composed of a combination of diverse elements

Harper 16: More Screenable Textures - Texture Set #11 - 'Lights in the Dark'

happy_harper13 — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 23:17:47 GMT

I have a backlog on textures again. Also on checking lj in general. If you find them useful, I'd love it if you commented :)

The last 4 are from a texture battle a long time ago, and made with lovely images from naginis and inner_sanctum.

Download here
or

View individual textures:

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

...

If you like what you see, please watch/join our community!

Harper 015: Multi-Fandom Icons + Texture Set

happy_harper13 — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 19:39:17 GMT

I'm posting these before I officially sink into superhero movie withdrawal. These are for theiconquest, which is also, conveniently, my excuse for mixing Batman and polka dots.

Icons:
01-09 Iron Man, Avengers
10-17 X-Men: First Class
18-23 Batman
24-31 Battlestar Galactica
32-38 Game of Thrones
39-45 The Wire

Textures:

Iron Man, Avengers

1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8
9

X-Men: First Class

10		11		12		13
14		15		16		17

Batman

18		19		20		21
22		23

*22: I have an excuse for combining Batman and polka dots. It's for the fairy tale challenge at theiconquest, where you get bonus points for incorporating a certain characteristic (in this case, mysterious) into the icon. I wanted to reference how, like Rachel said in the first movie, he's not just hiding behind the Batman mask, but also behind the mask of a fun, carefree and ultimately harmless philanthropist, and I thought the polka dots convey those 3 traits. At the same time, some small piece of who he really is still shows behind that mask.

Battlestar Galactica

24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31
32

Game of Thrones

33		34		35		36
37		38		39

The Wire

40		41		42		43
44		45

Download Texture Pack

Download Here

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

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you can, I'd love it if you commented. It feeds my muse ~~ego~~. Any numbers, constructive criticism, comments on which icons or textures you find the nicest or most useful, single words, punctuation marks, or anything in between all make my day.

Thanks so much to all of you guys who have done that on previous posts. It's seriously been so helpful, and I really, really appreciate it.

all the best,
Harper

P.S. If you like what you see, please watch/join our community!

Harper 014: Icons from 1st half of 2012 (Lost, Misfits, BSG, GoT, X-Files, X-Men + Misc.)

happy_harper13 — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 01:39:15 GMT

I've been meaning to post these icons for quite some time. I have a bunch more that I've done since, mostly for theiconquest, but I figured I ought to finally get these guys up first. It feels kind of weird posting these on 9/11. Major thanks to the anons at anon_icon who helped me figure out which icons to use for the preview and which to cut in general.

1-5 Lost
6-13 Misfits
14-17 Battlestar Galactica
18-21 Game of Thrones
22-29 X-Files
30-35 X-Men: First Class
36-45 Miscellaneous (Downton Abbey, Friday Night Lights, Doctor Who x2, Grease, the Notebook, Sucker Punch x2, Defiance, the Notebook, Harry Potter)
46-54 Alts

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

1. Comments are ♥.
2. So is credit. (<lj-user="happy-harper13"> @ <lj-user="mosaically">)
3. If you like what you see, we'd love it if you decided to watch or join mosaically.

Harper 013: 64 Colored Textures

happy_harper13 — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 23:29:51 GMT

Hi guys,

I'm posting a much larger set of 65 textures that I've been working on for months and am really excited about. I'm way psyched to say that I can totally vouch for the usability of these as a lot of my favorite icons that I've made have been with textures from this set.

Per usual, you can download the set at DeviantArt or view and download individual textures, both through the lj cuts.

Anyway, enjoy, and stay fab!
Harper

Download Set @ DeviantArt
HERE

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

1. Comments are so, so seriously LOVED. Thanks in advance to anyone who comments and to everyone who commented on any of our last posts <3
2. I'd strongly prefer that you credit me and mosaically if you end up using them.
3. If you like what you see and want to get updates when we (mancalahour or I) post more textures, as well as icons, tutorials and more, please consider watching or joining MOSAICALLY.

lots of love and thanks for your ongoing support and kind words :)
Harper

Mancalahour o21

mancalahour — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 00:50:55 GMT

A reaaaally small update!
8 icons + 1 wallpaper [Thor] for a_mused!

I had...a lot of trouble with this D: so apologies in advance for this post. Thor caps are a serious pain in the ass, no joke. Also, first time posting anything with LJ's new scrapbook, so hopefully that works. If you need me to resize the wallpaper to anything specific, you need only to ask! ♥

01 - 04
05 - 08

[ 1920x1080] [1366x764 ]

1. Comments are ♥.
2. Credit is much appreciated. (mancalahour@mosaically)
3. Please don't steal/hotlink/use as bases.
4. watch/join?

Harper 012: Light Textures

happy_harper13 — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 21:37:25 GMT

Hi guys,

I'm just posting a small set that's been sitting on my hard drive for months now. This set was inspired by the fabulous ellaangelus and her gorgeous light textures, and by the wonderful rebel, whose textures you should also check out at criminal.

Per usual, you can download the set at DeviantArt or view and download individual textures, both through the lj cuts. I really hope they prove useful :)

Anyway, enjoy, and stay fab!
Harper

DOWNLOAD FULL SET @ DEVIANTART

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

Also, I still have a few more texture sets that I'll be posting soon. If you want to get an update when they're be posted, please consider watching or joining mosaically.

Upcoming texture sets include:
-More fun colorful icon-sized textures
-Simpler color icon-sized textures
-Icon-sized grunge textures and black & white textures that I'm not not sure how to describe but that are basically black textures with smaller white abstract motion-y designs on top to set to screen based on this texture from my first b&w batch
-Larger grunge & black and white textures.

Slightly off-topic question of the day: Which set sounds the most useful?

