sharpen my icon, I do the b&w layer, but it's not really necessary sometimes. And the textures provide such rich colors that I almost never rely on gradients for actual colors. The best thing is getting big ass tumblr textures, resizing them for icons and experimenting.
Aaand that's all I have to say, folks. If you got any questions, fire away.
Also, I really hope you read this in a Gone Girl voiceover, because I was listening to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross the whole time I was writing this C: