Tears on the night turn to diamonds in your eyes

sg1_lims: Round 3

birb — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:22:42 GMT

Here are also the icons I entered in sg1_lims' Round 3. I didn't last much longer this time, either, but now it was because of my sudden lack of Photoshop. Maybe one day I will actually be kicked out of a lims instead of having to retire due to various reasons... XD

Challenge 1 ~ 3
Challenge 2 ~ 9
Challenge 4 ~ 5
Challenge 5 ~ 8
Challenge 6 ~ 5
Challenge 7 ~ 11
Challenge 8 ~ 8
Challenge 10 ~ 3

Preview:

Challenge 1

1	2

Challenge 2

1	2	3

4	5	6

7	8

Challenge 4

1	2	3

4

Challenge 5

1	2	3

4	5	6

7

Challenge 6

1	2	3

4

Challenge 7

1	2	3

4	5	6

7	8	9

10

Challenge 8

1	2	3

4	5	6

7

Challenge 10

1	2

sg1_lims: Round 2

birb — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:25:00 GMT

Finally, here are the icons I entered in sg1_lims' Round 2. I didn't last for too long because of our internet dying around the challenge 7, which meant that I was unable to post my icon back then. But it was fun while it lasted. :D

Challenge 2 ~ 7
Challenge 3 ~ 8
Challenge 4 ~ 15
Challenge 5 ~ 4
Challenge 7 ~ 9

Preview:

Challenge 2

1	2	3

4	5	6

Challenge 3

1	2	3

4	5	6

7

Challenge 4

1	2	3

4	5	6

7	8	9

10	11	12

13	14

Challenge 5

1	2	3

Challenge 7

1	2	3

4	5	6

7	8

Oldies pt. 2

melinen — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:24:40 GMT

The rest of the old icons are here, because the previous post got too large. Enjoy. :)

Kyo ~ 23
Kaoru ~ 4
Toshiya ~ 6
Die ~ 17
Shinya ~ 22
Animations ~ 6

Preview:

Dir en grey

1	2	3	4	5

6	7	8	9	10

11	12	13	14	15

16	17	18	19	20

21	22	23	24	25

26	27	28	29	30

31	32	33	34	35

36	37	38	39	40

41	42	43	44	45

46	47	48	49	50

51	52	53	54	55

56	57	58	59	60

61	62	63	64	65

66	67	68	69	70

71	72

Animations

1	2

3	4

5	6

Oldies (but goldies? ahaha) pt. 1

melinen — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:37:50 GMT

As mentioned in my previous post, I have been more or less Photoshopless lately, which is why I haven't really updated this journal. But I have a lot of icons I have made within the past few years that I never got around posting for a reason or another (mostly because of laziness, haha). A lot of them have been made for various icontests, and I finally decided to post them today. (The quality varies because of the time span and my iconing abilites, lol.)

Stock/Random ~ 35
Gackt ~ 53
Mana ~ 68
Pairings ~ 24
Randon Musicians ~ 139

Preview:

Stock/Random

1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35

Gackt

1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35
36 37 38 39 40
41 42 43 44 45
46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53

Mana

1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35
36 37 38 39 40
41 42 43 44 45
46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55
56 57 58 59 60
61 62 63 64 65
66 67 68

Pairings

1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24

Random musicians

1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35
36 37 38 39 40
41 42 43 44 45
46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55
56 57 58 59 60
61 62 63 64 65
66 67 68 69 70
71 72 73 74 75
76 77 78 79 80
81 82 83 84 85
86 87 88 89 90
91 92 93 94 95
96 97 98 99 100
101 102 103 104 105
106 107 108 109 110
111 112 113 114 115
116 117 118 119 120
121 122 123 124 125
126 127 128 129 130
131 132 133 134 135
136 137 138 139

A lot of random icons

melinen — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:33:55 GMT

I haven't been really making icons in ages because of my old laptop acting up and me being mostly Photoshopless lately. So these aren't new either, I've made them within the last few years but never actually posted them anywhere. So here are a few batches of them, more will follow probably soon. :)

Cloud ~ 18
Reno ~ 12
Rude ~ 2
Rufus ~ 1
Yazoo ~ 1

1	2	3	4

5	6	7	8

9	10	11	12

13	14	15	16

17	18	19	20

21	22	23	24

25	26	27	28

29	30	31	32

33	34

Random/Stock ~ 20
The 69 Eyes ~ 8

1	2	3	4

5	6	7	8

9	10	11	12

13	14	15	16

17	18	19	20

21	22	23	24

25	26	27	28

Advertisement: sg1_lims

birb — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:59:53 GMT

sg1_lims is a LIMS competition for Stargate SG-1, one of the best TV-series ever made. I strongly recommend you to check out the community's user info and join to at least vote if you got interested at all. :D

Tutorial #12

melinen — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:57:02 GMT

severalplums & First Place, baby~ :D

We're going from to

As always, I started with cropping and choosing my base:

Curves

Nowadays, I almost always start preparing my base with my trusted Curves layer. I have found that it is one of the best methods to both brighten/darken the image and add some colour to it as well, so that is why I like to use it.

This time, I started with darkening the image a little since it was sort of light already. And as always, I played around with the channels until I got a nice result.

I usually use approximately three different input & output points. I start from the middle, then move upwards and finally downwards, stopping once I find the settings that make the picture look good.

