blimey! icons!

53 icons. Various fandoms.

2009-04-04T17:56:31Z

17 Merlin
01 Colin Morgan (in 'Doctor Who')
05 Jackson Rathbone (in 'Twilight' and 'Beautiful People')
15 Supernatural
15 Third Watch

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	Merlin
01-05
06-10
11-15
16-17
	Colin Morgan (in 'Doctor Who')
18
	Jackson Rathbone (in 'Twilight' and 'Beautiful People')
19-23
	Supernatural
24-28
29-33
34-38
	Third Watch
39-43
44-48
49-53

Supernatural caps by oxoniensis. Everything else was capped by me.

15 Lost

2009-02-02T16:53:45Z

15 Lost -- Spoilers for 5x01 and 5x02.

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01-05
06-10
11-15

30 Merlin

2008-12-29T14:56:09Z

30 Merlin -- Merlin, Arthur, or Merlin/Arthur.

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01-05
06-10
11-15
16-20
21-25
26-30

Next time, I swear I'll icon other characters too. For this set, every time I tried, I failed massively and ended up with one more Arhur or Merlin icon. WHAT CAN I SAY?
All resources by me. Credit to newkidfan when using. Thank you. :)

Tutorial - Masks,Tonal Value, Watercolor Effects, etc...

2008-11-16T01:46:14Z

How to go from:

to

This tutorial deals with masks, tonal values and watercolor effects... among other little details. The icon was made in Photoshop 7 but the tutorial is explained with screenshots of CS4, and shortcuts are given for both versions. This means, as far as I know, that this tutorial can be adapted to pretty much any version of PS you may have.

01. The cap.

I start with this cap I made of John and Ronon in the episode 'Outcast' of Stargate: Atlantis. Ronon is blurry but it doesn't matter as it is John I want to icon in this case. The cap is 960x528 and I'm keeping it as it is for now as I prefer to work on a canvas larger than 100x100 for as long as possible.

Right now, the cap is on the background layer and I want it to be on an independant layer. In Photoshop 7, I select the whole document by pressing Ctrl+A --a dashed border appears all around it--, right-click on the background layer and select 'Layer via Cut'. In CS3/CS4, right clicking on the background and selecting 'Layer From Background' is enough. For clarity, I name my new layer 'John'.

02. Cropping the cap.

In the case of this icon, the cropping is nothing fancy. I want John to be in the middle of the icon and that's it. There are several ways to achieve this and here is one way to do it: with the rectangular marquee tool, I click where I want the top left corner of the square to be and then drag my mouse down to the bottom right while pressing Shift, forcing my selection to be squared. (You can also do that by setting the style of the marquee tool to have a fixed aspect ratio of 1 and 1.) Note that you can move the selection if needed by using the arrow keys if you're not completely happy with its placement. Once satisfied, I select in the menu Image > Crop, I now have a nice square with John in it.

(Screenshots are at 50% of the real image throughout most of the tutorial.)

03. Masking the background.

I now want to remove the background. Again, there are plently of ways to do that. I personally prefer to use masks. With the polygonal lasso tool --or with the lasso tool, depending on how dexterous you are with your mouse-- I make a rough selection of John. Once done, I click on the mask icon and a mask is created from the selection.

Now I still need to clean up John's silhouette because at that stage, it looks like it's been detoured with a knife. I zoom in until I have a big enough view of the contour, make sure that I have the mask selected, and with the brush tool start applying black to the area that still needs to be masked.

Using the brush tool allows me to be extremely precise; the size of the brush depends on the size of the area that needs to be masked --but it's usually pretty small: 10 to 2px-- and also depends on the amount of details and indentations of the outline. A simple round brush with soft or hard edges is usually the best. Remember that if you make a mistake and erase too much, you just need to apply white to the mask instead of black.

I paint all around John's silhouette that way. I always do this with my pen tablet so I'm usually done within minutes, but even with a mouse, once you've gotten the hang of it, you can do it fairly quickly. As always, practice makes perfect. I'm not gonna lie to you though, it is a work of patience, but it's worth every minute.

Tips!
1. When detouring hair, I find that lowering the opacity of the brush tool can be useful as it gives transparency to the hair tips as I brush over them.
2. From time to time, zoom out to the 100% view and see if you've masked enough or too much. Retouch if needed.
3. I sometimes create a layer below the layer I'm masking and fill it with a flashy color that can't be found in the original cap, like fluo pink for instance. It helps me see if there are any traces left that should be masked.

Once done, I get this:

and I can now start on the fun stuff. :)

04. Creating a new background.

I create a new layer that I name 'Background'. I fill it with gray (#a1a0a0). I place this layer below 'John'. I then create another new layer in which I paste this texture, which I made from one of my photographs (you can download it and others like it here). I name it 'Texture'. Because the texture is already square, I can very easily resize or flip it any way I want until I'm satisfied with its placement. I set it to Multiply, 38%.

