072; Ask the Maker tutorials part III of ?
Ask the maker tutorials part III requested by daisiestea.
Alright, let's begin!
I choose this cap of Clary from Shadowhunters.
I cut it with Polygonal Lasso Tool in it's original size, so if there's some small imperfection, it won't be very visible at the end when you resize.
Open a new canvas 100x100 and paint the background with a dark pastel red (#7e2e2e). Then, because the icon needed to have numbers somewhere I put this texture (I'm a disaster with texture credits, so I don't know who made it, sorry! But if you know let me know and I'll edit the post ;) ) set to screen 17% opacity.
Then, I made a new layer and added a white 'halo' brush. You can download it and others here. And because it was too empty I added a normal round hard brush in the same layer inside the halo. Normal mode 80%. Now it's time for Clary to be added to the icon! Center crop because I can't make an interesting crop lately. Now I don't know why I did this because it doesn't make any sense, but oh well, I made a new curves layer with very little light. It looks like this. And then another one with a bit more of light and the red popped up. I touched the greens but then I regretted so that's why there's a green straight line.
Then I add my fav gradient map set to soft light 50%.
And then more light with a curves layer. And we finally have a well lightened icon xD.
And now four gradient maps. First one in normal mode 10% opacity. That's a way to mattify your icon. Second one in normal mode 7% opacity. Next one set to soft light 17% opacity. And then again the copper one (first one) in normal mode 5% opacity.
It looks to pale now so I made a vibrance layer with vibrance at 100%.
And guess what now? Yup, more gradient maps. Add the copper one at 14% opacity.
Add now the yellow to hot pink one again normal mode 20% And then another one on black and white set to soft light 76% opacity. And now we leave the gradient maps for a tiny moment and go back to the curves layer. This one with the reds popped a little more.
And now another copper gradient on normal mode 9% opacity. And then one of these vintagish gradients set to soft light 65% opacity.
Then I made a brightness/contrast layer, brightness +9.
And then another curves layer. I think I was experimenting or something because this shit's weird lol. I also masked her face and her arm.
And another vibrance layer with vibrance at +73.
Since the icon look too pink and needs those whites to pop, I made a new selective color layer.
Reds: Cyan +11.
Yellows: Cyan +9, Magenta -12, Yellow +20.
Greens: Cyan +88, Magenta +3, Yellow -2, Black -8.
Cyan: Cyan +2, Magenta +3.
Blues: Cyan +100, Magenta -100, Yellow +7, Black -100.
Magentas: Cyan -5, Magenta -100, Yellow -100, Black +100.
Whites: Magenta -40, Yellow +24, Black -26.
Neutrals: Magenta +4
Now I made a new gradient fill in black and white in radial style with the angel at -150º. And then, because I think the edges of the icon have too much light, I made a new layer and paint with a soft brush in a dark grey shade the edges and set it to soft light 28% opacity. Now we go for the textures. These ones.
These are not the original ones, I blurred them! (Except the last one, that's by lookslikerain) Sorry I couldn't find the originals!
First one set to screen 20% opacity, second one to soft light 53% and third one set to color dodge 82%. And now, before I put the last one, I made a new layer and paint a few strands of hair with a light yellow and the opacity at 80%. And now it's the moment for the last texture. Set to screen 100%. I masked out her face so the dots are not hiding it. I duplicated the same texture because it wasn't too intense and lower the opacity at 50%. Now merge everything and sharpen as you like! I use the same technique for sharpening almost every time. I use a bit of topaz clean, but just a tiny bit, and then hit smart sharpen. You can see my settings in my muted coloring guide. Mask anything necessary and that's it! This icon has more layers than I'm used to lol.
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And then let's go for the Me Before You icon.
You need to know something very important: I love this book. It's one of my faves of all times so a lot of love and sobbing was involved in this icon.
Okay, it's not important at all but I just love it and I can't wait to see the movie!
This time I used a still instead of a screencap, so it's a lot easier to work with it.
So I cut Lou and Will from the still with the Polygonal Lasso Tool. I make a new canvas 100x100 and paint the background with a pale blue color (#b1d0d5). Then I added a flower texture that I looked for in google images. It was a lot bigger but I didn't save it, so here it is its small version. Set to multiply. Then I used an ornament texture by lookslikerain that I thought would look good. Set to screen and then duplicate it.
Now we put our beautiful couple in the icon. Since it's a still, it's already well illuminated so we don't need to lighten it more. I start with my fav gradient map, set to soft light 40% opacity.
Then I add a vibrance layer to pop those beautiful colors with vibrance +100 and saturation +20.
Another gradient map in normal mode 19% opacity.
And now I make a new brightness/contrast layer. Brightness +15, contrast +13.
Then I made two gradient fills that look like this (yes, the same ones as the supergirl icon). Both set to soft light.
Now I make a new black and white gradient map in black and white, merge everything and sharpen as usual! A tiny bit of topaz was involved.
And that's it! This one was shorter, more what I use to do lol. Yeah, I'm so lazy!
I know I explain some things like shit, so please feel free to ask me anything! I'll be more than happy to help you! I know the first icon had a lot of gradient maps and weird things and might be a little confusing.
Well, that's it for today. I have to make a "talk" about matte coloring and a couple more of icon tutorials and I'll be done if no one else asks for more! :)
Enjoy! :)
Thanks to naginis for the codes! :3 Though I don't know what I did to mess it lol