//PS: vibrant color/blood splatter effect

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The base is from an icon challenge at how to cook an icon. She has links to the original website on her site. I didn't save the .PSD from my original, so I recreated it for this tut.


So, we'll start with this lovely base of Angelina Jolie as a vampire. Not such a far stretch, I think. But she's still hot.



Next, use the Sharpen tool to just sharpen the corner of her mouth so that the tooth is more clearly visible. You can Sharpen her lips, too, but I think they look too grainy if they're sharpened. But hey, to each their own. After you've sharpened her mouth, use the Blur tool on her skin so that it's super-smooth and even.



I personally thought the icon was a little too pale, so I decided to adjust the Curves (Image ---> Adjustments ---> Curves, or Ctrl + M). I changed the RGB Input to about 148, and the Output to about 116. I didn't mess with Red, Green, or Blue... just RGB. This makes the color a little more visible and vibrant.



Use the Burn tool to run over Angelina's lips and make them look nice and stained. Careful not to overdo it, or they'll look too dark for her complexion.



Create a new layer, and apply a splatter brush in color #681818, and set the layer to Multiply 100%. The brush used here is from a set I made that's posted at my journal.



Using the same color, I hand-drew a little X on her cheek using one of Photoshop's wet media brushes (rough ink, I believe). I had to go to the charater menu and shrink the brush down to about 11-12 px first, though. Then I added some tiny text across the X and her cheek.



Create a new layer, and apply the border below in white.



Lastly, I used Arial Black at 11px and 50 kerning to write +DEAD LIKE ME at the bottom, and added some more tiny text to fill up the extra white space. And that's all she wrote :)