Tutorial for a Close Crop Spock Icon

[gothrockrulz]

Tutorial #2 for Challenge #26 over at landofart.

Steps: 6.
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. Crop base image, using little reference points in the image itself to help you decide at what size and angle to crop. As you can see from the red circles in the image below, I used Spock's trademark eyebrow, the corner of his mouth, and the collar of his shirt to determine where to put the corners, and then tilted the square until its edge lined up nicely along all three points.




2. Resize image to 100x100. Stare critically at your image for a while. If you've got a feeling you can get a better crop, go for it. When dealing with this kind of cropping, it's normal to fiddle around for a while before you get what you want. (I tried several different crops before I came up with one I felt confident about using in a tutorial. XD)




3. Brighten image and change skin tone, if desired. I duplicated the base (by right-clicking the base and clicking Duplicate) and set that duplicate layer to Screen 60.

I favor a paler, blue-green look for my icons, especially with the skin, so I started the coloring process with a little tweak in a Channel Mixer layer. (Layers>Channel Mixer.)

CHANNEL MIXER

RED
R: 100
G: 0
B: -6

GREEN
R: 0
G: 105
B: 0

BLUE
R: 0
G: 6
B: 0




4. Deepen the coloring. I felt like adding deeper blues, browns, and reds, as well as more contrast, so I created three new Raster Layers (by clicking Layers>New Raster Layer three times). I liked the colors already in the image, so I used the dropper tool to help me select them from the image itself. (There's just something fun about that.)



I filled my new layers, starting with the lowest one in the Layers Palette, with

#5481b5 set at Burn 35,
#ba9b74 set at Burn 10,
and #d0968e set at Burn 10.




5. Deepen the coloring even more, and add finishing touches! I still wanted more blue, more contrast, and more pop in the colors, so I created a Hue/Saturation/Lightness Layer (Layers>Hue/Saturation/Lightness) at

Hue: 0
Saturation: 23
Lightness: 0.

I moved this layer down in the Layers Palette until it rested just above the base image and its duplicate, and set it at Normal 50.

Then I copy merged (Edit>Copy>Copy Merged) and pasted that layer on top (Ctl+V is my BFF). (Copy merged basically means you've copied your finished product so far into one layer, as opposed to copying just one of those layers that make up your image.)

I wanted to change the hue of just this layer, so I clicked Adjust>Hue and Saturation>Colorize and set it to

Hue: 154
Saturation: 48

Then I set the layer to Soft Light 50.



Add a light blob and sharpen. I always make my own light blobs from scratch by scribbling with the Paint Brush in white and blurring. (This time, I used Glaussian Blur 16 twice and set the layer to Normal 79.) The light blob, set against a black background, is below, if you want to know what it looks like.



To sharpen, I hit copy merged and Ctrl+V again to make another layer, then Adjust>Sharpness>Sharpen, and then set that layer to Normal 40. Sharpening a copy merged layer, and then messing with the opacity, is a great way to get the exact amount of sharpness desired.



And that's a wrap.

Hope this was helpful!

Comments

[angelus2hot]

Great tutorial!

I adore Spock and the icon is perfect!

[luminousdaze]

I love that Spock icon & tut (though it's not my program) I like the angled cropping method instead of actually moving the pic you made it easier, of course I have to see if GIMP allows image crops to be made this way. :)

[luminousdaze]

Oh I just wanted to tell you when I click on the cut to view the Emily tutorial it leads back to the Spock one again.