Tutorial for a Negative Space Emily Deschanel Icon

[gothrockrulz]

Tutorial #1 for Challenge #26 over at landofart.

STEPS: 8.
LEVEL: Intermediate. (I explain a few things, but I assume you've already been fiddling around with graphics for at least a few months.)

From this:


To this:




1. Take your base image and crop as you wish. I wanted her head and hands in my icon, so I cropped 376x315 from the top of the image.


2. Resize as needed. I resized it to 376x376 (by clicking Image>Canvas Size and entering 376 into both fields) and then moved the image so its base lined up with the base of the canvas.




3. Fill and erase background as needed. I used to dropper tool to choose #f7e7b6, a color I thought would compliment her skin, hair, and even dress very nicely. Then I created a Mask Layer (Layers>New Mask Layer>Show All), set my brush color to black, and used used the basic, boring old round brush on

Size 80
Hardness 0
Step 1
Opacity 80

to erase all parts of the background I didn't want--especially that PARADE text sticking out like a sore thumb.

Note: you might want to try just dabbing here and there with the brush, as if it were a sponge on real canvas, while erasing. I find that this technique gives a nice, soft feel to the edges where the actual image fades into the filled background.




4. Resize again, this time to 100x100 (Image>Resize), or whichever size you want your graphic to be. (I waited to make it smaller until AFTER filling in and erasing the background, because it's much easier with bigger images than it is with smaller ones.)




5. Mess with the coloring! I favor pale highlights, bluish shadows, and tons of contrast, so I employed the following:

CHANNEL MIXER:

Output Channel: Red
R: 96
G: 0
B: 0

Output Channel: Green
R: 0
G: 100
B: 12

Output Channel: Blue
R: 0
G: 15
B: 100




6. Continue messing with the coloring. I created three new Raster Layers (Layers>New Raster Layer) and filled them, setting the first as #b4e4f4 at Burn 80, the second as #f5dacf at Burn 25, and the third as #f7e779 as Soft Light 25.




7. Experiment with textures until you find something that looks FABULOUS, dahling. I took this texture from gfxgurl's Petels__by_gfxgurl texture set, and pasted two copies into my Layers Pallette, on top of all previous ones. I set the upper texture to Soft Light 85 and the lower texture to Multiply 40, using more Mask Layers to erase the parts covering her skin and dress.




8. If you're fussy, add finishing touches. I created a New Vector Layer (Layers>New Vector Layer) and goofed around with swirly fonts, until I got something pretty from rotating, stretching, and masking a captial E, in Edwardian Script ITC at

Size 28
Color #f08678
Opacity 90.

Then I sandwiched it between the two texture layers.



If you're super fussy, add finishing touches to the finishing touches. I scribbled around with #f08678, blurred it, and set it to Screen 100. Then I made a last-minute Raster Layer, filled it with #82d3f6, and set it to Burn 60. (I told you I favored blue. XD)



And there you are! Finished and satisfied . . . for now.