hyperréalisme

80. movieslims promo

2019-03-24T03:43:50Z

movieslims movieslims movieslims
Sign up for the new round - Black Panther

79. russian doll; screencaps

2019-02-25T00:58:06Z

1920x960 | 1080p Webrip | zips @ Box | ~800 per episode

samples; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
FOLDER LINK

101 - 1
102 - 1, 2
103 - 1
104 -1

105 - 1
106 - 1, 2
107 - 1, 2
108 - 1, 2

Zips were split with 7-zip and can be joined together with it or another similar compression program. Some episodes ended up with just the right size to meet box requirements and others...did not, so that's why some are multi-part.

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78. movielims promo

2018-04-04T00:20:17Z

Round 22 Sign Ups!

77. atomic blonde, once upon a time, misc, and remakes

2018-03-03T22:51:36Z

atomic blonde [1-12]
once upon a time [13-18]
misc. two broke girls, 10 things I hate about you, westworld, game of thrones, agents of shield [19-23]
misc. remakes star wars, wonder woman, game of thrones, once upon a time, doctor who, daredevil [24-36]

atomic blonde - for 10in30 + alt + misc.;

ouat + misc from icontests

remakes from bestof_icons

	→		For this I really wanted to stick with the same cap, since I thought I could do all my remakes with the same cap(lol), but I wanted to go softer and a different color scheme, hence the cool pink/red/purple thing, and then it wasn't feeling right so I added the cliche text.
	→		This one was hard because I wanted to keep the same cap again but there really isn't too much you can do with it so it took some fiddling and honestly it's not too different but I did like how it turned out anyway.
	→		This was the first one where I realized it just wasn't gonna work with that cap, but I wanted to stick with the motif of Dany's various titles/names, and the unburnt was another one I liked so off I went. I used a lot of fire textures and stock photos but I really adore how it turned out.
	→		And I was back to using the same cap, but I wanted to go a little more positive and less somber than the original, so I really added in the colors and the text from that scene to make it pop more.
	→		I had a tremendous time with this one again because the coloring was difficult and finding the right background was insane; in the end I'm not super happy with it but I do like it better than the original.
	→		When I made the original it was a real step outside of my comfort zone and it ended up not quite really being what I wanted it to be so I was eager to remake it...until I realized that scene is insane to color and really awkward/hard to frame. In the end it worked out alright but man I worked hard on it.
	→		Again, there was really not too much that could be done with that original cap besides what had already been done and the caps colors and lighting were just terrible so I went with the theme of them being together and found another similar cap that I really liked. I've really been digging the golden coloring lately and so that was an easy choice.
	→		I really wanted to do something different and since her expression really draws you in I knew I could go "back to basics" and do a good dramatic close cap, and it turned out wonderfully! Definitely one of my favorites from the whole batch of remakes
	→		This is another one where I wasn't happy with the original and I knew it would be hell to salvage the cap, so I went with the theme which originally was gold(the text said "hair like spun gold") and so I found the most hairtastic cap I could and just colored it to favor the gold of her hair and scarf.
	→		This was another one that was really hard because there isn't a whole lot you can do with the cap, but I wanted to stick with it because it's a gorgeous cap. I ended up being inspired by a lot of starkwars icons and decided to try my hand at some light freckles, which I think turned out really well! I was very proud.
	→		I loved the text from the original icon, but the cap was really hard to work with and I knew I wanted to include the text again, so I had to find another cap. I settled on one of the infamous caps from that very scene that the quote is from and just decided to spice up the text. You'll notice again my love of the yellow/gold background.
	→		This was the last one and I really was craving another close crop; Rey is so pretty it's hard to not want to highlight it! It is a different cap(I think? her eyes don't quite match) but I stuck with the close up theme and I love how it turned out.

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76. best of 2017

2018-02-22T00:59:48Z

I'm not too surprised about this one since it was popular when I posted it and I actually consider it to be really well executed. I don't typically use a lot of stock but it worked really well in this icon and the coloring came together really easily to blend everything together.

Here are a few runner ups(though none were too close):

I'm definitely not surprised by those top three: I would agree that they were some of my best work. Though the first one might not particularly be that incredible technically, I feel like conceptually I achieved exactly what I was going for so I count it as a win. The next two I'm quite proud of, especially the third, as it's kind of my attempt at a homage stylistically to one of my favorite people, absolutelybatty. It's the last two, both of which got eight votes, kind of surprised me, since neither is very complex in either technicality or creativity, but eh. There's a good difference between the last two(eight votes each) and the winner(fourteen votes).

