Blue Coloring ft. James Maslow (GIMP and Photoshop)
How to go from this to 
>
or
using either The GIMP or Photoshop CS5.
Difficulty: Easy-Moderate
Translatable: Yes, no selective color.
Other examples:
First, take your image (or base). I got this one from bigtimerushtv.com. Once you have an image picked out, make your base. A tip in base making (in GIMP): crop a major area of the person you want (in my case I cropped the wonderfully sexy, multi-talented, amazing James Maslow completely), then paste the cropped part as a new layer, delete the bottom layer, then go to Image>Fit Canvas to Layers. After that go to Image>Scale Image and do not scale lower than 140 on the top one. Then make a new document sized 100x100, paste your scaled image, and drag it to where you want! Don't center it exactly because that makes the icon boring. Sharpen if you want.
After you have the base, if you are using GIMP duplicate it twice. Blur the very top (Filters>Blur>Blur) layer to grain extract 100% then click merge down to merge it to the second layer. Set the new layer to Softlight 100%. If using Photoshop, just duplicate once and use a high pass filter, then set to softlight 100% (unless you just want to do extra work XD). You could use the GIMP high pass if you download it, but the steps I gave you above make it look more like Photoshop's high pass. This step gives depth to the image and also a lot more contrast to the hollow areas in the person's face.
Image>Flatten Image
Next go to Colors>Brightness/Contrast. I will not tell you the settings I used because it all depends on your image. When you up the contrast it gives the image a yellowy feel as if you used some softlight layers, lowering it sharpens and makes it more gray. I lowered the contrast and upped the brightness on James.
Next go to Colors>Components>Channel Mixer. This is where we give our icon the blue feel.
Red: 108.1, -13.3, -7.4
Green: 7.4, 100, -4.4
Blue: -4.4, -1.5, 100.3
Do not use my exact settings, fool around till you get the desired coloring. You do not want it looking too blue, so be sure you balance out the red and also keep the yellow in the skin so it does not look washed out.
I thought the icon still needed more. So I duplicated it and set that layer to Multiply and lowered the opacity. It gave more color to his skin, but was still way to dark. So I duplicated the bottom icon and set that layer to Screen 16.5% to add brightness then made the Multiply layer 36.5%.
And you can stop there, this is what I got:
I normally love icons like this, but this one still looked dull to me. So I added a light texture at the top right corner then set it to Screen 100% and duplicated it, dragging the second layer a little to the left. This made it look kind of like sunlight at the top of James's head. Textures add, well, texture to your icon and make it less boring. I really liked this one:
Then I decided to add some text for the heck of it. If adding text, decide whether you want it to stand out or blend into the background and look more plain. To make it stand out, go to Filters>Light and Shadow>Drop Shadow. The setting I usually use for all icon text is 3, 3, 5, leave the rest alone, uncheck allow resize or it will stretch out the canvas. This makes the text more visible.
Other examples:
For this one I used the same settings for the most part, but at the end I added a dark red/burgandy exclusion layer (in GIMP duplicate 3 times, first one Screen, second Screen, third Subtract) and lowered the opacity. I thought James looked to dull and the exclusion layer added a slight red tint in his skin and hair. Exclusion layers are always great to add another coloring when you don't want to screw with Channel Mixer or Color Balance or Selective Color.
I did not add a drop shadow to the text, but I made "Maslow" smaller than "James".
In this one I really tweaked the settings. I used the exact channel mixer settings, but upped the Saturation (Colors>Hue/Saturation) quite a few times so my boys didn't look too washed out. I think I added Color Balance too.
I would love to see your results! Hope you enjoy!
>
or
using either The GIMP or Photoshop CS5.
Difficulty: Easy-Moderate
Translatable: Yes, no selective color.
Other examples:
First, take your image (or base). I got this one from bigtimerushtv.com. Once you have an image picked out, make your base. A tip in base making (in GIMP): crop a major area of the person you want (in my case I cropped the wonderfully sexy, multi-talented, amazing James Maslow completely), then paste the cropped part as a new layer, delete the bottom layer, then go to Image>Fit Canvas to Layers. After that go to Image>Scale Image and do not scale lower than 140 on the top one. Then make a new document sized 100x100, paste your scaled image, and drag it to where you want! Don't center it exactly because that makes the icon boring. Sharpen if you want.
After you have the base, if you are using GIMP duplicate it twice. Blur the very top (Filters>Blur>Blur) layer to grain extract 100% then click merge down to merge it to the second layer. Set the new layer to Softlight 100%. If using Photoshop, just duplicate once and use a high pass filter, then set to softlight 100% (unless you just want to do extra work XD). You could use the GIMP high pass if you download it, but the steps I gave you above make it look more like Photoshop's high pass. This step gives depth to the image and also a lot more contrast to the hollow areas in the person's face.
Image>Flatten Image
Next go to Colors>Brightness/Contrast. I will not tell you the settings I used because it all depends on your image. When you up the contrast it gives the image a yellowy feel as if you used some softlight layers, lowering it sharpens and makes it more gray. I lowered the contrast and upped the brightness on James.
Next go to Colors>Components>Channel Mixer. This is where we give our icon the blue feel.
Red: 108.1, -13.3, -7.4
Green: 7.4, 100, -4.4
Blue: -4.4, -1.5, 100.3
Do not use my exact settings, fool around till you get the desired coloring. You do not want it looking too blue, so be sure you balance out the red and also keep the yellow in the skin so it does not look washed out.
I thought the icon still needed more. So I duplicated it and set that layer to Multiply and lowered the opacity. It gave more color to his skin, but was still way to dark. So I duplicated the bottom icon and set that layer to Screen 16.5% to add brightness then made the Multiply layer 36.5%.
And you can stop there, this is what I got:
I normally love icons like this, but this one still looked dull to me. So I added a light texture at the top right corner then set it to Screen 100% and duplicated it, dragging the second layer a little to the left. This made it look kind of like sunlight at the top of James's head. Textures add, well, texture to your icon and make it less boring. I really liked this one:
Then I decided to add some text for the heck of it. If adding text, decide whether you want it to stand out or blend into the background and look more plain. To make it stand out, go to Filters>Light and Shadow>Drop Shadow. The setting I usually use for all icon text is 3, 3, 5, leave the rest alone, uncheck allow resize or it will stretch out the canvas. This makes the text more visible.
Other examples:
For this one I used the same settings for the most part, but at the end I added a dark red/burgandy exclusion layer (in GIMP duplicate 3 times, first one Screen, second Screen, third Subtract) and lowered the opacity. I thought James looked to dull and the exclusion layer added a slight red tint in his skin and hair. Exclusion layers are always great to add another coloring when you don't want to screw with Channel Mixer or Color Balance or Selective Color.
I did not add a drop shadow to the text, but I made "Maslow" smaller than "James".
In this one I really tweaked the settings. I used the exact channel mixer settings, but upped the Saturation (Colors>Hue/Saturation) quite a few times so my boys didn't look too washed out. I think I added Color Balance too.
I would love to see your results! Hope you enjoy!