1. Comments are so, so seriously LOVED. Thanks in advance to anyone who comments and to everyone who commented on any of our last posts <3
2. I'd strongly prefer that you credit me and mosaically if you end up using them.
3. If you like what you see and want to get updates when we (mancalahour or I) post more textures, as well as icons, tutorials and more, please consider watching or joining MOSAICALLY.

Harper 011: 20inspirations Round 19 ("Famous Artwork") - The Wire S1

happy_harper13 — Wed, 30 May 2012 05:40:43 GMT

ETA: Still updating inspirations. Stay tuned... it might be a while. There will be dots. (Burrell would be happy.)

Here's my first batch for 20inspirations, with season 1 of the Wire. The theme this round was famous art. I also got inspired by this round to make famous artwork inspired textures, which you can find here. I'm still way nervous about them, especially with all the gorgeousness at that community, but I figure I gotta post them now, since the round is about to end. Anyway, I was inspired by a lot of different artists and styles.

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

Alts:

21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28
29	30	31	32
33	34	35	36
37	38	39	40

1. collage/ tumas by saul steinberg
2. I was going for a sketched style here with the lightness of the icon
3 - 7: Warhol
6: Warhol + Vogue from prompt + Picasso
8. Postcards by Saul Steinberg/prompt: "scenery"
9. texture 24 upinarms
10. Matisse portrait x Warhol
11. canvassy look
12. collage, rauschenberg prompts, Filanov, Matisse
13. Matisse-based texture + canvassy feel
14. Paul Klee
15. marble
16. Rembrandt portraits x modern
17. Duchamp outline / "outline" prompt/ also inspired by longerthanwedo
18. Matisse room, Dali/surrealism
19. Edward Hopper
20. Impressionists

Alts:
21. Klee
22: color schemes from Matisse's "Young Woman in a Blue Blouse"
34. color schemes from Matisse's "Young Woman in a Blue Blouse" + attempted painterly feel
23. Blueymcphuey

Will finish posting more inspirations later.

1. Comments are so, so seriously LOVED. Thanks in advance to anyone who comments and to everyone who commented on any of our last posts <3
2. Please credit if snagging.
3. If you like what you see and want to get updates when we (mancalahour or I) post more textures, Wire graphics, and more, please consider watching or joining MOSAICALLY.

FIXED DOWNLOAD Harper 010: Famous Art Inspired Textures

happy_harper13 — Mon, 14 May 2012 22:26:40 GMT

ETA: THE DOWNLOAD FOR THE SECOND SET IS NOW FIXED. YOU CAN NOW DOWNLOAD IT AS A ZIP AT THE DEVIANTART LINK. SORRY FOR THE MIX-UP. Also for the capslock.

Here lies yet another 2 texture sets. This one is ~different~, although not in a way that actually impacts their usability. This time, I started with images of famous artwork instead of stock images.

The theme this month at 20inspirations was famous art, and, once again, I started making icons and got distracted by all the cool shapes, colors and surfaces and ended up making textures instead, although this time I'm totally gonna finish my icon set too. Anyway, here are both famous art-based texture sets.

PREVIEWS:

DOWNLOAD HERE

DOWNLOAD HERE

Individual Textures (Set 1)

Lissitzky, Matisse, Monet & Stella

1. Comments are ♥.
2. So is credit. (<lj-user="happy-harper13"> @ <lj-user="mosaically">)
3. If you like what you see, we'd love it if you decided to watch or join mosaically.

Happy almost-Cinco de Mayo, and stay fabulous,
Harper FIXED

Mancalahour o20

mancalahour — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:11:49 GMT

20 icons + alternates for my first ever round at inspired20in20.
Included fandoms are...
TV: Legend of the Seeker, Once Upon a Time, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Skins, Sherlock, Merlin, Misfits.
Films: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Harry Potter, The Fall.

And finally, a plea: I have several challenges I want to get done this month (fingers crossed I can finish them all!) and I would very much like to claim a movie, since I rarely icon them. Unfortunately, since many cap sites have been closing down, I can't find screencaps of Brick or The Science of Sleep. If anyone knows where I might find caps, or if anyone's willing to cap it for me, I'd be so grateful! ♥ If you like incentive, maybe I could do a request for you or something ;).

Supplied Caps
01 - 05
06 - 10

Artists Choice Caps
11 - 15
16 - 20

Alternates
21 - 22

1. Comments are ♥.
2. Credit is much appreciated. (mancalahour@mosaically)
3. Please don't steal/hotlink/use as bases.
4. watch/join?

Harper 009: Black & White Texture Grab Bag #2 (icon-sized)

happy_harper13 — Tue, 08 May 2012 01:17:06 GMT

Hey y'all,

I'm finally beginning to catch up on posting my backlog of textures, and I decided to start out of order with my 9th texture set because it's the one that's been the most fun to make. There are 43 unique textures in this batch, along with 4 black-and-white versions of textures in set 8 that I made for innocent_lexys's texture battle a while back and 2 variations of other textures in this post. Related notes and credit are at the bottom of this post here.

Anyway, on to the textures, and I hope you guys find them at least marginally useful :)

stay cool,
Harper

Download the whole set HERE
OR
View and save individual textures HERE.

DOWNLOAD @ DEVIANTART

Individual Textures, of which there are 51:

Notes/Credit:

Texture battle credit: the following textures were made with screencaps provided by the following fabulous makers for innocent_lexys's texture battle:
texture #1, 1st row: my_innersanctum
texture #2, 2nd-to-last row: apologizeg
texture #3, 2nd-to-last row: antoinettemason
texture #4, 2nd-to-last row: vetica
texture #1, last row: apologizeg

There are more texture battle textures to come with the next batches. Everyone provided such beautiful resources.

Oh, and for today's mostly off-topic question, I've heard some people prefer not getting textures from DeviantArt. Does anyone know why this is? (Depending on the reason, I might post these on box.com, mediafire or similar as well.)