And now for my favorite icons of 2017(in no order):

I think it gives you a good idea of where I'm wanting to be stylistically/where I consider myself best or am proudest of. I'm proud of my expanding sklls with cutting subjects out/replacing backgrounds, as evidenced in 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, and 10, some of where it's hardly noticable and some where it really meshes well despite being obvious. I'm also proud of my growing coloring skills and I'm glad I can still use text and crop at least somewhat decently.

Anyways, that's me for 2017! Look forward to a post soon as well as my icons from the remake activity(you can find them here if you don't want to wait for them to be posted).

75. bestof_icons 2017

2018-01-10T01:38:52Z

ICON NOMINATIONS - JOIN IN! | MY THREAD

74. OUAT, SGA, Wonder Woman, Misc; Icons

2017-12-06T02:56:12Z

once upon a time [1-6]
stargate atlantis [7-10]
wonder woman [11-16]
misc.(westworld, atomic blonde, victoria, legend of the seeker, ghost in the machine, hannibal, shadowhunters, big little lies, elementary, game of thrones, agents of shield, killjoys, nikita)[17-36]

[1-5]
[6-10]
[11-15]
[16-20]
[21-25]
[26-30]
[31-35]
[36]

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73. lims_movie sign ups!

2017-10-03T00:33:40Z

lims_movie | Session 36 Sign ups.

Nobody should be surprised, as y'all can tell Wonder woman is my newest obsession!

72. wonder woman screencaps + new community name!

2017-10-02T03:04:02Z

First of all, I've officially renamed the comm!! From thewalkincliche → hyperrealisme! I've wanted to rename for ages now but I could never settle on a name; I love the idea of hyperrealistic art and everything sounds beautiful in French, so here we are!

1920x800 | 1080p Web-DL | zips @ Box | ~5.5k caps total
samples; 1 2 3 ||| FOLDER LINK
These were split with 7zip so definitely can be joined back with that. Not sure about other programs. I originally made these for my own use and then decided to post them on anon_icon for others, and now I decided to post here for posterity.

71. wonder woman; icons

2017-09-18T21:17:30Z

wonder woman [1-21]

wonder woman for monthlyinspo
[1-5]
[6-10]
[11-15]
[16-20]

Alt:
[21]

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70. a tutorial for word_never_said

2017-08-19T01:48:30Z

ask me here!

&
requested by word_never_said

Standard Disclaimer: I always work on a 400x400 canvas, but I've made them smaller them for the sake of this tutorial(you can click through to see the full-size image though). Some adjustments aren't really noticeable on the smaller versions so click through to see.

So I'm going to start with the less complicated one of Dark Swan. The icon itself is very simple; I actually knew from the get-go I wanted to make it black and white, but I wanted to explore all my options before I committed to that. The vast majority of B&W icons I make I end up coloring almost completely and THEN turning them to black and white. First I did my base work, new curves layers set to screen and soft light, same steps you can find in all of my tutorials.

Next, knowing I wanted to cover up her face with the brush marks I decide to create myself a blank canvass so I covered up her face with some skin toned brushing. In my experience, this is really important to blank out the face, however you do it, because you don't want stray eyes or lips showing up later on. For this I really just used a simple brush and selected colors from her face and brushed them in to give it a little texture.

I used three or four different brush backs to get what I wanted; the brush you see on her chin and hair is a larger brush that's paint stroke style, and it's actually masked off of most of her face to keep the canvas blank, I just wanted some variety in strokes. There's a really light large brush that covers her face and kind of gives off light streaks on either side in a diagonal, I added that for depth. Last for the main texture was a really rough natural media brush in photoshop I think for the streaky effect that runs diagonal from left to right. You can see what it looks like on the white background below. It's a lot of layers with different brushes to give it a proper amount of depth.

I did a lot of coloring on top of that to brighten it up and wash it out; mostly gradient maps to suck out the color and some brightness/contrast to really push it up. At this point I was considering making it not black and white but as you can tell from the final icon, I did not.

Next was the text and brushes on the text (yep, more brushes!). I had always known I wanted text on it, and of course, this is a perfect line about Dark Swan. The font was Painted Lady, one of the literally thousands of fonts I have, but I knew I wanted something to match the painted texture. I warped the text a little to match it to her face more, and then rasterized it and duplicated it twice. You can see below what I did; first layer is painting on the text layer itself, and then the second is a mask over it to only show a paint effect on the font.

The key to such an intricate paint effect is lots of layers and different types of brushes used in combination. Each layer of text has a different set of brushes on it and different effects from it. Because of that, each layer can be set to normal and not even a blending mode; it gives it different effects.

And this is what it looks like, both layers with all their masks and painting and such; it gives it depth and texture without having to deal with too much blending modes and textures.

