064: blending guide + favourite textures!

[afeastforme]

it contains walkthorugh for these icons:






First let me say that this is gona be tedious to read because:
a) my english makes eyes bleeding
b) I rant too much (probably I will even rant about stuff that don't belong here)
c) everything I will say has already been said by more talented people, but still, some of you (too kind!) asked and here I am.

GUYS!
I didn't know where to start so I decide to make a sort of "map" using icons as guidelines; I hope that everything will be clear enough, if not, ASK! I don't bite, probably i won't be around much after "The Reichenbach Fall" but you know, I will certainly comeback sometimes.

BLENDING GUIDE

1#: CANVAS.
It's been a while since I changed my method before (around may-july 2011) I used to built my icon in a 250x250px canvas, then, once it was done, I simply resized it and sharpened where needed; right now instead i start with a 100x100px BLACK canvas because it's easier to get a perspective of what will stand out (even if, while working I've my canvas zoomed at 300/400%).
I think that the canvas size is quite important especially if you start with a big one, when you resize there's the risk to loose certain detail that you desperately want to keep!

2#: IMAGES
This is very personal-wise, because you know, there's no real wrong-right about picking images, there's no rule or stuff like that. I always go with ~sensation~ for example:


this icon uses two cap of the same scene, I've used the back cap to give some sort of dramatic vibe and resized the front cap to be very tiny, I want the subject to be recognizable but I didn't want it to be clear ~emotionally~ talking . This is a trick that might come handy if you, like me, loves back-shots but the subject is not always obvious.
Another exemple might be this one:


this is a bit more "typical" both figures are a front-shot, just one of them's looking down. Scenes are different but, since you blend them in and use a colour on them everything pass unnoticed!

I'm gonna show you how to blend these kind of icons so you'll know exactly what path i've followed:




SHERLOCK ICON
I've used these screencaps as a base:




*right click » view image to see the actual dimension!*
that I've snagged from signalement because these were huge (and sorted XD)
as I start out with a black 100x100px canvas in which i've pasted the sherlock image i resized it to make a center crop of his face then i dragged and resized the image with sherlock and john running like this:


OH! I set all the images on SCREEN; as you may see yourself it's a bit dark, what I did is hiding the layer with them running and opening a curve layer where i lightened up the sherlock image, then i right-clicked on the layer and set "create a clipping mask"; basically the clipping mask helps you to use a certain configuration ONLY on the layer it's tied to. I had to made this passage for both images so everything looked more in light:


at this point I knew my theme was "rush" that's why i added the street sign cap, this one was clear enough so I didn't use the curve, insted i had to mask part of the right border that was covering our pretty sherlock.

to
mask print:

much better!
at this point i just colored my icon; i've used a lot of gradient map to give that reddish tone, i'm not going to riproduce the coloring too, but if you're interested let me know okay?

GAME OF THRONES
As before, I've started out with these two caps (caps are self-made)



*right click to see actual size*

Like before I've opened a 100x100px black canvas and i've pasted the hound image set on screen with a map already because it' always useful, then on top i've pasted the little sansa (on screen and with a map already)


okay i admit it's pretty even like this but this is a blending guide so let's blend! for this one i wanted a kind of ~grunge~ vibe so, instead of using the soft-round brush, i've choosed for this one called: chalck 23px, it's one of the default ps brushes, i've just adjusted the "shape dynamics" changing the angle jitter and the size jitter (it means that the angle will change like the size as we use the brush and the opacity!) i've masker the broder of sansa's caps away and added the curves to clear up the images

layer print

now basically you can color this up!

DOCTOR WHO
as usual: images self capped



*right click to actual size*

started with a black 100x100px canvas (i bet you know!) and pasted into it the image of river, then i've enlarged the sky because there i wanted the doctor to be (blurry caps i know but i love that doctor cap!) once the sky was enlarged i've used a black brush to darken it (since we're using screen a lot, we need a more darked base to show things up!) i've set this black-brush layer on softlight and it looks like this


then before using curves to clear river up, pasted the doctor; he's big and he might do the curve works so before doing that, paste the second image, resize it and set on screen (with the usual mask), i know it's kinda tedious, but it's necessary!



okay:
# doctor's to washed # border on river shouder # did i mention doctor to washed?
brush away the doctor's border on river and duplicate che doctor layer.



better, but not there yet! that's what i did: i've duplicated the doctor layer another time and set that one on softlight then i turned back and duplicated once more the black-painted layer, so i got something really pretty: doctor's visible and so is river!

layer palette

at this point you can basically color up the icon.

TEXTURES!

Some were interested about the textures i use in my icons, i have to admit that they're always pretty much the same, and that i never use them ON TOP of my icons, always before-in the middle- of the coloring process; i've noticed that some textures tends to stand out if they're used on top of your layer just before sharpening, so that's why i ~blend~ them in!

These anyway are my favourites!






1-2: aquatilitis / 3-5 satine_violet






1-2/5 aquatilitis / 3 satine_violet / 4 poshing /


*right click for original size!*
by blueymcphluey