Icon Coloring #003
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The Basics
- Level: Andvanced (Unless you know how to use Curves)
- Used Photoshop CS2
- Translatable: All Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro versions, Gimp compatible if you know what your doing
- Other: Coloring with curves can be tricky and you wont always get the result you want. For this tutorial a light greenish/yellowish base works best.
1) First things first, the oh-so-very popular screen layer! Copy your base and set it to screen to brighten it up, you can do this as little or as many times as you want depending on your base. Here I used two screen layers:
Result:
2) Fill a new layer with a very dark blue (I used #000625) and set it to Exclusion (if you are using Gimp set it to Lighten).
Result:
3) Fill a new layer with the same color as the Exlusion layer but set it to Soft Light instead.
Result:
4) Add a Curves Adjustment Layer,and use the below setings. Sometimes I stop here because the violets/blues are so pretty!
Red: 223/239, 196/166, 86/76, 27/50
Blue: 211/232, 87/128, 31/72
Result:
5) Add another Curves Adjustment Layer,and use the below setings.
Red: 199/185, 67/196
Result:
6) Add a Color Balance Adjustment Layer, check Preserve Luminosity, and use the below setings.
Midtones: -40, +20, 0
Shadows: +15, +45, +15
Highlights: +15, +15, +30
(Gimp users: Leave Midtones and Shadows at 0. Use Highlights: -30, +10, -5 and you can get a similar result.)
All Done!
other examples using this tutorial:
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| Mid | Mid | Mid | Mid | Mid |
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| Finish | Finish | Finish | Finish | Finish |
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Clicky here for a photoshop action of this coloring tutorial