Just to give you an idea of what I mean about using lots of different kinds of brushes, this is all of the brushes that I have downloaded - and that's not even touching on the files that I have that are professional .tpl brushes. So you can see, I have a lot of options when dealing with these. It's actually a project of mine to organize all of these by type so it's a bit simpler to deal with.

And I literally added just two more gradient map layers on top of the text to finish it off, quite simply. Sharpen and resize and it's done. Contrast really came 99% from gradient maps, as did the almost B&W coloring.

Next up is the more difficult one; this fella was originally a totally different icon and because I'm a hoarder I save EVERY layer and the group of the original subject, so this is the reason the tutorial took so long; I had to dig through a bunch of useless crap.

I started out by making an ~interesting~ background by putting together a ton of different textures and then using hue/sat and color balance to change the colors of it to where it was green on the outsite and then reddish on the inside to go with her outfit. Little did I realize how much I would be changing it.

Anyways, I placed the screencap and then masked it as you can see; it was a lot of masking around with mostly the same brush, my default basic, this one, actually, except for the paint looking brush over her eyes. The goal here was to make it look like she matched in with the effects on the background to where she kind of melded into the texture of the background. This ended up being pointless, but it was the starting point I had.

Next I added a gradient map to her, which I think was actually a bit of a reverse addition; I'm pretty sure I added that in AFTER I finished coloring it. Either way, that's one of the first layers after some basic brightening and contrast addition. I also made a BW copy of the background that I ended up using a few times in the icon set to screen, soft light, and overlay at different places. It really helped meld the background with the subject. It's scattered throughout the icon in a few different places.

I did a LOT of work with simple grain/grunge textures and curves/brightness/contrast/gradient maps to really amp up the contrast and then for some reason I added a purple texture by mm3butterfly on screen at 100% because I love her textures.

Then THIS is the magic layer that changes the color completely back to what we want. I wanna say it's a tinebrella paint texture that's been seriously color shifted again, using hue/sat and color balance, both of which are excellent at shifting colors to get what you want. At this point I'll mention that I used the blending mode overlay a LOT with this icon; this texture is another layer set to overlay at 100%.

I did a little more work making it darker and more contrast-y, with curves and a stamped copy that was turned B&W and set to overlay, which really pushed the oomph of the contrast. After I stamped the layer I decide to make it bigger and I think I even dropped the brightness a little bit too, but by then it was not too hard to enlarge it and then sharpen before I resized to the final smaller size.

As always if you have any questions or want any clarification let me know!

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69. once upon a time, the man from uncle, star wars, misc; icons

2017-08-05T17:13:11Z

once upon a time [1-15]
the man from uncle [16-24]
star wars [25-38]
misc. [39-48]

once upon a time
[1-5]
[6-10]
[11-15]

the man from uncle
[16-20]
[21-24]

star wars
[25-29]
[30-34]
[35-38]

misc. - daredevil, doctor who, elementary, supernatural, zootopia
[39-43]
[44-48]

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68. a green/yellow coloring guide for scarred_loretta

2017-07-19T01:46:54Z

ask me here!

requested by scarred_loretta

The vast majority of the green/yellow icons I make are mostly "atmopshereic" in that the coloring is soft and layered on top of it. I think the only one I've included here is the one of Hook that's a closer crop; I included that one because it's got a very unique technique that serves yellows and greens well if you want less of a glowy look. So I'm gonna break it down as best as I can what I do when I'm working on these kinds of icons. All of these techniques work for any other kind of coloring you might want; they're certainly not specific to just greens and yellows. It's just the main way I achieve what I want.

i. Soft Light + Blur
Basic technique - alt + ctrl + shift + e stamps the visible layers onto a new layer; I then head to gaussian blur and blur anywhere from 10-75, depending on how soft I want the effect. Experiement with different settings for the blur, and remember the size of your image(for example, if you're working at 100x100px) will effect how strong the blur is; a 10 blur is different on a 100x100 icon vs a 400x400 icon like I make them at. I usually then put the layer on soft light, or occasionally hard light or overlay, at different opacities and fills until you like the ffect you're getting.

All of the above icons have at least one of these layers, except for the last one. But honestly, almost every single icon I make has one of these at some point. Sometimes I end up having to take it out because I don't want a soft look, but I will say that I even do include it in icons that aren't particularly glowy, like the third icon above. This technique is best once you've already established the colors you want to use (see the selective color and color balance sections below), but it really amps it up. It can be intense, or subtle. For example, in the third icon above, I'll show you just how many of these layers that icon has;

has FOUR

It doesn't seem like it would be that many, right? The icon isn't *that* soft or glowy, which is what this effect is known for. The key is that every one of them is set to less than 50% opacity or fill; the first two are actually less than 20%! Now, this icon has a LOT of layers, which I needed because I took it from that muddy blue color in those first blurred layers to a soft yellow icon, so it's true that there aren't that many soft light blurred layers in the icon relative to the total number of layers.