Mancalahour o19 Skins Icons!

mancalahour — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:25:16 GMT

+40 Skins (spoilers for s6)

The theme for this round of 20inspirations is Down The Rabbit Hole: "A metaphor for adventure into the unknown"
Unusual crops, trippy colorings, seeing double, surreal coloring. Weird and crazy stuff.

It was a super fun round to do once I finally got started! So be warned: I went totally batshit crazy on more than a few of these! They might not all be drop-dead-gorgeous, but I felt like I really experimented and stepped outside of my comfort zone. Also included is my entry for turbo_rumble's round 6, "Tell A Story" in which I use Rich and Grace to show Romeo & Juliet. Thanks for watching!

20inspirations Round 17: Down The Rabbit Hole

01 - 05
06 - 10
11 - 15
16 - 20

Alts/Rejects/Extra

21 - 25

Entry and textless extras for turbo_rumble round 6, Tell A Story. (Romeo & Juliet via Rich/Grace)

26 - 30
31 - 35
36 - 40 </center>

1. Comments are ♥.
2. Credit is much appreciated. (mancalahour@mosaically)
3. Please don't steal/hotlink/use as bases.
4. watch/join?

Mancalahour o18 Icons + Textures!

mancalahour — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 21:23:18 GMT

In This Post:
05 Once Upon a Time
04 Legend of the Seeker
20 Doctor Who
05 Sherlock
01 Icon-sized Texture Set

I've been in a bit of a graphics slump lately, but I have some things due for the end of the month. So I thought maybe if I get rid of these older icons clogging up my folders, it will be like a clean slate for the things I have to start on. This post encompasses a bunch of different challenges, from a sci-fi fantasy battle by marcasite to some group challenges from wonderous_stuff and more.

Look for a Skins s6 post in the coming weeks. I've claimed it for 20inspirations this month, and decided to hold back my other Skins icons to be posted at the same time. As always, thanks for watching! ♥

Once Upon a Time, Legend of the Seeker, and Doctor Who for marcasite's Sci-Fi/Fantasy Battle HERE.

01 - 05

06 - 10

11 - 11

Doctor Who for wonderous_stuff's Doctor Who Fan ID Challenge HERE.

12 - 16

17 - 21

22 - 22

Doctor Who and Sherlock for various challenges/activities.

23 - 26

28 - 29

30 - 34

First ever texture set for wonderous_stuff's Resourceful challenge.
Be sure to check it out if you love textures/tutorials. It's resource heaven.

Download @ box // please comment if you like // credit not necessary, but lovely.

1. Comments are ♥.
2. Credit is much appreciated. (mancalahour@mosaically)
3. Please don't steal/hotlink/use as bases.
4. watch/join?

Harper 008: Multi-Fandom Icons + Texture Set

happy_harper13 — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 21:08:09 GMT

I keep putting off posting these for months, because they never quite seem like enough. Also, I'm probably going to add the alternates later. Anyway, thanks so much for stopping by!

Icons:
13 X-Men: First Class
10 Atonement
9 CSI
9 Luther
6 Downton Abbey
8 The Wire

Table created with accio.nu's icon table(less) generator

Textures:

X-Men: First Class

1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12

ETA:

Atonement

13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20
21	22

CSI

23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30
31

LUTHER

32	33	34	35
36	37	38	39
40

DOWNTON ABBEY

41		42		43		44
45		46

THE WIRE

47		48		49		50
51		52		53

ETA: extra Omar icon with text:

TEXTURES:

Download at DeviantArt here. (or click the banner) If you would like to see and download the icons individually, please let me know and I'll post them.

Any comments are really, really appreciated. It's especially good to know what's working and what isn't. Telling me which icons you like the most or think are the best is seriously so incredibly helpful and many thanks in advance to anyone who's willing to do that. Also, if you're downloading the textures, please comment here, not at DeviantArt.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

All the best,
Harper

P.S. If you like what you see, please watch/join our community!

Mancalahour o16 Skins 602 Rich Caps

mancalahour — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:18:25 GMT

It's getting harder and harder to find decent Skins caps, it seems. It only took me 4 days to realize that the subtitles on my copy weren't hard-coded after all! What a doofus I am. So here they are, in case anyone needs them! I'm not a pro-capper by any means, and I only used VLC, but they're better than nothing!

2.33 GB total, split 4 ways with WinRar. 1280 x 720 resolution.

Rapidshare Links: part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4

1. Comments are always appreciated!
2. You will need WinRar or equivalent to unrar these. .Rar format.
3. You will have to download all 4, because that's how I split it!
4. Credit isn't necessary.
5. This post may be made friends-only in the future due to file sharing concerns.
6. Enjoy!
7. watch/join?

Mancalahour o15 icons, finally!

mancalahour — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:04:03 GMT

20 Tropes for 20inspirations round 15 + 4 alts/rejects. Special rounds don't require a specific claim, so this is a mish-mash of fandoms!
17 multifandom icons.

IN THIS POST: Doctor Who, Merlin, Sherlock, Downton Abbey, Community, Skins, Game of Thrones, Batman, and introducing my first ever Once Upon a Time icons!

Warning! Stylistically? ALL OVER THE PLACE! Who needs a comfort zone anyway? ;)

Platonic Life Partners	Rapunzel Hair	The Gunslinger	Action Mom	First Kiss


Heterosexual Life Partners	Disappears Into Lights	Home Sweet Home	Lady In Red	Breakout Character


Love To Hate	Badass	Mind Screw	Break The Cutie	Love Triangle


Shirtless Scene	Anti Hero	Ditzy Genius	Big Damn Hero	Power Trio

Alternates/Rejects

21 - 24

Randoms!

