Icon Tutorial #1; Harry Potter.
How to go from 
to
.
Requires basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop 7 or higher.
---
Okay, first off, crop your image down to 100x100, to create your base.
But-- it doesn't look quite right, does it? It's too smooth. The features are not nearly defined enough. Go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen. You should now have something like this:
And now it looks a bit too sharp. Go to Edit > Fade Sharpen > Soft Light.
Good. Now, duplicate the layer twice (Layer > Duplicate Layer). You now have three layers. Hooray!
Desaturate the top layer (either Shift + Ctrl + U, which I use, or Image > Adjustments > Desaturate), so that it's black & white.
Now, in your layers menu, set the top layer to soft light.
In your layers menu, select the middle layer.
Now, go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. Set your contrast to 25.
This doesn't look too good, does it? :/ Kind of hurts the eyes. Luckily, it's not going to stay like this. Go back to your layers menu, and set the blending options to darken.
Now, it doesn't look all that different than it looked a couple of steps ago, does it? But, at this point, we're not going for extremities. Just slight changes.
Let's create a new layer! (Layer > New > Layer...)
Okay, now let's fill this with a nice navy blue. I found that #050551 worked well. This blue should be the second layer down, under the desaturated layer.
Now, set your blending options to exclusion.
Okay, it's looking pretty nice right now, but Harry's face looks a little too pale, doesn't it? Let's remedy that. Create a new layer, and fill it with a nice peach colour. (I used #EABB99.) Now, set the blending options to multiply, and the opacity to 50%.
It now looks like this:
It's probably a good idea to save your icon as a PSD at this point.
Now, merge your layers (Layer > Merge Visible). Then, select one part of the icon that you want to make particularly noticeable. Copy this, & paste it into a new file. Keep both open.
I selected this 100x20 bit, because I want to bring attention to Harry's eyes:
Now, in your new file, desaturate the layer.
Create a new layer. In this layer, we're going to colour Harry's eyes green. Exciting!
It's a good idea to zoom in for this part; accuracy, you know. Use the brush tool (
), and choose a circle brush of a fitting size. (Mine was 3.)
Now, find a colour that fits what you're colouring in (for Harry's eyes, I used #034917, a darkish green colour), and carefully colour it.
Of course, it's not going to stay this way. In your blending options, set the layer in which you painted the eyes to pin light.
Beautiful!
Merge your layers, and copy/paste this onto your original icon.
I chose to place this other layer on the bottom, so that the icon then looked like so:
Now, this didn't look quite the way that I wanted it to, so I selected the layer with the eyes, and shoved it down 5px, so that less showed, and the eyes particularly stood out.
I then selected the main layer, and shoved it up 7px, so that the icon looked like this:
Selecting the top layer again, go to your layer options, and select stroke.
I set my stroke size to 7px, outside, and set the colour to white. The icon now looks like this:
I now merge my layers, and then duplicate my layer.
Once again, I go to my layer options and select stroke. White, 7px, inside.
But that's no good! I made a point to colour Harry's eyes in, and now we can't even see them! This, however, is why we made two layers.
Take your rectangular marquee tool (
), and select the square within the icon that is the image that you've been working with.
Now, delete this square. You will see no particular difference, because we do have two layers.
Select your bottom layer, and with the move tool (
), move it until you see the part of the image that you care to see.
You're pretty much done!
Now, you can add text, brushes-- whatever you like. I tried a couple of different things before I found what I wanted.
Georgia, 6pt, Bold Italic, Sharp, 200 text spacing.
Georgia, 1pt, Regular, Crisp, 1000 text spacing.
Georgia, 4pt, Regular, Sharp, 500 text spacing.
My favourite is the last one, so I save it as a PNG. (Of course, you can save it as whatever file type you prefer). And we're done!---
Please comment with what you thought of this tutorial; things you liked, things to change, things to improve. It's my first tutorial, you see. So, I think I need to know what works. Additionally, feel free to comment with any questions, and especially with your results-- I'd love to see what you came up with! ♥
to
.
