Opal Necklace

Master and Commander -- Stephen Maturin

2004-12-08T19:41:04Z

So I gave in and made Master and Commander icons. These are all of Stephen, except for one that has both Jack and Stephen.

Teasers:

01. 02.
03. 04.
05. 06.
07. 08.
09.

10. 11.

The quote in #1 is from H.M.S. Surprise; from a different part of it, granted, but at least I got the book right. The quote in #3 is from The Mauritius Command. The prelude to Bach's Unaccompanied Cello Suite is one of the pieces from the movie.

Please comment if you like them and/or are taking them :)

Please credit alpheratz in icon keywords or comments

Do not direct link

Caps by imthelobster

Textures by icons_with_love and blimey_icons

I badly need a new layout here, but there's no time...

Discworld icons, mainly of the Vetinari persuasion

2004-10-14T19:43:52Z

[x-posted to book_icons]

I have to get them out of my system, otherwise the books will eat my brain. Actually, they already have, but.

1. 2.

3. 4. 5.
6. 7.
8. 9. 10.

Please comment if you like them/are taking them. Keyword credit is always nice. :)

FULL ICON TUTORIAL: Violet Baudelaire

2004-10-06T22:16:17Z

Making this icon in PS7:

Pretty short, and it's more a stylistic tutorial than a technical one, I think. Makes use of lesser-used blend modes. Not really for beginners, because I'm assuming you know what and where the tools are.

These are the layers, in reverse order. I hope this is easy enough to follow. :)

Base, already sharpened and smoothed.

Duplicate of the base, sharpened once more. All the bits except the eye and the bit where hair meets the jaw have been erased. This layer is set to Normal @ 84% opacity.

Duplicate of the base, set to Color Dodge @ 55% opacity.

Exclusion layer. 1F2E70, 100% opacity

Gradient by crumblingwalls, set to Color Dodge @ 42% opacity.

Duplicate of the base, set to Overlay @ 100%

Brush by hermintage in #FFFFB1, Soft Light, 100% opacity.

Brush in #91994C on Color Dodge, 100%

Same brush, same settings

A piece of a LotR jewelry brush from Evenstar Art in #91994C, set to Color Dodge @ 81%. The previous two brushes are actually this same brush, only run through Gaussian Blur and rotated a bit.

Border brush by I forget who in #91994C, set to Multiply @ 100%

Border brush by I forget who in #91994C, set to Multiply @ 44%

Text: Times New Roman, Bold, 8 pt, antialias Strong, #91994C, set to Linear Burn @ 93%

End result:

63 icons in various fandoms

2004-10-04T19:02:03Z

Namely:

The Princess Diaries 2 - Pride and Prejudice - Amelie - The Princess Bride - Narnia - LotR - David Bowie - A Series of Unfortunate Events - Non-Fandom

Teasers:

Finally, a monstrous post.

1. The Princess Diaries 2

1. 2. 3. 4.
5. 6.

2. Pride and Prejudice
[Some of these are were made with a somewhat experimental technique, using cincodemaygirl's astronomy bases. And, some of these are rather... pretentious. Phe4r.]

7. 8. 9. 10.
10.5 11. 12. 13.
14.

3. Amelie
[Sap warnings apply]

15. 16. 17. 18.

4. The Princess Bride

19. 20. 21. 22.
23. 24. 25. 26.
27. 28. 29. 30.
31. 32. 33. 34.
35. 36. 37. 38.
39.

5. Narnia

40. 41.

6. LotR
[one or two of these = a joke.]

42. * 43. 44. 45.
46.

* First place in lotrstillnesscontest.

7. David Bowie

47. 48.

8. A Series of Unfortunate Events

49. 50. 51. 52.
53. 54. 55. 56.
57. 58. 59. 60.
61. 62.

9. Non-Fandom
63.

There are a few rules:
Comment
Credit in keywords
Don't hotlink
Enjoy. :)

Very Very Short and Simple icon tutorial for PS + Blend Modes reference table.

2004-09-01T19:44:36Z

How to make many different icons similar to the one I’m using in just a few *very* easy steps in Photoshop 7. This can also act as a guide to blend modes.

This is the base we’re using; I got from cateblanchett.net:

Paste the base into a new 100x100 px document. Above it, paste one of the beautiful star bases from cincodemaygirl’s post over here. I’ll be using this one:

Change the blend mode and/or opacity of the star image - here's how:

Then add a border, and there you go!

