ewidentnie; sylvia ✭ sei ✭ mumpo

inquisitory ✭ 57; it's crystal, it's so so clear.

2010-12-20T05:28:22Z

/casts Revive on this comm; subsequently shot for that cheesy joke

This tutorial was requested over a year ago, I am a terrible person T___T "Better late than never" has never been so appropriate; what can I say, I keep my promises even if they're way overdue;;; The technique may be super outdated, but I hope it's still of use to someone!

Request by detectional, who appears to no longer be here; but if you see this, thank you for being so patient ♥

start to finish
program Photoshop. Uses Selective Color and Channel Mixer, so not translatable.

✎ abbreviations/terms
AL ➝ adjustment layer
SC ➝ selective color
CM ➝ channel mixer
CB ➝ color balance
L ➝ levels
HS ➝ hue/saturation
BC ➝ brightness/contrast
for example, SC/AL will mean Selective Color Adjustment Layer.

Let's see if I've still got the tutorial bug in me 8D okay, here we have Hagu from Honey and Clover. Gosh, isn't Hachikuro art the cutest? I love this ;A; Tip: use very very light, pale artwork for this tutorial. If it's not light and you really want to use it, either raise the Lightness by way of an HS/AL before you start, or make changes to the Levels layer we use later.

Yeah, unfortunately Hachikuro artwork tends to show up super light, so let's start fixing it with an SC/AL, settings like so:

Reds: -60, 0, 70, 0
Yellows: -100, 40, -60, 0
Blues: 0, -60, -60, 100
Neutrals: 0, 0, 0, 15

LOL that looks like nothing right now but I promise it makes a difference later! Follow it up with a CM/AL by rockappeal, which adds a slightly blue tint to the icon:

Red: 91, 7, -7
Green: 7, 94, -7
Blue: -2, -2, 102

ok cool, but we don't want that blue to take over, so let's mitigate it with a Soft Light duplicate of the base.

SC/AL again, just because we can! Make two ALs with settings in this order. The first is by hl_upics because I am so in love with those settings it's not even funny. However, you may want to remove that layer if you already feel your icon is too dark/blue because it will darken the icon even more.

Reds: -52, 0, 0, 26
Yellows: -57, -7, 0, 34
Cyans: 48, -44, 0, -27
Whites: 100, 0, -63, 21
Neutrals: 20, 0, 24, 9
Blacks: -1, 0, 0, 32

Reds: 0, 0, 100, 0
Yellows: 0, 0, -50, 0
Cyans: 100, 0, 0, 0

Usually I tend to shy away from using CB/ALs but when I feel like my icon is going in the completely wrong direction chromatically from where I want it to go, there's nothing better to switch things up quickly xD Here I thought the blue was taking over, so I used these settings to undo it with some red and yellow:

Midtones: 100, 0, -44
Highlights: 22, 0, 0

This is one of those completely off-base steps that should not apply to any other image, but here it was apparently necessary to add an HS/AL, +100 to reds (and only reds, or else it would be insaaaaane). idk man, I can't justify what I did over a year ago xD

The colouring is almost done, but before we finish it, let's add a little lighting for interest near the bottom. This subtle texture, which is really a snippet of a much larger texture by cielo_icons, is perfect for that on Screen, 100% \o/ I would also recommend it on Lighten, 100% if you want it to blend into the image more, as is the trend these days.

The reason I didn't save the light texture for the end of the icon is because it can overpower the image, as it did here, and I didn't want to decrease its opacity to fix that. Using a L/AL will help cut it back as well as increase the darkness of the overall image:

56, 0.81, 255

This is the layer I suggested changing if you have a darker image, btw; just leave that first number at 0 if you want to do so. After that, I used a HS/AL with Saturation to 22, which gave the colours a much-needed boost.

Lastly, I can't bear to finish off any icon these days without a BC/AL for that extra pop. Here Brightness to -12 and Contrast to 38 worked wonders, but feel free to adjust that until you're satisfied with the vibrancy of your icon. And we're done!

✖ other examples
These were altered to make the colouring more applicable to these images and a bit more vibrant (took out the colour balance and red +100 hue/sat layers, and added different ALs) but the overall structure of these icons is the same as the tutorial's.

try it out! then watch us?

inquisitory ✭ 56; the way we lived we felt so alive.

2009-08-02T21:28:43Z

I got nothing for this section xD YAY ANOTHER TUTORIAL???

Request by luxrays <4 ♥

start to finish
program Photoshop. Uses Selective Color and Channel Mixer, so not translatable.

✎ abbreviations/terms
AL ➝ adjustment layer
CM ➝ channel mixer
SC ➝ selective color
HS ➝ hue/saturation
BC ➝ brightness/contrast
for example, SC/AL will mean Selective Color Adjustment Layer.

YAY RICHTER you can never have too much Richter right. Granted, I wouldn't know, I haven't played this game yet :') OKAY crop time, this tutorial works best on images with a white or transparent background fyi. It looks like I also added a slight drop shadow, but that's up to you~

But I'd say one duplicate isn't enough for an image this dynamic; why not have 3? 8) What I like to do for images these days to add a bit of "movement" is have a couple duplicates behind the first with decreasing opacities. So you duplicate the layer, move it over (usually one shift-arrow key nudge will do the trick), set it to Multiply and then use a Layer Mask to erase the part that covers the main image. The Layer Mask can be a bit tricky, too: you click the square with a circle inside to make the mask, then you have to go to the main image and take the Magic Wand to all the white part, then you select the inverse of that, THEN you go back to the layer mask and paint it all black. ~~I could make a cheesy song reference right here but I won't~~ Once you have that mask on, all you have to do is duplicate the duplicate (asldkjfha), nudge it again, and put this to a lower opacity. Here, I had it on 40% and 20% but that may change depending on the image.

what a tl;dr step omg. Trust me, it's easier in practice xD

Okay the background is looking a little plain, so let's take advantage of the fact that the background is transparent and put a texture there! I love this by tralala_icons because the red matches Richter's hair and we can do a lot with that. Also please to be adding this by poisonblue on Multiply, 100% for a little extra grunge.

Now we're going to do that shading thing described better by sinspire in this tutorial than I ever could! Usually I do both black and white shading on the same layer with around a 9-17 size soft brush and then Gaussian Blur it a touch. I used to be stubborn and put the white on Screen and the black on Multiply, but then I was like "screw it" and put it on Soft Light and it actually looks way better that way xD

Hurrah, now the image is getting some dimension to it~ CM/AL goes here

Red: 100, 14, -3
Green: 1, 100, 6
Blue: -4, -3, 110, 4

idk what that was, a little more dimension? Okay these are modified SC/AL setting from goodness knows where, but I like how they add some blue~ this one on 80% please!

Reds: -100, 0, 55, -12
Whites: -38, 0, 0, -28
Neutrals: 71, 6, 10, -37
Blacks: 64, 41, 0, -22

I felt like the main image needs some more dimension, so I just duplicated that one, brought it to the top on Soft Light, 100%.

Much better! Now we're going to negate that with a texture don't you love how I work? This on Multiply, 100%, sorry I don't know the source.

A couple textures on Screen, 100% now. The first is (very obviously) modified by me from some tinytext I found, second by cielo_icons! I got it a while ago so idk why the community is deleted, sorry;;; anyone know?

Now for text, yay! I swear I did three different versions of "Richter" before I settled on the right one, I think this one's the best~ Helvetica Neue Medium Condensed, italics and caps, right alignment, slight drop shadow, blahblahblah xD Then I did a couple duplicates of the text not unlike the beginning of this icon, sans the layer mask part. The final opacities of each layer of text going down were 60%, 20%and 10%.

Needs moar colour, so make a HS/AL with Saturation to 18!

And we all know I love my lens flares by hellodarliing, often used, often abused xD I altered one of them here and this'll go on Screen, 100% so there's a bit more depth to the part beside the text.

Last things last! BC/AL with Brightness to -2 (haha idek why you'd bother) and Contrast to 60! Hurrah, we now have a pretty Richter icon!

✖ other examples

try it out! then friend us?

inquisitory ✭ 55; you have come so far.

2009-07-29T01:23:33Z

To me this icon is pretty strange, but I think the colouring can be adapted xD It's one of those times I tried to make it so that no duplicate is necessary, and it's good for bulk iconing~

Request by dragonsquee ♥

start to finish
program Photoshop. Uses Selective Color, Curves and Channel Mixer, so not translatable.

✎ abbreviations/terms
AL ➝ adjustment layer
L ➝ levels
C ➝ curves
HS ➝ hue/saturation
SC ➝ selective color
BC ➝ brightness/contrast
CM ➝ channel mixer
for example, SC/AL will mean Selective Color Adjustment Layer.

Here's the very pretty Eternal Poison art, courtesy of escorts! Let's crop for great justice \o/

Firstly~ Take a light sort of beigey-grey (f2ebe5) on Multiply, 100%, idk why, just go with it

And let's fix it with a L/AL! RBG on 5, 1.09, 229 should do the trick.

Looking more normal now, yay! Let's fix a bit more with a C/AL. Reminder: to use these settings, just click anywhere in the big graphy thing and then type in the right numbers to get your point.

Each set corresponds to a point, like [input, output].
RBG: [56, 50] [116, 130]

Another fill layer lolwhut. A very dark purple (48123d) on Exclusion, 25%. Again, idk why; I don't seem to understand anything about this icon, it has a mind of its own :')

Have two CM/ALs ftw!

Red: 120, -20, -10, 5

Red: 115, -10, -10
Green: -10, 115, -10

And a SC/AL! I feel like I'm in an old western, slinging around adjustment layers like guns left and right xD /reaching for humour

Reds: -50, 15, 20, 0
Yellows: 0, 0, 100, 0
Whites: 100, 60, 0, 0
Blacks: 0, 0, 0, 100

I believe I lifted this step from another tutorial; I wouldn't be able to find it though, because I bent the rest of the icon so far out of recognition xD Light blue/teal (37c3d8) on Soft Light, 50%.

