A tutorial I have for thee.

My very first tutorial and I'm not going to be all "Ohh I hope my tutorial is good..." and all that stuff I'm just here to share it. I know where I stand on icon making and I think I do a pretty good job on it. That makes me sound conceted but I'm not trying to be, honest.

Well anyways follow me to the land of greatest journal. Actually I will post it in here too because I know not everyone has a greatest journal. I just wrote it there because greatest journal is my preference. I mean come on 1000 user pics for free?


Step 1:

Make you icon base. For this tutorial I am going to be using this lovely base I hath made to share with you all of the lovely Matty T (of Relient K, no doubt)



Step 2:

Go to Image >> Adjustments >> Auto Contrast >> Auto Levels >> Auto Color, then Sharpen Once.

Now your base should look like this.



P.S. Don't do it to the base I gave you, I've already done the Auto's/Sharpen to it.

Step 3:

Go to Layer >> New Fill Layer >> Solid Color

Name: 004770 (Exclusion)
Mode: Exclusion
Opacity: 100%
Fill Color:: #004770

Now your icon should look like this..



Step 4:

Add this gradiant bellow with the below settings.


Blend Mode: Overlay
Opacity: 100%

Now you icon should be looking something like this..



Step 5:

Add this gradiant bellow with the bellow settings.


Blend Mode: Screen
Opacity: 100%

Now you icon should be looking like this..



Step 6:

Add this gradiant with the bellow settings.


Blend Mode: Color
Opacity: 10%

Now your icon should be looking like this..



Step 7:

Go to Select >> All then Edit >> Copy Merged then Edit >> Paste. Or just in case you got confused do this. Paste the bellow icon onto a new layer with the settings and modes bellow


Mode: Linear Burn
Opacity: 100%

Now your icon should look like this...



Keep going were not done yet! Were done with the gradiants for now. In fact I'm sure there will be no more gradiants at all. :D

Step 8:

Add the folowing brush (ON A NEW LAYER) with the bellow settings.


Mode: Soft Light
Opacity: 20%

Now your icon should look like this...



Step 9:

Go to Layer >> New Fill Layer >> Solid Color

Name: 921E73 (Screen)
Mode: Screen
Opacity: 100%
Fill Color:: #921E73

Now you icon should look like this...



Step 10:

Last step *hears the applause and cheers coming from her audiance* Add your text. For my text I chose 8 pt Arial Black with Strong Anti-Aliasing and in all caps. For the actual text I wrote "Such a nerd" I also added an outer glow to the text.

Your icon should now look something along the lines of this...



Step 11: Ahahahahaha I tricked you. No actually I didn't, this is just an optional step. Fool around with your icon add a bar under the text or something just make your icon yours! This is what I finally came up with.



Other icons that these steps were used to create...






Despite what I have said I would like to know what you all think of it. I always like to get comments/constructive criticism on things to help me to get better. Yay. :D

Now I leave you.

[edit] I guess I could have had a link to Relient K's website in case any of you are really that interested in knowing who they are. LOL. So this is there website. Go to it if your interested. It twill give you all the info you need. :D Only the craziest people ever, because they come from Ohio. :D So does Nina. Relient K is the best band ever. LOL. Ok yeah that's my opinion. Um Ok I'm done. And please excuse the repetativeness and misspelled words. I'm sick and right now I'm all drugged up. Yeah... [/edit]