After darkening the image, I continued with brightening it with the help of another Curves layer.

This time I didn't use its other channels besides the RGB one that is the first one you see, so that means I didn't really change the colour this time. (But if you think that your base needs it, go ahead. :D)

After that, I wanted to give the image a bit more contrast, so I duplicated the base, brought it on top of the other layers, blurred it using Gaussian Blur (radius 3,0) and changed it to Soft Light, opacity 50%.

Hue/Saturation

The image was a bit too bright for my taste, so I decided to use the Hue/Saturation layer to make it just a bit more saturated (so less bright).

I put the Saturation to -10% and left the rest untouched.

Textures

Now, with the basic coloring all done, I wanted to make the icon more interesting by using some textures, both to alter the coloring if it looked nice and to give it something more to look at.

I started with a pinkish light texture by leftofmyheart.

I put it on top of the earlier layers and changed it to Screen, leaving the opacity untouched, to give the icon a nice light effect overall.

Then I continued with a nice fire grunge texture by janine42584.

I put it on top of the earlier layers, flipped it vertically and changed it to Soft Light, leaving the opacity untouched, to give the icon a bit warmer colour and also to create a nice, sort of misty effect on the flower part.

I wanted to enhance the warm colour a little more, so I duplicated the texture, flipped it horizontally and changed it to Screen, with the opacity at 33%.

Next, I went for the making the icon more interesting part. I picked a nice mask texture by toybirds.

I put it on top of the previous layers and changed it to Screen, leaving the opacity untouched, to cover the lower part of the icon. And that was basically what I considered making the icon more interesting.

Next, I wanted to give the icon some more contrast again, so I continued with duplicating the base, bringing it on top of the other layers, blurring it using Gaussian Blur (radius 3,0) and changing it to Soft Light, opacity 40%.

Text

The coloring was now basically over and done with, so I turned my attention to the lower part of the icon. Although I liked the mask there, I still felt like something more was needed to make the icon stand out more. So, I came to the conclusion to have some text added to it.

Since my icon's image was of a flower, it seemed only natural to write 'flower power' to it. (Actually, it was the first thing to enter my mind, so I just went with it.) The font is called Cursif, opacity 40%, and the colour I used is #F823A3 that I picked from the icon. The size of the text is 12 pt. The Blending Options are Drop Shadow (Distance 5 px, Size 20 px) and Outer Glow (Size 10 px).

Then I duplicated the text layer, changed it to Soft Light and left the opacity at 40%.

Brightness/Contrast

Lastly, I used the Brightness/Contrast layer with these settings:

Brightness: +5
Contrast: +8

with the opacity at 50%, to brighten the icon a tad more. But because I felt that it brightened the mask part of the icon too much, I erased the layer from it.

And now we're done. :D

If something still remains unclear to you or you want to ask me something about the tutorial, feel free to do so and I'll answer the best I can. Also, if you decide to try it out I'd like to see your result.

Tutorial #11

melinen — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:54:38 GMT

This is once again made for severalplums. (I got Second Place and Mod's Invitation. :D)

We're going from to

As always, I started with cropping and choosing my base:

First I wanted to darken the base a little (instead of lightening it like I often do, since this base was alreayd light enough and more), so I turned to my trusted Curves layer. And as always, I played around with the channels until I got a nice result.

I usually use approximately three different input & output points. I start from the middle, then move upwards and finally downwards, stopping once I find the settings that make the picture look good.

Yeah, darker, and also looks better.

The next step was to give the icon a bit more colour, so Hue/Saturation layer it was then.

I put the Saturation to +30% and left the rest untouched.

After that, I wanted to give the icon a bit more contrast, so I duplicated the base, brought it on top of the other layers, blurred it using Gaussian Blur (radius 3,0) and changed it to Soft Light, opacity 50%.

It also got a bit darker in the process, but I liked it so it was good.

Then it was time to concentrate more on the empty side of the icon. I wanted to add some colour to it and also something that would make the icon more interesting to look at but that wouldn't take the focus off the subject (so I wanted the colour/pattern to blend in with the rest of the icon).

I wanted to use textures for that, so my first texture was a nice green/blueish one from yamarihime.

I put it on top of the earlier layers, flipped it vertically, changed it to Soft Light (leaving the opacity untouched) and, because it was a bit too much on the subject, I erased the texture from it and then used the Fade eraser tool to fade what I just erased (opacity 70%) to leave some of the texture's colour to the subject too.

Now it looks better and does not argue with the actual coloring too much but also helps the texture to blend in better. In my opinion, at least.

My next texture was a grunge one from alerieur.

I put it on top of the other layers and and chaged it to Soft Light, leaving the opacity untouched. Then I again erased the texture from the subject because it was covering the subject a bit too much. But because the nice black border was lost on the subject's side of the icon, I selected the whole icon (Select - All) and used the Stroke tool (Edit - Stroke) with the black colour and the width of 2 px (if I remember correctly, it might have been 3 as well) to bring it back.

Lastly, I used the Brightness/Contrast layer with these settings:

Brightness: +5
Contrast: +8

to make the icon a little brighter.

Okay, we're done now. :D I did consider adding some text, but since I couldn't come up with anything nice to write and also finding a good font would have been too much of a hassle, I decided to stop here.

