Patterns and a Tutorial.
It's been like, a year since I made seamless tiling patterns. I was a little rusty, but the end result turned out kinda pretty.
There are a few in this batch that, well. They're not your average patterns. One's very scribbly, two others are hand-drawn in PS and then filtered like crazy. I'm hoping they'll be useful to someone.
Click to download *.zip.
Commenting is absolutely necessary if you download these, because it really helps me to track my bandwidth. Credit is love.
TUTORIAL: Using patterns in iconmaking, suggested by
marishna.
With this base image of Cate Blanchett and a pattern, you can create the following icon:
01. Crop and resize your base image to about 75x75px. Sharpen the image just a tad, and add a little contrast if necessary.
Mine looks like this:
02. Add a neutral border of around 5px to the image. I used white because it's such a pale image to begin with.
Mine looks like this:
03. On a new 100x100px blank, paste your pattern and desaturate it. I'd recommend going for something with at least a little white in it for this icon. I used this pattern byinxsomniax. Copy and paste your image from step 2 onto the pattern blank and center it.
Mine looks like this:
04. The pattern is a little dark compared with the really light image. Fiddle with the brightness and contrast until it looks better.
Mine looks like this:
05. Now to fiddle with the colors. I used a teal/white gradient map as the top layer, set on soft light, and erased around the edges a little so that the pattern wasn't lost altogether.
Mine looks like this:
06. The icon is really coming together now. I wanted a little more contrast on Cate's face, though, so I added a very subtle brightness/contrast layer right underneath the gradient map layer.
Mine looks like this:
07. Now for the finishing touches. I added one of77words blobby color textures -- this one -- and set it to screen at 100%.
Mine looks like this:
08. The pattern seemed a bit too dark on the top part of the icon now, so I put a very simple white-to-transparent gradient layer, with the least transparent part at the top, under the photo. Voilá! The icon was done.
Mine looks like this:
Another example:
Of course, you can also just chop parts of patterns out and stick them on an icon for ornamentation purposes. Sometimes I'll just use a stripe of a random pattern as a border.
Example:
It's a relatively self-explanatory, simple icon, with a stripe of pattern pasted on the right side. No big. Stripey or unique patterns are especially fun using this method. I'd recommendoxoniensis' patterns, or tragic_icons' pattern-type textures for this style.
There are a few in this batch that, well. They're not your average patterns. One's very scribbly, two others are hand-drawn in PS and then filtered like crazy. I'm hoping they'll be useful to someone.
Click to download *.zip.
Commenting is absolutely necessary if you download these, because it really helps me to track my bandwidth. Credit is love.
TUTORIAL: Using patterns in iconmaking, suggested by
marishna.With this base image of Cate Blanchett and a pattern, you can create the following icon:
01. Crop and resize your base image to about 75x75px. Sharpen the image just a tad, and add a little contrast if necessary.
Mine looks like this:
02. Add a neutral border of around 5px to the image. I used white because it's such a pale image to begin with.
Mine looks like this:
03. On a new 100x100px blank, paste your pattern and desaturate it. I'd recommend going for something with at least a little white in it for this icon. I used this pattern by
inxsomniax. Copy and paste your image from step 2 onto the pattern blank and center it.Mine looks like this:
04. The pattern is a little dark compared with the really light image. Fiddle with the brightness and contrast until it looks better.
Mine looks like this:
05. Now to fiddle with the colors. I used a teal/white gradient map as the top layer, set on soft light, and erased around the edges a little so that the pattern wasn't lost altogether.
Mine looks like this:
06. The icon is really coming together now. I wanted a little more contrast on Cate's face, though, so I added a very subtle brightness/contrast layer right underneath the gradient map layer.
Mine looks like this:
07. Now for the finishing touches. I added one of
77words blobby color textures -- this one -- and set it to screen at 100%.Mine looks like this:
08. The pattern seemed a bit too dark on the top part of the icon now, so I put a very simple white-to-transparent gradient layer, with the least transparent part at the top, under the photo. Voilá! The icon was done.
Mine looks like this:
Another example:
Of course, you can also just chop parts of patterns out and stick them on an icon for ornamentation purposes. Sometimes I'll just use a stripe of a random pattern as a border.
Example:
It's a relatively self-explanatory, simple icon, with a stripe of pattern pasted on the right side. No big. Stripey or unique patterns are especially fun using this method. I'd recommend
oxoniensis' patterns, or tragic_icons' pattern-type textures for this style.