[challenge] snowflake challenge day o7

[delacourtings]

day o7
stretch yourself a little and try something new. go play in a new fandom or with a new pairing. try working in a new medium. or check out some fanworks that are new to you.

i saw quite a few people asking for icon tutorials/tutorials for free programs going through the everyone's snowflake posts, so i decided to make a tutorial for icons using the two free online programs that i use: pixlr and photopea. i have even more respect for tutorial makers now. this took forever! love and admiration to anyone who has ever made a tutorial for anything.

for this tutorial, i'll be teaching you how to go from this:


to this:


 

PART I: CROPPING & SHARPENING

 

first, you need to crop the icon. to do this, you'll need to take the picture you want to turn into an icon and upload it to pixlr. (you can crop images in photopea but i like pixlr's cropping tool better.)

 

step one: go to pixlr and click open image from computer.

 

 

select the image you want to turn into an icon and hit open.

 

 

once you’ve hit open your picture should open in pixlr and look something like this.

 

 

now, you see those two little screens in the right hand corner that i’ve circled in green? go ahead and click on it. it just maximizes/minimizes the picture you’re working with.

 

 

next, you see see this little bar i’ve circled here? you move the slider on this bar to zoom in and out of your image. i like to zoom out and make sure my entire screencap is in frame before trying to crop.

 

 

now, the crop tool should already be selected, you can tell which tool is selected because it will have a white square around it. if for some reason, you’re crop tool isn’t already, go ahead and click on it.

NEED NEW SSCREENCAPPP

once you’ve clicked on the crop tool, the toolbar should look like this. click on the arrow beside where it says constraint (the one i’ve circled in green) and select output size.

 

 

then change your output size to the dimensions you want for your icon. i always use 100x100.

 

 

once you’ve entered your dimensions, drag your cursor to the part of the screencap you want to be your icon. a grid like this should come up.

 

 

once you’ve decided on your crop, hit enter. your image will get smaller/bigger depending on how far you were zoomed in/out on the original screencap. because i was at 43% zoomed out, my icon looks small and far away. it’s not actually that small, don’t worry.

 

 

set your slider to 100% and it’ll show you what size your icon actually is. because we set our dimensions at 100x100 before, we don’t have to worry about resizing.

 

 

now, once you’re satisfied with your crop, go to filter in the top menu bar and then select sharpen. this will sharpen your picture.

 

 

there, isn’t that better now that it’s sharpened?

 

 

and more importantly, you’re finished with the first part! now all you have to do is save your base. (a base is basically an icon that has been cropped and sharpened but add no other editing done to it.)

 

to save your base, go to file, save.

 

 

once you hit save, this screen should come up. you can now change the name of your base and select what type of file you want to save your base is. i always save as png because it’s the best quality.

 

 

once you’ve selected png, your screen should look like this. hit ok.

 

 

now, a screen like this will show up.

 

 

it should be one your familiar with, it’s the default one you get on your computer when you save any file. i saved my base to my downloads folder and renamed it steviebase which is just the name of the character in the icon and base. you might want to do this to if you have lots of files, just for organization’s sake. hit save like you would for any normal file.

 

now, you’re ready for part 2!

 

 

PART II: EDITING

 

go to photopea. your screen should look like this. click open from computer.

 

once you hit open, this screen should come up. select your base that you made in part one and hit open.

 

 

once you’ve opened up your base, your screen should look like this.

 

 

because we already cropped and sharpened our base, we can get right to editing!

 

the first thing i do with any icon is duplicate the layer, twice. to do this, right click on your layer, and select duplicate.

 

 

now, you can see we have three layers: our original, and two duplicates. you see the little eye beside each of the layers? you can click on these to make the layer visible/not visible. for now, make sure the first two are visible but the right one isn’t. make sure it looks like it does in this picture. click the second picture and change the setting from normal to soft light.

 

next, change the opacity. for this, i just mess around with the opacity until i’m satisfied. i usually first change the opacity to 50% and then go lower or higher depending on the look i want for that specific icon. for this icon, i liked the way it was at 70% opacity.

the icon at 100% opacity:

the icon at 70% opacity:

 

next, click the eye beside the third layer so that it’s now visible.

the third layer isn't visible:


the third layer is visible:

change the opacity to screen. once again, mess around with the opacity until you get something you’re satisfied with. for this icon, i liked the way it was at 50% opacity.

 

 

next, i created a new blank layer. you can do that by clicking the button beside the little trash can.

 

 

then, because i knew i wanted to be a yellow icon (because of the colors in the screencap), i chose a yellow i liked (the hex code i used here was: fff627), then i colored the background around the character’s head.

 

to do this, you select the brush tool, change the brush size to a size that fits on your canvas, and quite literally, paint.

 

once once i was satisfied with my painting job, i then set the layer to darken at 100% opacity.

then i duplicated the layer and changed the mode to multiply and kept the opacity at 100%.

 

 

for the third layer, i did the same thing as before, multiply at 100% opacity.

for the fourth layer, i changed the mode to color burn but kept it at 100% opacity.

 

 

for the fifth layer, i changed the mode to soft light but kept it at 100% opacity.

 

 

next, i added some textures.

 

first, i added this texture:


and changed it to soft light and 50% opacity, which made it look like this.

 

 

then, i added this texture:


and changed it to darker color and 50% opacity, which made it look like this.

 

next, i decided stevie’s hair looked a bit dull and decided i wanted to add some more color.

to do this, i used the eyedropper tool to pick out one of the natural colors in her hair.

 

 

this made the color picker tool, seen here, automatically have that color selected.

 

 

once i chose the color i wanted, i simply colored over her hair.

 

 

then, i set that layer to soft light and 50% capacity.

 

 

you’re done! all there’s left do is save your icon!

to save, go to file, export as, then png.

this screen will then come up. make sure your settings look like mine and hit save.

and you’re done!

 

if you have any questions, just leave a comment below! i’ve also uploaded the psd here so you can download it and look and see what i did. (you can open psds in photopea! the same way you open a picture).

i hope some of you find this useful, it took me about six hours, ha.

 

Comments

[coyoteclaw11]

What a great tutorial! Thanks for the lesson, and congrats on ur first(?) tutorial haha

[delacourtings]

thank you! it is my first tutorial so i tried to be as thorough as possible. i’m glad you thought it was good! :D

Snowflake Challenge 2019

[oldtoadwoman]

So cool! Thanks for sharing!

Re: Snowflake Challenge 2019

[delacourtings]

of course! :D thank you for commenting!

[vaysh]

Awesome. *bookmarking* Thank yoi!

[delacourtings]

i hope it proves to be useful! :D