If something still remains unclear to you or you want to ask me something about the tutorial, feel free to do so and I'll answer the best I can. Also, if you decide to try it out I'd like to see your result.

Tutorial #10

melinen — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:35:11 GMT

Silly me, I almost forgot that I got the mod's invitation (or won, I cannot remember which one it was anymore) with the following icon of mine. From severalplums, what else. :D

We're going from to

As always, I started with cropping and choosing my base, which was the following.

First I wanted to brighten up the base, so I turned to my trusted Curves layer. And as always, I played around with the channels until I got a nice result.

I usually use approximately three different input & output points. I start from the middle, then move upwards and finally downwards, stopping once I find the settings that make the picture look good.

This is how I did the first Curves layer:

From top to bottom, the settings were as follows:

Input: 179
Output: 197

Input: 115
Output: 144

Input: 52
Output: 68

As you can see, it's brighter now.

Then, I decided that it needs to get just a bit darker, so in came another Curves layer.

And here it is:

From top to bottom, the settings were as follows:

Input: 200
Output: 199

Input: 123
Output: 109

Input: 58
Output: 52

Yeah, a bit darker, just as I wanted it to be. And because I was happy with my icon being black and white (for now, anyway...) I decided to leave the other channels untouched and moved on.

There was some empty space in the left side of the icon that I wanted to fill with something, so it was time to turn to textures. I chose a nice light texture from haudvafra

and pasted it on top of the other layers, then set that layer to Screen, leaving the opacity untouched, and removed some of the texture from where it covered Chloe's dress and skin.

Looks nice, doesn't it? :D

But I still thought that it needed a bit more colour and darkness, so I duplicated the texture, changed it to Soft Light and lowered the opacity to 30%.

Well, no matter how nice it was to have a touch of colour in the icon, I wanted to return to black and white. So, I chose and black and white Gradient Map and left the layer untouched, thus getting this:

Next, I wanted to add some grayness to the icon, so I went to find this nice gray texture from xswansiconsx

and pasted it on top of the other layers, setting it to Multiply and leaving the opacity as it was.

Nice, but maybe it should be a bit lighter, I thought, so I duplicated the layer, changed it to Soft Light and brought the opacity to 33%.

Then, in order to make it a bit lighter still but also a bit more vibrant, I duplicated the base, brought it on top of the other layers and changed it to Soft Light, with opacity at 30%.

And, with me being me, I suddenly decided I didn't want the icon to be black and white anymore. So I chose this nice vintage paper texture from Mullally

and pasted it on top of the other layers, set it to Multiply and brought the opacity down to 31% to give the icon some colour.

Looks quite good, doesn't it? :D

Then I duplicated the texture and flipped it vertically to darken the colour a bit as well as to create a kind of... frame for Chloe. Like this:

Next I duplicated both of those texture layers and set them to Soft Light with the opacity of 6% to darken the colour just a bit more.

&

And then it was time for yet another black and white Gradient Map. This time I set the layer to Soft Light and brought the opacity down to 50% because I have learned that doing this makes the icon's colours brighter without losing the actual colour. (Then I erased it from Chloe's eyes because they had become a bit too dark, but that's an optional step.)

And because brighter with some more contrast is always better, I used the Brightness/Contrast layer with these settings:

Brightness: +5
Contrast: +8

To finish the coloring I then selected the whole icon (Select - All & Edit - Copy Merged) and pasted this new layer on top of the other layers, then blurred it using Gaussian Blur (radius 3,0), then desaturated it and set it to Soft light with the opacity at 30%. It makes the icon a tiny bit darker and more shiny.

Lastly, I wanted to add some text to the left side of the icon because it seemed to demand it. So I wrote 'moment in time' using the colour #A39073 I had picked from the icon. The font I used is called Maiandra GD, size 8 pt. I then duplicated both text layers and, leaving them at Normal, lowered the opacity to 50%.

And the icon is now finished. :D

If something still remains unclear to you or you want to ask me something about the tutorial, feel free to do so and I'll answer the best I can. Also, if you decide to try it out I'd like to see your result.

Tutorial #9

melinen — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:47:13 GMT

Once again, I made this tutorial for severalplums because of winning the first place. :D

We're going from to

As I always do, I started with cropping and choosing my base, which was the following. (This time I purposedly didn't shrink it to 100x100 until in the end.)

And like most of my icons, this is the result of playing around and trying out different things until I got something I liked.

First I wanted to brighten up the base some, so I turned to my trusted Curves layer. And as always, I played around with the channels until I got a nice result.

I usually use approximately three different input & output points. I start from the middle, then move upwards and finally downwards, stopping once I find the settings that make the picture look good.

This is how I did the first Curves layer:

Better.

Then, I decided to give it some colour, so on with the Curves.

Definitely not so black and white anymore.

Next I wanted to darken the overall colour of the icon, so I duplicated the base, brought it on top of the other layers and changed it to Soft Light, leaving the opacity untouched.

Time to get a bit more creative (or not) with the coloring! I often like to use the Exclusion layer at this point, so that was what I did now as well. I picked a dark blue colour (mine was #0A1D48), filled a new layer with said colour and set the layer to Exclusion, leaving he opacity again untouched.