Another SC/AL, what a surprise! A very subtle difference this time because you put it on 20%.

Reds: -100, 100, 100, 0
Neutrals: -50, 0, 0, 20

Have a texture by tralala_icons here on Multiply, 60%. As you can see, I flipped it vertically and soft-erased some bits for a subtler look. Also, move this by threeyespei around as you see fit and put it on Screen, 100% \o/ Two birds with one step!

You guessed it, another AL goes here: specifically a L/AL sob. RGB 17, 1.20, 250 plz and thx

TWO MORE STEPSSS it feels like I've been typing this for forever :'D A very dark grey (0b0b0b) on Screen, 100% to lighten a tad.

I added a last-minute glow along the bottom here, much like in this tutorial, and followed it up with a BC/AL: Brightness -18, Contrast 77. Hooray! /collapses

✖ other examples

try it out! then friend us?

inquisitory ✭ 54; give it up for me please.

2009-07-28T17:02:54Z

Long time, no tutorial! Let's fix that today \o/

Request by reikane and dragonsquee ♥

start to finish
program Photoshop. Uses Selective Color, so not translatable.

✎ abbreviations/terms
AL ➝ adjustment layer
L ➝ levels
HS ➝ hue/saturation
SC ➝ selective color
BC ➝ brightness/contrast
for example, SC/AL will mean Selective Color Adjustment Layer.

Two pictures to start with today! \o/

Let's work on the L/AL first to bring out the darker tones in the artwork, it's a bit too light. Try this :>

RGB: 11, 0.80, 255

Better already! For some more subtle darker tones, put this tannish brown (b19b6f) on Multiply, 10%. lol sounds kind of pointless, but it makes a difference!

Okay have this texture by dusty_memories and this by loveicon. \o/ Slap them both on, on Multiply, 60% and Multiply, 100 respectively~

Now that we've worked to make the bottom dark, why not go the exact opposite way? 8D I just brushed some white on the bottom softly, and then used a Gaussian Blur to make it smoother. Because who doesn't like glowy bits, really?

I think we've messed it up enough by now to add a Soft Light duplicate and fix it, don't you? Go for it~

This is one of those places where you could stop and call it a day, but I want to go a bit further >:D Put a dark gray (161616) on Exclusion, 70% to go for a mellower feel.

Now for a HS/AL~ Move Saturation to 36 and – shocker – Lightness to -6. I don't normally mess with the Lightness setting on one of these ALs because it tends to make the image look gross reeeaaallly quickly, but a little bit works here :D

Now please use the SC/AL settings outlined here by velshtein. They really brighten up the image and add a bit of a blue tone, which I like here!

Almost there hnnnngh! Have another really quick SC/AL for the heck of it, can't remember the source:

Reds: -55, 0, 31, 0
Yellows: -11, 0, 8, 0
Greens: 100, -100, 100, 0
Magentas: -100, 100, 100, 0
Whites: 0, 0, -51, 0

Because it feels a tad flat, use two final BC/ALs: one with -15 Brightness and 58 Contrast, the other with 27 Contrast (I suppose you could use one and just add the two contrasts together but oh look a squirrel!). And we out! /o/

✖ other examples

try it out! then friend us?

inquisitory ✭ 53; shed your love, shed your love.

2009-06-06T18:17:56Z

another tutorial so soon? lol what is going on here. I always seem to have an influx of tuts in June because after classes let out, this is a great way to put off studying xD besides, that backlog isn't going anywhere!

Request by sun_soraya ♥

start to finish
program Photoshop. Uses Selective Color and Channel Mixer, so not translatable.

✎ abbreviations/terms
AL ➝ adjustment layer
HS ➝ hue/saturation
SC ➝ selective color
BC ➝ brightness/contrast
CM ➝ channel mixer
CB ➝ color balance
for example, SC/AL will mean Selective Color Adjustment Layer.

yey pretty Philia art, this is my favourite Destiny picture by far~ Bottom crop because I felt like emphasizing the flowers above her head.

lmao I seem to be getting worse and worse at remembering the sources of textures, sorry ;__; I only remember two out of six in this post sob. Here's the first, put it on Multiply, 100%~

I knew from the beginning that I wanted a darker, more pensive mood on this icon, if you will xD getting philosophical, aren't we, Mumpo? ANYWAY remember the CM/AL I used just last tutorial? It goes right here, like this:

Red: 110, -29, -6
Green: -6, 106, -6
Blue: 3, -9, 110

and those famous hl_upics SC/AL settings right here. lol am I predictable or what

Reds: -52, 0, 0, 26
Yellows: -57, -7, 0, 34
Cyans: 48, -44, 0, -27
Whites: 100, 0, -63, 21
Neutrals: 20, 0, 24, 9
Blacks: -1, 0, 0, 32

I actually have no idea where this step came from but I really like the effect on this icon~ Fill a layer with a light tan (f0d2ab) on Overlay, 30%. It lightens up the edges of the images and sharpens just a tad, kinda nice!

Another texture sob I know, it's on the tip of my tongue I swear ;__; Multiply, 100% kthx

why this step is here of all places, I don't know, but make a HS/AL and shove Saturation to 21~

I definitely think it's to the point where we need a Soft Light, 100% duplicate of the base lol. After analyzing all these tutorials, I think I've finally figured out my strategy: butcher the image as much as possible, and then add a Soft Light duplicate to make it all better :'D Depending on your image, you may need to go in and adjust the lightness of your duplicate, lest it get all dark and gross.

I'm a big fan of the_preamble's textures, so I remembered where this one came from xD Screen, 100% for shinies!

I'm lovin' it! But hey, this was supposed to be pensive, let's add some ~*moody*~ grain texture (made by ? sob) on Multiply, 100% lol

Apparently I bent this texture out of all recognition to my addled mind lol but it works here! Screen, 100%. idk, I wanted the trees to be inverted/upside down for a more surreal effect.

This is where the icon starts to get really green! Take a CB/AL like soooo~

Midtones: 12, 35, -25
Highlights: 23, 0, 0

Much better! About time for a BC/AL, Brightness to -2 and Contrast to 52. I think the farther along I get on an icon's colouring, the more contrast I need to whip it back into shape!

Starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel! Another quick CB/AL here, just move the middle slider on Midtones to -20. Not quite sure what it does, but it makes a small difference;;;

Text time \o/ I've been told this text makes no sense but somehow it works lolol. idk either, I think it was for a book title theme at talesof_awards...? I picked the classic novel by Harper Lee, mostly because the word "mockingbird" across the icon makes quite a statement, almost as if Philia is the sacrifice. The "to kill a" is in Helvetica Light Condensed, and "mockingbird" in Georgia Bold Italic. The main text layer is in white on 80% and I did my little duplicate shadow thingy for the bottom black layer; moved it over a smidge and put it on Overlay, 100%. That doesn't always work right, but it did here :>

Final step wheeee. A while back I was goofing around with the camera and my Christmas tree and took some wacky diagonal line light pictures. They don't come in handy too often, but I thought they'd be just the trick for an icon where Philia is below the trees! This makes it look like the sun is shining between the branches, which I love. That goes on Screen, 100% and this icon is finished, yay!

✖ other examples
I found that when I tried other images, I had to add a levels layer to brighten the midtones (move middle slider to left), just sayin'

try it out! then friend us?

inquisitory ✭ 52; alright, let's go outside.

2009-06-06T16:33:01Z

chugachugchug

Request by luxrays ♥

start to finish
program Photoshop. Uses Selective Color and Channel Mixer, so not translatable.

✎ abbreviations/terms
AL ➝ adjustment layer
HS ➝ hue/saturation
SC ➝ selective color
BC ➝ brightness/contrast
CM ➝ channel mixer
for example, SC/AL will mean Selective Color Adjustment Layer.

kay before we go anywhere, I gotta say, even for me, this colouring is pretty weird xD Still, let's go for it and see where it takes us~

totally hotlinking from Sei's photobucket whoops |D;; /shot. YAY to_a image theme!

Two quick duplicates from the get-go, one Color Burn, 20% and one Screen, 60%. Why? I DON'T KNOW, I DON'T DECIDE THESE THINGS– wait

Take a light gray (c2c2c2) on Multiply, 50%. This one's really necessary later on;;;

kay this is kind of a weird one, idek. I wanted a really really subtle texture around the edges, kind of vintage and floral to emphasize the flowers in Meredy's hair. I chose this by toybirds, and I made a layer mask (the button at the bottom of the window with the circle in the square) and used a soft brush to take out everything except the corners.

yeeeesh. OKAY base duplicate on Screen, 40% plz, this is kinda dark!

kay maybe that's a bit overboard oh well we'll fix it later lol. Don't you just love my iconing attitude 8D Make a HS/AL and shove Saturation up to 47 or something similar, we really want a lot of colour here! Notice that I had to use the mask to block out Meredy's face, it went ridiculously red after all that saturation.

Getting there, right? now have two SC/ALs in a row. I honestly can't be bothered to figure out where the settings are from, don't remember whether I made them or not etc but here you go

Reds: -100, 0, 62, 0
Yellows: -100, 0, -40, 0
Neutrals: 30, -10, -23, 0

Reds: -37, -41, -55, 100
Whites: 100, -22, -55, -10
Blacks: -22, 25, 44, 12

Love it 8D so I know I defs made these CM/AL settings because I saved them, yay! The function is to slightly darken the icon, I think it gives a nice effect. You may want to try it out on other images, it's kinda neat :>

Red: 110, -29, -6
Green: -6, 106, -6
Blue: 3, -9, 110

High time for a Soft Light, 100% base duplicate, wouldn't you agree?