05. Tonal balance and desaturation.

As most caps, the cap I work with is too dark, so I'm going to have to correct its tonal value a bit to bring out the details hidden in the dark. To do so, I create a 'Levels' adjustment layer () on top of 'John'. I can see on the histogram that the amount of dark and midtone pixels is higher than of the light ones. You can use the droppers to establish dark, neutral midtone and light points, but in this case, I just played with the three triangles (the one on the left is for dark points, the middle one for midtones, the right one for white/light points): push them to the left to lighten, to the right to darken.

Now I want the adjustments to be applied to 'John' and to 'John' only, so I select the adjusment layer and then press Ctrl+G in Photoshop 7, or Ctrl+Alt+G in CS3/CS4. An arrow now indicates that the adjusment layer only affects the layer below it.

The next step is desaturating the soon-to-be icon. There are again various ways to do that: black and white adjustment layer, hue/saturation adjustment layer, channels, etc. For this icon, I chose to use a Gradient Map adjustment layer () as I like how it renders the various levels of gray. Once the Gradient Map adjustment layer box opens, I select the black and white default gradient and then edit it like so:

06. Colors and lights.

I want to add a touch of blue with a watercolor effect to the black and white, so I create a new layer, which I name 'Watercolor'. To create a watercolor effect in Photoshop is really simple as long as you have a graphic tablet:

Select the soft mechanical brush of 100px for example --it's a default brush-- and in the brush panel, make sure that you check 'Shape Dynamics' and then select 'Pen Pressure' in the roll-down list under 'Size Jitter'. Lower the opacity of your brush to about 20 to 30% and then when you're applying the color to your canvas, put more or less pressure on your pen. And that's it! Watercolor effects guaranteed.

Now for those of you who don't own a pen tablet, you can try to do that by changing the size and opacity of your brush manually, or use a pre-made brush/pic; there are plenty of brushes or stock pictures out there which you can use. You can find a few in this very journal, right here.

I placed the 'Watercolor' layer on top of a black background so that you can see what it looks like without the distraction of the 'Texture' and 'John' layers. On the right, you can see what the PS file looks like at that point.

It's now time to work on the lighting and contrast a little bit. To accentuate the contrast, I duplicate the 'Gradient Map 1' layer, place it above 'Watercolor' and set it to Soft Light, 20%. I then create a new Gradient adjustment layer (), with the following settings:

The gradient is really simple in its composition: #000000 to the left and right, #ffffff right in the middle. I set the Gradient adjustment layer to Color Burn, 20%. At that moment, the PS file looks like this:

Then, in a similar manner to the blue layer I added before, I create a new layer which I name 'Watercolor 2' and in which I paint a smudge of black at the top of the square. I set it to Linear Burn, 40%. I then create yet another layer which I name 'White Light' and in which I paint a blurry and translucid blob of white over John's face. I set this new layer to Soft Light, 100%.

07. Resizing and sharpening.

All that's left now is resizing this big square into a much smaller square. I go in Image > Image Size, and enter 102px in width and 102px in height --I only crop it down to 100x100 once I've sharpened the image. I now have a square of 102x102, and I create a new layer which I call 'Sharpen'. I press Ctrl+Alt+E so that all visible layers are copied and pasted into this one layer.

I make sure I have 'Sharpen' selected and I go into Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen. Then I go into Edit > Fade Sharpen and lower the sharpening to about 50%.

Tip! You can play with the opacity of the 'Sharpen' layer to attenuate or accentuate the sharpening as well!

Most of the time when sharpening an icon, the pixels all around the edges become marked which is why I resize it to 102 and not 100 directly because now I can crop down the canvas to 100x100, removing in the process the degraded edges. I go into Image > Canvas Size and enter 100 and 100. All done!

This tutorial is of course not to be reproduced exactly. Its only purpose is to hopefully help a few people out there. :)
Thank you for reading!

newkidfan

About lj layouts.

2008-09-06T18:41:43Z

A friend asked me if I could tell her a little how I went about creating my layouts so I put together a post with some thoughts and links. It's not a tutorial, just a short description of how I go about it. I thought this might interest some of you, so I'm posting a link to the post here as well.

Tips and links on LJ layout design

50 misc.