To continue with the coloring, I picked a grey colour (mine was #EAE6E3) and filled a new layer with that. I set that layer to Multiply, once again not touching the opacity. It is a little darker and slightly less blue now.

After that, I continued with a Color Balance layer to give the coloring a new tone.

Here's what I did:

And it looks slightly more green-ish now.

Then I wanted to brighten up the icon, so I used the Brightness/Contrast layer with these settings:

Brightness: +5
Contrast: +8

Then I wanted to deepen the colour a little, so I duplicated the base, brought it on top of the other layers and changed it to Soft Light, opacity 11%.

Next I wanted to once again brighten the icon, so another Curves layer was needed.
This is how I did it:

Yep, lighter it is.

After that I selected the whole icon (Select - All & Edit - Copy Merged) and pasted this new layer on top of the other layers. Then, if I remember correctly, I used the Blur Tool to smooth the sharp lines around Adrian's lips and nose a little.

Then it was time for a black and white Gradient Map. I set the layer to Soft Light and brought the opacity down to 35% because I have learned that doing this makes the icon's colours brighter without losing the actual colour.

Then it was time to add some sort of texture to the icon. (Actually it is just a piece cut out of one of the other pictures, but it does the trick anyway.) So I cut out this,

pasted it on top of the other layers, desaturated it and set it to Soft Light, not touching the opacity.

Looks nicer. :D

Then I wanted to give it a bit more contrast, so I duplicated the base, brought it on top of the other layers, blurred it using Gaussian Blur (radius 3,0) and changed it to Soft Light, opacity 33%.

And all that was left anymore was to add some text to the icon. Now I resized it to the actual icon-size and then wrote 'follow your dreams' using the colour #D3C6AD that I had picked from the icon. The font I used for 'follow your' is called Porcelain, size 18 pt (I think that the size depends on your program, mine was acting a little funny that time), and for 'dreams' I used a font called BigNoodleTitling, size 14 pt.

Then I duplicated the 'follow your' layer and set it to Soft Light, and everything was as good as done :D

If something still remains unclear to you or you want to ask me something about the tutorial, feel free to do so and I'll answer the best I can. Also, if you decide to try it out I'd like to see your result.

Advertisement: sg1_lims

birb — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:37:18 GMT

sg1_lims is a LIMS competition for Stargate SG-1, one of the best TV-series ever made. (In my opinion, at least. And my brother's, too. xD) I strongly recommend you to check out the community's user info and join to at least vote if you got interested at all. :D

[This is also my first time participating in a LIMS competition so we'll see what happens. x)]

Icons made for severalplums

melinen — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:04:17 GMT

Here are all of the icons I've made for severalplums's challenges, plus the variations and so on. You're free to use them, and if you credit you can credit either this community or birb.

teasers:

S E V E R A L P L U M S

#o1 : Johnny	#o2 : Johnny	#o3 : Johnny	#o4 : Gina	#o5 : Gina

#o6 : Flamingos	#o7 : Flamingos	#o8 : Flamingos	#o9 : Daniel	#1o : Daniel

#11 : Daniel	#12 : variation	#13 : variation	#14 : Casablanca	#15 : Casablanca

#16 : Casablanca	#17 : Amanda	#18 : Amanda	#19 : DT	#2o : DT

#21 : DT	#22 : variation	#23 : Chocolate	#24 : Chocolate	#25 : Chocolate

#26 : variation	#27 : variation	#28 : Chocolate	#29 : variation	#3o : variation

#31 : variation	#32 : Sandra	#33 : Sandra	#34 : Sandra	#35 : Sandra

#36 : variation	#37 : Lucy	#38 : Lucy	#39 : variation	#4o : Phelps

#41 : Phelps	#42 : Kingfisher	#43 : Kingfisher	#44 : variation	#45 : Viggo

#46 : Viggo	#47 : variation	#48 : Vivienne	#49 : Vivienne	#5o : Brush

#61 : Brush	#62 : Brush	#63 : variation	#64 : Sunflower	#65 : Sunflower

#66 : Ewan	#67 : Ewan	#68 : Ewan	#69 : Bird	#7o : Bird

#71 : Chloe	#72 : Chloe	#73 : Chloe	#74 : Adrian	#75 : Flower

#76 : Scenery	#77 : Woman	#78 :	#79 : B&B	#8o : variation

#81 : variation	#82 : variation	#83 : variation	#84 : variation	#85 : variation

#86 : B&B	#87 : Alan	#88 : Alan	#89	#9o

#91	#92	#93	#94	#95

#96	#97	#98	#99	#100

Tutorial #8

melinen — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:52:56 GMT

Again made for severalplums. Both second place and Mod's choice this time, which was a really nice surprise. :D And I even like this icon of mine this time. x)

We're going from to

I started with cropping and choosing my base, which was the following.

First I wanted to brighten up the base, so I used the Curves layer. And as always, I played around with the channels until I got a nice result.

I usually use approximately three (or less, or more, depending on the image I'm working with) different input & output points. I start from the middle, then move upwards and finally downwards, stopping once I find the settings that make the picture look good.

This is how I did the first Curves layer:

From top to bottom, the settings were as follows:

Input: 196
Output: 191

Input: 147
Output: 115

Input: 99
Output: 39

Brighter, and also darker.

Then I wanted to give the icon a bit of colour. And because the Curves layer is really handy for that purpose as well, that's what I used, again. This time I used the RGB channel, the Red channel and the Blue channel.