Now that the colouring is sufficiently wacky, I think we have to add the finishing touches soon. BUT FIRST another SC/AL ftw lolol, on 50%:

Reds: -68, 9, 100, 0
Yellows: -100, 0, 83, 0
Cyans: 49, 0, -66, 0
Whites: 30, 0, -51, 0
Neutrals: -14, 0, 50, -9

Still a tad light though, so let's use a BC/AL for balance! I put Brightness to -38 and Contrast to 48; usually Contrast goes higher than however much Brightness is lowered, you see, idk why

augh I am a terrible person I forgot another source ;; this time for the texture on the sides! You'd think I would know this, it's quite distinctive and part of a larger texture! Well please tell me if you know, but for now, just use it on Screen, 100%.

one more BC/AL because I can do that rofl. Brightness 08, Contrast +53 (whut) and now iiisss naiiice ;D

✖ other examples
yeah that last one was altered a lot, but the basic structure is the same

try it out! then friend us?

inquisitory ✭ 51; i'm missing out on love and truth.

2009-05-24T21:50:23Z

To fool myself into thinking today has actually been productive so far, I decided to write a tutorial :')

Request by luxrays ♥

start to finish
program Photoshop. Uses Selective Color and Channel Mixer, so not translatable.

✎ abbreviations/terms
AL ➝ adjustment layer
HS ➝ hue/saturation
SC ➝ selective color
BC ➝ brightness/contrast
CM ➝ channel mixer
for example, SC/AL will mean Selective Color Adjustment Layer.

I chose the cover of the ToS art book for this icon because it was for talesof_battle's community icon, and what better for a community than a bunch of characters? :3 You'll notice I took out the text on the black bar, just clone stamped over it.

The technique I've been adopting more and more lately is adding some black and white soft bits around the edges of the picture on Soft Light, 100% to add more dimension~ So you'll see I did that here, with some black along the bottom of the picture and white in each of the top corners.

Make a HS/AL with Saturation to 21 for funtimes 8D or just making the image more colourful lol

Now for a couple of soft light layers, like so:
An orangey-beige (f0cfa3) on Soft Light, 60%
a lighter gray (c9c9c9) on Soft Light, 70%
and we get this

Three guesses on the next SC/AL layer, and the first two don't count! Yeah, you got it, they're my favourite ever by hl_upics! /in before you all roll your eyes at my lack of ingenuity here

Reds: -52, 0, 0, 26
Yellows: -57, -7, 0, 34
Cyans: 48, -44, 0, -27
Whites: 100, 0, -63, 21
Neutrals: 20, 0, 24, 9
Blacks: -1, 0, 0, 32

I decided to make up some CM/AL settings, just because I could :B they make the icon slightly darker and more orange, in this case!

Red: 110, -10, -6
Green: -6, 106, -6
Blue: 3, -9, 90

Step 3 SC/AL settings on 30% that I either made up again or can't remember the maker of (let me know if you do), saldhfjsa. I wanted to brighten up the blues and reds~

Reds: -45, 0, 0, 25
Yellows: -100, 0, -15, -15
Whites: 100
Neutrals: 100, 0, 0, -45

okay, take this texture by poisonblue, invert it (Image > Adjustments > Invert) and set it to Screen, 100. Move around/erase as you see fit; I only wanted it to show up on the bottom half to add a little something-something to the plain black lol.

Almost there! I know right, this is almost too simple for one of my tutorials :'D uh here goes a duplicate of the base on Soft Light, 60%~

Now add your tinytext \o/ You can use a texture, there are tons out there, or just type in some very small gibberish. I keysmashed for a few lines (which can actually be kinda therapeutic!) in Arial, size 1.5, spacing 510 apart.

Last step \o/ A BC/AL would be fantastic here to finish up. Brightness to -8, Contrast to 38, nothing special. But because those settings blew out the bottom half a little, I used the mask attached to the AL to brush out the bottom half in black, and lo and behold, it looks fine now :D We done, yo!

✖ other examples

try it out! then friend us?

inquisitory ✭ 50; ain't no stopping at all.

2009-05-17T17:42:54Z

Now that the school year has calmed down, I can get back to making tutorials like a fiend |D lmao, remember those times when I actually followed through with my requests after a reasonable delay? Good times! xD right I have like seven tutorials on the ol' backlog so I'd better get going huh

50th tutorial haaaaaaay! And 500 watchers here, whoa! Thanks guys ♥

Request by feral_phoenix eons ago oops ♥

start to finish
program Photoshop. Uses Selective Color, Color Balance and Channel Mixer, so not translatable.

✎ abbreviations/terms
AL ➝ adjustment layer
SC ➝ selective color
BC ➝ brightness/contrast
CB ➝ color balance
CM ➝ channel mixer
for example, SC/AL will mean Selective Color Adjustment Layer.

Just a word of warning: this tutorial follows this one very closely, the digressions lie in textures and a couple extra adjustments. This is one of those icons that has to get worse before it gets better lol, so just sit back and enjoy the ride~

ah, Higurashi art like this is so pretty :> so let's crop Rena!

Okay, have a Soft Light, 100% duplicate, and desaturate it (Image > Adjustments > Desaturate). You'll see why we need it later, oh, you'll see :|

Now make a layer of pure white (ffffff) on Soft Light, 100%, idk why this works, but it lightens up all those icky-looking dark areas on the picture~

Same settings for the CB/AL as before~
Midtones: -29, 0, 26
Highlights: 9, 0, 0

and the same, very random SC/AL too! I hope you saved it before, all those numbers xD

Greens: 0, 0, -100, 100
Cyans: 15, 20, -100, 10
Blues: 0, 0, -60, 100
Neutrals: -10, 0, 0, -15
Blacks: 26, 5, 0, 45

The way this icon is going, we'll need something to balance the amount of white. Make a fill of a very dark red (181818) on Exclusion, 100% for a slightly blue tint :>

okay I know what you're thinking, "this is a pretty normal icon so far" but WAIT you're about to be proved wrong. This is where we take a hilariously weird direction, starting with those amazing SC/AL settings by hl_upics!

Reds: -52, 0, 0, 26
Yellows: -57, -7, 0, 34
Cyans: 48, -44, 0, -27
Whites: 100, 0, -63, 21
Neutrals: 20, 0, 24, 9
Blacks: -1, 0, 0, 32

Alright, getting there, but I know! Let's make the icon darker with a warmer tone! CM/AL settings by spaceship will do the trick:

Red: 85, -10, 10, 0
Green: -15, 50, 55, 0
Blue: -50, 75, 60, 0

and lighten it right back up again with the SC/AL settings in step 2 here by mutebox:

hahaha ew what is going on here. This is where we start to noticeably move away from the Soul Eater tutorial. I'm going to throw a bunch of textures at you and you'll just take them and move/blur/erase as you wish, 'kay? ARTISTIC JUDGEMENT YAY

this and this by fedor_morkvo on Multiply
this by cielo_icons on Lighten
this by me on Screen
this and this by xswaniconsx on Screen
this by lifeisdolce on Screen

and this is what I came up with after all that mumbo-jumbo saldkhs.

AUGHHHHH

I know it looks terrible, but there's a surprisingly easy fix! A Soft Light, 100% duplicate!!! Rejoice across the valley, for your retinas are saved~

Once I was done this icon, I came back and shoved in an extra SC/AL here because it needed an extra pop re: the reds and blues. Guess whose settings are perfect for that? SEI'S in step 3! 8D Granted, I had to take it out for the examples below because it made them go crazy, but it worked here.

This step is another remnant from the SE icon: a bright red (ec1713) on Color, 20%. idk, it just makes the reds pop ever so slightly more without being obnoxious.

To finish, let's add not one, not two, but THREE BC/ALs, going something like this (from bottom to top):

-11, 79
-6, 27
-3, 41

I know it's weird, but somehow that all works and gives us our finished icon |D (note you may have to take one off if your icon gets too sharp)

✖ other examples

try it out! then friend us?

almateria ♔ 150

2009-04-08T20:14:12Z

lol hi C: hey, 150th post!

We'll be turning into in PSP XI. Translatable.

01 Start with your base. I always sharpen at the end, but you're free to do whatever you'd like.

02 Make a new layer and fill it with #4f0605. Set this layer to luminance 50%.

03 Duplicate that color layer and change the settings to exclusion 100%.

04 You totally love this icon now, y/y? We're going to fix this by duplicating the base and setting it to softlight 100%

05 Add a Channel Mixer layer, uncheck Monochrome, and input these settings:
Red: 110 -5 0 0
Green: 5 95 0 0
Blue: 10 -10 100 -5

06 Looking better. Make a new layer and fill it with #e6f4fe, setting it to softlight 100%.

07 Duplicate your softlighted base and bring it to the top.

08 Add a Hue/Saturation layer and set Saturation to 15.

09 Love them adjustment layers. Add a Levels layer and input these settings:
RGB: 10 130 240
Blue: 20 138 235

10 And you're done! If necessary, brighten up your image with a Brightness/Contrast layer, like I did.

I encourage you to post your results, because I love seeing them :D

SAMPLES MADE WITH THIS TUTORIAL

both icons used blue luminance/exclusion layers.

Like what you see? Why don't you friend us!

inquisitory ✭ 49; i fell in your arms tonight.

2009-02-15T02:46:02Z

slowpoke.jpg i know :( but better late than never, right??

Request by ms_poptart~ ♥

start to finish
program Photoshop. Uses Selective Color and Channel Mixer, so not translatable.

✎ abbreviations/terms
AL ➝ adjustment layer
CM ➝ channel mixer
BC ➝ brightness/contrast
SC ➝ selective color
HS ➝ hue/saturation
for example, SC/AL will mean Selective Color Adjustment Layer.

