iSapiens

requested by morgentau

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Made using Photoshop CS4

I hesitate to offer a tutorial for this icon because I don't think it's strong compositionally and the texture use is clumsy. I made this icon to be a personal icon. I wanted a quiet yoga icon and couldn't resist my favorite actor playing a yoga instructor. I probably should have resisted because the shot of him in bed, performing what reminds me of a modified sun salutation, is awkwardly composed and that carried over into my icon. Also? I made the icon because I wanted to play with folds in fabric and with an icon of subtly different whites. I did that and accomplished what I set out to do but the icon itself is flawed.

This is an unusual icon for me in that I knew what I wanted to do when I started it. My usual practice is more organic than goal-oriented but here I had an idea in mind. I wanted an icon with a sense of peace, an absence of color that would emphasize the stretched position, and a clean composition to imply solitude. I wanted to convey the sense of quiet that yoga gives me.

So, this is an exercise in differentiating shades of white and working with contrast to keep detail. For me, the way to do this is a series of small changes.

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If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Tutorial Requested by morgentau

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Made using Photoshop CS4.

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My layer palette. If I didn't explain something completely, please feel free to ask questions. Hope this helps!

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

from --> posted in this post

Originally made using CS2.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.

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A Quick Guide to Understanding the Channel Mixer by nomadicwriter

I've tried to use this tool any number of times and it has defeated me. Again and again. This is the first tutorial I've seen for it. Love the generous illustration and clearly stated explanations. I just color corrected my first off-color promo pic and while it isn't perfect, I think it was a good start on understanding the tool. I suspect once I know it better, I can use it for better fine-tuning. Maybe this will help you, too?

The bulk of this tutorial has inadvertently become "How I Use Selective Color (Hopefully for Good Rather than Neon-Colored Evil)" and I apologize upfront to GIMP and PSP users. I understand that those programs do not offer the selective color option but I have no idea how to replicate the effect in those programs as I've never used them.

avidrosette asked how I made the icon I'm using on this post. It was rather embarrassingly simple, I hate to admit. No textures. No brushes. Nothing fancy. It seems my fate that people only ask about the simplest of icons with the fewest cool "tricks." This possibly says something about misplaced pride over learning new and complex tricks (*g*) but which I'm determined to take as meaning one cannot overestimate the importance of good source material.

I started with a luscious, hi-res promo photo. It's hard to go wrong when you've gotten your hands on a gorgeous pic. Besides, who can mess up when starting with Kandyse McClure's beauty?

How I went

from: to:


( Involves several selective coloring layers )


...And, that's it! The reasoning behind selective coloring got a bit long but the icon itself is really quite simple. elfcat255, I know I still owe you the "How I Use Textures" post and I've been working on it. I find myself kind of saying "what tinamishi and sanami276 said" and pointing. :) I'm a bit intimidated. I've started it and have thought of a couple of tricks I use that aren't mentioned there but I don't have a whole lot that's new to add to their quite excellent posts.


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( Resource Credits/Links: )

avidrosette wanted to know how I made a particular icon. I'm always happy to talk icons and process so here's how I went from:

to

( Clickety click click )