GIP

[coprime]

Hrm, I've been feeling the need for new icons but haven't done anything about it because I like to use icons I make myself. But I suck a lot at using Photoshop or doing anything more complicated than cropping and resizing. And what I've been wanting as icons -- colorized images from the Mushishi manga -- is way more complicated than anything I'd previously attempted.

But then I found a tutorial on icon_tutorial that looked helpful! And managed to produce this!



I am rather impressed by it but don't know if it's any good or if I should do more to it. Maybe I'll have an opinion after I sleep on it.

ETA: Now that I'm looking at it again, the colors are a little muddy. So I think I'm going to color the ground and the background and maybe sharpen it or up the saturation.

ETA2: After playing a bit more, I've managed to create this:



I wish the color in the background was obvious, but at least it isn't so muddy.

Comments

[delurker.livejournal.com]

I like it! The composition is nice and the colours are good. (Yay iconning! So much fun. :)

One way to make the colour in the background more obvious is to play with layers.
Go to the layers palette and duplicate your icon in a new layer - do this by right clicking on the layer and choosing 'duplicate layer'.
Then, on the new duplicate layer of your icon, choose different blending options. (The blending options can be found on the little drop down box which says "normal".)
Just try different blends until you find one you like. (Color burn might be a good one.) You can also fiddle with the opacity (just next to the blending options drop down) to mute the effect slightly.
If you like the effect on the background but not on the figure, you can magnify your icon and then use the eraser on that layer to erase the figure - the figure will show through from the next layer down with the colours you prefer. (I hope that made sense - I can clarify if not.)

(Somewhat explanatory picture here showing layers palette and blending menu: here (http://pics.livejournal.com/delurker/pic/0000htk3/g14).)

[coprime]

Ahhh, that was actually very, very helpful! I had never noticed that little drop-down menu before. I also had to change the saturation of the background to make it something other than white. But now the next one I make will be even better, so yay! (I think I have messed enough with this one that any more will not help.)

[delurker.livejournal.com]

I love fiddling with the blending options! It can give an icon that je ne sais quoi. *g* You can also use it on textures or fill colours to interesting effect.