so, im actually going to write a good icon tutorial.

hopefully.

maybe a couple actually.

mostly because one of my friends asked me to, and i couldnt really say no. plus a few people have been asking me how i get the coloring i do.

and im making a completely new icon right now, so theres no way i can lie to you.

going from this to or




all instructions are for psp8.

so, i started off with this. just some random house clip i got from cap_it.


ive recently gotten into correcting the base with filters before coloring, so thats what i decided to do.

first i used levels (adjust - brightness/contrast - levels).
then i went to adjust - color balance - fade correction, and set it on 100.

that left me with this:
. i like it.

its a bit dark, so i duplicated it and set it to Screen, 100%.

i sometimes add a hard light layer, so ill show you what happens with the hard light layer (though in the end i didnt use it).

i took this gradient made by crumblingwalls and set it to Hard light, 44%.



i duplicated my base, brought it to the top, and set it to Soft light, 100%.

then i made a new layer, filled it with #0C1742 and set it to Exclusion 100%. i duplicated it.

i made another layer, filled it with #F5EDB5 and set it to Burn, 82%.

what would an icon be without a light blue burn layer? i added another layer, filled it with #28E2FE, and set it to burn, 20%. it made it a little darker, but i liked it still.

then i added yet another burn layer, filled it with #F6AA8C, and lowered it to 18%.

one more layer left! can you feel it?

i really like my icons to have a tannish coloring, so i added a tan multiply layer. (#F8B676 on 26%).

with the hard light layer on, i ended up with this:



without the hard light layer, i ended up with this:


both were a bit too dark, so i copy merged both, and set both to screen 30%. not a big change, but its a bit brighter. i take the opportunity to saturate it (still on both), and go to enhance photo - automatic saturation enhancement - more colorful, strong. its crazy saturated, but on your copy merged screen layer, you can barely tell.


so, you should have ended up with something like this:


or the icon i went with,
.

other icons made using the same technique:


did you like this? would you like to see more tutorials? i have no problem with making more, but i dont want to if nobody uses them.