(no subject)

[green_queen]

Icon tutorial for this kind of icon:



(yes, you can snag it if you credit me.)

First I took this picture:



I cropped it down so I had about half of his face in the frame, since I think that's what looks best with this style:



Then I did what I always do with every base; I duplicated the base twice. I set the first layer to screen and sharpened it, and set the second layer to soft light and sharpened it:



I thought that was too bright, so I lowered the opacity of the screened layer to 53:



This style works best with strong blacks, so I duplicated the background layer again, set the new layer to Soft Light, sharpened and desaturated:



Then I added this layer:

Exclusion, 100%

and got this:



Next I went to Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Gradient Map. In your colour palette, there should be black on top and white on the bottom. I set the gradient map layer to Soft Light and got this:



Then I added this layer:

Hard Light, 36%

and got this:



Finally I took this light image:



and pasted it on top. I screened the layer and moved it around until I got:



Then I picked a colour from Dom's sunglasses and added this text layer, in Times New Roman:



(the & is a couple sizes bigger and I chose a colour from his skin for it.)

And tada! Finished product:



Green Queen

Comments

[dom-jillo.livejournal.com]

Hey,
I have always wanted to learn how to make icons. THis is great you should do more tutorials! I credit you!

Love

~*Jillo*~

[seren-mahtori.livejournal.com]

That was really cool...I may have to try something like that. :-D

[tristantrakand.livejournal.com]

Where was that picture of Dom taken?

[green-queen.livejournal.com]

The ABC Up-Fronts 2005

[seren-mahtori.livejournal.com]

I tried it...I liked it. Not bad for my first real try I think.

[green-queen.livejournal.com]

Not too bad at all.

It looks oddly pixelated, though...dunno why that would be. Maybe you sharpened it too much, or saved it on a low resolution?

[seren-mahtori.livejournal.com]

I had a hard time getting it to not look so pixelated. It did look worse. I had to do it several times to get this outcome. Still...first try. I'll get better eventually. I think it has something to do with the Screen setting I used. It made it bright and pixely. I'm using Paintshop Pro 9 to do it. I had Photoshop, but I couldn't seem to catch on to it and then my temporary trial expired before I could buy the program.

hmm...sorry...my brain is fuzzy. My grandmother came home from vacation with a massive cold and it has now passed to me. I can't swallow and I'm running a fever. *misery*

[dom-jillo.livejournal.com]

Hey,
Ok here is my question! I am having trouble putting text on I cant seam to get the & in the right place or the size of the text, green queen can you help me? I have everything elese right but the text!

Love

~*Jillo*~

[green-queen.livejournal.com]

Aww, poor baby. I know how that feels. *hugs*

[green-queen.livejournal.com]

Well, firstly you have to make sure your text is anti-aliased.

Can you show me what you've got?

[dom-jillo.livejournal.com]

Hey,
Here is my picture that I did, what do I do next!

Love

~*Jillo*~

[green-queen.livejournal.com]

When you're resizing, crop to the right shape and then resize, don't enter both as '100'. That's how you got that stretched look.

[zoniduck.livejournal.com]

I haven't made an icon of my own with this yet, but I wanted to let you know that it's already been a big help to me. I needed to tweak an icon that a friend sent me in order to make it print out better, and I used your tutorial to help me get it from

this ... to this

Not a *huge* difference, but it makes it print out a *lot* better. So thanks!

[green-queen.livejournal.com]

No worries :)

If you desaturated one of the layers I bet it'd look even better!

[zoniduck.livejournal.com]

I played around with that, but it made the background much too dark. If I were going to use it as an icon, I would add that layer, but since I'm going to be printing it on photo paper, it was just too dark.

Now that I think about it, beizy *is* using this as an icon. Maybe I'll add the desaturated layer and offer her that version to upload. That gets us to this



BTW? You rock. <3

[green-queen.livejournal.com]

Happy to help :)

[dom-jillo.livejournal.com]

Hey,
I'm not worried about the streached look I'm wondering how to put the text on the icon! Can you tell me how please cause I can't seam to get it working! Thanks!

Love

~*Jillo*~