This is how I did it:

The RGB channel:

Input: 177
Output: 199

Input: 115
Output: 132

Input: 61
Output: 76

The Red channel:

Input: 196
Output: 217

Input: 113
Output: 140

Input: 61
Output: 67

The Blue channel:

Input: 141
Output: 114

And it has a hint of colour now.

Next, I wanted to deepen the colour I had gotten. So I used Color Balance with these settings

to make the colour a bit noticeable.

It's a bit redder now.

Then I wanted to change the colour scheme of the icon a bit. So, I picked a dark blue colour (mine was #1A1847) and set the layer to Exclusion with the opacity at 50%.

A nice colour, but I wanted it to be more blue. So I chose a light blue colour (mine was #94B8DD) and set that layer to Color Burn with the opacity at 80%.

After that I decided to try what happens when I played with Hue/Saturation layer. I set Saturation to 50% and liked what I got, so I kept it.

Then I wanted to add some contrast to the icon so I used the Brightness/Contrast layer with these settings:

Brightness: -10
Contrast: +10

and left the layer at Normal.

Then all that was left was to finish the coloring. I wanted to see what happened if I tried the Gradient Map so that's what I did. I picked this one

and set the layer to Lighten with the opacity at 16%.

And the coloring is now done. :D

Then it was time to finish the icon. I started with cropping a part of my icon and pasting it to an empty layer.

Next I chose a gradient from fraoch_icons

and pasted it on top of my previous layer, then set that layer to Multiply with the opacity at 44%.

What remains to be done now are the finishing touches. I'm usually not very good with text (which is why a lot of my icons tend to be textless) but this one needed something so I thought of something simple and used that. I then wrote 'beautiful tonight' using the colour (#D5C4B3) that I had picked from the icon. The font I used is called Ben Brown, size 18 pt. I set the text layer to Multiply with the opacity left untouched, duplicated it and changed the opacity to 38% and duplicated it again, setting that layer to Soft Light and bringing the opacity back to 100%.

Then I put some tiny text underneath what I had written, using the same colour, and set the layer to Multiply with the opacity at 80%.

Lastly, I selected the whole icon (Select - All, Edit - Copy Merged - Paste) and pasted that layer on top of my other layers. I set it to Soft Light with the opacity at 33% to make the colour just a bit darker.

And so the icon is finished. :D

If something still remains unclear to you or you want to ask me something about the tutorial, feel free to do so and I'll answer the best I can. Also, if you decide to try it out I'd like to see your result.

Challenge: Mana icons

melinen — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 18:20:29 GMT

For japan50.

Subject: Mana
Icons Completed: 23/50 (updated 2.11.08)
Teasers:

M A N A

#o1 : name	#o2 : happy	#o3 : sad	#o4 : fear	#o5 : border

#o6 : funny	#o7 : sexy	#o8 : diseased	#o9 : driven	#1o : love

#11 : star	#12 : silence	#13 : everlasting	#14 : thorned	#15 : cool

#16 : calm	#17 : hate	#18 : alone	#19 : passion	#2o : lies

#21 : innocent	#22 : pretty	#23 : blue	#24 : red	#25 : magical

#26 : legs	#27 : down	#28 : golden	#29 : hands	#3o : bright

#31 : colours	#32 : gray	#33	#34	#35

#36	#37	#38	#39	#4o

#41	#42	#43	#44	#45

#46	#47	#48	#49	#5o

Tutorial #7

melinen — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:00:07 GMT

Yeah, so this is once again written for severalplums because I managed to get the Mod's choice. It's kind of funny because I made this icon so quickly and a little less carefully than my other icon, lol. X'D But I like the pink. (Shh, you didn't hear me say that.)

We're going from to

I started with cropping and choosing my base, which was the following.

First I wanted to brighten up the base, so it was time to use the Curves layer. As always, I played around with the channels until I got a result that I liked. That's what you should do, as well, because what works with one image may not work with another.

I usually use approximately three (or less, or more, depending on the image I'm working with) different input & output points. I start from the middle, then move upwards and finally downwards, stopping once I find the settings that make the picture look good.

And because my aim was to brighten up the image, I used only the RGB channel. And I did it like this:

And the base is brighter. :D

Next I wanted to change the colour scheme of the icon. And because the Curves layer is really handy for that purpose as well, that's what I used, again. This time I used both the RGB and the Red channel because in my opinion, red just suited the icon.

Here's how I did it:

The RGB channel:

The Red channel:

And look, it's a nice red/brown now. :D

I still wasn't completely satisfied with the colour because I wanted it to be redder. So, I added a red (using this colour: #A91919) Soft light layer with the opacity at 28% to make the colours more red (but not too much).

Then I wanted to add a bit of contrast to the icon so I used the Brightness/Contrast layer with these settings:

Brightness: +5
Contrast: -5

and set the layer to Soft light with the opacity at 40%.

Now, I liked the colours of the backround and all but I thought that Vivienne's dress and face had gotten a bit too light. To make them a bit darker I first selected the whole icon (Select - All & Edit - Copy Merged) and pasted this new layer on top of the other layers, then chose the Burn tool with a soft round brush (13) and went over her face and dress with it (just once though so it wouldn't get too dark).

