Icon on gradients, lasso tool, brushes...etc
Yeah. Hardest icon I've ever made, but I thought it had some useful techniques in it that yall might want to know how to do and later apply to your own icons. Graphics intensive, all under the cut. This is in PS 7
Making this:
from this
Okay, I won't tell you what all alterations I made to the original photo, but this is where I am right before lasso. Ewan is so gorgeous here, but that guy in the background is bothering me. Cause I'm a spaz. So, take the lasso tool and select all around Ewan. Don't worry if it's not perfect, you're going to erase. REMEMBER: make sure you have flattened your image before this or else the lasso will only take the bottom layer. Copy this. Make sure that you do all of your work in 200 by 200 (anything is okay, as long as you keep it consistent.)
Next, open a new document sized 200 by 200 (or whatever you're working in). Add a new layer and fill it with a navy blue gradient. Set this layer to exclusion. Open a new layer. Paste the Ewan selection into it. Zoom way in and erase all around Ewan very carefully, being certain to remove all of the bits of background that you missed with the lasso tool earlier. You should now have something that looks like this:
Now, create two more exclusion layers with navy blue and now you're ready for brushes! Create a new layer for brushes. I used this brush from a set by
crumblingwalls in navy blue set on normal.
Uh oh! You can't see Ewan at all. No worries. We're going to move this layer. Currently, it's on top, like so. Move it below the very first exclusion layer right above the background. The layer palette should now look like this:
The icon should now look like this, with the entire brush layer behind Ewan.
At this point, you can adjust blending styles to your desire. I played with mine some before I got the final icon. Resize now to 100 by 100. As far as text goes, I used violation in 12 pt with a 2 pixel stroke in gray. Happy iconning!
Making this:
from thisOkay, I won't tell you what all alterations I made to the original photo, but this is where I am right before lasso. Ewan is so gorgeous here, but that guy in the background is bothering me. Cause I'm a spaz. So, take the lasso tool and select all around Ewan. Don't worry if it's not perfect, you're going to erase. REMEMBER: make sure you have flattened your image before this or else the lasso will only take the bottom layer. Copy this. Make sure that you do all of your work in 200 by 200 (anything is okay, as long as you keep it consistent.)
Next, open a new document sized 200 by 200 (or whatever you're working in). Add a new layer and fill it with a navy blue gradient. Set this layer to exclusion. Open a new layer. Paste the Ewan selection into it. Zoom way in and erase all around Ewan very carefully, being certain to remove all of the bits of background that you missed with the lasso tool earlier. You should now have something that looks like this:
Now, create two more exclusion layers with navy blue and now you're ready for brushes! Create a new layer for brushes. I used this brush from a set by
crumblingwalls in navy blue set on normal. Uh oh! You can't see Ewan at all. No worries. We're going to move this layer. Currently, it's on top, like so. Move it below the very first exclusion layer right above the background. The layer palette should now look like this:
The icon should now look like this, with the entire brush layer behind Ewan.
At this point, you can adjust blending styles to your desire. I played with mine some before I got the final icon. Resize now to 100 by 100. As far as text goes, I used violation in 12 pt with a 2 pixel stroke in gray. Happy iconning!