(no subject)

[brokenrecord]

Decided I'd try my hand at an icon tutorial. Making this icon:


Made with Paintshop Pro 8, but I don't think it'd be too hard to translate to other versions or to Photoshop. Basic knowledge of where different utilities are [crop, sharpen, new layer, etc.] is needed, but it should be fairly straightforward otherwise.

1) Started off with this image of Charisma Carpenter. Cropped it and resized it to 100x100. Decided not to sharpen it.


2) This next step I do to pretty much every icon I make. I saw it somewhere ages ago, but I don't know who to give credit to for it.
Duplicated the base image and set it to screen. Duplicated that layer, changed it from screen to soft light and desaturated it [adjust>hue and saturation>hue/saturation/lightness and then set saturation to -100]. I like to make it completely black and white, but you can also try setting it differently. In between the two layers create a new layer and flood fill it with a dark blue [I like #0B1837]. Set the dark blue layer to exclusion.


3) Above all the layers create a new layer. Fill it with a light to dark blue gradient and set it at difference, opacity 100.


4) Create a new layer, fill it with a soft pink/orange/yellow gradient, and set it to soft light, opacity 100.


5) Create a new layer, fill it with a gray pink/bluish gradient, and set it to multiply, opacity 100.


6) Duplicate the very first layer again [the base], move it to the top of the layers, and set it to soft light. I decided I wanted it a little sharper, so I sharpened this layer.
[unsharpened]
[sharpened]

7) New layer, used a brush [resources here], color #FFFFFF [white]. I didn't like where it was situated, so I rotated the layer right 90 degrees and then flipped it. I set the layer to lighten.


8) Erased all the white stuff around her face, body, and in the background. Eraser tool set at about size 40, hardness 30, opacity 20.


And there's the finished product. :) Hope that was understandtable.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_excentric_/]

Great tutorial! Thanks! :D

*ads it to memories*

[auto.livejournal.com]

great turorial. i love the icon. added to memories

[wanderingdream.livejournal.com]

putting into my memories =D

[hotpot8202.livejournal.com]

Sweet. Can't wait to try this. Adding to memories. :) Thank you!

[selena-j.livejournal.com]

saved to memories. nice tut

[undeadgoat.livejournal.com]

Uhm . . . don't you mean set *saturation* to -100? Otherwise, great tutorial, and I'll definitely be trying it/checking out your brushes.

[http://users.livejournal.com/brokenrecord__/]

Ack. I knew I was messing up the wording with that. Thank you, I'll go fix that now.

great

[spunkerbell.livejournal.com]

saved to memories as well. nice icon and tut. <3

[prettypictures.livejournal.com]

Love the tutorial. Added to my memories. Thanks! :)

[mrsotown.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tutorial. Adding to my memories

[julia-thorne13.livejournal.com]

That thing you do to all your icons? Very cool. Really liking that effect. I fiddled around with it and found something I liked - awesome tut! :)

Great!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm fairly new at PSP but I'll definately try this. Your pictures aren't showing up so I think I'll wait until they do. LOL Thanks.

Re: Great!

[http://users.livejournal.com/brokenrecord__/]

Yeah, sorry about that. Due to other people hotlinking my icons, my bandwith was exceeded on PSP. It'll be restored this Saturday, so you can check it out then. :)

Re: Great!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm looking forward to it! Thanks. :)

[slash91.livejournal.com]

great tutorial

[highlander-fan.livejournal.com]

It's insane, really, how happy tutorials like this make me...love the tutorial, in case you didn't already notice...*smiles*

[highlander-fan.livejournal.com]

for some reason, i can do this in PSP8, but not in PS7...i just need to know exactly where to get the brushes, then i can...do you know which of the sites it is?

[http://users.livejournal.com/brokenrecord__/]

I'm sorry, I really don't remember. =/

Request to link/translate lesson

[jolanda-jcp.livejournal.com]

Hi,



My name is Jolanda van Pareren and I’m the operator of The PSP Girlies go Avatar (http://www.clubs.nl/community/default.asp?clubid=292897). On our club we’d like to place avatarlessons. Some of the lessons our written by ourselves, others aren’t.

Since we like your lessons so much we would like to have your permission to link them, or, in time, translate your lessons. Needless to say that when we place your lessons on to our club, we are going to name you as being to source of these lessons.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Sincerely,

Jolanda van Pareren

Re: Request to link/translate lesson

[http://users.livejournal.com/brokenrecord__/]

Thank you! That's perfectly fine with me. :)

[waywardgirl47.livejournal.com]

Adding to my memories. Thank you!

[xjamiedaniellex.livejournal.com]

how on earth do you add another layer? there are too many things to choose from in psp9 (i know this is for psp8, but i'm sure it works the same). i'm confused. :(

[http://users.livejournal.com/brokenrecord__/]

In PSP8, it's Layers and then New Raster Layer. Or, if you were following this tutorial and were going to use one of the gradients, you would copy the gradient (right click and then copy) and then, in PSP, go into the image you want to copy the gradient into, right click it, select paste, and then select "paste as new layer". The short-cut for that is ctrl+L, at least in PSP8.

Hope that helped. :)

[xjamiedaniellex.livejournal.com]

oh ty ty ty. yes, it helped a lot. being a PSP newbie sucks lol

[http://users.livejournal.com/brokenrecord__/]

Good, I'm glad it helped. :) And yeah, I know, it does suck. It took me months before I even started using layers or messing with blend settings. And even then, my graphics were still crap. It gets better the more you use it, though, and become more comfortable with it.

[starshines.livejournal.com]

Love this!! :)