Gemstuff

gemstuff @ 2006-01-27T20:36:00

2006-01-27T20:35:48Z

Some more Lost. It's far too icon-able!

Most icons are from season two, but no spoilers. Icons from 2x11: The Hunting Party, 2x12: Fire and Water, and a random season one episode.

Various styles and a few new experimentations :D

Comment and credit please. Again, feedback and concrit are loved very much :)

Teasers:

5. 1. 12.

The Hunting Party:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. (couldn't resist, heh heh)

Fire and Water:

14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

Sun:

24. 25.

gemstuff @ 2006-01-22T14:19:00

2006-01-22T14:18:54Z

Been experimenting with styles and have found a really nice, simple one which I think looks ok. I've been wanting to make a proper batch of icons using the UK Promo Trailer for Lost (which aired aaaaaaaages ago) because it's so pretty! I've tried to focus on unusual cropping to make them more interesting.

Feedback would be awesome and, once again, please comment and credit if you decide to take any.

Also, I'm willing to take requests if anyone has anything in particular they'd like me to have a go at making. If you look back through this journal you'll see that I make icons in lots of different styles so if there's one that appeals, just let me know. :)

Teasers:
6. 12.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

gemstuff @ 2005-12-23T21:29:00

2005-12-23T21:42:50Z

I managed to find a few spare minutes in which to cram some icon-making in time for Christmas! These are all Harry Potter (surprise surprise!) but the style varies on each one. I just did randomly whatever I thought would suit the image. I have a small batch of Chamber of Secrets (which I capped myself) and a small batch of Goblet of Fire (capped by teh_indy). Hope you like them. As usual, I'd love feedback and comments and please definitely comment and credit if you take any.

3. 10.

Chamber of Secrets:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Goblet of Fire:
9. 10. 11.(the same icon, but textless as I couldn't decide which looked better) 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.(the same icon, but animated as you can never have too much Cedric!)

Hope you like! :D

gemstuff @ 2005-11-10T21:01:00

2005-11-10T21:13:02Z

Woah. Been so unbelievably busy lately. But have been dying to make some more icons for ages and I'm glad I finally got round to it. These are mostly in a different sort of style from usual. A lot more clean and simpler but that type of look seems to be quite popular at the moment. They're all of the London Premiere of Goblet of Fire because everyone there looked so pretty!

Any feedback is much appreciated and please comment & credit if taking.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. and a funny... 22.

gemstuff @ 2005-07-30T16:31:00

2005-07-30T15:34:30Z

Meant to make a load more than this but I just haven't had the time. So just a few Goblet of Fire ones and two Lost (!) ones. I'm so excited about Lost. Coming to England on the 10th! Yay!

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Lost:
1. 2.

gemstuff @ 2005-07-12T22:47:00

2005-07-12T21:53:29Z

My second tutorial! Seeing as my last one seemed to help people a bit and I enjoyed doing it, I thought I’d make another one. This one was requested by colormered_cons.

I’ll be explaining how to make this icon…

…in Photoshop 7.0.

1) I started off with this cap…

…from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, taken by teh_indy.

2) Then I cropped it using the Select tool, and used Image, Crop followed by Image, Image Size, adjusting the values in the boxes to 94 pixels.

3) I sharpened this layer using Filter, Sharpen, Sharpen and then duplicated it twice setting the first duplicate (the one closest to the original image) to Screen and the top duplicate layer to Soft Light. With the original layer selected, I desaturated it using Image, Adjustments, Desaturate. Next I went to Image, Adjustments, Levels and moved the white arrow on the top slider to around 220 and the white arrow on the bottom slider to around 170. Then I went to Image, Adjustments, Brightness/Contrast and upped the Brightness to around +30 and the Contrast to around +50.

4) Then I selected the top layer (the one set on Soft Light) and desaturated it, again using Image, Adjustments, Desaturate.

5) I then created two new layers. The first, I filled with a light brown colour #998469, setting the layer to Soft Light. The second, I filled with a darker brown colour #5C260D, setting the layer to Screen.

6) Next, I merged all the layers Layer, Merge Visible and copied and pasted the entire image into a new 100x100 document, positioning the picture in the centre of the canvas. I then had a base which looked like this… (I’ve outlined it in black so the space between the image and the outer edge is visible.)

7) Here’s where I added the interesting stuff. First, I created a new layer and then pressed Ctrl+A to select the whole square. Then I went to Edit, Stroke and selected ‘6 pixels’ in white and ‘inside’. This gave a thick white border around the image.

8) Next I added this light texture…

…by floorshow. I flipped it horizontally {Image, Transform, Flip Horizontally, and set it to Screen.

9) Above that, I added this texture…

…by spaceyme, again setting it to Screen.

10) Then above that I used this another light texture…

…also by spaceyme, but I set this one to Soft Light.

11) Next, using the text tool, I typed in the letter ‘T’ (for “trio”) in font style ‘Decadentia’ and size 48pt. (The font is available here.) I positioned the letter in the bottom right hand corner.

12) I then inserted another light texture…

…by colorfilter. I flipped it horizontally and vertically (Image, Adjustments, Flip Horizontally/Flip Vertically) and then erased the top left hand corner of the texture using a soft eraser brush. I set this to Screen at around 70%.

13) Finally, on a new layer, I again selected the whole square (Ctrl+A) and using Edit, Stroke created a 1 pixel line ‘inside’ the selected area in the colour #EADFD6 (a colour selected from the image).

