Light Texture Fun

Going from this to this:



Using PSP 8; but can cross-reference programs. I made the exact icon using my own tutorial in Photoshop 7 to test it; and it works lovely. I'm very detailed and tend to ramble; but if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Step 001. Starting with this, I rotated the image to the right (clockwise) 90 degrees. I changed the image brightness and contrast (Adjust > Brightenss and Contrast > Brightness/Contrast; or Shift + B) to Brightness: 40; Contrast: 40. I resized the image (Image > Resize; or Shift + S) to 175 x 305 pixels. Make sure to check Resample and choose Smartsize from the dropdown menu when resizing in PSP. I now have this: Step 002. I used the Soften tool (Size: 5; Hardness: 50) to smooth out his face and jacket. Using the Burn & Dodge tools (Size: 2; Hardness: 25), I made the folds in his jacket more contrasted. (Dodging the highlights, Burning the shadows.) I sharpened the image once (Adjust > Sharpness > Sharpen). Now the quality looks a million times better, so I'm going to copy and paste the image as a new image (so that you have two images that are the same.) I cropped that second image to 100 x 100 pixels and minimized the first image for later. I now have this (the 2nd image that I'm working with): Step 003. I duplicated the background image to a new layer and desaturated it (Adjust > Hue and Saturation > Colorize or Shift + L; Hue: 0 & Saturation: 0). Next, I adjusted the brightness and contrast (Adjust > Brightenss and Contrast > Brightness/Contrast; or Shift + B) to Brightness: -10; Contrast: 20. I set that layer's blend mode to Screen at 100%. I now have this: Step 004. I opened one of colorfilter's light textures and pasted it as a new layer (Blend Mode: Screen at 100%). It causes the image to be too washed out for my liking so instead of changing the Blend Mode or layer's opacity, I used a texture brush to erase parts of the light texture. Using the eraser instead of the actual brush tool, I used this texture brush from here and stamped it (using the Eraser tool) onto the light texture layer (opacity: 100%) three times. I now have this: Step 005. Now let's take a breather here and open up our original image. Remember? The one we minimized? Great. So resize it to 100 x 174 pixels and rotate it right (clockwise) 270 degrees and then mirror the image (Image > Mirror; or Ctrl + M). Crop that image to your liking and add a 3 pixel border (in black; #000000) around it. Paste this onto a new layer (Blend Mode: Normal; 100%) where ever you see fit. I now have this: Step 006. I'm going to use a simple brush from my Painush set (which can be found here to add a little decoration in the white space.) I now have this: Step 007. I opened another of colorfilter's light textures and pasted it as a new layer (Blend Mode: Screen at 100%). I now have this: Step 008. And the last step; adding text! ^^; Starting on a new layer, I chose a medium blue (#3F98CB) and the font Garamond at Size: 3. I typed up the Nine Inch Nail's song lyric I wanted to add ("I'm becoming less defined as days go by") and positioned it over the light streak across the bottom portion of the icon. Because it didn't show up as much as I wanted, I set the Blend Mode to Multiply at 100%. That still wasn't enough for me, so I just duplicated the text layer. Much better. Voila; the finished icon! Layers. To see what my layers looked like when I finished, click here. There are not a lot of layers or blend mode complications as you can see.

Overall, the beginnings of this icon are the most confusing; the last few steps are pretty self explanatory. ^^;