nimhiril | Icon Tutorial 02 : Kitten vs. Goldfish

For

dancinggoldfish, because she wanted me to make a few of these.

[NOTE - I made this icon using Corel Photopaint, but I think it translates well for any graphics program. It's not complicated stuff, just tweaking contrast and colours so Anya can see what I often do with my icons.]

1. I used a photograph from Getty Images, because the entire concept made me giggle. The colours aren't very distinct, and I'll need to sharpen a little once I resize it, but this isn't too difficult an image to play around with.

2. Resize original picture to 50% smaller, and arrange on an 100x100 pixel canvas.

3. Directional sharpen at 50%. I also moved the image down a little, because … I wanted to.

4. Duplicate the previous layer and set to Multiply at 100%. This adds some nice shadows, even if alone it makes everything rather dark.

5. Duplicate the multiply layer and set to Screen at 100%. This brightens the image up, but notice how we've now lost some of the shadows? We'll need to add those back in.

6. Duplicate layer and desaturate it. In Photoshop, this option is found under Image>Adjustments>Desaturate; in my program, Corel Photopaint, it's Image>Adjust>Desaturate. It looks bad, but don't worry - we're not done yet!

7. Set desaturated layer to Soft Light at 100%. This helps to get rid of any unnatural tones and deepen the shadows and contrast. Sometimes, it'll be a bit much too much, so as with any of the previous steps, you can decrease the opacity of a layer if needs be.

8. Duplicate all the layers and merge them into one layer. Then open up Curves. I couldn’t save this step exactly, but I know that I tweaked the Red, Green, and Blue curves, and increased the RGB balance (lightening the image.) Basically, just play around with Curves until you get a colour balance which you like. And voila! Instant bright minimal icon.