Requires basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop 7 or higher.
---
Okay, first off, crop your image down to 100x100, to create your base.
But-- it doesn't look quite right, does it? It's too smooth. The features are not nearly defined enough. Go to Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen. You should now have something like this:
And now it looks a bit too sharp. Go to Edit > Fade Sharpen > Soft Light.
Good. Now, duplicate the layer twice (Layer > Duplicate Layer). You now have three layers. Hooray!
Desaturate the top layer (either Shift + Ctrl + U, which I use, or Image > Adjustments > Desaturate), so that it's black & white.
Now, in your layers menu, set the top layer to soft light.
In your layers menu, select the middle layer.
Now, go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. Set your contrast to 25.
This doesn't look too good, does it? :/ Kind of hurts the eyes. Luckily, it's not going to stay like this. Go back to your layers menu, and set the blending options to darken.
Now, it doesn't look all that different than it looked a couple of steps ago, does it? But, at this point, we're not going for extremities. Just slight changes.
Let's create a new layer! (Layer > New > Layer...)
Okay, now let's fill this with a nice navy blue. I found that #050551 worked well. This blue should be the second layer down, under the desaturated layer.
Now, set your blending options to exclusion.
Okay, it's looking pretty nice right now, but Harry's face looks a little too pale, doesn't it? Let's remedy that. Create a new layer, and fill it with a nice peach colour. (I used #EABB99.) Now, set the blending options to multiply, and the opacity to 50%.
It now looks like this:
It's probably a good idea to save your icon as a PSD at this point.
Now, merge your layers (Layer > Merge Visible). Then, select one part of the icon that you want to make particularly noticeable. Copy this, & paste it into a new file. Keep both open.
I selected this 100x20 bit, because I want to bring attention to Harry's eyes:
Now, in your new file, desaturate the layer.
Create a new layer. In this layer, we're going to colour Harry's eyes green. Exciting!
It's a good idea to zoom in for this part; accuracy, you know. Use the brush tool (
), and choose a circle brush of a fitting size. (Mine was 3.)
Now, find a colour that fits what you're colouring in (for Harry's eyes, I used #034917, a darkish green colour), and carefully colour it.
Of course, it's not going to stay this way. In your blending options, set the layer in which you painted the eyes to pin light.
Beautiful!
Merge your layers, and copy/paste this onto your original icon.
I chose to place this other layer on the bottom, so that the icon then looked like so:
Now, this didn't look quite the way that I wanted it to, so I selected the layer with the eyes, and shoved it down 5px, so that less showed, and the eyes particularly stood out.
I then selected the main layer, and shoved it up 7px, so that the icon looked like this:
Selecting the top layer again, go to your layer options, and select stroke.
I set my stroke size to 7px, outside, and set the colour to white. The icon now looks like this:
I now merge my layers, and then duplicate my layer.
Once again, I go to my layer options and select stroke. White, 7px, inside.
But that's no good! I made a point to colour Harry's eyes in, and now we can't even see them! This, however, is why we made two layers.
Take your rectangular marquee tool (
), and select the square within the icon that is the image that you've been working with.
Now, delete this square. You will see no particular difference, because we do have two layers.
Select your bottom layer, and with the move tool (
), move it until you see the part of the image that you care to see.
You're pretty much done!
Now, you can add text, brushes-- whatever you like. I tried a couple of different things before I found what I wanted.
Georgia, 6pt, Bold Italic, Sharp, 200 text spacing.
Georgia, 1pt, Regular, Crisp, 1000 text spacing.
Georgia, 4pt, Regular, Sharp, 500 text spacing.
My favourite is the last one, so I save it as a PNG. (Of course, you can save it as whatever file type you prefer). And we're done!---
Please comment with what you thought of this tutorial; things you liked, things to change, things to improve. It's my first tutorial, you see. So, I think I need to know what works. Additionally, feel free to comment with any questions, and especially with your results-- I'd love to see what you came up with! ♥