tutorial: Evi (created for coloring_help)

to
program: PSP X2
translatable: YES! :) uses mostly fill layers. No curves, no selective coloring.
steps: 9


This coloring was originally requested by fallingslow  over in coloring_help  here. I made this PSP X2, but it can be translated to any program :)

We're going from to

First, take your image, crop it, and resize it to 100x100. I'm using this picture of the lovely Evangeline Lilly.



Next, duplicate the base and set it to screen. I set mine at 50%, but it all depends on your image. If you're using a screencap or a picture that's darker, you'll probably want to set the opacity higher, so adjust it until you get something similar to this.



Now duplicate your base again, drag it to the top, and desaturate it. Then set this layer to soft light 100%. This brings a lot more contrast to the icon, without making the colors any brighter. We're going to rely on the fill layers to do the coloring work, so for now we don't need the colors to be intense.



Next, add a new fill layer with #cfecf5 and set it to burn (color burn in PS) at 72% opacity. This will darken the icon a bit and bring a somewhat subtle blue tint to the image while still keeping the contrast the same. This step is needed because it balances out the two soft light layers that we're going to add next. You can play around with the opacity of this layer if you want to, I've found that about 72% looks really nice, so that's what I used, but don't be afraid to try other settings to see if they look better for your icon. Experimenting is the best way to learn.



Now to get the pink tone that we're after. Add a new fill layer with #f4b6bf and set it to soft light 100%. As you can see this softens up the icon a lot with an overall light pink tint. (A pink soft light layer will always bring a nice softer tone to any coloring, just be careful if you're going to use it with a lot of adjustment layers because it can make the icon too red.)



This is great, but it's still not pink enough yet for the color that we're going for. Next add another soft light layer, this time with #f4ace1, and set it 50%. This shade of pink is a little more purplely and really gives the whole icon that faded pink look. If you set it at 100%, though, you can see that would be too much, which doesn't look good, so we lower the opacity to 50%, which looks much better. Never be afraid to play with the layer settings, what looks horrible at 100% can often look great at lower opacities. The best way to learn what will work is to get lots of practice and just keep making icons :)



Now make another new fill layer with #07071d and set it to exclusion 100%. Dark blue exclusion layers are used a lot in coloring, and they bring a faded slightly yellowish look to the icon. They are used sometimes to finish off an icon by giving it this faded look, but they can be very helpful as middle layer, too, by helping fade away any colors that are getting a bit too strong.



Ok so as you can see we lost a lot of the contrast we had earlier. The best way to bring this back, while keeping the quality up, is with a black burn layer. So make your last new fill layer with #000000 and I set it to 26% opacity, which again can be changed depending on exactly how much contrast you want. See how the coloring is still the same, but the dark parts of the icon are much darker, and a nice, natural contrast is added to the rest of it?



For our last step, go to copy merged, in PSP it's under Edit>Copy Special (and in PS, I believe you can do shift+control+e) and paste as a new layer on the top. Now do a high pass sharpen on the layer, with a radius of 18 and strength of 46, blend mode: soft light. Only change the blend mode in the high pass sharpen box, but keep the actual layer set to normal. I got this step from another tutorial that I can't find at the moment :( But it's a really great final step, because it sharpens in such a great, natural-looking way. As you can see in the case of this image too, which is why I wanted to use it, by setting the blend mode to soft light it took away the yellowish tint we had leftover so now we're left a with a nice clean, pink, contrasted, icon.



One last note: Basically, if you follow any tutorial word for word, you'll get a nice result a lot of the times, but you could get a better one if you adjust or delete layers based on your image. Every image is different, so you're going to get different results with each one. I use scripts often, because they're time savers, but I always go and adjust the layers so I can make my icons look better. Just wanted to add this, because it's something I had to learn for myself throughout my time icon making, and if one person can get something from this advice, I'll be happy :)

If you have any questions, please ask. I want to people of all icon making skills to be able to follow this, so I did a lot of explaining. But if there's still anything that's not clear, let me know and I can help :)