First post, first tutorial.
I'm going to show you how to go from 
to 
.
Bear with me, please--I've been making icons for a while now, but this is the first time I've actually remembered to keep track of things. :)
Tools: Adobe Photoshop CS
Difficulty: Easy, but the results are excellent. :D
Model: The model is Yuna from Final Fantasy X, in her wedding dressright after jumping off a building.
Original shot: http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b124/CrossoverQueen/Icons/chocoriginal.jpg
I came up with this icon by accident, because I was actually trying to make everything around Yuna greyscale. I gave up after screwing up horribly, and decided to just make the icon sepia. But the normal sepia is just plain brown, which doesn't work for aspiring art-school students (and it looked kind of ugly), so I fiddled around until I got a really nice chocolate brown.
But now for the actual tutorial!
1. Go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast. Lower the brightness by -10 and heighten the contrast by (+)30.
It should now look like this:
Note: I haven't cropped it yet because later, it would be harder to separate Yuna from the background.
2. Next, copy the background layer using either Select All or right-click, then paste the layer on top of the original layer. There's no difference, so on to the next step.
3. This part is very important if you don't want an extra step. Click on the Background Layer, NOT the second layer, then go to Image>Adjustments/Photo Filter and choose Sepia. Then click on Color. Move the little arrow to the top, which makes it the darkest brown, and move it a little into the red area to give it a richer tone. Now the background should look like this.
4. Click on Layer 2, which you shouldn't have touched till now. Use the Magnetic Lasso tool and click around Yuna. The train of her dress falls over Valefor's back, but it is incredibly easy to lasso. You shouldn't worry if you leave out a few of the feathers on her train, and her hair is brown anyway, so make sure to click at the original spot so the dotted line shows up. Right-click, then choose Select Inverse and press Ctrl-X to get rid of the rest of the layer. You can now crop it to 100x100 pixels. Save it as PNG or JPG (I prefer PNG) and the result should be like this:
5. If you like it the way it is, then you're done. I still thought it looked a bit dull, so I went to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. I lowered the Lightness by -10 and raised the Saturation by +30, and here is the final product:
Now doesn't that look great?
Feel free to ask questions if something doesn't turn out right.
to .Bear with me, please--I've been making icons for a while now, but this is the first time I've actually remembered to keep track of things. :)
Tools: Adobe Photoshop CS
Difficulty: Easy, but the results are excellent. :D
Model: The model is Yuna from Final Fantasy X, in her wedding dress
Original shot: http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b124/CrossoverQueen/Icons/chocoriginal.jpg
I came up with this icon by accident, because I was actually trying to make everything around Yuna greyscale. I gave up after screwing up horribly, and decided to just make the icon sepia. But the normal sepia is just plain brown, which doesn't work for aspiring art-school students (and it looked kind of ugly), so I fiddled around until I got a really nice chocolate brown.
But now for the actual tutorial!
1. Go to Image>Adjustments>Brightness/Contrast. Lower the brightness by -10 and heighten the contrast by (+)30.
It should now look like this:
Note: I haven't cropped it yet because later, it would be harder to separate Yuna from the background.
2. Next, copy the background layer using either Select All or right-click, then paste the layer on top of the original layer. There's no difference, so on to the next step.
3. This part is very important if you don't want an extra step. Click on the Background Layer, NOT the second layer, then go to Image>Adjustments/Photo Filter and choose Sepia. Then click on Color. Move the little arrow to the top, which makes it the darkest brown, and move it a little into the red area to give it a richer tone. Now the background should look like this.
4. Click on Layer 2, which you shouldn't have touched till now. Use the Magnetic Lasso tool and click around Yuna. The train of her dress falls over Valefor's back, but it is incredibly easy to lasso. You shouldn't worry if you leave out a few of the feathers on her train, and her hair is brown anyway, so make sure to click at the original spot so the dotted line shows up. Right-click, then choose Select Inverse and press Ctrl-X to get rid of the rest of the layer. You can now crop it to 100x100 pixels. Save it as PNG or JPG (I prefer PNG) and the result should be like this:
5. If you like it the way it is, then you're done. I still thought it looked a bit dull, so I went to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. I lowered the Lightness by -10 and raised the Saturation by +30, and here is the final product:
Now doesn't that look great?
Feel free to ask questions if something doesn't turn out right.