2008-09-06T00:16:56Z

I usually wait until I have at least 12 icons of the same show before posting anything, but even though I've had some of those on my drive for eons, I'm still nowhere near completing a full set and I haven't posted anything in forever and I'm tired of seeing them sitting on my drive so I have decided to post everything I have so far and start afresh. Oh and before you ask... SGA people, next time, there will be icons from "The Shrine" for sure. :)

50 icons in total:

01-20 Stargate: Atlantis
21-35 Verbotene Liebe (Christian and Olli)
36-42 Lost, Matthew Fox
43 Greg Grunberg and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes)
44-45 CSI NY
46-47 Alias
48 Bridget Jones
49-50 Midsomer Murders

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01-05
06-10
11-15
16-20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40
41-45
46-50

Credit to newkidfan or blimey_icons.

70 NCIS.

2008-04-14T21:13:13Z

70 NCIS - all seasons.

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001-005
006-010
011-015
016-020
021-025
026-030
031-035
036-040
041-045
046-050
051-055
056-060
061-065
066-070

All caps and resources were made by me. Please credit newkidfan if/when using. Thank you. :)

Resources: 16 textured backgrounds for icons.

2008-02-25T18:12:23Z

16 textured backgrounds for icons (100x100). Watercolor effects.

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Right click, save as...
Please credit if you use. Thank you. :)

Resources - Heart brushes.

2008-02-14T16:02:07Z

Happy Valentine's Day !!!

06 heart brushes. Made in/for Photoshop. Image pack available too, in the form of transparent png's. \o/

Download Zips

» abr (349Kb)
» image pack (470Kb)

Please comment and credit if you download/use.

*smooches*

Bandwidth issues

2008-01-24T13:41:30Z

All the icons and other images posted in blimey_icons won't be showing until the end of the month as my photobucket bandwidth exceeded. I'm not going to reupload everything somewhere else because some ass thinks hotlinking is cool... Everything will back to normal in February. :)

SGA Caps Update: "Spoils of War".

2008-01-22T23:31:45Z

I updated the Stargate: Atlantis HR Screen Captures Index with caps for "Spoils of War". Have fun! :)

SG:A, 4x12, "Spoils of War", 715 HR caps, 960x528, jpg, small logo. Previews and zip file.

Layout: Wallpaper.

2008-01-19T02:43:22Z

Style Sheet: Wallpaper. (2 color schemes!)
Layout: Flexible Squares.
Style: S2.
Sidebar: right.
Accounts: free and paid accounts.

previews and download at interlinea

45 Stargate: Atlantis.

2008-01-12T18:16:24Z

15 Stargate: Atlantis (various seasons)
30 Stargate: Atlantis - lantis_lims, round 3, entries for challenge 08 through 13.

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	Stargate: Atlantis
01...
06...
11...
	Icons made for lantis_lims (round 3, challenges 8 to 13).
16...
21...
26...
31...
36...
41...

SGA Caps Update: "The Brotherhood", "Reunion", "Doppleganger", "This Mortal Coil".

2008-01-08T13:13:07Z

I have gathered all my Stargate: Atlantis caps in one post for easier tracking and management. A new post will be made every time there's an update.

Today's update: 4 episodes: "The Brotherhood" (1x16), "Reunion" (4x03), "Doppleganger" (4x04), "This Mortal Coil" (4x10).

16 Calvin and Hobbes

2007-11-26T17:27:08Z

16 Calvin and Hobbes

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	Calvin and Hobbes
01 —— 04
05 —— 08
09 —— 12
13 —— 16

Resources
All pictures come from The Essential Calvin and Hobbes. A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury. by Bill Watterson.

Resources: 28 impasto brushes!

2007-11-18T17:45:41Z

28 brushes - various sizes, made with Photoshop.

I only made an abr file, no image pack. If pressured/needed by many, I could make one, but those are much more useful as brushes than as stocks. It is called Impasto for obvious reasons. :P

Impasto:
Painting that applies the pigment thickly so that brush or palette knife marks are visible

Previews

download abr
zip. 422Kb.

My other brushes can be found in this journal via the resources tag or at my website Colordrop.

16 Heroes, 51 Stargate: Atlantis

2007-11-13T00:31:10Z

16 Heroes - Special Matt, Mohinder, Matt/Mohinder, M3 + Greg Grunberg and Sendhil Ramamurthy
08 Stargate: Atlantis - Special McKay/Sheppard
43 Stargate: Atlantis - lantis_lims, round 3, entries for challenge 01 through 06.

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	Heroes
01 —— 04
05 —— 08
09 —— 12
13 —— 16
	Stargate: Atlantis
17 —— 20
21 —— 24
	Icons made for lantis_lims (round 3, challenges 1 to 6).
25 —— 28
29 —— 32
33 —— 36
37 —— 40
41 —— 44
45 —— 48
49 —— 52
53 —— 56
57 —— 60
61 —— 64
65 —— 67

20 Heroes, 16 Prison Break

2007-10-25T23:03:21Z

20 Heroes (99% season two)
14 Prison Break (season three)
02 Wentworth Miller

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	Heroes
01 —— 04
05 —— 08
09 —— 12
13 —— 16
17 —— 20
	Prison Break & Wentworth Miller
21 —— 24
25 —— 28
29 —— 32
33 —— 36

CSI:NY, Without A Trace, Supernatural.