Moving on to a different example of the same technique;

has only two

The key, though, is that their opacities are higher, and the second one is actually set to overlay. This technique is really good on icons where you're replacing the background, because it helps make the lighting and the placement feel more natural. It's also good if you've given the background a lot of green and you want to infuse the subject with it as well. Check out how the first layer makes this icon look;

→

It's subtle, but it helps make things look a bit more cohesive and gives her hair a greenish tint and the background around her a yellowish tint from her hair.

Last example of this technique;

has four

Again, all have higher opacities to give a much stronger look and to pump up the atmospheric color and blending. Seriously, don't be afraid to abuse this technique! It can take you far when you're trying to amp up the color and contrast or create a nice glowy look. Higher numbers will keep you away from the cheesy too-glowy look; you want it to look soft, not have your icon look like a fluorescent bulb.

ii. Selective Color
There is no one single technique to using selective color to pump your yellows and greens, BUT, I do usually use selective colors to pull the colors out before turning around and adding back what I want. For example, for this icon;

has to and to
and to and to

Obviously there are a lot of other layers involved, but these are some of what the selective color did to add in some greens and yellows and then take them out and add them back in. First set took reds out and flattened them so I could change the hue of his face without messing up the reds. Second set was me adding back in some green and yellow. third set was taking out some of the intensities of it, and the fourth set was me adding it back in. It's definitely a see-saw of pulling color and then adding it back. A more skilled maker could probably do it without all the back and forth, but I very rarely have a fully finished image in my head that I'm working towards; I tend to just figure it out as I go.

More examples include;

has to and to
and to

has to

has to and to

Basically every icon has at least one of these, because, honestly, these yellows and greens are not exactly natural. You have to actually understand the way selective color works, and don't be afraid to dive into all of the channels, including white/neutrals/black.

iii. Color Balance
Color balance is a lot like selective color, but a little less specific/more subtle/general in how it works. It's a good way to change the entire tone of the icon to your preferred colors without making it look too wonky. I don't use it all that much; usually to tone an entire color scheme away from one way if it's veering weird. For example, this icon.

has three to and to
and to

Each time it was used to help balance the color back to where I wanted it if it was veering too green or too yellow for my tastes. I don't use color balance as much anymore since selective color tends to be more powerful for what I want, but it can be VERY useful to change the overall cast of an icon. My older tutorials will mention color balance a lot, since I used it more when I wasn't quite sure I had a handle on selective color.

iv. Solid Color Layers/Brushed Color
Another small section because this is more self-explanitory, but it's a really good way to just amp color up and increase a specific color in a specific spot. I usually pick a color from the image somewhere that's what I want to emphasize or paint in. Sometimes it's easy to pick a color from the previously blurred stamped layer to get something cohesive. I always pick my colors from the image though, UNLESS I'm doing a color palatte inspired image, in which case I use hues of the color from the palatte. Sometimes you set them to soft light and sometimes you set them to screen depending on what kind of intensity you're wanting.

has a lot: (soft light, 100%) (screen, 100%)
(all three soft light, 100%)
(screen, 100%) (soft light, 100%) (screen, 70%)

All of these right on top of each other gives us the magical depth on top of the coloring and gives one of my favorite lighting effects on any icon I've ever done. We go from this, to this with those painted layers and just one little boost of contrast.

→

Of course, this isn't the only way to use color layers; you can set them to color blending mode (like I discuss in all of my three most recent tutorials), to the effect of making something super green, or even just taking out the saturation of the skin a little bit so you can continue to tweak outside of the skin tones. You can also use a color fill layer set to different blend modes to change the whole tone of an icon and add your green or yellow that way, just be wary of your opacity/fill, because they're usually way too much at 100%.

v. Textures
Quick and dirty; some of my favorite textures for getting green and yellow, and complimenting it once you have it. Fun thing though; ANY texture can be green or yellow; hue/sat is amazing for changing a cool texture to the color you want. You should be able to roll over for the maker names if I have them and when you save it should save with the maker name.

And that's it y'all! Like I said, this is more of a general coloring guide I think, but this particular one is great for yellow/green. As always, hit me up if you want specifics or more detail on anything!

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67. an icon tutorial for word_never_said

2017-07-16T22:28:30Z

ask me here!

→
requested by word_never_said

Standard Disclaimer: I always work on a 400x400 canvas, but I've made them smaller them for the sake of this tutorial(you can click through to see the full-size image though). I also love pictures so this is VERY picture heavy(as in, pictures for every single step).