25 - 29

30 - 34

35 - 39

40 - 41

1. Comments are ♥.
2. Credit is much appreciated. (mancalahour@mosaically)
3. Please don't steal/hotlink/use as bases.
4. watch/join?

Mancalahour o14 yet another tutorial!

mancalahour — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:37:55 GMT

Icon making wasn't working for me tonight, so I decided to do another tutorial, requested by capelle over at ask the maker 2.0. Let me preface this by saying that it's not exact, because I don't save PSDs (usually) and the icon is several months old, so my style has changed since then. So this is the best recreation I could come up with. Hopefully it's close enough for capelle! ♥

I'm using PS CS5, tutorial includes both selective coloring and variations. Consider yourselves warned! It's also fairly simple, if you know your way around photoshop.

01. Using THIS CAP (apologies, I have no idea where I got my misfits caps. They've been on my hard drive for a long time!), I drag it onto a new 100x100 canvas, and then I use the free transform tool (Edit >> Free Transform) holding down Shift and resize and rotated it a bit.

This icon was created for marcasite's British TV Technical Challenge, the prompt was Close Crop. I would have gone even closer, but I thought her fingers and cigarette added a little something extra, like visual depth and sort of....character representation? Just couldn't crop it out!

02. Duplicate, set to Screen 100%

03. Duplicate again, above the screen layer, set this layer to Soft Light 81%

04. New Vibrance adjustment layer, +60 vibrance.

05. Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E (this copies and pastes merged). I use Gaussian Blur on this layer at 6.5 radius. I create a layer mask for this layer, and use a medium gray soft brush to brush over most of Kelly except for her hand and the edges of her hair. Then I use a darker brush and brush again over most of her face and some of her hair. Full black brush one more time over the details of her face and the lighter, more prominent parts of her hair.

I do this because Misfits uses a blur filter relatively often in their show, so that the subjects, or parts of them, are in focus, and the rest is just a little fuzzy. So I use this method in a lot of Misfits icons because I feel it expresses the feeling of the show best. Also, her fingers are naturally out of focus, so it wouldn't make much sense to try to bring them into focus with PS. That probably wouldn't look too great.

Before the blur layer.
After the blur layer.

Not a huge difference, but whatever ;).

06. New Color Balance adjustment layer.

Shadows: +15, -3, +6
Midtones: +15, -20, -13
Highlights: -16, -1, +10

07. Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E again. Image >> Adjustments >> Variations. The little slider is one mark LEFT of center.

Shadows: Yellow x2, Red
Midtones: Yellow, Red
Highlights: Blue x4, Cyan x2

- Gaussian Blur this layer at 0.5 radius, set to Soft Light 30%.

08. New Color Fill layer: #2b231f set to Screen 66%. Move this layer UNDER the layer in the last step.

09. New Color Balance adjustment layer.

Shadows: +5, 0, 0
Highlights: -10, 0, +15

10. Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E again. Image >> Adjustments >> Variations. Slider in the same place as before. Make sure you click the little image that says ORIGINAL in the upper left hand corner. Always do this when you're using variations, or it will use the settings you used last.

Shadows: Red, Magenta
Midtones: Cyan, Yellow
Shadows: Yellow x2, Red
Lighter x1

- Same layer, Image >> Adjustments >> Vibrance, Vibrance 100%. Set layer to Screen, 25%.

11. Light and Dark blobs, blurred, set to Soft Light 55%. You guys will have to experiment here for yourselves, because I don't know how to accurately show my light blobs with transparancies.

12. New Selective Color adjustment layer.

Reds
cyan -20

yellow +25
black -6

Neutrals

yellow -7
black +6

Blacks

cyan -2
black -1

13. New Color Balance adjustment layer.

Shadows: 0, 0, -9
Highlights: -6, 0, +19

14. Ctrl + Shift + Alt + E. Filter >> Sharpen >> Sharpen, Edit >> Fade Sharpen 55%. Then I masked out the parts I wanted to stay blurry, like her hand, and the lower right and top left corners.

Et Voila! Here's what my layer palette looks like when I'm finished:

And to kill two birds with one stone, check out TurboRumble! Wanna join me in my first round?

Rules & Information | Round 6 Sign Ups | Round 6 Themes | Round 6 Submissions

1. Comments are ♥.
2. This tutorial is for instructional? purposes only. Please don't recreate this icon and claim as your own.
3. watch/join?

happyharper 007: black-and-white-ish textures

happy_harper13 — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:19:55 GMT

download at deviantart or download individual textures below

Not all of these are entirely monochromatic. Some are a little bit more saturated, but they're mostly b&w. Also, I want to thank everyone who replied to my question about texture making over at icon_talk, as well as all of the fabulous makers who have done texture making tutorials recently.

Pick'n'choose('n'download):

If you like what you see, please watch/join our community!

Best of 2011 Icons + Congrats to Nikki!

happy_harper13 — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:50:46 GMT

GO VOTE!

Hey y'all!

deternot and shadadukal are running an exciting event over at bestof_icons. Basically, LJers nominate 1-5 of a given maker's best icons from 2011. Then all nominations for a maker are compiled and everyone votes on the maker's best. Nikki and I are both participating, along with a bunch of other talented makers. Whether you make icons, look for them, or both, I think you'll find an insane amount of inspiration, new makers to check out, and new favorite icons and userpics, regardless of your fandom, there. It's like if someone took all the best from the last year and put them in one community, combined into a few posts. And the good thing about this phase, if you choose to vote, is that it's the easier, quicker phase. Anyway, I think I speak for Nikki as well when I say we'd both love it if you checked it out, and even more if you decided to vote on our sets :) Anyway, enjoy!

Nikki's Set (2nd set on the page)
Harper's Set (4th set on the page)

Also, on an unrelated note, major congrats to Nikki for getting invited to the amazing wonderous_stuff! There is truly beautiful work there, and I strongly recommend checking it out. Click here to watch wonderous-stuff if you're not already.

