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acme_graphics2006-04-25 08:41 pm
seleneheart) wrote in acme_graphics2006-04-25 08:41 pm
Entry tags:
Dreamy Karl
This icon involves a lot of base prep because the design was driven more by the quote that I wanted to use than by the picture itself. The quote is "Yet we sleep, we dream," from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
So I had this pic of Karl Urban, asleep, with flowers in his hair. I wanted to take him out of this one and put him in some sort of green mossy-looking foresty background.
Going from this
to this 
1. The first thing I did was use the clone stamp tool to replicate the flowers in his hair. I chose a pixel width that just touched the edges of the flower I was working on and then stamped it along a line so it looked like he had a whole garland in his hair. There were three of them, so I did them randomly. I left the pic big at this point so I could have a better idea of how it looked.
2. Next step is to extract him from the background. (don't worry about the hair looking funky, it's not noticeable by the end) Once you've done that, you can crop and resize. Then I opened a new blank white file and put the extracted image in that, merge layers.
3. Next I cropped an image of a forest floor
, copy, then paste it on the background. I lightened the opacity so I could see the face underneath it, then I started erasing the forest part, leaving some over the edges of the face. Once you think you've got it all, bring the opacity of that layer back up to 100% and double check that you haven't left anything over the face. This makes it appear he's more integrated with the background, as opposed to pasting him onto the moss.
4. Merge the layers. This will be the base of your icon.
5. Now do whatever makes you happy to get the base ready. I sharpened once and enhance > autocontrast.
6. Make three copies of the background layer, set the first one to screen 100%, the next one to soft light 100%, and the third to hue 100%. On that layer, go to filter > blur > gaussian blur, set the radius at 4 px.
7. It needs to look more misty, so I added this cloud texture,
, filter > render > clouds, set to multiply 75%, and dragged it below the top layer.
8. I wasn't happy with the color of his skin, so I played around with the levels, and then added a tan fill layer, set to multiply 100%.
9. Next I pasted this texture,
snagged from a NASA site, and set to screen 100%. Now we have this:
10. Then paste this butterfly mask that I made, set to screen 100%.
11. Layer > new adjustment layer > gradient map. I used a grayscale, set to multiply 100%. It makes him look almost like a painting. I nearly stopped there, because I liked the effect so much, but I had other plans . . .
12. Duplicate the file, and merge the layers of the copy. Edit > copy. Paste it on to the original, set to screen, 75%, and then gaussian blur it, 10px radius.
13. Paste this texture, soft light, 75%. I actually erased a little bit of it over his left cheekbone, because I didn't like what it did to his skin.
14. Finally, the text! The first words, set to 90%, then free rotated unitl I had them where I liked them.
15. Layer > new. Use the eyedropper tool to select a color from your icon, and stroke a 1px border on the inside.
16. Last word. I wanted to do the border first so that this word would overlap it.
17. Final step, whew! I took the butterfly brush, which is in the special effects brushes and stamped a few around. Set to luminosity 100%, then dragged underneath the 'dream' layer.
Final product
So I had this pic of Karl Urban, asleep, with flowers in his hair. I wanted to take him out of this one and put him in some sort of green mossy-looking foresty background.
Going from this
to this 1. The first thing I did was use the clone stamp tool to replicate the flowers in his hair. I chose a pixel width that just touched the edges of the flower I was working on and then stamped it along a line so it looked like he had a whole garland in his hair. There were three of them, so I did them randomly. I left the pic big at this point so I could have a better idea of how it looked.
2. Next step is to extract him from the background. (don't worry about the hair looking funky, it's not noticeable by the end) Once you've done that, you can crop and resize. Then I opened a new blank white file and put the extracted image in that, merge layers.
3. Next I cropped an image of a forest floor
, copy, then paste it on the background. I lightened the opacity so I could see the face underneath it, then I started erasing the forest part, leaving some over the edges of the face. Once you think you've got it all, bring the opacity of that layer back up to 100% and double check that you haven't left anything over the face. This makes it appear he's more integrated with the background, as opposed to pasting him onto the moss.4. Merge the layers. This will be the base of your icon.
5. Now do whatever makes you happy to get the base ready. I sharpened once and enhance > autocontrast.
6. Make three copies of the background layer, set the first one to screen 100%, the next one to soft light 100%, and the third to hue 100%. On that layer, go to filter > blur > gaussian blur, set the radius at 4 px.
7. It needs to look more misty, so I added this cloud texture,
, filter > render > clouds, set to multiply 75%, and dragged it below the top layer.8. I wasn't happy with the color of his skin, so I played around with the levels, and then added a tan fill layer, set to multiply 100%.
9. Next I pasted this texture,
snagged from a NASA site, and set to screen 100%. Now we have this:10. Then paste this butterfly mask that I made, set to screen 100%.
11. Layer > new adjustment layer > gradient map. I used a grayscale, set to multiply 100%. It makes him look almost like a painting. I nearly stopped there, because I liked the effect so much, but I had other plans . . .
12. Duplicate the file, and merge the layers of the copy. Edit > copy. Paste it on to the original, set to screen, 75%, and then gaussian blur it, 10px radius.
13. Paste this texture, soft light, 75%. I actually erased a little bit of it over his left cheekbone, because I didn't like what it did to his skin.
14. Finally, the text! The first words, set to 90%, then free rotated unitl I had them where I liked them.
15. Layer > new. Use the eyedropper tool to select a color from your icon, and stroke a 1px border on the inside.
16. Last word. I wanted to do the border first so that this word would overlap it.
17. Final step, whew! I took the butterfly brush, which is in the special effects brushes and stamped a few around. Set to luminosity 100%, then dragged underneath the 'dream' layer.
Final product
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