Here's the image for this icon :] I highly, highly suggest choosing an image with very light tones, and preferably featuring more than one colour (this one has purples, reds and yellows as you can see); hence, Arina Tanemura art is always a perfect fit for this colouring. Notice the double image: I did this by duplicating the layer, rotating the second one 180 degrees, moving it over to the blank space and erasing the excess with a soft brush so both faces show through.

I tend to start out icons these days with these CM/AL settings by spaceship, they're just so versatile 8D HOWEVER! You're only going to put this on the duplicate the stands out less. In my case, it was the top layer so I used a clipping mask (right/ctrl click your layer > Create Clipping Mask) to set the adjustment to only affect that one. (If you're not using a duplicate, than you can choose whether to use this layer or not depending on your image)

Red: 85, -10, 10, 0
Green: -15, 50, 55, 0
Blue: -50, 75, 60, 0

Much better than if it was on both, right? It shows you where your priorities are when you look at the icon, so to speak xD Let's lighten it up a bit now. Select your whole canvas (ctrl/command-A) and go to Edit > Copy Merged. Next, paste it down on Screen, 40%.

OKAY now you want to put #f4b8d3 on Soft Light, 100% to lighten some more.

Another colour layer, yeah I know :( #7edaf4 on Color Burn, 30% plz

I know this isn't very exciting yet but lol that was the prep. Now we can focus on making it shiny! Make a HS/AL and move Saturation to 19 to bring out some of that lovely colour.

Okay, now time for some awesome SC/ALs >:D heeheehee I love this part. These settings which I think are by unasuvas should do the trick, if you duplicate the adjustment layer once! This is where the colouring gets crazy for darker images btw.

Reds: -60, 0, +70, 0
Yellows: -100, +40, -60, 0
Blues: 0, -60, -60, +100
Neutrals: 0, 0, 0, +15

eeeehhh it needs a little something extra to make it pop, wouldn't you say? Have a grainy texture by Absolute Trouble on Multiply, 50% first.

And now for a Soft Light, 40% duplicate of the base! I know it's hardly noticeable now, but it makes a difference later \o/ You can up the percentage if your image is darker.

and another SC/AL ftw, by emptyyourlife:

Reds: -100, 0, 100, 43
Yellows: 38, -29, 100, 57
Cyans: 100, -89, -100, 100
Neutrals: -4, 0, 15, 3

Muuuch better, I'm starting to like this a lot! Next, let's darken it a tad with this texture by Absolute Trouble again on Exclusion, 100% and INVERSED (that's important lol. ctrl/command-I to do this)

oops I put two steps in this image lkadsfhjl. Now I'm going to give you a couple light textures by dustypaper and let you decide where to put them, as long as they're on Lighten, 100%. You may need to blur them a little if the edges show up too much, I think I did for the second.

Almost there!! I felt the top of the icon needed a little something extra, so I put this by samuraiblues on the top, a little smaller and rotated. Depending on your image, you may need to inverse the colour and make it white (again, ctrl/command-I).

The icon is still a little too soft on the colour side, so let's bring it out some more! TWO BC/ALs, each with Brightness on -18 and Contrast on 75 (yes i know), will be juuust fine :3 Done!

✖ other examples
OH and

try it out! then friend us?

inquisitory ✭ 48; too much sugar for my sweet tooth.

2009-01-17T20:48:41Z

It seems like I'm doing one tutorial a month asdflkajs. This will not do :'D I would try to speed up but school is getting crazier and crazier orz. Um, have this to tide you over until whenever I can next get a moment to write a tutorial;;;;

Request by luxrays~ ♥

start to finish
program Photoshop. Uses Channel Mixer and Color Balance, so it should be translatable.

✎ abbreviations/terms
AL ➝ adjustment layer
CM ➝ channel mixer
BC ➝ brightness/contrast
CB ➝ color balance
HS ➝ hue/saturation
for example, SC/AL will mean Selective Color Adjustment Layer.

It was from this piece of Arina Tanemura art that I chose to make my base~

Cropped out Maora because it just looked better that way :') Okay, let's start with a Soft Light, 100% duplicate.

Yeahhh contrast! 8D The dull colours are kinda pretty, but if we boost 'em up, it follows that it will be even prettier! Do just that with a HS/AL and Saturation up to 30.

Their skin is getting kind of crazy white now, so we should try using #f3e6da to get it back on track. Multiply, 100% will do it, along with adding a nice sidebar!

Next, it's time for a couple CM/ALs! \o/ First, with settings by spaceship, that go like this:

Red: 96, 10, -10, 0
Green: 28, 71, -1, 0
Blue: -1, 8, 85, 0

Set these to 50% and you're good to go... on to the next step, that is! >:D

Let's bring out the reds and pinks some more with the next CM/AL, settings by xxsecretive and opacity to 80%:

Reds: 110, 32, -46, 0

Awwright, now I think it's time to add something to the side! After fishing around a bit in my ever-so-large texture folders, I came across this ribbon-like thing by eveningwalk. Rotate it to fit your sidebar and cut off the excess with the Rectangular Marquee tool. Then you'll want to use an HS/AL with a clipping mask on it (to attach it to the bar only and not the whole picture; right-click the layer to do this) to move Saturation to -11 and avoid further eye-burning when this icon is finished xD

As long as my instructions back there didn't confuse you to death, we can move on xD Let's add some shinies with this texture by hellodarliing on Lighten, 100%. Rotate to your liking and take a soft brush to erase the bits you don't like, so you end up with something like this:

Not to pimp out myself or anything ~~too much~~, but uh, I happened to use my own scribbles (full set here orz) in the corner. idk, it just breaks up the monotony of the ribbon texture?? You may have to adjust the Levels on the texture to make it show up more (drag the white slider to the left).

This was another icon for manga_battle that required a red colour scheme, so following are the last adjustments to accomplish that. First, #e0e0e0 on Color Burn, 100%~

and for some doofy reason I put the next settings all in one image alfdjhsal. but ANYWAY

Take a BC/AL with Brightness to -14 and Contrast to 26, and the next two CB/AL, each on its own AL, and you're finito! \o/

Midtones: 16, 0, -8

Shadows: -13, 0, -9
Midtones: -100, 0, 16
Highlights: 4, 0, -5

✖ other examples

try it out! then friend us?

inquisitory ✭ 47; we can get along.

2008-12-07T01:34:44Z

asdflkjas there is an absolutely ridiculous gap between my tutorials, sorry :'D But I hope they're worth the wait?

Request by sun_soraya again rofl. ilu ♥

start to finish
program Photoshop. Uses Selective Color, Channel Mixer and Color Balance, so not translatable.

✎ abbreviations/terms
AL ➝ adjustment layer
SC ➝ selective color
BC ➝ brightness/contrast
CB ➝ color balance
CM ➝ channel mixer
for example, SC/AL will mean Selective Color Adjustment Layer.

Cutest Soul Eater image ever, asdlkfjhs. xD I love Maka and Soul in this one, so I cropped them by themselves~

First things first, knock up the contrast with a Soft Light, 100% duplicate, and desaturate it (Image > Adjustments > Desaturate). This just makes it so that the red is a little less... offensive later on, lol.

Because you can't see the text for this one on the page (ffffff) I'll just tell you it's pure white on Soft Light, 100% xD This lights it up a ton; almost like a Screen layer, only not! 8)

CB/AL time /o/ Use this and alter as needed:
Midtones: -29, 0, 26
Highlights: 9, 0, 0

More blue, but what now? how about a SC/AL with a ton of random settings lol. WHAT FUN TO TYPE OUT, RIGHT?

Greens: 0, 0, -100, 100
Cyans: 15, 20, -100, 10
Blues: 0, 0, -60, 100
Neutrals: -10, 0, 0, -15
Blacks: 26, 5, 0, 45

Because we clearly haven't had our fill of random today, let's give it a bluish tint with a dark red (181818) on Exclusion, 100%~~

Now for those quintessential SC/AL settings by hl_upics! Boy I hope you saved them already, you probably have if you've used any of my tutorials at all :'D but here they are anyway~

Reds: -52, 0, 0, 26
Yellows: -57, -7, 0, 34
Cyans: 48, -44, 0, -27
Whites: 100, 0, -63, 21
Neutrals: 20, 0, 24, 9
Blacks: -1, 0, 0, 32

Cool, cool! As if we needed to make it any darker, but. I've been pretty addicted to some CM/AL settings by spaceship that go like this (btw I have no idea how channel mixer works, I just mess with it xD):

Red: 85, -10, 10, 0
Green: -15, 50, 55, 0
Blue: -50, 75, 60, 0

Spiffy – and now that we've darkened it, what better to do than lighten it up again! One more SC/AL just to be weirder! Use the settings in step 2 here by mutebox.

adlkfhs I think it's about time for another duplicate of the base, don't you? Soft Light, 100% ftw!

BUT WAIT! Shock and horror, this was another icon for manga_battle so I needed a more red colour scheme! Gosh, what have I done xD Well let's try to fix it with a bright red (ec1713) on Color, 30%!

Now for a BC/AL to balance it some more. Brightness to -30 (you prolly won't need that much though), and Contrast to 60!

I think we need one more fix to fully make the colour scheme red: another CB/AL, perhaps! It's elementary, my dear Watson~ /dons Sherlock hat

Shadows: 19, 0, -14
Midtones: 32, 0, -35
Highlights: 13, 0, 0

Hey, remember the weirdo swirls we made near the end of this tutorial? Well, pull those out again and use 'em! Also, swipe a soft, white brush over the bottom of the icon to get that misty effect. It doesn't really convey the point of the icon that well, but uh. Next step! /o/;;

Because of my fail in showing the heat of summer in the icon's colouring, let's try it with the text instead! :'D I used Cataclysmic in white with a bit of a drop shadow, on 80% and rotated slightly to get the effect.