Examples using different blend modes and opacities:

You can work from here to tweak the icon - for example, you could run the star base through Variations (Image -> Adjustments -> Variations), change the Hue/Saturation (Image -> Adjustments -> Hue/Saturation), use one of the blur filters on the star image (Filter -> Blur), use two different star textures set to different blend modes.

I'd love to know if you found this useful. And if you have any questions/criticism, that's welcome too. :)

(x-posted to icon_tutorial)

LOTR; HARRY POTTER; The Notebook: 19 icons total

2004-08-17T22:37:08Z

16 LOTR (movie & actor); 1 Hermione, 2 Notebook icons. There's a bunch of Gimli icons here in particular, because he is underappreciated. Also, one Legolas/Gimli icon, so if that isn't to your taste, skip it.

Previews:

LOTR
01. 02. 03. 04.
05. 06. 07. 08.
09.* 10. 11.^ 12.
13. 14. 14.*** 15.**
16. 17.

Harry Potter

18.

The Notebook

19. 20.

___________
* Second place at lotrstillness
** First place at lotr_hush
*** Third place at lotrstillness

^ Tutorial available

Rules
Please leave a comment and credit alpheratz in the icon keywords!

FULL ICON TUTORIAL for PS 7: Viggo and a kitten

2004-08-05T14:57:13Z

Making this:

in PS7. Very short and simple, and I'm pretty sure that it's easily translated into PSP and older PS versions.

The lovely leprechaun_ posted a beautiful picture of Viggo with a kitten. I cropped it to get this base:

Then I created a new document, took this texture that I made myself (very simple - make a layer, fill with it a gradient, and apply some brushes over it) and set it as the very bottom layer, Blend mode Normal:

Then, I created a new layer above the texture and pasted the Viggo base over it. Blend mode Overlay, opacity 100%. I duplicated this layer. So, now I have a texture base, and two Viggo & kitten layers set to overlay. I sharpened the middle layer (Filter -> Sharpen -> Sharpen), and got this:

It’s too saturated, so I put in this gradient in between the two Viggo layers and set it to Screen, opacity 27%:

Then on top, I added a border brush in #BCC5DA and an ellipsis in #8E97B2, because I couldn’t find what to say, and thought that it’s a pretty adequate reaction to the photo anyway. :D Voila, the end:

Here’s the layers palette for reference:

I hope you found it useful. Comments solicited. :D

(crossposted)

LOTR: Cate Blanchett and RotK

2004-07-28T20:50:56Z

Teasers:

Cate Blanchett

01. 02. 03.
04. 05. 06.
07. 08. 09.
10. 11.

Return of the King

12. 13. 14.
15.

By zee way, the textless icons aren't bases, although I could be persuaded to customise them for you if you want text on them. Please comment and credit alpheratz in the keywords if you take any!

FULL ICON TUTORIAL for PS7: Already Burning (Faramir)

2004-07-28T18:53:49Z

This tutorial assumes you know the names of the tools, what Blend modes are, etc, but it’s fairly straightforward.

Here’s the labelled Layers palette:

The base I will be working with is this:

I cropped it from a cap that I found in the LOTR Image Library, and used the Smudge tool to build up the background where there wasn’t any.

I decided to experiment with a technique I’ve never used for icons before. So, for my base layer, I put in this texture layer I made myself:

Basically, first I made this brush:

and then stamped it on a white layer in a pale cyan colour a couple of times. That’s how I made the texture.

Above the texture layer, I pasted my base and set it to Colour Burn at 100% opacity. Then I duplicated this layer and set it to Multiply @ 17%. Actually, two Colour Burn layers looked really nice as well. This is what the icon looks like now:

For reference, here is what the colour adjusted layers look like:
Colour Burn:
Multiply:

I think I also sharpened the Colour Burn layer once.

I decided I don’t like to colouring very well, so I went to Image -> Adjustments -> Variations for the two top layers and clicked around for something I liked. I think I made the highlights and shadows More Yellow, and the midtones More Red and More Cyan. This is what I have now:

Then I made a new top layer and applied one of quebelly’s fabulous Times New Roman brushes in B7DFD1:

I set the layer to Colour Dodge at 22% opacity, and I think I moved it a little higher than it was when I first applied it.

Then I created another layer directly below this one, and applied one of my Lemony Snicket brushes to it in 53AA67:

I liked the texture it gave to the background, but it obscured Faramir’s face, so I applied a layer mask to this layer, and covered up the parts I didn’t like. This is the icon up to this point:

Then I created a new layer at the very top, and applied somebody’s border brush to it [note to self: sort out brush credits]:

It looked nice, but I didn’t like how it hid parts of the Times New Roman brush, so I erased some of it to let the brush show through. This is what the icon looks like now:

I really liked this, so I decided to go ahead and add text (always the last thing I do). I happen to be rereading The Return of the King right now, so I just opened the book and picked some quotes from Denethor: "He is burning, already burning," and "No tomb for Denethor and Faramir." God, I love Tolkien.

These were too long, so I just used "Already burning" in all caps (Linear Burn,100%, B7DFD1, Book Antiqua, 9 pt, antialias strong), and "No tomb for Faramir" in all caps (Linear Burn, 100%, B7DFD1, Book Antiqua, 6 pt, antialias strong). And here’s my final result:

Please comment/criticise! I love feedback. :)

Texture and Ornamental Brushes #1 (ASoUE)

2004-07-16T21:57:17Z

I made brushes from the wallpapers offered on the Series of Unfortunate Events movie site. This is my first brush set I'm sharing, so. :)

17 brushes for PS 7 and image packs:

These stamps are to scale, so you can use them as image packs. Download zip file here.

Icons I made with these brushes:

Rules:
Please comment if taking.
There's no need to credit me every time you use them, but do pimp opalnecklace at least once.
Do not hotlink the brushes; link to this post instead.

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY: Sonnet 116 and various other

2004-07-15T15:05:20Z

Preview:

Sonnet 116

01. 02. 03. 04.
05. 06. 07. 08.
09. 10. 11. 12.
13. 14. 15. 16.

***

17. 18. 19. 20.
21. 22. 23. 24.
25. 26.

Rules are the same as always. Brush credit: quebelly; also see userinfo.

LEMONY SNICKET: 19 icons

2004-07-08T21:59:16Z

Preview:

01. 02. 03. 04.
05. 06. 07. 08.
09. 10. 11. 12.
13. 14. 15. 16.
17.

18. 19.

I was too lazy to make mini-movies.

Please:
- Comment here.
- Credit me in the icon keywords if you're taking any. It would be cruel if the society suspects you of spreading such misery and woe.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING: (three icons)

2004-06-24T21:08:42Z

Screencaps courtesy of the lovely polaris_starz.

Comment, credit, yadda yadda.

SANDMAN: Worlds' End and Endless Night icons

2004-05-26T04:28:00Z

All textless. Please comment if you take (I spent *hours* scanning), but keyword credit is optional. Add text/modify as needed, I don't mind. Previous Sandman icon posts are here and here.

Preview:

FULL ICON TUTORIAL for PS7: Ere the Sun Rises

2004-05-01T02:05:12Z

How to make this icon in PS 6 or 7.

I'm going to assume that you know what and where different PS tools are, but I'll explain the more obscure moments. Also, this is my first tutorial, so please ask if anything isn't clear.

I started out with this screencap from lil1pinay's site.

Then I took the Crop tool, set it to 100x100 px and to 72 px/in resolution, and cropped the cap. This is the base I will be working with:

First, let's lighten it. It's very smoky and greyish in tone at the moment.

Duplicate the layer. Set the Blend mode of the top layer to Screen. Now, duplicate the top layer. You will now have one bottom layer set to Normal, and two layers set to Screen.

I thought that the icon was too light now, so I lowered the Opacity of the top Screened layer to 47%. This is what I have now:

Now, I thought that the base of the tower was too light, and that more contrast was needed, so I did this trick that someone pointed out to me:

Select the Screened layer.
Go to the Channels palette (Window -> Show Channels)
Click on the little round button, as shown here:

This selects light parts of the selected layer, and selects darker parts, er, partially.

Now, we will apply a layer mask to the screened layer. Go back to the Layers palette (Window -> Show Layers, or you can just click on the Layers tab). Make sure that the top layer is still selected, and click on the Layer Mask button:

A layer mask was applied to the selection, meaning that only those parts of the Screened layer that were selected are now visible. Layer masks are actually *very* useful, and you can find a full explanation by arabel here.

Now, click on the layer mask itself (the little black and white icon of the layer on the Layers palette) to make sure it's selected, check that your background colour is white, and go to Filter -> Distort -> Diffuse Glow. Change the settings to this:

Graininess: 0
Glow Amount: 15
Clear Amount: 15

You can tinker with them, of course, but this setting often works well, and it's the one I used here. Click OK. You'll see that the icon has become lighter. If it's too light for your taste, before clicking anything else, go to Edit -> Fade Diffuse Glow and lower the opacity bar. In this icon, I changed it to about 95%.

Then, I decided that the tower base still didn't contrast with the fire enough, so I made sure the mask was still selected, and went to Image -> Adjustments -> Brightness/Contrast, and increased the contrast by about 25%. (This is just about the only time I use this tool.)

(NB: this step above was very anal-retentive, and is not compulsory.)

Okay, great. Now let's add colour to this icon. Duplicate one of the layers that doesn't have a mask on it and drag it to the very top. Set it to Overlay. You'll get a fantastic colour. I thought that it wasn't saturated and firey enough, so I duplicated the Overlay layer and lowered its opacity to 48%. This is what I have now:

Okay, this is all great, but it's definitely not sharp enough. So, duplicate the very bottom layer and go to Filter -> Sharpen Edges, then Filter -> Sharpen, and Filter -> Sharpen again. There.

We're now ready to add all sorts of nice effects, so let's merge the layers. Only, I never merge them directly - instead, I do this: Select - > Select All, then Edit -> Copy Merged, then Edit -> Paste. (Make sure that you've selected the top layer.) Now, you can go back and redo things anytime, and you still have your results on one layer.

I thought that the icon still wasn't sharp enough, so I selected the top layer and went to Filter -> Sharpen. That was *much* too sharp, now, so I went to Edit -> Fade Sharpen and lowered the opacity to about 27%. Much better.

The next step is something I started to do fairly recently, but I found that I really, really like it, because it gives me unusual and pretty results. I used it on the icon I'm using right now, btw.

Take the Rectangular Marquee tool and select a bit from the icon. This is what I selected: (I'm not showing what part of the image I selected this from because I'm writing this after making the icon.) Any pretty, colourful part of the image will do it.

Then, go to Edit -> Define Pattern and click on OK.

Make sure you have your top layer selected, then go to Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Pattern. Click OK. Choose the pattern you just defined from the drop-down list that will appear. Change the Scale to 1000%. Click OK. Now, make sure this new layer is selected and go to Layer -> Rasterize -> Layer. Now you have a pretty colourful layer to work with:

Change the Blend mode of this layer to Colour. It gives a really nice tone to the icon.

I found that I really liked how this turned out, so I decided that this would be my final base. Here it is:

Okay, now for the text. I'm going with the old, overused quote: "A sword day, a red day, ere the sun rises" because that's what I wanted to do when I started picking out a screencap. :D

Make a new layer for each of these part of the quote: "A sword day," "a red day," "ere the," "sun rises." Make sure they're the top layers.

The settings:
A SWORD DAY: Arial, antialias Smooth, size 8, colour #DD6D07, all caps, set to Screen.
A RED DAY: Same as above, only size 9
ERE THE: Same thing, only size 7
SUN RISES: Same thing, only size 10.

Now, duplicate each of these layers once.

Fabulous. Now, I thought that they weren't visible enough, so I added layer effects. Select the bottom A SWORD DAY layer and go to Layer -> Layer Style -> Blending Options.

First, Drop Shadow. Click on these words in the dialog box that comes up. Change the settings to this:

Opacity: 100%

Distance: 2
Spread: 0
Size: 1

Leave the rest as it is.

Now, click on the words Outer Glow. Change the settings this way:

Opacity: 75%
Noise: 0

Colour: E98B00

Spread: 1
Size: 10

Range: 35

Leave the rest alone. Click OK.

Now, do the exact same thing for the bottom layer of A RED DAY, only for the Drop Shadow effect, set the opacity to 52%.

Make sure you have this bottom A RED DAY layer selected and go to Layer -> Layer Style -> Copy Layer Style (very useful tool). Select the bottom layer of ERE THE and go to Layer -> Layer Style -> Paste Layer Style.

For the bottom layer of SUN RISES, you only want to do the Outer Glow effect. Go to the Blending Options as before and make the settings exactly the same as detailed above.