Anyway, thanks for sticking with this comm and (hopefully) tolerating this spam post. I'm going to follow Nikki's example and not post any more spam in this community for a while, but I think this event is unusually exciting.

All the best & belated Happy Holidays,
Harper

Mancalahour o13

mancalahour — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:08:23 GMT

I'll stop spamming the comm after this post, I promise! This is a teeny tiny little update, and then I probably won't have much to post for a bit! These 10 icons were made for jelly_head91 for winning my Christmaspalooza auction! They're already overdue, so I didn't want to make her wait any longer. She has generously agreed to share, so all icons are shareable!

A huge thank you to the lovely Samantha (absolutelybatty) for being an utter gem and helping me cap-hunt! ♥ I'm also very happy to announce that I can now be found at wonderous_stuff alongside her and other extremely talented makers! Watch that space for pretty pretty icons, fun challenges, and activities!

5 Downton Abbey + 1 Alt
5 Pan Am

01 - 04

05 - 08

09 - 11

Comments are ♥! Credit is much appreciated, but not required (mancalahour @ mosaically). Please do not steal/hotlink/use as bases.
If you like what you see, please watch/join our community!

Mancalahour 012: How To Be Textual: A Guide

mancalahour — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 08:16:35 GMT

Back with my second tutorial, which is actually more of a guide! library_of_sex requested that I please impart my wisdom about my text work and how I achieve it. HER WORDS, NOT MINE.

I want to start out by saying that I really don't feel like I'm any kind of authority on text what-so-ever, so it feels a little weird making a guide like this. Most of what I know about text I learned from other makers' tutorials and font-guides, so if this reads like something you've already seen, I apologize. I can only hope that it's helpful to someone anyway!

This guide assumes some knowledge of Photoshop. I'm using CS5.

1. I keep a notebook. I put this first because I think this is probably my most useful tool when it comes to text. I know I've said this to a few people before when they asked about where I get ideas for graphics. Between me and my monitor is a (very cluttered) strip of desk for my drink, some candles, DVDs, and most importantly, my notebooks. I use these notbooks for everything, but mostly for text ideas! When I hear a snippet of lyrics from a song I like, I write them down in the notebook, especially if they bring to mind a TV show or ship or character. I jot down quotes from a show or movie that I can later use.

Texspiration can come from anywhere, and it's important (for me, anyway) to write it down as soon as it surfaces, because I WILL forget if I procrastinate about it. Yesterday I was looking through my texture folder while making an icon, and a pretty texture brought to mind a common phrase that I wrote down and later used in an icon. WRITE THAT SHIT DOWN, MY FRIENDS.

I also use this notebook to write down fonts that I like so that I can quickly jump to those ones when adding text to something instead of trying out every single font from the drop-down menu until I find one I like.

2. Ask the maker. If you see someone else using a font you really like, ask them what it is! Reading text guides written by others and asking my favorite makers, "Can I ask what font that is?" are the two biggest ways I've found fonts I like. If you want it, ask for it!

3. Experiment. Experiment. Experiment. Even though I have a list of fonts that I love written down (my GO-TO fonts, if you will), I still spend a lot of time clicking through that damn drop-down menu to see if a different font will work! Practice makes perfect or something, and you won't know until you try. So if you're tired of the same old text, it's all trial and error.

4. Know your tools. Now for some pictures! Of course it's important to know what all the little clicky boxes do in Photoshop, right? Right. Let's have a look.

A. This is something I discovered not too long ago (or maybe it was more like rediscovery, who knows.) There's a little drop down menu up there in the corner that can have more options for your fonts. I believe it depends on whether or not they're open type or not? I'm not totally sure. If anyone else knows, feel free to speak up! Anyway, here's what the menu looks like if you click it.

B. Tracking. This number determines how F A R A P A R T your letters/words are.

C. Horizontally Scale. This number determines how short and fat or tall and skinny your letters are! Usually I have this number set somewhere between 75% and 110%.

D. Anti-Alias. Experiment with this box, it determines how smooth/strong/crisp/sharp your text is. Never EVER choose 'none', but you knew that already, right?

There are other boxes that I'm not delving into, but hopefully everybody knows what those are already.

5. Experiment some more! Using the same font in the same style of the same color etc. in one icon can get a little boring. Vary the size in your words. Make some words italic, some bold. Space them differently with the tracking. Play around with it until you think it looks good.

6. Text Color.Everyone probably already knows that I usually go for black or white text, because it matches everything. But if you're going to go with colored text, try to take your colors out of the icon. Another thing I like to do with text is use a Gradient on a Clipping Mask. How about an example? Okay!

Nouvelle Vague 24 px, 100 Tracking, 90% Horizontal Scale, Smooth Anti-alias.
The white on green hurts your eyes a little, right? Let's make it look pretty with a gradient!

Create a new gradient layer on top of your text layer.

+ set to multiply =
That doesn't look right either, does it? But if we right click on our gradient and hit Create Clipping Mask, we get this:
Hey, not too shabby, right?

Now, I want to see more of the colors from the gradient on my text. So I right click on my gradient layer again and choose Rasterize Layer. Then, on my toolbar, I go to Edit >> Free Transform, and I squish my gradient so that it looks like this:

You can also use textures instead of or in addition to gradients in the same way when you use clipping masks, like I did in this icon:

7. Blur. I pretty much always blur my text at least a little.

Rasterize your text layer (Right Click >> Rasterize Type), and then with CTRL held down, I select both the gradient layer and the text layer, right click again >> Merge Layers. Now that my colored text is all one layer, I go to Filter >> Blur >> Box Blur, Radius 1px. Immediately after that, I go up to Edit >> Fade Box Blur, and drag the slider down to 20%.

