archivedbyaurora_amethyst

Tutorial #73

Made in Photoshop CS5

Going from this: to this:

Requested by Ithilwen from NarniaWeb

Start off with your base. Resize, crop, etc.

Add this texture from my Nella Fantasia texture set, and set it to screen 100% opacity. This is the layer that will give the final icon the splashes of color in the background.

Add a levels layer, and hide the texture from the previous step then select auto levels. (I don't think this step will work in GIMP, but since it (the step) doesn't do a whole lot, you could probably just skip it).

Duplicate your base (the original base), and bring it to the top. Set the layer to soft light 100% opactiy. This layer starts to pull out the details lost with the addition of a texture.

Duplicate your base again, and bring it to the top. Set the layer to multiply 60% opacity. Now, the icon is starting to look less awkwardly colored.

Duplicate your base again, and bring it to the top. Set the layer to screen 100% opacity. This layer brightens the icon since the multiply layer really made it dark.

The icon still looks a bit blah, so next I added a light texture by ?. This is one of my favorite textures as of late because it gives the icon a nice shiny feel. Set it to screen 30% opacity. You can fiddle with the opacity, but it's best to keep it low.

But now, the icon looks a bit too bright. Add a brightness-contrast layer, and input these settings: brightness: -20, contrast: 20.

As the final step, I sharpened the icon (Filter>Sharpen>Sharpen). It turned out too sharp so I fade-sharpened to 40%, I think. I usually make a new layer and copy-merge the icon (shift+ctrl+alt+E), but you can just flatten and duplicate the new base if you wish before applying the sharpening. If you don't have fade sharpening, duplicating your new base is important in case you oversharpened your icon. Sharpen the top layer and lower the opacity to around 40%. Voila!

psd.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!