So, from all that here’s the finished layer palette…

…and here’s the finished icon…

Hope this was helpful!

gemstuff @ 2005-07-11T10:50:00

2005-07-11T10:24:59Z

I love experimenting with new icon-ing tecniques and I always get lots of ideas from looking at tutorials. So I thought, why not try my hand at doing a tutorial myself? So here it is. For one of my favourite icons which I enjoyed making and playing about with.

This is my first tutorial, but I’ve tried my best to make it easy to follow. So it’s quite drawn out and image intensive. A moderate knowledge and familiarity with Photoshop would be helpful, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with something similar. Please don’t copy this tutorial exactly because, really, what would be the point? And hopefully this’ll inspire people to come up with some nice icons, which is what most tutorials do for me :)

This is what I’ll be explaining how to make…

…using Adobe Photoshop 7.0.

1) I started off with this cap…

…from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (taken by teh_indy.)

2) Then, using the select tool and holding down the shift key, I selected a square-shaped area with Harry to the left side of the square. I cropped the image using Image, Crop, then resized it to 100x100 pixels through Image, Image Size and altering the dimensions in the boxes.
----------->

3) Now, that’s made the image kind of blurry, so I sharpened the image (Filter, Sharpen, Sharpen), and then used Edit, Fade Sharpen, lowering the opacity to around 55% to make the lines less harsh.

4) The image looks too dark and shadowed, so I duplicated the layer twice setting the first duplicate (the one directly above the original image) to Screen, and the second layer (the top one) to Soft Light. Then I re-selected the bottom original layer and went to Image, Adjustments, Levels to alter the image a bit more. I fiddled around with the sliders until I got something I liked, with the ‘input levels’ numbers at around 43;1.55;202. I then used Layer, Merge Visible to create just the one layer which was easier to work with.
---------->

5) Next, I used the Lasso tool to outline Harry in the image. Once I’d done that, I used Select, Inverse so that it was now the area around Harry that was selected. I right-clicked on that layer in the Layers Window, and selected ‘Layer via Copy’. (Doing this meant that I could now work on the background section of the image on a separate layer, so it would be easier to make any changes to the ‘Harry’ area if I wanted to.)

6) Leaving the background area selected on the new layer, I then went to Filter, Blur, Motion Blur and with an angle of around -63° and a distance of 999 I made the background into something like this…

7) Now to add some interesting stuff. First, I created a new layer, then using the line tool I drew one horizontal on two vertical white lines on the bottom and right sides of the image, like this… (I’ve coloured the background black just to make the lines easier to see.)

I set this layer to Soft Light. Then I created another new layer and used the Eyedropper tool to pick out a creamy colour from Harry’s face. I drew a vertical line with this colour in between the other two vertical lines and set this layer to Colour Dodge.
---------->

8) Finally, I added three light textures to the image. The first was this…

…by spaceyme, which I set to Screen at 75% opacity.

The second was this…

…by colorfilter. I flipped this one both horizontally and vertically (using Edit, Transform, Flip Horizontal/Flip Vertical) and then set it to screen at 35%.

The final texture was the same as the previous, but this time just flipped horizontally. I set this to Screen at 75%.

And so here’s what the final layer palette should look like...

And here's the finished icon:

Hope this was helpful!

gemstuff @ 2005-07-06T20:25:00

2005-07-06T19:36:10Z

I've been so busy lately, not much time for icon-ing! But I do have some. I think I've improved, which is good.

Please comment & credit.

Teasers 1.7.

Harry Potter:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Lord of the Rings:
1. 2.

I know I got some awards for a couple of these in icon challenges, but I can't remember which ones... :) Hope you like. x

gemstuff @ 2005-04-05T13:06:00

2005-04-05T12:21:06Z

More Harry Potter and a few Desperate Housewives. Most Harry Potter ones are from contests, but the Desperate Housewives ones were just the result of me messing about. :)

Please: comment & credit.

Teasers 1. 8.

Harry, Hermione & Ron:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Desperate Housewives:
6. 7. 8. 9.

_{1 - 2nd place @ hgranger_chorus
3 - 2nd place @ hgranger_chorus
4 - 3rd place @ hgranger_chorus}

Yay!

gemstuff @ 2005-04-01T19:00:00

2005-04-01T18:32:15Z

Not an April fool, I promise. ;-)

Here's a bunch of Harry Potter icons, most of which were made for icon challenges. Some I like, some I'm not too keen on. But here they are anyway...

Please: comment & credit.

Teasers 1. 6.

Harry:
1. 2. 3.

Hermione:
4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Remus and Sirius:
9. 10. 11. 12.

Malfoys:
13. 14. 15. 16.

Weasleys!:
17.

_{3 - 2nd place @ accio_challenge
6 - 2nd place @ hgranger_chorus
7 - 1st place @ hgranger_chorus
8 - 3rd place @ hermy_icontest
10 - 1st place @ wizard_icontest
12 - 3rd place @ wizard_icontest
15 - Mod's choice @ draco_chorus}

:-)

Basics...

2005-04-01T17:53:42Z

Basic stuff:

- Icons are made by me, bendygemma. A list of resources, (brushes, screencaps, etc.) can be found in my personal journal's userinfo.
- Feedback very much appreciated. I'm just trying to improve!
- Please comment when taking.
- Please credit in keywords/userinfo if you use any.
- I hope you like!