8. Drop Shadow. This is something I do fairly often with text, because most of the time the icon under your text isn't all one color. You run into problems when your text is too light on the light parts of your icon, or too dark on the dark parts. That's where Drop Shadow comes in.

First of all, duplicate your text layer and make the copy invisible. I always try to keep an un-touched copy around in case I need it, especially when I'm messing with layer style. Double Click your visible text layer. Using #454d24, here are my settings:

And here's what it looks like!: That drop shadow added a little something, right?

9. Lighting & adjustment layers. If you read my other tutorial, you know how important lighting is too me. If you have a soft light layer or some light blob layers, pull your text under them. It helps make the text look more at home in the icon.

Remember that copy of the text we made before we dropped shadow? Make sure it's on top of your drop-shadowed text, and set it to soft light!

Much better! Now if I add even more contrast and lighting with some black and white brushwork, blurred and set to softlight, I get this:

Sharpen (Filter >> Sharpen >> Sharpen) and then Edit >> Fade Sharpen, and voila! Done!

And that's how I do text!

10. Fonts. Obviously. I'm lazy and I don't feel like tracking down links to fonts, but I have a list of my favorites to share with you guys, and some examples of those fonts on my icons (where applicable), in case you were curious. In most cases you can find these fonts free at dafont or http://www.fonts.com/, or just via google search. If you see something you really like but you can't find it, just let me know. I'll see what I can do about getting it for you. I know how frustrating it can be to want a font when it can't be found!

So I hope this was at least a little helpful to some of you, and I hope I answered your questions, Kim!

Mancalahour 011: A tutorial of sorts!

mancalahour — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:16:27 GMT

Okay, here goes nothing! My first tutorial(ish)! absolutelybatty asked how I go about making something for Tumblr, more specifically choosing caps, theme, text, textures, placement, etc. and how to "get your close ups in such high quality on a bigger canvas". longerthanwedo and firstillusion asked how I cut out/blend.

This tutorial assumes a level of familiarity with Photoshop. I'm using CS5. Not for the weak of heart!

As stated, I rarely save PSDs, so it's difficult for me to do a step by step tutorial, so that's not what this is. Apologies if anyone is expecting that! However, I DO happen to have a PSD for one of the tumblr graphics mentioned, which is also one that I cropped down into an icon. So that is going to be pretty useful to us!

I have a feeling this is going to be pretty lengthy, so bear with me! XD

The following graphics were cited as examples:

The PSD available to me is the large pink Gwen graphic, so that's primarily what I'll be talking about here. But you can pretty much rest assured that I used most of the steps in the other graphics as well.

It may or may not be important to note that I originally made this graphic for roughandtumblr's textless challenge. I didn't end up entering it, but that's still what it was for. The required dimensions were 500 x 700, so that's what size I made my canvas.

1. Image Quality without resizing. I started out with this cap by gallicka at gallicka. I chose it because, well, I think it's a pretty cap! The angle of her face is perfect for cropping, and it's got some lovely pinks and yellows in the background.

Now I use a photoshop filter called Topaz Clean, which is pretty popular right now. You can google it to find out more. Now, this step may seem like cheating a little to some, and I don't disagree. But I use it anyway! So this is how I preserve the quality of this cap, because I can't resize it due to the sizing restrictions for roughandtumblr's challenge!

So I duplicate the cap first, and then go to filter >> Topaz Labs >> Topaz Clean. On the left-hand side, I choose Curly Smooth and play with the settings a bit. Strength is about 3, Threshold: 0.10, Radius: 7. Hit OK. Lower the opacity of this layer to about 65%.

I then add a color balance layer to the cap to put more blues and cyans into the highlights, and some more blues and reds into the shadows.

Flatten Image. Filter >> Sharpen >> Sharpen.

2. Open a blank canvas, 500 x 700 px. Drag the cap to the canvas and place it.

3. Duplicate/blur/softlight. Now this step is a bit tricky, but I do it alot. Duplicate your base cap and go to Image > Adjustments > Variations. I want the colors to really pop, so I make this layer still more blue.

Here's what my settings look like to start:

It's important to note that you can click on the sample images below multiple times to get more effect. So with midtones checked, I click on "more blue" several times. Then check Highlights, more blue, more cyan. Shadows, more blue, more red. Hit OK when you're done!

Still on the same layer, next up is Filter >> Blur >> Gaussian Blur. My settings are somewhere around Radius: 6.0 for this layer. Set the layer to Soft Light, and voila! I left the opacity at 100%.

This adds more color, more contrast, and adds a soft glowyness that I like, because it's possible my base was a bit too sharp. It also takes out some of the curlyness on Gwen's skin from the Topaz Adjust in the first step!

4. Blocking/Textures. Making graphics isn't a short process for me by any means. Tumblr graphics in particular can take me anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 or 4 hours, depending. (And trust me, it doesn't usually take 15 minutes! XD). So the best advice I can give to anybody is to play around, because that's all I do! I mess around until I find something I like. I know a lot of makers say that, but that's because it's true!

Anyway, I wanted som negative space, so I used the Rectangular marquee tool on a new blank layer to select a rectangle of space over Gwen's eye. With the space selected, Edit >> Fill. A box pops up. From the dropdown, choose "Color". A palette opens. I used the color #5c1b2b, which is a color from the BASE image, which just goes to show that I didn't make the graphic in this exact order when I made it! And that, my friends, is why writing tutorials is HARD! XD

Click for full.

Now I want to use that blank space! So I go looking for textures, and decided on this one by butterphil because it has a lot of the pinks that already exist in my image, but it also brings some other colors to the table. I drag it from my folder onto my canvas so that I automatically get the transform tools. Without locking the aspect ratio, I manipulate the texture until it takes up the rectangle of pink I just created in the last step. Set this layer to Soft Light, 100% opacity. Later, I would mask some of this away because of the Gwen cut out that I add.