Next I duplicated the base, brought it on top of the other layers and blurred it using Gaussian Blur (radius 4,0), then desaturated it and set it to Soft light with the opacity at 30%. It makes the icon a tiny bit darker and more shiny.

And now it was time to sharpen the icon just a bit. I selected the whole icon and pasted this new layer on top of the other layers, then used the Unsharp mask with following settings:

Amount 10 %
Radius 3,0 pixels
Threshold 0 levels.

The coloring was now done and all that was left were the finishing touches. Because the left side of the icon looked a bit bare, I wanted to make it more interesting to look at. So, I picked a smoke texture from expose42

and set it to Screen with the opacity at 100%.

Lastly, I duplicated the texture and changed it to Soft light instead, with the opacity at 40%, to blend the texture in better and to turn the overall colour of the icon a bit darker.

And the icon is now finished. :D

If something still remains unclear to you or you want to ask me something about the tutorial, feel free to do so and I'll answer the best I can. Also, if you decide to try it out I'd like to see your result.

KyoxToshiya graphics

melinen — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:41:49 GMT

This is my contribution to the KyoxToshiya takeover thing over at kyoxtoshiya. (No fics this time because I couldn't get anything ready. Later, and that's a promise.)

Icons ~ 15
Banners ~ 3
Headers ~ 4

Preview:

1	2	3	4	5

6	7	8	9	10

11	12	13	14	15

Banners

Headers

Tutorial #6

melinen — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:28:20 GMT

My sixth tutorial, again made for the lovely severalplums (the comm that requires the winners to post tutorials of their winning icons as well). This time I was second as well as got the Mod's invitation. :D

We're going from to

First, choose your base. Mine was, obviously, the following.

I often like to start with duplicating the base and then sharpening it (using the Sharpen Edges filter), which was what I did this time as well. Then I went to Fade Sharpen (Edit - Fade Sharpen) and put the opacity to 50% or so because it got a bit too sharp. (The trick with the Fade... tool is that you need to use it immediately after sharpening your image because if you do something else before it, you aren't able to use it anymore.)

After sharpening, it was time to brighten the base. In the past I've often used the handy Screen layer, but not this time. Ever since I learned to really use Curves some time ago (from a tutorial I found at severalplums) it has become my best friend. It is actually a lot more useful than the simple Screen layer because you can also change the colours of the original picture with it. Isn't that cool or what? :D

So anyway, what I did was that I played around with the channels until I got a result that I liked. And you really should do this by playing with the settings yourself because every image is different.

I usually use approximately three different input & output things on one channel. (I'm afraid my vocabulary fails me at describing this. But I'll post screen caps, hopefully that helps.) I start from the middle, then move upwards and finally downwards, stopping once I find the settings that make the picture look good. (It's not always necessary to use three of them - sometimes I use only one or two or even more than three, that depends completely on the picture I'm working with.)

Like this: (it's how I did the RGB channel)

In the middle:

Up:

And down:

Usually I would continue with the other channels (Red, Green and Blue), but this time I decided to leave them be because I was satisfied with what I already got.

I wanted the icon to become black and white so now it was time to use Gradient Maps. Naturally, I chose the black and white Gradient Map (Layer - New Adjustment Layer - Gradient Map) and left it at Normal, opacity 100%.

Next, I wanted to give the colour a little more depth and darkness so I added a black Soft light layer with the opacity at 20%.

After some thinking, I decided that the picture had gotten a bit too dark for my taste. So, I added a white Soft light layer with the opacity at 20% to make it a bit lighter.

Now it was time for textures! I started with this nice cloudy texture (that I can't remember the maker of),

set it to Multiply with the opacity at 40% and then erased all that covered Phelps.

And because I didn't want to spoil the nice b&w colour I had gotten I moved the texture under the Curves layer.

I continued with this pretty light texture by haudvafra,

moved it on top of the previous texture and set it to Screen with the opacity at 40%. It gives the icon a bit of lightness.

Then I took this nice light texture by ohfreckle,

moved it on top of the previous texture, then moved it down to a place where it looked nice and set it to Screen with the opacity at 100%.

The next texture (that I can't remember the maker of)

I put on top of all the previous layers. It's there to give the icon a hint of lightness and those white spots that just in my opinion make it look nicer. I rotated it a little and set it to Screen with the opacity at 100%.

And the last texture (that I also can't remember the maker of)

I picked to give the icon a hint of colour. I flipped it horizontally and set it to Screen with the opacity at 100%.

The coloring was done now and all that was left were the finishing touches. I selected the whole icon (Select - All & Edit - Copy Merged) and pasted this new layer on top of the other layers. I blurred it using Gaussian Blur (radius 4,0), desaturated it (this is what I usually do although I guess it wasn't really necessary with this icon, seeig that I already made it b&w before) and set it to Soft light with the opacity at 33%. It makes the icon a bit more light and shiny.

Then I made a new copied layer like above and sharpened it using the Unsharp Mask filter. (I sometimes use that because it gives me more control on how much I want to sharpen and what.) My settings were as follows:
Amount 20 %
Radius 5,0 pixels
Threshold: 0 levels.

And the icon is now finished. :D

I hope that you liked to tutorial. ^^ If something still remains unclear to you or you want to ask me something about the tutorial, feel free to do so and I'll answer the best I can. Also, if you decide to try it out I'd like to see your result.