2007-10-19T21:27:37Z

20 CSI New York
13 Without A Trace (season 6)
12 Supernatural

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01-04

05-08

09-12

13-16

17-20

21-24

25-28

29-32

34-37

38-41

42-45

SGA Caps Update: "Lifeline".

2007-10-16T16:20:37Z

Lifeline
499 HR caps. 960x528. Jpg.

All Stargate: Atlantis screencaps have been gathered in one post: here.

Stargate: Atlantis HR Screen Captures Index

2007-10-16T00:27:13Z

Last Updated:
» 01/23/08: "Spoils of War" (4x12).

Past updates:
» 01/08/08: "The Brotherhood" (1x16), "Reunion" (4x03), "Doppleganger" (4x04), "This Mortal Coil" (4x10).
» 10/16/07: "Adrift" (4x01), "Lifeline" (4x02).

Season 01
	The Brotherhood (1x16) 430 HR caps. 960x528. Jpg. Zip (105Mb) \| Previews:

Season 04
	Adrift (4x01) 510 HR caps. 960x528. Jpg. Zip (120Mb) \| Previews:
	Lifeline (4x02) 499 HR caps. 960x528. Jpg. Zip (113Mb) \| Previews:
	Reunion (4x03) 572 HR caps. 960x544. Jpg. Zip (135Mb) \| Previews:
	Doppleganger (4x04) 572 HR caps. 960x544. Jpg. Zip (133Mb) \| Previews:
	Travelers (4x05)
	Tabula Rasa (4x06)
	Missing (4x07)
	The Seer (4x08)
	Miller's Crossing (4x09)
	This Mortal Coil (4x10) 500 HR caps. 1280x720. Jpg. Small logo. Zip (175Mb) \| Previews:
	Be All My Sins Remember'd (4x11)
	Spoils of War (4x12) 715 HR caps. 960x528. Jpg. Small logo. Zip (155Mb) \| Previews:
	Quarantine (4x13)
	Harmony (4x14)
	Outcast (4x15)
	Trio (4x16)
	Midway (4x17)
	The Kindred (1) (4x18)
	The Kindred (2) (4x19)
	The Last Man (1) (4x20)

When using, crediting to newkidfan is appreciated. :)

24 sga icons (The Defiant One)

2007-10-14T14:22:05Z

I have finally finished my 100 icons of the episode "The Defiant One" for sg_100. It's taken me soooooooo long to complete (read almost two years 0_0) that you can actually see the evolution of my icon style. If there ever is a next time, I'll make the 100 icons before I sign-up for the challenge.

Icons 001 to 076 have been posted before. Click here to skip to the new ones (077 to 100). Many thanks to dana_cz for her never-ending patience with me.

001-005
006-010
011-015
016-020
021-025
026-030
031-035
036-040
041-045
046-050
051-055
056-060
061-065
066-070
071-075
076-080
081-085
086-090
091-095
096-100

Tutorial: John Sheppard breaks free.

2007-09-25T23:12:48Z

Yay! Tutorial!
I remember promising a few peeps I'd make one a few months back, so this is long overdue.

This tutorial is about what you could do when you want to icon a character but boring ugly stuff are in the way. In the case of this tutorial, the cell bars in front of John Sheppard's face (Stargate: Atlantis). The icon itself is nothing exceptional but it wasn't the point of the tutorial, so I figured it'd do.

There are probably other ways to do this. This is just mine. I hope you'll enjoy this, and that you'll find it useful in some ways. :)

How to go from (a) to (b)?
(a) ------> (b)

Part One
» Removing the cell bars from his face, neck and vest.
» Removing the bars in the background.

~~~~~~

Part Two
» Cropping and creating the background.
» Recreating the bit of hair which is outside the cap.
» Coloring.

(a) ------> (b) or

Alias, BtVS, HP, SG:A.

2007-09-08T23:36:54Z

10 Alias (season 5).
09 Buffy the Vampire Slayer (season 4).
16 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
32 Stargate: Atlantis (various seasons).

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A
Alias

B
Alias

C
Alias

D
BtVS

E
BtVS

F
BtVS

G
HP

H
HP

I
HP

J
HP

K
SG:A

L
SG:A

M
SG:A

N
SG:A

O
SG:A

P
SG:A

Q
SG:A

R
SG:A

Edit to add
Requested by sandrainthesun

12 textures (600x600 pixels)

2007-08-26T17:15:30Z

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All textures are 600x600 pixels.
Click on thumbnails to view, or: