Tutorial

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

I was asked by dark_x_huntress about how I achieved the coloring on several icons. Here's the first of a series.

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Originally made using CS2. Tutorial images made using CS4. I made this icon about a year and a half ago so my memory of why I did what I did in each step is, at best, fuzzy. These days, I would make this icon differently and would use a different coloring.


My layer palette

1.
For this icon, I used a modified version of a brightening technique that I learned from awmpdotnet. I suggest reading that tutorial because Blue explains things very well -- and you won't understand what I did without reading it. I like this technique because I can work on basic color correction in the same step where I'm brightening a cap. I don't use it often any more but it's a handy technique to know.

Base + #884913, normal 100%

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Base Copy 1, hard light 100%

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Base Copy 2, screen 93%

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Hue/Sat Layer (Master Saturation = +9), normal 100%

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2.
For years I used gradient maps from a set of skin-toned gradients by oxoniensis. I applied the 1st gradient, soft light 100%, and masked so that it doesn't mute the blues/greens of their clothes.

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3.
Copy/paste to a new layer (cntrl + alt + shift + e). I'm pretty sure I used a weak unsharpen filter and used the smooth tool (5 pt brush set at 11%) any parts that were oversharpened. Alas, that isn't preserved in the layer palette but that's typically why I copy/paste to a new layer.


4.
The highlights were good but the shadows needed to be darkened a smidge. It needs a very slight tweak using a curves layer.

I/O = 191/193; 125/115


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5.
I'm a fan of red tones so I wanted the reds in their skin tones to be stronger and warmer.

Selective color (Reds -12, +14, +21, 0), normal 100%
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6.
As much as I love the red, I don't want it dominating the icon so I use another selective color layer to tweak the overall color.

Selective color (Neutrals +5, -5, +5, 0), normal 100%
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7.
Can't lie: I have no idea why I went this coloring route. I think this was when I was playing with making the whites tinged cyan so that I had an icon with cool highlights and warm shadows. I experimented a lot with different methods. This was a different technique; I was playing with variations of the technique by awmpdotnet referenced above in Step 1.

I would not choose this method these days as it sacrifices too much contrast. It's using a hammer to crack a walnut. I would accomplish this with color balance, instead.

Copy/paste the image to a new layer and set it to multiply 100%. UNDERNEATH that layer I added a light solid color (#d5eaf2).

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8.
Now it's too flat and dull. Copy the top layer and set it to soft light 100%.

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9.
I wanted a stronger cool/warm contrast. It's an emotionally wrought scene and I think I wanted to show it through more extreme, contrasting coloring. I upped the yellows in the reds. (I cringe to look at this now because I like it better without this layer.)

Selective color (Reds = 0, 0, +50, 0), normal 100%
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10.
Wispy brush in white on Daniel's shoulder to lighten it a bit and draw attention to the area for text.

Brush in white, soft light 100%
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11.
Add text.



Color = #ffffff, 66% opacity
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12.
It's essentially done; just a slight tweak to brighten the icon as a whole.

Curves, I/O = 120/134


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My layer palette: You can see there's a gradient map sitting on top that isn't visible in the final product. I often add a plain black/white gradient to the top early in the process of making an icon. As I'm futzing with coloring and lighting, I'll briefly click it as visible to check my contrast and detail, especially when I'm being "experimental" and trying something new to me. When things get muddy or fuzzy, it's time to backtrack and try something else.

Comments

[dark-x-huntress.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much, I appreciate it so very much.