Challenge 2x07 Results

[kerravonsen]

The results of Challenge #2x07, Hearts are:

Embodiment of style
First: (a tie!)
by htbthomas
by rooftop_jones


Second: (another tie)
by yhlee
by kerravonsen


Third: (yet another tie)
by htbthomas
by htbthomas


I Just Like It
First:
by rooftop_jones


Second:
by htbthomas


Third: (and it's a tie)
by yhlee
by kerravonsen


Mod's choice
by rooftop_jones


Thank you, everyone!

I've also revealed the entries in the challenge entry post.

Now, discuss! How did you make your icons? Techniques, tips, difficulties?

Comments

[htbthomas]

Yay, thanks everyone!


This one was made using one of my heart brushes that had a bit of a 3D texture. I sized the picture to match up, then I used the paintbrush to paint the heart on a transparent layer above. I used alpha to selection on the brush layer, and inverted the selection. I clicked on the picture layer and deleted the outside image around the heart brush, getting rid of the original brush layer. Then I selected the area around the heart and used the gradient tool to give it more color.


This one was pretty simple. After preparing the base, I layered a transparent PNG of candy hearts, cutting away all the others except the "My Boy" heart, finally adding a little drop shadow.


For this one I used another transparent PNG with candy hearts. I added a text layer on top, selecting the text and inverting it. Then I duplicated the hearts layer and deleted the outside from the text. I got rid of the original text layer, selected the text layer again, and used "grow" to 1-2 pixels. On a new transparent layer, I filled it with pink, and merged the text and the pink border. Finally I added another black text layer, and moved it slightly down and right to make the main text stand out from the background.

[rooftop_jones]

Gosh, wow! Thanks for the votes everyone.

Step one: ideas. I was thinking 'heart' in the literal sense (way too much watching House MD, hee!) so I started searching for things like 'cardiology textbooks', 'the cardiovascular system', 'heart surgery' in googleimages and pulled up a couple of pictures I liked, of which this was one.
Step Two: I made three crops from the image: the heart I used as the base; and two text crops of the words 'textbook' and 'cardiovascular'. I resized them and sharpened/clarified tweaked about a bit (I can't remember exactly) but in order to sort of un-blur it from the resize.
Step Three: Copy-paste the two text clips as new layers onto the heart base and set them to 'Lighten 100%' so their green backgrounds sort of blended into the heart's background. And that's it. :D