So, I love LoTS but damn, the icons are hard to color. For this icon (which is a bit older), I actually used layers of painted color to get what I wanted, as well as color balance and selective color with heavy masking. I knew going into the icon that my goal was to make a colorful Kara icon, to contrast how she's always so stoic and basically the opposite of the pink and yellow happy colors. So I picked the cap with that in mind, and I cropped close on her face to emphasize the emotions from the scene.

I always prep my bases the same way; a curves layer set to screen and another with the curves set to auto and the layer set to soft light. For this icon I had two layers set to screen(just duplicated that initial one) and the final soft light layer set to fill at 77%. I wanted a lot of light to help with my coloring, so that's why I did this.

At this point things are washed out, but that's okay because we can always add color in and darken things up. To get started on the coloring I threw in a new selective color layer to drop down the reds and futz with her lips and flatten out her face so it was as washed out as her hair, and then, because I'm me, a vibrance layer with vibrance at +70.

Now begins the coloring part, I'd say. I painted over her hair with a yellowish color I took from the icon and set it at soft light, then painted over her face with a very light color and an even lighter hand and set that to soft light too. I duplicated that layer and set it to color at 20%. Now she's lighter and a bit softer and her hair has some color again. Yay!

Next is another vibrance layer at +62; this amps things up a lot. From there I add another selective color layer for the yellows and mask it out; you can see how I wanted it to mostly be focused on her face with just a little bit of it on her hair.

A black to white gradient map set to soft light at 35% fill gives her some contrast and darkens up the dark parts a little bit, while a new curves layer adds more depth and gives me a chance to boost the blues, which is the opposite of yellow, which kind of again tones down the yellow in her face.

If you've ever read any of my tutorials you know I love to go back and forth adding color and then taking it away and then adding it back. It makes it easier to work on if you have less color to start with; you can always add it back.

More vibrance at +55 to make her pop some more, and now my other favorite technique; blurring a new stamped layer! Stamp a new layer, blur that mofo until you're happy with how glowy it looks, and set it to overlay at 23%. Normally I do soft light, but I wanted the intensity of overlay this time.

Remember way back when I painted over her face and set it to color to tone down the intensity of her facial coloring? Yeah? Duplicate that sucker and set it to color on top of the blurred layer, at about 17% fill. Subtle, but nice. Also, more vibrance, +43.

Next is some BS that I'm not sure why I did, but eh. Wasn't happy with her lips, so I did some messing with them. First a color balance layer masked just to her lip area, and then another one to clean up around it because I masked wrong and I wasn't digging how part of her skin was turning yellow again.

Next I worked just on her lips; I wanted them pinker so I threw some selective color on there to change it pinker, and then dropped a vibrance layer on -10 to lighten it up.

Home stretch! Vibrance layer at +15, new curves layer to brighten things up and kind of lift her eyes a little out of blackness. I think I then used maybe the unsharp mask or topaz to kind of smooth things out but I'm not sure which. It's very subtle and probably could have been done differently, idk.

Sharpen and resize and you're done!

The takeaway I think is that selective color, masking, and painting are your friends. Don't be afraid to suck out almost all of the color out of your image because then you can add it back in how you see fit.

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→ Credit afastmachine or thewalkincliche
→ Consider watching the comm to keep up with future posts

66. pre-2016 archive

2017-07-15T17:44:46Z

Thanks to photobucket being, well, photobucket, I'm re-uploading all of my icons from before 2016 in one post. I actually organized them by original posts, so bear with me. Also, old posts are, well, old.

Original Post here.

Original Post here.

Original Post here.

Original Post here.

Original Post here.

Original Post here.

Original Post here.

Original Post here.

Original Post here.

Original Post here.

Original Post here.

Original Post here.

Original Post here.

Original Post here.

Original Post here.

65. another icon tutorial for dark_x_huntress

2017-07-12T01:55:00Z

→
requested by dark_x_huntress (and scarred_loretta from THIS year's ATM)

Disclaimer: I always work on a 400x400 canvas, but I've made them smaller them for the sake of this tutorial(you can click through to see the full-size image though). I also love pictures so this is VERY picture heavy(as in, pictures for every single step).

So, this is a lot of pictures and a lot of layers and most of them are almost pointless. I'm sorry for that. This icon is a perfect example of how I started out farting around and didn't know where I was gonna go until maybe half way through. I ended up deciding that green and yellow are my favorite colors and it just so happened that her hair and shirt were good colors to start with so I decided to go there. Explanation is under the images.

So I start with my basic prep work that I do to almost every icon. Sometimes I delete what I don't need or make slight changes or add more layers depending on what I get, but this is the basics. Add a new curves layer set to screen(no changes to the curve). For this image I added another one and set that second one's fill to 15%. Another new curves layer, this one I hit the Auto button and set it to soft light to give me some contrast. Last prep layer is a vibrance layer set to color with vibrance at 100. And that gets my base ready.

