How to go from to



1. Open picture into a 100x100 Photoshop (or other program) document.

2. Using the eyedropper tool select the colour at the top of the icon. I selected #F0F2F1.

3. Make a new layer and colour in the blank part of the icon in the top.

Now it looks like this:


4. Now a Curves layer:
RBG:
Point 1 - Input: 178 Output: 193
Point 2 - Input: 55 Output: 55
Red:
Point 1 - Input: 181 Output: 196
Point 2 - Input: 118 Output: 140
Point 3 - Input: 29 Output: 20
Green:
Point 1 - Input: 184 Output: 200
Point 2 - Input: 53 Output: 46
Blue:
Point 1 - Input: 188 Output: 211
Point 2 - Input: 49 Output: 49

5. A Colour Balance layer:
Midtones: -22, +10, +21
Highlights: +8, +15, +18
Shadows: +5, -14, +20

6. A Colour Fill layer:
#251804 set to Exclusion 100%

So it looks like this now:


7. Another Curves layer (a confusing one, so if you need it, I'll upload a screen grab for you):
RGB:
Point 1 - Input: 197 Output: 205
Now drag the dot in the bottom left hand corner until it sits at Input: 0 Output: 73
Red:
Point 1 - Input: 182 Output: 181
Point 2 - Input: 83 Output: 80
Now drag the dot in the bottom left hand corner until it sits at Input: 0 Output: 21
Green:
Drag the dot in the top right hand corner until it sits at Input: 246 Output: 255
Drag the dot in the bottom left hand corner until it sits at Input: 17 Output: 0
Blue:
Point 1 - Input: 216 Output: 225
Point 2 - Input: 172 Output: 144
Point 3 - Input: 50 Output: 58
Now drag the dot in the bottom left hand corner until it sits at Input: 0 Output: 46

8. A Curves layer:
Midtones: +14, -10, -17
Highlights: 0, +5, 0
Shadows: +12, +14, -9

9. That brings us to Levels:
RBG:
Input: 15, 1.61, 236
Output: 14, 231

And it's looking like:


10. Colour Fill layer:
#DFD2F5 on Colour Burn 100%

11. Another Colour Fill layer:
#D5F3E6 on Softlight 30%

12. Another Colour Fill layer:
#FAF5EC on Colour Burn 100%
Duplicate, reduce opacity to 30%

It looks like:


13. Gradient Map layer.
Choose the default Orange to Purple gradient, set to reverse (so that the Kittens are Orange, and the background is Purple. Set to Overlay at 10%.

14. Hue/Saturation layer.
Saturation:
Master: +10
Yellows: +10

15. Colour Fill layer:
#0D0009 at Exclusion 100%

Now it looks like:

And that's the colour done.

16. Textures.
I used:

By xswaniconsx on Softlight 20%, I moved it so that the black bar at the base wasn't visible.
Then:

By unknown (if you know, please tell me) on Multiply 100%, I just moved it around until I was happy.
Then:

By myself. I used the Magic Wand tool to delete the black bits and left it at Normal 100%.
And finally:

By sanami276, I cut the top two dots, moved them and set it to Screen 100%

I also made this icon with a very similar technique:


Again, photobucket has somewhat distorted my colour.
This is my first ever tut, so if you see a flaw, let me know.

Credit. I hope you enjoyed it, I hope even more that it's useful and please leave a comment. Like the icons in the post?
You can have them with credit, and a comment.

Also, I'd love you to friend my journal for more!