A Sunny Little Tutorial
This is my first tutorial (always learning!) and I thought the icon was a fun example of a few little techniques. Let's make it happen!
from this to this:
I actually run the only graphics program no one uses, Corel PhotoPaint, but if I explain the names of all the tools, this should translate quicksmart.
1. Choose your picture, and crop it to your desired icon size. For this particular icon, I cut and pasted it into a new file, and kept my background white. I duplicated it, and set the top layer to screen, just to lighten it a little.
2. Light textures! I used two textures here, and they're both made by
quiettype. Both the layers were set to screen, with the top layer also set with a 50% opacity. One of the textures had some stars that looked a little unflattering on Axle's face, so I took my eraser tool, and just rubbed out the texture that was covering his face.
3. I was inspired by the adorable little hearts you see on a lot of icons, except I wanted a sun. I opened up a new file, and got to work on creating a light texture.
a. On a black background with a simple white pen, draw your shape.
b. Choose a colour for your light texture (I like yellow), and change the colour of your shape on the BOTTOM layer using your favourite method. I just simply bucket filled what was white.
c. Put a 3.0 Gaussian Blur on the colourful bottom layer.
It should look okay at the moment. I experimented with dupilating layers and setting different layer options to get the look just right. This is a great tutorial that describes the method.
d. Combine all the layers, and copy-n-paste it onto your icon, setting the layer to screen.
4. Text time. I wrote the word "sunshine" in yellow with 22pt Arial Black, before setting the layer to Hard Light. The "you are my" was written in yellow 20pt French Script MT, with the layer set to Invert set at 70%.
And there you have it! Feel free to comment with questions, clarifications, better ways of doing things, or just to show what you did with it. *smiles*
(PS The spunk in the picture is hot Melbournian jazz singer Axle Whitehead.)
from this to this:
I actually run the only graphics program no one uses, Corel PhotoPaint, but if I explain the names of all the tools, this should translate quicksmart.
1. Choose your picture, and crop it to your desired icon size. For this particular icon, I cut and pasted it into a new file, and kept my background white. I duplicated it, and set the top layer to screen, just to lighten it a little.
2. Light textures! I used two textures here, and they're both made by
quiettype. Both the layers were set to screen, with the top layer also set with a 50% opacity. One of the textures had some stars that looked a little unflattering on Axle's face, so I took my eraser tool, and just rubbed out the texture that was covering his face.3. I was inspired by the adorable little hearts you see on a lot of icons, except I wanted a sun. I opened up a new file, and got to work on creating a light texture.
a. On a black background with a simple white pen, draw your shape.
b. Choose a colour for your light texture (I like yellow), and change the colour of your shape on the BOTTOM layer using your favourite method. I just simply bucket filled what was white.
c. Put a 3.0 Gaussian Blur on the colourful bottom layer.
It should look okay at the moment. I experimented with dupilating layers and setting different layer options to get the look just right. This is a great tutorial that describes the method.
d. Combine all the layers, and copy-n-paste it onto your icon, setting the layer to screen.
4. Text time. I wrote the word "sunshine" in yellow with 22pt Arial Black, before setting the layer to Hard Light. The "you are my" was written in yellow 20pt French Script MT, with the layer set to Invert set at 70%.
And there you have it! Feel free to comment with questions, clarifications, better ways of doing things, or just to show what you did with it. *smiles*
(PS The spunk in the picture is hot Melbournian jazz singer Axle Whitehead.)