Challenge: Jrock icons

melinen — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:18:16 GMT

For japan50.

Subject: Jrock music
Icons Completed: 50/50 + 30 textless/variations (updated 18.8.08, finished 19.8.08)
Teasers:

J R O C K M U S I C

#o1 : name	#o2 : happy	#o3 : sad	#o4 : fear	#o5 : border

#o6 : funny	#o7 : sexy	#o8 : diseased	#o9 : driven	#1o : love

#11 : star	#12 : silence	#13 : everlasting	#14 : thorned	#15 : cool

#16 : calm	#17 : hate	#18 : alone	#19 : passion	#2o : lies

#21 : sweet	#22 : look at me	#23 : elegant	#24 : fiery red	#25 : fairytale

#26 : green shine	#27 : into the light	#28 : pink killer	#29 : touch the sky	#3o : proud

#31 : awake	#32 : my game	#33 : the rest	#34 : two for one	#35 : light

#36 : dance	#37 : queen	#38 : blonde	#39 : circle	#4o : time

#41 : away	#42 : thoughts	#43 : pretty	#44 : box	#45 : milk

#46 : angel	#47 : tiny text	#48 : lines	#49 : lick me baby	#5o : leather

1	2	3	4	5

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Tutorial #5

melinen — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:59:48 GMT

My fifth tutorial. Made for severalplums, an icon challenge community where the winner of each challenge is required to post a tutorial of her winning icon. I won last week so here's mine. :D

We're going from to

Start with cropping your base. I myself rotated the original image a little and then cropped it to get this.

After getting the base I wanted, it was time to get to the real business. First, I dublicated the base twice. The first one I sharpened (Filter - Sharpen - Sharpen) and the second one I set to Soft light to get a bit more colour to the base.

Then it was time for the actual coloring. I started with a dark blue exclusion layer (using #0C1735) in 100% to add a hint of blue to the icon.

I realized that one layer wasn't enough so I duplicated it. However, I decided to lower the opacity to 50% because 100% would have been a bit too dark for my tastes, so I got this:

I still wanted the icon to have more blue, so I continued with a light blue soft light layer (using #9EA5EE) without touching the opacity.

I decided that I would like it to have even more blue, so I duplicated the previous layer. But because I didn't want it to have too much blue, I lowered the opacity to 50%. And thus I was satisfied. xD

The overall colour of the icon was a bit too darkish, though, so the next step is used to brighten it (and especially the skin) a little. I duplicated the base, brought it to the top, desaturated it (Image - Adjustments - Desaturate) and blurred it using Gaussian blur (Filter - Blur - Gaussian blur, radius 4,0 - Edit - Fade Gaussian blur, opacity 100%). Then I set the layer to Soft light.

Note! The Gaussian blur trick was something I learned from a friend ages ago. And in order for it to fully work, you need to do to the Fade bit right after setting the Gaussian blur. Otherwise it refuses to let you use it.

Next, I returned to the coloring again. After I had gotten the blue that I wanted, I decided to want the icon to have some more yellow. So, I added a yellow-ish Multiply layer (using #E6DC89) and lowered the opacity to 50%.

Even though I liked the yellow, I wanted a hint of red to the icon. So it was time for a light red Soft light layer (using #F1AEAE) with the opacity lowered to 26%.

Time to brighten the colour again! I added a Brightness and contrast layer
brightness -10
contrast -10 and set it to Soft light. I lowered the opacity to 50% because it looked better like that.

To brighten the colour even more, I added a Curves layer with these settings
RGB
Input - 80 / Output - 67
Input - 123 / Output - 120
Input - 135 / Output - 145

I liked the colour I had gotten so far, but it had gotten a bit too light. So, I went to play with Selective coloring. These were my settings:
Neutrals
Cyan - +50
Magenta - +30
Yellow - +20
Black - +10

Looks better, yes? At least it has a bit more contrast and colour to it now.

Now the basic coloring is all done and it's time to concentrate on the extras, so to say. I started with copying all I had gotten done so far (Select - All - Edit - Copy Merged) and pasting it to the top (Edit - Paste). Then I sharpened the layer (Filter - Sharpen - Sharpen - Edit - Fade Sharpen, opacity 50%) and zoomed in, then used the Smudge tool to go over the skin to make it look better.

Note! When using the Smudge tool, don't go over the lips, the eyes or the edges. If you do, it won't look that good. A little sharpness in the eyes and lips, for example, looks quite good (at least in my opinion). Also, you should use a small sized brush, such as 3. It gives a better result like that. Or well, I guess that depends on personal tastes. I like to use the smaller brushes, anyway.

Time for textures now. I have always liked using light textures, so that was what I did this time as well. I added a light texture by haudvafra

and set it to Screen, thus getting this:

I like the effect the lights have on the icon.

What I also liked was the colour of Amanda's dress, so I wanted to increase it a bit. So, I choose another light texture, this time from crazykira,

and moved it so that the blue light part was covering most of her dress. I set the layer to Screen and lowered the opacity to 80% to make it a bit less bright.

Much better.

The coloring was still missing something, though. I usually like it bright and shiny and all but this time I wanted something different, so I chose another texture by fraoch_icons

and set it to Multiply with the opacity lowered to 30%.