I was trying to get rid of some of that red so I popped in a color balance with these settings, and then gave it another vibrance layer set to color at 100. Now I'm getting some color into it. Still not sure where I'm going, but we're getting there!

Another of my favorite techniques is a new layer, stamp all layers on it(alt+ctrl+shift+e), and throw a guassian blur on that sucker. Set it to soft light and adjust the opacity. For this one I left it at 100% because again, I had no idea what I was doing but I wanted a rich base. This always helps make your colors richer and gives you some more contrast.

I don't really know why I drew on this one, but yeah. Self explainatory; a new gradient map of these colors set to soft light at 25% fill. This is one of my favorite gradients for a lot of reasons; it will show up later in the icon. Why did I do this? I don't know!

Wasn't digging the reds through I threw this selective color layer on to give it some more of my beloved cool colors. Normally I'm not the biggest fan of cool colors but I already knew this icon had a lot of potential with cooler colors, so I knew I was headed that direction already. And then, to everyone's shock, another vibrance layer set to color. I always make sure they're set to color to try to keep it from messing up the image too much because I use so many vibrance layers.

Now for the first of my fun soft brushes. Paint softly with a light color(I think I got this from the image) around Emma to brighten her up a bit. I set it to soft light at 49% fill and it just brightened her and the background up and kinda evened it out a bit.

Hahahaha...yeah. Stamp all layers, gaussian blur, soft light. I like this process SO MUCH I made an action for it. Yeah. This one was at 20% fill.

Giving me some depth, I threw this gradient on top of it at soft light, 29% fill. Now it's light and this was where I went AHA! I want green and yellow colors! And so now I get down to refining it and making it all look like Emma and her shirt.

Ah, selective colors. How I love thee. I wasn't digging the teal as it went against my very soul(aka what I wanted for coloring) so I got rid of that sucker with some selective color in just those channels. You'll never guess what I did next! ...yeah, it's a vibrance layer. Same deal, 100, set to color.

Why didn't I do this in the selective color layer I did before? Who knows! But now I rightly realized that her lips and that flower in the back are kinda really bright and it's not my jam. so I dropped back the magenta and some of the reds.

More color balance! Pushing away the reds, and for some reson, away from the greens and yellows too. Not really sure why I did this. *shrugs* I think it made it a little darker?

....yeah. this AGAIN. This one is 25% fill.

Of course, now it's too rich and deep, so let's get on back now y'all. Get rid of those reds and some of the neon yellow with a selective color layer. And throw a vibrance layer on that, bitches love vibrance layers! Or, this one does, I guess. This one was again set to color but only at 47, so not too much.

I didn't like how the green behind her on those cabinets was so I painted over them and set it to color. I got the color from the image earlier and it's kind of my generic neutral color for this. And of course, another vibrance layer at 100 set to color.

Now for textures and brushwork! First set was brushing some dark color next to Emma and setting that to soft light at 34% fill, just to kind of draw the spotlight back to her. the next one is...something. It's a texture I found somewhere but you can kind of barely make it out because I did some kind of nonsense to it. It's also set to soft light at 46% fill, and it suddenly throws some light color into things. These peach textures are really good at, ironically enough, increasing the yellow/greens in an icon if you already have them planted as seeds.

Of course, now it looks a little too bright, so some curves to bring it back now y'all(I think I already made this joke, whoops). I upped the red and green channels a tiny bit just to be sure to keep the color.

More color balance! Bringing out that red and making the yellow less neon.

Now we enter the "fuck it" stage. I picked a yellow from her hair and painted everything around her and set it to color at 33% fill. And another vibrance layer in there at 100. Now we're really yellow/green! Woo!

But it isn't enough! I bumped the yellows up even more in the neutrals with a selective color layer.

But it was TOO bright in the background now, so now we get some more painting of my darker generic color around emma to bring that background back down some. Very rough, but whatever. I blurred and went back over some spots I wanted to be sure to get(aka the cabinets behind her). This was set to color at 58% fill.

At this point, I'm wishing I was one of those makers who could make simple icons in only four or five layers, and I'm betting you are too. Yeah. Gradient map at 55% fill.

More painting to bring back colors. Yellow because it's yellow and it's pretty. Mostly I wanted to just give the icon some unity after sucking out the color in the background now. First one was set to soft light at 100% fill and the second stuff was set to soft light as well but only at 52% fill.

Curves for brightness, and then levels fo more of the same. You see I brought up them brights to make them brighter and nudged the blacks a bit darker as well.

More painting, with a very light hand, and set to color since I'm not liking the splotchiness of some of the background colors. My attempt to balance it out.