We all know I can't finish an icon without a final BC/AL, so move Brightness to -14 and Contrast to 41 to finally, finally be done :'D Sorry that was so long!

✖ other examples
(the examples aren't very unique this time because I already posted them :'D oops!)

try it out! then friend us?

inquisitory ✭ 46; you want to be seen with her.

2008-10-19T20:26:09Z

lol long time no see again! *A* I've been meaning to write this one for a while, and I've had all the images on my HD ready to go for about 3 weeks now, but I've been way too busy so I couldn't post earlier than this, asldfjasl. But now I'm raring to go, and I hope you'll join me for the tutorial! xD This is actually one of my favourite colourings so far in its versatility and prettiness. (and rofl, I just noticed this is posted exactly a month after my last tutorial, what a coincidence! xD)

Thanks for 440+ watchers, everyone! whuuut *__* All three of us are blown away, and we really appreciate it!

Request by sun_soraya! ♥

start to finish
program Photoshop. Uses Selective Color and Color Balance, so not translatable.

✎ abbreviations/terms
AL ➝ adjustment layer
SC ➝ selective color
BC ➝ brightness/contrast
CB ➝ color balance
HS ➝ hue/saturation
for example, SC/AL will mean Selective Color Adjustment Layer.

I do enjoy Tanemura artwork for colouring, as usual *A* Try to pick an image with some warm and cool tones, or at the very least some colour variation so it looks better at the end. And here's my crop!

Okay, let's be weird and start things off with a CB/AL. Go the Midtones and knock the third bar down to -72. This'll give your image a lot more yellow, which is what we want, as you'll see >:]

huhuhuhu and now for a very light gray (e1e1e1) on Soft Light, 100%. Not only will this prepare for future steps, it works in place of a Screen layer to lighten the icon up. Yeeaaaahh two birds and all that \o/

Time for a HS/AL to pretty it up some more! Saturation should go to 19 or more, whatever works for you.

roflwaffle spiffy. Now that it's so light, what shall we do? I propose a SC/AL with none other than the following settings by the all-powerful hl_upics (uhh turns out the comm's locked now, orz):

Reds: -52, 0, 0, 26
Yellows: -57, -7, 0, 34
Cyans: 48, -44, 0, -27
Whites: 100, 0, -63, 21
Neutrals: 20, 0, 24, 9
Blacks: -1, 0, 0, 32

And not just once, but twice: duplicate your SC/AL so there are two with the exact same settings! I'm sorry, I will never get tired of those 8D

This step is a little strange so I'm gonna try and explain it;;; I really love this texture by bambinainnero, so add that on Multiply, 100% first. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! Another texture by the same person follows for effect. Only, you should Gaussian Blur this one (so that it turns into more of a gradient than a texture) and set it to Darken, 50%. :]

rofl dark. Needs a duplicate of the base on Soft Light, 100%, wouldn't you say? 8)

okay I gotta say, I actually like this colouring better than the final result. So if you enjoy it as much as I do, you might wanna just stop here :'D But since this was for manga_battle, with a theme where the colours blue and yellow needed to be prominent, I had to mess with it some more to get that. Still with me? A'ight~! Use these spiffy SC/AL settings that I messed around with, on 80%:

Reds: 100, -100, -40, 0
Whites: 0, -30, 0, 31

idk what it does really, just lightens up the colouring? xD Next, we have another CB/AL, like this:

Shadows: -43, 0, -24
Midtones: -41, 0, -32
Highlights: 0, 0, -4

Now we're really seeing that blue and yellow, yay! Right, so this is going to sound like the stupidest setting ever, but. Let's put a dark, dark brown (581f1f) on Difference, 4%. No that is not a typo, it actually makes a bit of difference xD After that, add some swirlies for the lulz. I'm not going to tell you which ones to use, just pick whichever ones you like (though here, I favoured some really big, broad white ones along the bottom) and set them to Screen, 100%.

Of course we need a BC/AL around here, I never finish an icon without one! Brightness to -27 and Contrast to 61. This is so that the contrast doesn't completely blow out the image and the two settings can work in ~*peace and harmony*~ lolol.

almost thereeeee. Just because I could, I put this texture by mozart (I highly recommend the full set here) on Screen, 100% first. Then I did my weird shadow thing where I duplicated it, inversed the duplicate, and moved it below and slightly off the original, putting this on Multiply, 20% for more dimension. Some say this is too busy and I kinda agree, but hey, it'd be fine on a plainer background! xD

The last touch is the text, peeps. I went for Little Days in white, with a touch of drop shadow to separate it from the texture we just added. And that's it!

✖ other examples

try it out! then friend us?

inquisitory ✭ 45; carry me up far above it all

2008-09-20T06:05:34Z

oh fffff sorry for the hueg liekwhoa gap between this and the last post! And for the fact that I didn't reply to any comments that included tryouts, asdlfsjh I feel horrible about that, I'll get to it right away! After I finish this tutorial, that is xD

Request by aurturius! ♥

start to finish
program Photoshop. Uses Selective Color, Channel Mixer and Color Balance, so not translatable.

My tutorial-shortening effort continues with this post! I'm not including the fill layer images anymore, just a brief description of the colour, and coloured type with the code so you can emulate it. Enjoy xD

✎ abbreviations/terms
AL ➝ adjustment layer
SC ➝ selective color
BC ➝ brightness/contrast
CB ➝ color balance
HS ➝ hue/saturation
CM ➝ channel mixer
for example, SC/AL will mean Selective Color Adjustment Layer.

You know that Arina Tanemura's artwork always means I'll go crazy with SC, so we're in for a bit of a ride again xD

asljdhas her skin is so white against the background, it's gross! xD A dark gray, slightly brown (282520) on Exclusion, 100% should fix that, along with a CM/AL like so:

Red: 110, -10, -6
Green: -6, 106, -6
Blue: 3, -9, 90

okay cool, but you can clearly see the problem here again adsljfhaslhf. I don't think any amount of keyboard smashing will do my frustration justice at this point xD Soft Light, 100% duplicate will do the trick!

yeeeeey \o/ Now with a relatively prepped base, we can get into the really crazy stuff, i.e. the SC/AL. We all know how much I looove these step 3 settings by the Sei-monster, so take them and duplicate the SC layer ONCE for extra crazy.

LOL YAY %D

Though in all seriousness, I have to stress this because, even if it may be weird to you, iconing is all about experimenting for me. if you take one thing away from this tutorial, it should be that. I'm always switching around the order of my ALs and textures, even if they have the same settings, because it produces such a different result. You should always be downloading new and unique textures to try, too! It'll make your icons that much more interesting, I promise. ♥

now off my high horse and back to the tutorial, sorry :') Time to showcase a trick I picked up from sinspire a couple months back with her very helpful tutorial. I've been doing this a lot lately, too~ Essentially what you do (that she mentions in the last step) is take a very soft brush on black and go over the shading on your image. While she sets it to Soft Light in the tut, I do Multiply, 10-20% depending on how it shows up, just because 8) Even if your image already has shading, you should do this anyway because it gives your image that much more dimension. Here, I added shading to her hand, face and hair from where I imagined it to be on the original image. You can also add highlights to the character's hair and cheeks in white and set this to Screen, 10-20%, though I didn't do that here.

See the difference between that and the last step? Night and day, I tell you! *A* Okay, but the image is a little too blue/green, so add a very light beige (f9dfd5) on Color Burn, 100%.

And now it needs more colour! HS/AL plzkthx. Bump up the Saturation to 27 or so~

Better! And now I think we could use another duplicate, because it still feels a little flat. Soft Light, 50% ftw~

Still needs a little something, wouldn't you agree? Let's try a couple BC/ALs here. The first one will be Brightness: -29, Contrast: -48. Now duplicate what you just made and move Brightness up to -11. I imagine you won't have to make it as harsh for your own image, but that's what I did here xD

Okay this is a two-part step, how exciting;; For the extra "lacy/just plain weird" effect in the bottom left, I took this texture by ohfreckle, inversed it, flipped it horizontally and erased everything over the bells. No, I don't know why either, but it's a neat effect, right? :') This went to Screen, 100%; as did a very soft, white brush over the bottom of the icon, mostly for atmosphere.

Now for the part everyone enjoys: SHINY LIGHT TEXTURES 8D ohman I erased a bunch and I don't remember where they came from, but if you're here I'm sure you have some lying around! If you don't have any after all, try hellodarliing or ninesouls. Anyway, take a couple with different levels of sharpness (one sharp and thin, one broad and blurry) and shove them together for an interesting effect.

oh fffff I just realized this tutorial was requested with the version of this icon that had tinytext, I'm sorry for making up all the images without it! xD Well this was where I had those layers, lol. One of white tinytext, and one below of slightly nudged black on 60%.

Anyhoo! The colour scheme is a little strange, so I'm going to try and rectify that here with a Multiply, 100% layer. The colour is the same as that Color Burn layer from earlier.

The left side needs a little bit of lightness, so I took a red/black blurry texture by the_preamble on Lighten, 40%. if you're lazy, you can just brush in some red yourself and call it a day; that's why I'm not linking to it, I'm also lazy! xD

We're down to the wire, folks! \o/ A pretty simple CB/AL ahead:

Midtones: -18, 0, -14
Highlights: 13, 0, 0

And to finish, one more BC/AL! ohoho you know you love me now, all these tedious settings :'D Brightness to 11 and Contrast to 37 and we're finally done ♥

✖ other examples

try it out! then friend us?

inquisitory ✭ 44; been dying to say this to you

2008-08-26T23:14:51Z

This tutorial is rather overdue, I'm sorry, I got sidetracked for a bit after my last icon post with lots of other things :'D And I'm really sorry that some of you who requested tuts earlier haven't seen anything yet; that's because you made requests on posts older than my #004 and I have no idea where the .psd's went D: Can't find them for beans, it stinks!

