1wonderment | [Tutorial #4] Paint-y Éowyn

Going from this:

to this:

Requested by

sheppards

Start out with your base.

Next, I prepped my base as I usually do. First, duplicate the base and set it to screen, 100% opacity. This brightens up the icon. Feel free to adjust the opacity if the screen layer is too bright, especially after the next two steps.

Now duplicate your base, bring it to the top, and Gaussian blur (Filter>Blur> Gaussian Blur) the layer at a radius of 6.0. In PSP, go to Adjust>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the radius to 6.0. Set this layer on soft light, 100% opacity. Gaussian blurring the layer will help darken the background without also darkening Éowyn.

Now duplicate the base and bring it to the top. Time to use the high pass filter! In Photoshop, go to Filter>Other>High Pass and set the radius to 10.0. In PSP, it's under Effects>Edge Effects>High Pass and set the radius to 10.0 (don't select desaturate). Set this layer to soft light, 100% opacity. Notice how there's more contrast and definition.

I wanted to tone down Éowyn's skin a tad, so I painted over her face with #ddcbc1 and set it to color, 100% opacity.

The whites of her eyes were slightly dark, so I painted over them with white and set it to soft light, 20% opacity (I put a black background so that you can see what it looks like).

I wanted to make the colors more vibrant, I added a vibrance layer with the vibrance and saturation at 100%. Adjust the setting as necessary for your icon. The colors should be vibrant, but if weird splotches start to show, you may want to use lower settings. For those using PSP, if you don't have the vibrancy layer, you may want to try messing with the hue-saturation settings.

Next, I added a copper gradient map (this gradient comes with Photoshop, I believe) and set it to normal, 10% opacity. The gradient map consists of #97461a at 0%, #fbd8c5 at 30%, #6c2e16 at 83%, and #efdbcd at 100%. I don't believe this layer is translatable to PSP (sorry!). You may want to add an invert layer and set it to soft light, 100% to get a similar effect.

Add a curves layer and input the following settings (adjust as necessary):
RGB: I: 91, O: 121; I: 180, O: 204
R: I: 76, O: 94; I: 204, O: 194
G: I: 63, O: 81; I: 201, O: 179
B: I: 37, O: 71; I: 207, O: 177

Duplicate the curves layer. Now your icon should start to look muted and paint-y.

Duplicate the high pass layer and bring it to the top. This layer will help to darken the lines and shadows.

Add a brightness-contrast layer with the brightness at -20, and the contrast at 100%. Now the background should be darker.

Now add this black and white texture by

lookslikerain, and set it to screen, 100% opacity.

Next, add this purple and blue texture by

lookslikerain, and set it to multiply, 100%. Clip it to the black and white texture. For those who have PSP, set the black and white texture to normal and merge down the purple and blue texture (which should still be on multiply, 100% opacity) then set the merged layer to screen, 100% opacity.

Now for the text. I just picked colors from the icon and adjusted the colors so that the text showed up better.
I'm a: FranciscoLucas Briosa, 12 pt., #ffffff
shield: Bombshell Pro, 14 pt., #02fde2
maiden: Book Jacket, 12 pt., #077269
of: FranciscoLucas Briosa, 12 pt., #ffffff
Rohan: Magnificent, 18 pt., #88476c

Now it's time to sharpen! I copy-merged the visible layers and pasted it as a new layer (SHIFT+CTRL+ALT+E in Photoshop)(Edit>Copy>Copy Merged then paste the new layer in PSP). Sharpen however you wish. I use Filter>Filter Gallery>Artistic>Paint Daubs with the brush and sharpen settings at 1. I lowered the opacity to 40%. If the text still appears too sharp, you may want to hide the text and copy merge your layers so that you are sharpening everything except for the text.

Voila! There you have it!

.psd.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!