But then I went and said naw, let's just suck all the color out with this gradient map again! Set to normal and dropped down to 23% fill gives us a much less saturated image.

You know the drill. Bringing it back now with some contrast and color.

Okay, so maybe not THAT desaturated; brighter colors! More yellow!

*insert copy + paste about soft light blurred stampped image*

<
And for once again, bring back that neon yellow, since I really wasn't going for NEON anything.

A new vibrance layer and another curves layer set to auto at 40% fill round things out for this icon. I then sharpened, usually with smart sharpen, and resized to my final 100x100 size. And then there was...icon! So now it is revealed how much I waffle back and forth between things. And honestly, I've tried really hard this year to do better about how many layers I have and going back and saying wait, did I just undo this and then do it again? Why?

But yeah. I love my yellows, and once I got an idea of what I wanted I just couldn't get it fine tuned enough to make me happy without adding a lot and then taking some of it back. But here we are!

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68. ask the maker 2017!

2017-07-09T02:25:44Z

Ask The Maker 2017 || My Thread

67. once upon a time: icons

2016-10-22T02:26:25Z

once upon a time for technique20in20 [1-20]

once upon a time - for technique20in20; the theme for this round has been a throwback to theiconquest themes, and I made five icons in each category: bard, hero, wizard, and rogue. Total points for all icons is 40 + 54 = 94. Hover over each icon for each special points it gets.

bard
[1-5]
wizard
[6-10]
hero
[11-15]
rogue
[16-20]

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66. genre_lims promo

2016-09-12T02:53:40Z

genre_lims | Round 01 Sign Ups.

65. supernatural, ouat, primeval, merlin, misc; icons

2016-08-06T18:55:04Z

supernatural [1-18] - 18
once upon a time [19-34] - 16

primeval: new world [35-46] - 12

primeval [47-51] - 5
merlin [52-56] - 5
misc. (stargate, legend of the seeker, doctor who, chuck, karen killian, the big bang theory, text) [57-71] - 15

This post is all old icons! Be ye warned! All were created before 2015 and so the quality is really not the same as my newer stuff, but I wanted to get them posted anyways. It's a lot of truly miscellaneous stuff honestly. I just want to get it all cleared out because I actually have quite a few new icons to post and I don't want to mix old and new. :)

supernatural
[1-5]
[6-10]
[11-15]
[16-18]

once upon a time
[19-23]
[24-28]
[29-33]
[34]

primeval: new world
[35-39]
[40-44]
[45-46]

primeval
[47-51]

merlin
[52-56]

misc.
[57-61]
[62-66]
[67-71]

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64. an icon tutorial for dark_x_huntress

2016-06-27T00:09:20Z

→
requested by dark_x_huntress

Disclaimer: I always work on a 500x500 canvas, but I've made them smaller them for the sake of this tutorial(you can click through to see the full-size image though). I also love pictures so this is VERY picture heavy(as in, pictures for every single step).

So, this icon is very straightforward. It basically just involves a lot of new layers with colors put on various blending modes. I was inspired by some of the amazing icons second_love makes. I own a graphics tablet, however I use it for mostly touch sensitive opacity; the same effects can be done with a mouse with the brush set to low opacity and just go over the spots to make them darker.

So we start with this gorgeous cap of Emma(HAIR POORN) talking to Henry. I always crop first before I work on any coloring, which I know is pretty different than a lot of others, but *shrugs* it works for me.

→

I knew I wanted to focus on coloring with this icon, so I didn't bother with trying to find a cool crop, I just stuck with something basic, the oh-so-iconic(lol) center crop. Next I did my first basic prep steps, which involves new curves layers and a vibrance, typically. For this, it was one curves layer set to screen, but I didn't think that gave me enough light so I added a point on the RGB slider to make it brighter(141x115). Another new curves layer, for this one I hit the auto button and set it to soft light. These steps usually give me some brightness/contrast to work with. I add or remove(or change the opacity) depending on the brightness/contrast of the original cap. This one was pretty clear and clean so I didn't need much for it. Last for prep is a vibrance layer with v+100 set to color.

→ →

From here I knew the primary colors were blue and yellow, which is convenient because they're already primary colors and go well together. So I wanted to only enhance that and make it better. I painted over the background with a color taken from it(the desk on Emma's right shoulder). First layer on color, second slightly more blurred layer on soft light. You can see what they looked like here:

&

Then I drew over her hair with a color taken from it and kind of just loosely went over her hair. Duplicated that layer, one to soft light and one to color. Neither were blurred because in this case I didn't want any of the background to turn yellow. I didn't quite like how her face looked and wanted to make it more neutral/skintone, so I painted very lightly over it with the same golden color.