Next up is this texture by talkofcake. Same thing, but this time I DO lock the aspect ratio by clicking the chain link on my tool palette! I place it over Gwen's eyes, because the mountains/water/sky are sort of...reflecting Camelot in her eyes? That's what I was going for, anyway, and absolutelybatty asked for rambly thought processes! ♥. So I want to keep the photo but not the letters and whatnot, so I mask that part away. Set to Overlay, 44% Fill.

Click for full.

5. Okay, now for the horribly time consuming and boring part, and also the part that starts to answer longerthanwedo's question! Cutting out Mini Gwen!

I open this cap, again by gallicka. First things first, I use Topaz Clean on my image just like I did in the very first step of this tutorial. I do this because it produces clearer lines, and that makes it easier to cut out! I should add that since I don't always use Topaz Clean on my icons in particular, that this step is optional. But for this Tumblr graphic, it integrated this smaller Gwen into the graphic more if she's Topaz Cleaned the same way our first Gwen close-up is. Does that make sense? I hope so!

Next, I duplicate the new base. Then I open a new color fill layer IN BETWEEN the base cap and the duplicate I just made, preferably with a contrasting color, just because this makes it easier to see and work with. It really doesn't matter what color you choose, because that layer isn't going to be in your graphic at all. It just helps to see the edges. You'll see what I mean!

On the topmost layer, I use the Magnetic Lasso Tool to select Gwen. On your tool palette, make sure you choose "New Selection" and check the "Anti-Alias" box. My settings are as follows: Feather: 1px, Width: 1px, Contrast: 10%, Freqency 77.

I always start out at the bottom-left-hand-side of my subject and work my way around her. Now a few things about magnetic lasso: first, zoom way in! Slowly move your cursor around the edge of your subject. Since it's magnetic, it will sort of "sense" the edge. If it messes up, don't worry about it: just keep going. We can fix it later with masking. The slower you go, the more points it will add. If there's a specific indentation that you feel needs to have a point, but the magnetic lasso doesn't want to make one right where you want it, YOU can CLICK there, and it will make a point!

Click for Full.

Obviously I messed up pretty badly around the top of her head and to the right of her arm. But that's okay! I'm lazy and I don't want to start over, so I just make sure she's totally selected, and then hit the Mask Button at the bottom of your layer palette:

Now that she's got a layer mask, I mask away the parts of the background that are still there, or I mask IN the parts of her that I may have accidentally caught with the Magnetic Lasso. I use a small soft brush and change the size as needed. Remember to zoom way in! For the parts under her arms that weren't a part of the original Magnetic Lasso Selection, you can either magnetic lasso ON THE MASK and then Fill >> black, or you can just mask them away with the brush. Up to you! I go either way, depending on how big the area is. For this one, I'll just mask them out. This cap is pretty difficult because of Gwen's hair.

Click for Full.

At this point I did a little color alteration, which is slightly unusual for me. I'm not totally sure what I did, but there was at least an Image >> Adjustments >> Vibrance.

6. Placing/Resizing Gwen. I drag this Gwen onto my canvas with the close-up and the textures, layer mask and all. With this layer selected, I go to Edit >> Transform >> Scale. Make sure your little Chain Link is checked to preserve aspect ratio, or hold Shift as you resize. When I get her to the size I want, I go to Edit >> Transform >> Flip Horizontal.

Last chance to erase/add anything with your layer mask! If you're happy with the cut-out now that she's smaller, right-click the mask in your palette and Apply Mask!

Now here's where things get tricky, because I move layers around all the time, and can't accurately pinpoint WHEN I moved something. But in my layer palette, I have this small Gwen under the Pink and Green butterphil texture, so I need to mask away the parts of this that cover Gwen.

7. Blending The Gwens. As you can see at this point, our New Gwen doesn't quite fit in with the colors and softness of our Textured Gwen, so I work with that for a little while. First of all, duplicate your Small Gwen and save this duplicate for later, because right now we're going to make some changes. Click the eye next to your duplicate for now, so that you can only see one.

On your visible small Gwen, we're going to drop shadow. Double Click the layer, and a layer style window will pop up. Check and Highlight Drop Shadow. I use #350c14.

Now I want to try and match her coloring to the background, so I create a new Color Balance Layer. Before I even start messing with it, I right click the Color Balance layer and choose Create Clipping Mask. Then I do my best to match the colors up. Best thing to do is play with it! I put more yellow in the midtones and highlights, more blue and magenta in the shadows, etc.

It needs a LOT more contrast, so remember that mini-Gwen that we saved for later? Make her visible now! Duplicate AGAIN, because we always want to have a copy available that hasn't been messed with! Make your duplicate invisible. Now I can't tell you exactly what I did here, but I vastly changed this copy of our Gwen. I probably adjusted the Levels and upped the Vibrance at the very very least. And then I set her to Overlay, 100% opacity. This adds a lot of contrast, and almost looks like she fits!

8. Lighting is key. In my opinion, when it comes to blending, lighting is the key to success. This is possibly the biggest step to integrating your subjects and making them look like they belong in the same frame. I create soft light layers full of black and white brushwork early and often.

To start, open a new blank layer, set it to Soft Light right from the start. A good tip might be to start out by simply using a soft round brush to paint white over the parts of your canvas that are already light and then black over the parts that are already dark. I think that part of the reason this graphic doesn't blend very well even at the end (in my opinion) is that the light sources between these two caps is different. Really, if I wanted them to blend better, I shouldn't have horizontally flipped the smaller gwen. But I wanted her facing this way, so. To each his own!

I'm going to try, now, to show the black and white light textures that I made, but keep in mind they can't show accurately due to transparency. So I'm putting the black and white paint on a gray canvas. It's the best I can do!