While I'm here, I'd love it if you guys could answer this question for me in the comments.. I was going to make a poll for this but apparently that would require me to re-post this entry and I'm just not cool with that, asldfjhsal *kicks something over* The point of it is that if I stop including these colour blocks I can probably shave a few more minutes off my tut-writing time, which is good for all of you 'cause then I write more \o/

Do you think the links to blocks of color that I include with color fill layers (in the format "#a1a1a1, Exclusion, 100%") are useful? Said another way, would you/do you actually use them?

Anyway! Request by aurturius and so_vayne ♥

start to finish
program Photoshop. Uses Selective Color, Levels, Channel Mixer and Color Balance, so not translatable.

In an effort to streamline the process of writing tutorials (and therefore churn them out faster... hopefully), from now on I'm going to use abbreviations and shorter terms as shown below. I swear, writing out the names of these layers is half of the time I take to write a tutorial :'D Hope it isn't too confusing, it's just the initials of each! I'll include this at the top of every tutorial from now on.

✎ abbreviations/terms
AL ➝ adjustment layer
L ➝ levels
CM ➝ channel mixer
SC ➝ selective color
HS ➝ hue/saturation
BC ➝ brightness/contrast
CB ➝ color balance
for example, SC/AL will mean Selective Color Adjustment Layer.

zomg, how I love Switch art *A* This is gonna be fun! Let's get going with the base.

eww eww muddy, we need a L/AL for sure! It's really simple, use these settings from left to right to make the whites whiter and the darks darker.

Input: 26, 1.00, 240

but omg, still eww. Let's give it some semblance of a colour scheme now with a few colour layers. List form is fun!
- #393939, Exclusion, 60%, for this
- #f0dac4, Soft Light, 100%, for this
- #e6effc, Color Burn, 100%, for this
- #f1f1f1, Color Burn, 100% (which is incidentally the previous color fill layer, just desaturated), for:

Now we're talking, wouldn't you agree? :] I guess I should mention that when I did the icon crit meme, some people mentioned they don't like the muted look of this icon quite as much as I do. If you agree and want to fix that, you can probably just decrease the opacity of that Soft Light layer to maybe 50%. A'ight, moving on~ Obviously SC/ALs are the quick fix for everything, so why not have one now? This is a really quick one to do, thank goodness, so it makes me think I thought of these settings myself (but then, that's weird for me, so who knows? xD):

Reds: -100, -100, -100, -6

It just changes his skin and hair colours a bit so they're not quite as harsh, that's all. 'Kay, this part is a bit hard to explain, so I can't just give you the textures and let you go to it (besides, I erased too much of them to figure them out anyway) xD What I've been doing a ton lately in my icons is adding cloudy textures, to increase the depth of the image, and the first set here is like my favourite ever because of that xD I spam it for everything, trufax!!! So what I did here wasn't all that different, I just took one of them (with more white than black) on Multiply, 60%. On top of that, I took another (with more black than white) and set it to Screen, 20%. After you do both of those, you just soft-erase the bits that you don't want, like the parts over the character's face. This is what I got:

Cool, right? ~~at least I hope so orz~~ CM/AL, directly from this tutorial's second step (by x_falsetto). That'll brighten it up a lot, and it'll add a slight blue tone.

Sometimes, when I'm in the middle of an icon I'll just go "needs moar contrast", won't you? xD This was apparently one of those times, so take a BC/AL with Brightness to -9 and Contrast to 12. It's not that much, but it's enough.

And while we're on the ridiculous AL abuse, HS/AL will increase pretty factor exponentially :B Just move Saturation to 25, more if it works for you.

LOL we're not done yet! CB/AL time. We're looking for a bit more of a reddish tone again because we lost it earlier with the CM/AL.

Midtones: 7, 0, -8
Highlights: 14, 0, 0

Ahhh snap, I can't for the life of me find the source of this texture, so please tell me if you know ?___? It works perfectly to add more of a grungy/cloudy effect on Soft Light, 100%.

Now for a couple more CB/ALs, and then a CM/AL again, and then another SC/AL because I can 8D! They're all going in one step because this tutorial is far too tl'dr already.

First CB/AL:
Shadows: -4, 25, 38
Midtones: -28, -3, -23
Highlights: 15, 17, 7

Next CB/AL:
Midtones: 43, 5, -14

Then the CM/AL is from x_falsetto's tutorial again, in step 5.

Finally, the SC/AL goes like this. idk, I probably made these settings up just for the heck of it because I can't find the origin of them.

Reds: -100, 0, 0, -30
Yellows: -100, 0, 0, 0
Cyans: 100, 20, 0, -20
Whites: 0, 0, 0 60

Neutrals: 5, 0, 0, 10

Remember that multiply/screen thing from earlier that I had a hard time explaining? Well, I'm going to have to be vague about it again :'D Take another cloudy-looking one, this time on Screen, 100%, first. Then, soft-brush along the bottom of the icon with a light gray and set this to Multiply, 100% because I just love that graduated tone~~ ♥

omgomgomg almost done! Isn't that weird, I feel like I've been typing this thing for forever;;; xD I always finish my icons with BC/ALs and this is no exception. Brightness to -14, contrast to 35, and duplicate this layer once to be finished! \o\ \o/ /o/

✖ other examples
and pretty much every Switch icon on this post lol.

try it out and show me, i love to see your results! then friend us?

almateria ♔ 149

2008-08-23T18:07:12Z

Hello everyone~ It's been a while since our last update, hasn't it? We've already hit 415 watchers! ♥ Thanks for the support, guys :) Here's a tutorial from me to celebrate!

We'll be turning into in PS CS. Not translatable; includes Selective Coloring.

I'm going to start including images with each step to make it easier to see what we're trying to achieve. I'll revert back to the list format for longer tutorials, but for now this is how I'll do it :3

01 Start with your base. I usually sharpen at the end, but feel free to do whatever you like before we get started.

02 Paste this texture (by ?), and set it to exclusion 100%.

03 Make a new layer and fill it with #CBC6C6. Set this layer to multiply 100%.

04 Make another fill layer, this time with #260E0E. Set it to exclusion 100%.

05 You're probably wondering "what the heck is this shit?". Let's fix it up with a base duplicate set on screen 25%.

06 Duplicate your base again and set it to softlight 45%.

07 The colors have all disappeared with those color layers, so let's use a Selective Color layer to brighten things up. Input these settings, and then play with the sliders to get what you want:
Reds: -100 0 100 100
Yellows: 100 0 100 100
Whites: 30 0 0 0
Blacks: 0 0 0 100

08 Paste this texture (by me), and set it to screen 55%.

09 Add a new Selective Color layer, and input these settings:
Yellows: 0 0 35 -30
Blacks: 35 0 0 5

10 The icon is still looking dark and ugly, but we'll fix that in the end. I always like saturating the colors before brightening the image, so let's make a new Hue/Saturation layer. Set saturation to 30.

11 Make a Brightness/Contrast layer (finally), setting brightness to 8 and contrast to 5.

12 Make another B/C layer, with brightness at 10 and contrast at 8.

And you're done! I encourage you to post your results, because I love seeing them :D

SAMPLES MADE WITH THIS TUTORIAL

Like what you see? Why don't you friend us!

almateria ♔ 148

2008-08-04T16:06:28Z

Request by dragonsquee and sun_soraya!

We'll be making and in Photoshop CS. This tutorial is translatable only to other PS programs.

The icons this tutorial covers are:
is A, is B.

This tutorial uses some steps from hanzaisha's tutorial, but they have been slightly modified.

01 Start with your base: A B
02 Duplicate your base and set it to softlight 15%.
A did not use this step.
03 Paste this texture (by me) and set it to multiply 100%.
04 Paste this texture (by me) and set it to screen 75%.
B had this layer on 65%.
05 Paste this texture (by ownthesunshine, edited by me) and set it to multiply 100%.
06 Make two new Curves adjustment layer, and input these values from the first and second Curves step. Change the first layer's opacity to 60%, and the second to 45%.
07 Paste this texture (by me) and set it to multiply 35%.
08 Paste this texture (by me) and set it to multiply 65%.
09 Make a new Curves adjustment layer, and input these values from the third Curves step. Change the opacity to 55%.
10 Paste this texture (by me) and set it to multiply 10%.
11 Make a new Channel Mixer adjustment layer, and input these values from the first CM step. Change the opacity to 45%.
12 Make a new Color Balance adjustment layer, and change the opacity to 20%. Input these values:
Midtones: 30 0 -10
Shadows: 0 0 5
Highlights: -45 0 15
13 Make a new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, and set brightness to 5.
14 Make two Selective Color adjustment layers, and input these values from the first and second SC steps. Change the first layer's opacity to 40%.
15 Paste this texture (by ?) and set it to screen 75%.
16 Duplicate the Selective Color layers from step 14 and bring them to the top (in the same order). Both layers' opacities are at 100%.
17 Paste this texture (by me) and set it to multiply 15%.
18 Make a new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, and set brightness to 7.

END OF TUTORIAL FOR A

The following is for B only.
19 Make a new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, and set brightness to 7 and contrast to 7.
20 Make a new Color Balance adjustment layer, and change the opacity to 80%. Input these values:
Midtones: 30 0 -15
Shadows: 0 0 20
21 Make a new layer and fill it with #380D0D. Set it to exclusion 30%.
22 Make a new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, and set brightness to 7 and contrast to 5.

I'd love to see what you guys come up with, so please post your results! Hope this tutorial helped :)

OTHER EXAMPLES FOR THIS TUTORIAL

Like what you see? Why don't you friend us!

almateria ♔ 147

2008-08-03T00:09:14Z

Request by sun_soraya~

We'll be turning into using Photoshop CS. This tutorial is translatable only to other PS programs.