&

All that gives me this!

You can see that basically set the ground for the rest of it; all that's left is just enhancing~ it. Which is definitely code for another vibrance layer! Again, v+100. I usually set all my vibrance layers to color, but for some reason I didn't do that with this one! So. Cool? I then realized that her face was a bit too reddish/orangey and I wanted to add some shadow/depth so I colored over her face with the same blue from before and set it to soft light at 46%.

& →

I really wanted to get out some of that intensity in the red/yellows plus lighten it a bit, so I added a gradient map of that same blue → black set to screen with the fill lowered to 48%. And then because I'm me I slapped another v+100 vibrancy layer on it, this one set to color again.

→ →

Now for the glowy quality! My favorite thing ever! After, apparently, vibrance layers. Stamp a copy on a new layer and blur: since my canvas is so large I have to use a pretty high radius but if you were attempting it at a smaller size it would be lower. Set that layer on screen at 17%. Duplicate it and use the radial blur just enough to get it looking a bit longer, then mask off her face/hair(loosely, so we still get some light on her). Set the opacity for this layer(also at screen) at 36%.

& →

At this point I'm trying to get the lighting how I want it, so I painted over the left-hand side with my blue color, and the right-hand side with a dark grey, set to screen at 100%. I want even. more. glowy. light. so I did some more painting with my yellow, blurred the upper left hand side, and added more on the bottom right. This one also went on screen, but only at 12%.

& →

I bet you can guess what I did next: another vibrance layer! Seriously you guys my PSDs are absolutely FULL of vibrance layers. Again v+100 set to color, but I did mask away her face so it didn't get too weird looking. And then because I still wasn't satisfied with the ~~LIGHT~~ I added another layer of that same light yellow painted in various streaks around her. Set to screen at 56%.

& →

Because that still wasn't enough light, I added a texture(by ??) set to screen. Thank god, I decided that was finally enough.

→

Now it looks suitably washed-out and ~light~, I decided to add a curves layer!
RGB: 112x136
G: 121x133
B: 132x134

Because I'm ???? crazy? Anyways. It added some depth to the shadows that I liked, but I was not digging the color changes, I added a hue/sat layer, h-6 on the master channel, with her face masked out. And because red is my mortal enemy and I wanted !!YELLOW!! hair, I added a selective color layer:

R: +53, 0, +59
Y: +7, -41, +55, -39

Aaaaand, that's better.

→ →

Remember how I said I was done with the lighting? I lied. Take that texture from before, duplicate it, and drag it on top of that last sc layer. Set it to screen at 38%. Add a new curves layer(RGB: 56x64) to darken it down a little bit. At this point I've decided I'm definitely not digging how blue the background is. Time for another hue/sat layer(seriously, these suckers are actually pretty awesome)!

Cyan: h-4, s+13, l-25

→ →

I wanted to make the brights a bit brighter so I added another curves layer: RGB: 96x94, 214x209. Now that I'm in the finishing steps, I'm trying to even out the shadows/light, and of course, a new blurred stamped layer on soft light is a great way to do that. This one was at 36%.

→ →

Last steps now! A new gradient map set to soft light at 26%, and a new curves layer because I just can't leave well enough alone.
RGB: 120x133, 222x222

→ →

After that, I sharpen it, usually with either smart sharpen or paint daubs, and resize to 100x100!

If you have any question you can ask them below, and/or check out my thread!

Next I'll be doing:

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63. ASK THE MAKER 8

2016-06-19T21:42:50Z

Ask The Maker 2016 || My Thread

62. the man from uncle, once upon a time; icons

2016-04-10T01:54:06Z

the man from u.n.c.l.e [1-12]
once upon a time [13-30]

the man from u.n.c.l.e - for 10in30; the theme was vibrant & muted. I am not so good at muted so I kind of did...uh, the best I could?

[1-5]
[6-10]

[11-12]

once upon a time - from misc. icon challenges including the7days, 100x100mystery, and dailyinspired

[13-17]
[18-22]
[23-27]
[28-30]

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62. turbo_rumble round 17!

2016-03-27T17:06:05Z

turbo_rumble is back for another round! Sign-ups are here.

61. once upon a time; icons

2016-02-23T02:11:53Z

once upon a time (for 20muses) [1-20]

[ 1 - 5 ]
[ 6 - 10 ]
[ 11 - 15 ]
[ 16 - 20 ]

I will go back and add more details to this post later, but for now, it's just posted and barely under the wire. I definitely should not have signed up for a 20in20 as literally my third challenge back. Some of these were very much last-minute hurry-hurry go-go and it shows and I'm sorry for that :( Also they were all made using my TV as a screen because my laptop screen is busted, so we'll see how they look on everyone else's screens.

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