Those two are used primarily to help the lighting and contrast of the Smaller Gwen integrate into the graphic.

9. Adding Arthur. At this point in the process, I decided I wanted some Arthur in there for a few reasons. The first reason is that, well, I ship it! The second reason is that, well, he's pretty! And the third reason, of course, is that there's a lot of space to the right that needs to be filled. I felt that even MORE Gwen would have been superfluous. I chose this cap because he's looking down, and that makes it easier to use only a corner of his face. Also I really like look-down caps.

I was getting lazy at this point, so instead of Magnetic Lasso'ing his whole face, I just placed the cap (Edit >> Free Transform) and then masked away the bits I didn't want. This layer is set to Screen at 100%. Then I duplicated him, set to Soft Light 100% opacity, and that second layer is made into a Clipping Mask (Right Click layer, Create Clipping Mask).

10. More Lights! Coloring and Gradients. I'm going to get more vague right now, because I really can't go into the coloring more than I already have. I have a bad habit of ctrl+shift+alt+E (copy/paste merged) and then messing with it, and placing layers under established layers. So it's impossible for me to tell when and where I did something.

I can tell you that I added two more layers of lights:

I used vibrance and selective coloring to bring out the colors even more. I copy/pasted merged a few more times and did various things to those layers before setting them to Overlay or Soft Light. I added two more textures (or pieces of textures) and a gradient. But I think that I have (hopefully) answered the questions without needing these steps! So here is the product of the steps I've listed side by side with my finished product:

11. Cropping into an icon. I almost forgot this step! This is the easiest part, really. I always sharpen (Filter >> Sharpen >> Sharpen) one more time before I drag the completed Tumblr graphic into a new 100 x 100 px canvas. Then I Edit >> Transform >> Free Transform (lock your aspect ratio!) and move it around on the canvas resizing as I go until I find a crop I like! At that point, it may or may not need some more sharpening, and sometimes a duplicate set on softlight at a low opacity! That's it!

Let me know how I did! XD If anyone has more questions about this tutorial, feel free to ask in the comments!

Or if you have questions about other graphics, or just my style in general, the Ask the Maker activity at icon_talk is still going on OVER HERE!

mancalahour: a few things!

mancalahour — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:15:00 GMT

Ask The Maker || My Thread

ICON NOMINATIONS - JOIN IN! | MANCALAHOUR'S THREAD | HAPPY_HARPER13'S THREAD

And HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! Thank you for watching our community this year!

Mancalahour o10

mancalahour — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:22:30 GMT

20 Merlin icons for 20inspirations. Theme: complex! (CAN YOU GUESS WHAT I SHIP?!)
22 Misc. other icons/alts/rejects/challenge entries (includes Merlin, Doctor Who, Skins, Luther, Pan Am)
03 Tumblr graphics (please do NOT repost! I've left a link straight to the post on tumblr for each one in case anybody has the urge to reblog! ♥)

Some of these graphics were made for various challenges! My entries for wonderous_stuff's battle are here, also graphics for roughandtumblr, 20inspirations, obviously, iconfest, and various others! Gah, December is such a busy month! I'd also like to take a second to thank everyone who nominated or voted for me over at wonderous_stuff's awards! I'm so honored, guys, truly.

01. theme // 02. words: blind // 03. words: divided // 04. words: wordy // 05. theme

01 - 05

06. wallpaper (motorized) // 07. video (skins) // 08. icons (aliasledger) // 09. words: blend // 10. words: boxes

06 - 10

11. icons (colourmayfade) // 12. words: wordy // 13.icon (mirrorskies) // 14. theme // 15. words: mirror

11 - 15

16. icons (blueymcphluey) // 17. words: story // 18. words: blend // 19. icons (motorized), texture by Lex! // 20. photos

16 - 20

alts/rejects/other unrelated

21 - 25

26 - 30

31 - 35

36 - 40

41 - 42

43.

tumblr

44.

tumblr

45.

tumblr

Comments are ♥! Credit is much appreciated, but not required (mancalahour @ mosaically). Please do not steal/hotlink/use as bases.
If you like what you see, please watch/join our community!

Raise the Roof thread @ Wonderous Stuff + Other Exciting Update

happy_harper13 — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 04:52:57 GMT

mancalahour both have threads at Wonderous Stuff's "Raise the Roof Off" meme. Speaking for myself, any comments to my thread would really, really rock my socks, and I suspect mancalahour feels the same way. That kind of feedback is basically the most useful thing ever, IMO. You basically pick up to 6 of a particular maker's icons that you think are his or her best.

Anyway, if you feel so inclined, you can click the banners above to get to our threads. If you have a thread there too, let me know, and I'll be happy to check it out and comment if I haven't already :)

++ Also, some of you guys have seen the recent update on wonderous_stuff, but, in case you missed it, mancalahour won 2nd place for up-and-coming maker there. I think she mentioned one of the things she was nominated for, but, being a classy person with humility, she did not mention all of the other things (like individual icon categories) that she was nominated for there. But I can. Also, this whole competition is pretty much jawdroppingly stunning. If you're interested in icon making (or just looking at incredible prettiness and creativity), go check it out at wonderous-stuff.

mancalahour — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 18:31:17 GMT

Icon Appreciation Month Awards

OH MY GOD YOU GUYS. Whoever nominated me, I am in love with you, and thank you so much ♥. It was such a shock to find that I'd been nominated! I can't even wrap my head around it. Just to be nommed for something like 'best icon chameleon' is insane, and it truly doesn't even matter if I win. So anyway, click the link, go vote for your favorites. ♥ ♥ ♥

And while I have your attention, so as not to take up more than one post pimping things, this is still open:

about the auction | my auction thread

Do you guys know of any other great holiday exchanges or challenges that I don't know about? Leave 'em in the comments!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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