I know I used someone's else tutorial as a base for this coloring, but I can't remember whose tutorial it was D': If any of the steps look familiar to you, please let me know!

01 Start with your base.
02 Paste this texture (by ?, original) and set it to multiply 70%.
03 Duplicate your base, bring it to the top, and set it to screen 30%.
04 Make a new Selective Color adjustment layer, and change the opacity to 75%. Input these values:
Reds: -50 0 0 0
Yellows: -30 0 0 25
Neutrals: 20 0 25 -10
05 Make a new layer and fill it with #282828. Set it to exlcusion 80%.
06 Paste this texture (by hellodarliing) and set it to screen 100%. I rotated it and erased the parts covering Daisuke's face.
07 Duplicate your base, bring it to the top, and set it to softlight 100%.
08 Duplicate your base again and set it to softlight 15%.
09 Paste this texture (by ?) and set it to multiply 75%.
10 Make a new Hue/Saturation/Lightness adjustment layer, and set master saturation to 30. Change the opacity to 80%.
11 Make a new Selective Color adjustment layer, and change the opacity to 90%. Input these values:
Yellows: 0 0 -20 -30
Neutrals: 50 0 0 -40
12 Make a new Selective Color adjustment layer, and change the opacity to 55%. Input these values:
Reds: -100 0 100 0
Yellows: 0 0 -40 0
Cyans: 100 0 -100 100
Blues: 100 0 100 0
Neutrals: 100 25 -10 -25
13 Make a new Hue/Saturation/Lightness adjustment layer, and set master saturation to 25. Change the opacity to 70%.
14 Make a new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, and set brightness to -2 and contrast to 7.

I'd love to see what you guys come up with, so please post your results! Hope this tutorial helped :)

OTHER EXAMPLES FOR THIS TUTORIAL

Like what you see? Why don't you friend us!

almateria ♔ 146

2008-08-02T23:38:34Z

Request by inquisitory! ♥

We'll be turning into using Photoshop CS. This tutorial is translatable only to other PS programs.

01 Start with your base. I don't have the two separate blended images, but I can try to tell you what I did. The base was finished in PSP, but I'm sure it'll work fine in PS:

Take the first image and crop it, but don't merge it down (keep it a separate layer). Duplicate it and move the second layer where ever you want. Now, the second layer is on the top, so erase the parts covering the first image. Once done, move the first layer the top, and erase the parts covering the second image. Move the first layer back to the bottom, and set both layers to multiply. Sometimes it makes a "cleaner" blend effect as opposed to both layers on normal.

02 Duplicate your base and set it to softlight 25%.
03 Make a new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, and set brightness to -15 and contrast to 15.
04 Make a new Hue/Saturation/Lightness adjustment layer, and set master saturation to 15.
05 Make a new Selective Color adjustment layer, and input these values:
Greens: 0 0 -100 100
Cyans: 15 20 -100 10
Blues: 0 0 -60 0
Neutrals: -10 0 0 -15
Blacks: 25 5 0 5
06 Make a new Selective Color adjustment layer, and input these values:
Cyans: 100 0 0 -25
Blues: 15 0 35 0
Neutrals: -20 -10 0 -10
07 Paste this texture (by inquisitory lol) and set it to screen 100%. I rotated it and erased some parts.
08 Duplicate the Selective Color layer from step 5 and bring it to the top. Change the opacity to 50%.
09 Make a new layer and fill it with #330808. Set it to exlcusion 85%.
10 Make a new layer and fill it with #E8E8E8. Set it to color burn 100%.
11 Make a new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, and set brightness to 5 and contrast to 15.

I'd love to see what you guys come up with, so please post your results! Hope this tutorial helped :)

OTHER EXAMPLES FOR THIS TUTORIAL

Like what you see? Why don't you friend us!

almateria ♔ 145

2008-08-02T23:12:41Z

Request by permaneo!

We'll be turning into using Photoshop CS. This tutorial is translatable only to other PS programs.

01 Start with your base.
02 Duplicate your base two times. Set the first one (closest to the base) to softlight 25%, and the second to screen 15%.
03 Paste this texture (by me) and set it to screen 85%.
04 Make a new Selective Color adjustment layer, and input these values:
Red: 0 0 0 -55
Neutrals: 20 0 0 -15
05 Make a new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, and set both brightness and contrast to 7.
06 Make a new Hue/Saturation/Lightness adjustment layer, and set master saturation to 15.
07 Make a new Selective Color adjustment layer, and input these values:
Red: 0 0 0 -55
Yellows: 0 0 -45 0
Blues: 0 0 -40 100
Neutrals: 0 0 0 -15
08 Make a new layer and fill it with #361111. Set it to exlcusion 80%.
09 Make a new layer and fill it with #F3F3F3. Set it to color burn 100%.
10 Duplicate the color burn layer.
11 Make a new layer and fill it with #B8A4A4. Set it to softlight 100%.
12 Make a new Color Balance adjustment layer, and change the opacity to 85%. Input these settings:
Midtones: 5 0 25
Shadows: 10 0 0
Highlights: 10 0 0
13 Make a new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, and set brightness to -8 and contrast to 8.
14 Make a new Hue/Saturation/Lightness adjustment layer, and set master saturation to 20.

I'd love to see what you guys come up with, so please post your results! Hope this tutorial helped :)

OTHER EXAMPLES FOR THIS TUTORIAL

Like what you see? Why don't you friend us!

inquisitory ✭ 43; what's holding up her face

2008-07-25T00:36:17Z

Another tutorial, so soon? lol what is going on here. Also, we have nearly 400 watchers here at ewidentnie alskhjfsal you guys are crazy, thank you!!! *dies*

Request by phyrexians ♥

Go from to in Photoshop. Uses Selective Color, Curves and Color Balance, so not translatable.

There seem to be a lot of P3 tutorials from me lately 8D Yaaay Chidori, and here we go with my dorky duplicates to fill up space again!

It's a little dark, so take a Screen, 60% duplicate right away /o/

Still darker than we want, so use #b5b37b on Soft Light, 100%. I do love my beige soft light layers, they do wonders to brighten up an image when you don't feel like using Screen again!

Let's mess with the colour with a Curves... adjustment layer now! 8) idk why I decided to do this, honestly, but this'll add a nice purple tone to your icon. To use these settings, just click anywhere in the big graphy thing and then type in the right numbers to get your point.

Each set corresponds to a point, like [input, output].
RBG: [79, 80] [136, 146]
Red: [105, 108] [154, 173]
Green: [120, 114]
Blue: [85, 112] [150, 174]

At this point I decided to go in a verrrrrry random direction, just because I could, I suppose! #798ab6 on Multiply, 50% gets us this:

lol what on earth was I thinking xD oh well, we can fix that gross blue tone! If you're thinking what I'm thinking, it's Color Balance... adjustment layer time! Settings:

Shadows: 14, 18, 8
Midtones: 35, 0, -36
Highlights: 11, 0, 0

but sadjhflsa washed out base is so very washed out, so use a Soft Light, 100% duplicate to fix it quite handily.

~~... I like this version better than the final icon :x~~ lol yeah you can just stop here if you want, I like this colouring quite a bit lol! But if you're willing to go on, the ultimate quick mess-with-the-colouring tool is a Selective Color... adjustment layer 8DDD I'm willing to bet that I didn't make the following numbers up myself since I'm a self-proclaimed failure with SC, but I can't find the source of them either so here they are. Let me know if you know~

Reds: -72, 18, 72, 17
Yellows: -48, -54, 44, 21
Cyans: 60, 14, -36, 0
Magentas: 52, 39, -49, 0
Whites: 27, 0, 0, 0
Neutrals: 31, 8, 15, -2

That gets us back into the purple range, but not uncomfortably so xD I have no idea how this layer mode works but let's try it today: a duplicate of the base on Luminosity, 50%. Your icon will likely go wacky if you try to keep it at 100, so just don't xD

Cool beans \o/ Needs moar colour y/y so use a Hue/Saturation... adjustment layer with Saturation to 24. Why that number isn't an even 25, I have no idea 8D

Almost there, isn't that exciting?!?! My favourite grainy texture in the history of ever is coming up~ This one by dusty_memories looks cool on just about everything dalskjfhasl so set it on Multiply, 100%.

This is one of the few opportunities for me where I can just slap on a circle texture as-is and call it a day, probably because the center of the icon doesn't have a face and can thus be covered with shinies xD This texture by hellodarlling works perfectly on Screen, 100%. I don't always take the risk of using Screen instead of Lighten for light textures like these, but it didn't overpower the icon here so it's fine.

Last things, tinytext and border! Shoving them into one step 'cause they're easy ahaha. Tinytext is super easy, but if you don't know how to do it, reference one of my previous tutorials where I've explained it time and time again, or just use a brush. I took a not-quite-black sort of black colour (which incidentally looks a lot like the one on this community lawl) and Polygonal Lasso'd the slanted borders until the angle was juuust right. And there you go!

Other examples:
(you can see this colouring can fit a variety of moods haha!)

I encourage you to go play around and show me your finished icons! DOOO IIIIIIT, I wanna see what you guys come up with~

If you like what you see, why not friend ewidentnie for future updates?

inquisitory ✭ 42; make me a shadow in the shape of wonder

2008-07-22T23:06:29Z

Whoa, long time no see, ewidentnie! Reason being that asdkjlfsha I can't for the life of me find these two icons' .psds!!!! AUGH AUGH AUGH I liked that colouring too ;__; but in the meantime, have a tut of an icon I'm quite fond of? xD Completely random but dear god, there are no words for how much I love this song *A*

Request by lolichigorock and luxrays ♥

Go from to in Photoshop. Uses Selective Color, so not translatable.