This is what you have now:

The icon is almost finished, but we need some borders. I chose this brush by serendipitysho:

I applied it to a new layer, in the colour is #DD6D07. I placed the layer just below the colour layer, set the Opacity to 85%, and the Blend mode to Multiply. I suspect I fiddled around with it, too - sharpened, then blurred, perhaps, but I can't recreate this step exactly.

Then, I created a new layer just above this one, and made a one-pixel outline around it with the Pencil tool in the same colour (#DD6D07). I set this layer to Multiply, and that's it!

This is the final icon:

*Please* comment and tell me what you think. If I'm dumbing it down or not being clear enough, or both, I want to know.

Oh, and also: there are all sorts of very useful shortcuts that make the process easier and faster than going to the top bar menu all the time. Right-clicking on various places in the layer palette brings up good ones. :) I didn’t use them here because that would’ve made the explanations much longer.

Oh, and the icon is snaggable with a comment and keyword credit. ;-)

LOTR: RotK and Adlestrop

2004-04-25T20:32:50Z

Some iconses.

LotR: Just a few - I used some from this batch, some gave away, some reworked (Anon Dimwit, hee). Definitely not my best set, but some here I really like.

Teaser:

England and herbs. I blame David and the poem. These are simple - plain borders, not many brushes, but then simplicity is divine. :D

Teaser:

Comment, credit in keywords, etc.

GONE WITH THE WIND: 3 icons

2004-04-16T21:37:07Z

Right. Comment, credit, etc.

Only three, but there will be more later, maybe. Screencaps courtesy of ladydewinter.

AMELIE: 9 icons

2004-04-09T20:28:46Z

I would love a comment and keyword credit if you take anything. :)

Brush credit:
The amazingly amazing borders were made by serendipitysho, and the wonderfully wonderful textures are by quebelly.

SANDMAN: "Season of Mists"; Prisoner of Azkaban mini-movies

2004-03-28T21:07:40Z

::Comment if taking
::Credit in keywords necessary for the HP icons, and appreciated for the SM icons.

Neil Gaiman (1 UNTAKEABLE icon)

2004-03-23T03:38:35Z

People should not be allowed to be so gorgeous and so talented at the same time.

Icons in this post are not up for grabs.

This one's for polaris_starz:

Also, GIP.

SANDMAN: Brief Lives (mostly Dream and Delirium)

2004-03-22T00:17:54Z

I made lots of Sandman icons, all of them from Brief Lives, and posted them on my personal journal.

Preview:

26 icons total, mostly textless and mostly Delirium.

ETA: Steal away.

Mary Magdalene Icons

2004-03-06T18:32:42Z

Some icons created for angelofthenorth, as her "prize" for knowing all the characters I mentioned in my "Dinner Party" post yesterday. Please contact her first, if you'd like to grab any of these.

My favourite painting of Mary, and the one that immediately came to mind when Angel asked for a Mary icon, is the painting of The Penitant Magdalen (sometimes called Magdalen of the Night Light) by Georges La Tour. It hangs at the Louvre, and is a gorgeous painting. La Tour actually did several similar paintings (I am aware of three, but perhaps there are more I've not seen). This is my favourite of them.

From Magdalen and Two Angels by Guercino:

From Death of the Virgin by Caravaggio:

And, from Mary Magdalen by Dante Gabriel Rossetti:

LOTR: (4 icons)

2004-03-04T21:20:55Z

Please comment if taking, credit in keywords is very appreciated.

x-posted to lotricons and opalnecklace

I also made this one, but it's not shareable:

Present for Maria!

2004-03-04T01:12:16Z

Yesterday, when Maria was talking about the start of spring, I thought it might be cool to do an icon for each season. Since the season at hand is spring, I thought I'd do that one first. (I'm so sensible like that) ;-) So, I made the COOLEST icon, as a present for Maria (well, I think it's cool, anyway ::grin::) . . . trouble is, it's HUGE. Really huge. As in about 20 times too big to upload to LJ. And I can't think of anyway to make it small enough and still be even remotely as pretty. So, I'm posting it here . . . even if she won't ever be able to use it as a real icon.

For you, Maria, in honour of spring . . .

(Did you notice the foot? I know how much you like feet)! ::grin::

Happy Spring! :-)

LOTR: Eowyn

2004-02-29T04:29:12Z

Please comment if you like them and/or are taking them. Credit in keywords is very appreciated.

Preview:

1. 2. 3. 4.
5. 6. 7.