Well, of course I ended up wanting to brighten the colour again. (This is something I always do: I want something and when I have gotten it I decide that I want something else instead - like with my playing with the colours in the beginning (from blue to yellow and so on). Though all of those colour layers are necessary to the end colour; I have tested it with many colorings before and deleting a colour layer, no matter if its opacity is only 20%, does affect the colour and not always in a positive way. That, naturally, depends on personal tastes.)

I once again duplicated the base, brought it to top, desaturated it and blurred it using Gaussian blur. Then I set the layer to Soft light.

Nice, but it could be a bit brighter.

The next thing I did was that I copied all I had gotten done so far and pasted it to the top. Then I desaturated it, set the layer to Soft light and lowered the opacity to 50%.

Almost done, finally. The coloring is ready and all there is left to do is to find a something nice to decorate the icon with. I settled with yet another light texture (did I already mention how much I love light textures? XD) [I can't remember who made this, though - if you do, please let me know]

and set it to Screen. Then I moved it a bit, and finished the icon with that.

[This must be my longest tutorial. Oh well. xD]

Matenrou Opera icons

melinen — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 08:00:46 GMT

Long time no see, once again. (Will get back to the icons I made before these, too, later.) Anyway, I've made a bunch of Matenrou Opera (that would be one of my new favourite bands) icons. I made them using three of those sets they were selling at the concerts (I was at Finland's concert and they were awesome, almost better than Versailles that was the band I originally went there for). One of them is the one I bought but the rest I took from matenrou_opera so credit for scanning goes to the people who did it.

Matenrou Opera ~ 25

Preview:


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10 variations: Terachi Shinya

melinen — Thu, 08 May 2008 16:26:54 GMT

In my last (Mana) icon post I mentioned about a Shinya set that I had been making. This is it, and it has been ready for like a month but I've been too busy to post it here so I'll do it now.

So, I present you
10 Shinya icons
some textless versions
and some variations to the themes.

TERACHI SHINYA

popart	single letter	"in" font	dots & dashes	glowy dots

little pic & frame	white space	repeated	blinkies	Sin City

textless	textless	textless	textless	textless

textless	textless	textless	variation	variation

10 variations: Mana

melinen — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:58:00 GMT

I found a nice community, 10variations, and decided to try it myself as well. It was so much fun that I'm definitely going to return to play with it later (I actually already have a Shinya variations set coming).

So, for now
10 Mana icons
some textless versions
and some variations to the themes.

MANA-SAMA

unresized	rotate	desaturate	mirror	multiple

colour	whole	texture	original	no square

variation	variation	textless	textless	textless

textless	texless	textless	textless	textless

GacktxMana graphics set

melinen — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:46:15 GMT

I've been making a whole bunch of stuff lately so let's start with this. (Yes, the icons are still coming. Sometime in the future.) This is a themed set of graphics I decided to make after I realized that I hadn't been making much graphics for this lovely little OTP of mine. And Gackt and Mana do deserve to get stuff done. *nods firmly*
[Again, the textless versions are available as well.]
The scans are found from jrock_scans.

including header (2 versions)
banner (2 versions)
icons (3 versions)
wallpaper (2 versions)

Preview:

Header

textless

Banner

textless

Icons

Wallpaper

textless

DiexShinya graphics for dxs_love

melinen — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:59:59 GMT

This is my submission for dxs_love's challenge's first week, graphics and fan art week. It's all about the one true love that is DiexShinya, baby! 8D

including header (2 versions)
banner (3 versions)
icons (8 versions)
wallpaper (2 versions)

Preview:

Header

textless

Banner

textless

Icons

Wallpaper

textless

Credits

Random banners and headers #1

melinen — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:48:51 GMT

Once again, long time no see. I wasn't dead, I was just too lazy to post all these banners and headers. XD; (Expect a rather large icon post in the near future as well. ^^) And considering it took me almost two hours to post this... I guess the laziness can be forgiven lol.
Anyway, as for credits, most of the Dir en grey pics are from Ankkarock 2007, taken by either me or a fellow Finn called Noora.
And because I don't like text, I offer most of the banners and headers also textless so that you can either add your own text to them or ask me to do it for you. ^^
Until next time~

Die banners ~ 9
Shinya banners ~ 4
Die and Shinya banners ~ 7
Kyo and Toshiya banners ~ 2
Dir en grey banners ~ 1
Kyo, Kaoru and Toshiya banners ~ 2
Gackt and Mana banners ~ 5
Mana banners ~ 5
Gackt banners ~ 2
Klaha banners ~ 4
Tarja Turunen banners ~ 1
Random banners ~ 1
Die and Shinya headers ~ 13
Kyo and Toshiya headers ~ 3
Kyo, Kaoru and Toshiya headers ~ 6
Kaoru and Toshiya headers ~ 2
Die headers ~ 2
Karyu headers ~ 2
Mana headers ~ 21
Gackt and Mana headers ~ 2

Preview:

Banners

Die

Shinya

Die and Shinya

Kyo and Toshiya

Dir en grey

Gackt and Mana

Mana

Gackt

Klaha

Tarja Turunen

Random

Headers

Die and Shinya

Kyo and Toshiya

Kyo, Kaoru and Toshiya

Kaoru and Toshiya

Die

Karyu

Mana

Gackt and Mana

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