Pretty image is pretty! Aaaaand here's our base.

but omg ewwwwwwwwww what is that colouring ;__; So dark and grody it's like he was wallowing around in the sewers or something. LET'S FIX IT QUICK. #3c3c3c on Exclusion, 40% to get rid of a bit of ugly contrast and make the dark areas lighter.

A bit better already! To substitute the sewer-y contrast from earlier with some more shiny contrast, take a Soft Light, 100% duplicate of the base.

See, it's not quite as dark as the base, right? Needs more colour though, so take a Hue/Saturation... adjustment layer and move Saturation up to 30. Colour is goooood~

You all know that Mumpo!tutorials allllways involve Exclusion or SC or a combination of the two xD And this one happens to fulfill both of those, so you can go ahead and add to the cliché! Let's abuse some Selective Color... adjustment layer settings I'm verrrry fond of, step 3 by luxrays ♥

Nice, though still not pushed far enough by my standards xD For some reason duplicating that layer makes it look super nice!

Starting to look like a finished icon, yay \o/ Have some textures. Because of the crop and the way Minato's body is dissolving and kinda... turning into the chains (what) I figured something to focus attention on the center would be appropriate. And don't we just all love circle textures these days!!! Try this texture by dusty_memories and this one by gravira, both on Lighten, 100% and rotated/erased a bit to achieve that effect.

I always find it hard to find good circle textures that fit my ridiculous expectations for some reason, but that first one (especially) does quite well here :D Okay, text time~ idk how many people do this, but when I want a good box of tiny text I'll take the type tool and drag it to make a rectangle the approximate size of what I want. Then I'll take my tinytext settings (Arial or Palatino, 1.5, 500 spacing, 2 line spacing, white) and type a bunch of gibberish until it shows up enough in the box xD If the lines keep breaking off and it doesn't work right, then just rasterize the type and erase the part you don't want. rofl long explanation is long, just know that I came up with this xD

We're just about there! But taking all the time to make an icon and then not having the contrast right on Photobucket really bugs me. So that's why I just about always have a Brightness/Contrast... adjustment layer at the very end to ensure that doesn't happen ahaha *perfectionist* Most of the time it'll turn out lighter than what I see in PB, and for this icon, Brightness is -10 and Contrast is 15.

Hooray, all done!

Other examples:

I encourage you to go play around and show me your finished icons! DOOO IIIIIIT, I wanna see what you guys come up with~

If you like what you see, why not friend ewidentnie for future updates?

inquisitory ✭ 41; all but discovery

2008-06-22T04:39:17Z

I had to skip over a tutorial request from emeraldocean because I couldn't find the .psd, I'm so sorry about that again D: I'll do my best to look for it and come back to it soon, but hopefully this will satiate your appetite in the meantime! xD;

Request by lazuli_reikou ♥

Go from to in Photoshop. Uses Selective Color and Color Balance, so not translatable.

I've used this image for another tutorial, it's just so awesome xD but this time I'm cropping Minatoooo!

~~orz he looks kind of drugged here~~ First things first, let's take this texture by dusty_memories on Multiply, 100%! Why is this the very first, you ask? So that it'll become lighter later and thus less prominent in the final icon :] Obviously I rotated it here, do whatever fits on yours.

aaaaand another texture by dusty_memories, also on Multiply, 100% here. Gotta love texture prep, huh?

But ew, now it's all dark and gross D: A perfect opportunity for a Screen, 50% duplicate of the base, if I do say so! I didn't used to use these often, but it turns out they're pretty handy for stuff like this. Adjust the opacity as you see fit after we add the rest of the layers, as it may be the turning point of your icon's lightness.

(see how the notebook texture lightened up? NIIICE) We've gone without an Exclusion layer for long enough y/y. So how about #494949 on Exclusion, 60% ~ That 60%is very important, this is a pretty light exclusion so you have to be careful.

And here's another usual Mumpo-tutorial thing we haven't done yet and clearly need to :| Have a Selective Color... adjustment layer, with none other than these step 3 settings by hl_upics set to Soft Light, 100%! YAAAY

Not enough SC spam yet y/y :| Moar Selective Color... adjustment layers! I also love these step 2 settings by mutebox to bits, they work so well to brighten up an icon. Make one layer with said settings to get this, then duplicate it and set the second to 50% for:

Sweet 8D But the colouring's a little too blue for me, so a Color Balance... adjustment layer would be perfect. Here are the settings I used, which should give a nice reddish tone:

Shadows: 17, -37, -11
Midtones: 29, 0, -31
Highlights: 19, -32, 0

I wanted a bit more grain though, so I took something like this by dusty_memories again (why yes, I am spamming the same texture set here xD), this time on Multiply, 50% so it doesn't overwhelm the icon. It adds a certain ~something~ I really like, lawl!

One last hurrah in the form of text for this one. Shout-out for the font Print Dashed, awww yeah! \o/ The first layer was white, and then as usual I pulled a shadow duplicate (change the duplicate to black, put it under the white and nudge it over) but I nudged a tad more than usual. Somehow it adds to Minato's drugged look, imo xD That's it!

Other examples:
augh it seems I'm rather obsessed with circle textures and radial blur, sorry :x

I encourage you to go play around and show me your finished icons! DOOO IIIIIIT, I wanna see what you guys come up with~

If you like what you see, why not friend ewidentnie for future updates?

inquisitory ✭ 40; i'll put on my silver

2008-06-16T04:28:40Z

I felt like writing a tutorial to uh, warm my mind up for studying math :'D Heeey my last exam's on Friday, I'm good! Also, because I just have to sneak in a quick plug, sign-ups for shoujo_battle round 03 are open~~~

Request by aurturius ♥

Go from to in Photoshop. Only uses one Selective Color layer, so translatable in theory :')

Here's the super-awesome group image from Tales of Symphonia 2, and here's our base~

I already knew when I cropped this one that I wanted the focus to be on Colette with a very thick border, so that's why the rest of it looks weird xD It'll work out, trust me. The base looks rather bland, so to start, let's up the shiny factor with a Soft Light, 100% duplicate of the base!

Gettin' there, but I want the shiny factor to be WAAAAY up there, so let's take a Hue/Saturation... adjustment layer with Saturation up to 27 to start! (for the record, I would've gone higher but Colette's hair would've blinded us all if I did)

ohohohoho, now we're talking. >:D See how far we got from that dull base in just two steps? I'm starting to see this icon as a battle against the dullness rofl. Anyway, we'll take it even further now! So grab a Selective Color... adjustment layer with this tutorial's (by luxrays, who else? ♥) settings in step 3 to make the shinies prettier :D

Suuuper! Now that the shinies are adequate, it's time to bring in the border. This one by eveningwalk is one of my favourites, so set it to Multiply, 100%. But wait, that's not all you have to do here! First, take a layer behind the texture layer and brush around the border on white. This'll prevent your image from "leaking" through the Multiply layer and making it icky-looking :') Alternatively, you could Magic Wand the inside of the border, then Select > Select Inverse your selection and the Paint Bucket it white, I think that's what I did. xD Now that that's done, you may have to re-position your image inside of the frame to fit to your liking.

Pretty, right? But I felt the colours of the frame were overpowering Colette in the middle there, so I desaturated the frame. This isn't as easy as just desaturating the layer (well, you could try, but I didn't xD) – from last step, take your layer of white around the frame, duplicate it, bring this duplicate to the top and set it to Color, 100%. This'll desaturate everything but the middle part, exactly what we want :D

But alas, the frame feels a little... flat, right? So take a rreeeeaaaallly soft brush with the colour black, and just dab away at two opposite corners. Your choice which, it doesn't really matter as long as the frame is more defined. Then, set this layer to 50% so it doesn't take over the whole icon.

Nice! 'Kay, second last thing. You know me and my slanted text, so let's slap some on here! 8D ~~Sadly I couldn't find it on dafont~~ (thank you kiminozune!), but the font is Plain Black Wide in white, and then I did my doofy shadow thing (duplicate the text, change it to black, nudge it over to the side a little the lower the opacity) :] The text doesn't exactly make sense, since it's only one picture, but it's lyrics from a song that was used to promote Brothers and Sisters on TV so it can't be all bad, right? xD

Okay, one more adjustment to make it stand out that much more! Make a Brightness/Contrast... adjustment layer with Contrast to 25, and you're done :DD Sa-weet!

Other examples:
(i'll grant you that these don't look very similar, but do share the same colouring structure xD like, the second one has an exclusion layer for the heck of it too)

I encourage you to go play around and show me your finished icons! DOOO IIIIIIT, I wanna see what you guys come up with~

If you like what you see, why not friend ewidentnie for future updates?

almateria ♔ 144

2008-06-11T11:26:30Z

Request by dragonsquee.

We'll be turning into using Photoshop CS. This tutorial is translatable only to other PS programs.

01 Start with your base.
02 Make a new layer and fill it with #15360F. Set it to exlcusion 20%.
03 Make a new Hue/Saturation/Lightness adjustment layer, and set master saturation to 20.
04 Duplicate the exclusion and bring it to the top. Change the opacity to 100%.
05 Make a new layer and fill it with #E8E8E8. Set it to color burn 100%.
06 Make a new layer and fill it with #9691AF. Set it to softlight 100%.
07 Duplicate the softlight layer and change the opacity to 60%.
08 Duplicate the color burn layer and bring it to the top.
09 Make a new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, and set both brightness and contrast to 12.
10 Make a new Selective Color adjustment layer, and input these values:
Whites: 100 -15 0 -10
Neutrals: 20 0 0 -15
11 Duplicate the color burn layer and bring it to the top. Change the opacity to 65%.
12 Make a new Hue/Saturation/Lightness adjustment layer, and set master saturation to 5.

I'd love to see what you guys come up with, so please post your results! Hope this tutorial helped :)

OTHER EXAMPLES FOR THIS TUTORIAL

Like what you see? Why don't you friend us!