Let's see colors that have never been seen

New Layout!

2008-05-07T18:39:49Z

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have a new layout. So when you visit my icon journal and it looks different, you won't think you're in the wrong place.

It's been bothering me for a while that it was hard to see the links on the graphic background I was using for the entry area, so I went with a plain white background this time. Also, the layout is a little wider, but I tried not to make it too wide because not everyone has a widescreen monitor.

Please let me know if you see anything strange about this layout.

Just for fun lets go through the history of my icon journal layouts. Don't worry, it's short because this is only the third layout I've had here.

So my first layout was this dark purple/magenta color. Yep. *stares*

Click the thumbnail to see the larger size

I got tired of the darkness and went for something lighter and brighter for my next layout. I really like this one and had it for a long time. But I was ready for a change and something much cleaner and simpler.

You probably noticed that I always have the water theme in my layouts. I just like it. I find rocks, flowers and architecture visually appealing so I put those elements in my header. I also tried to keep the colors soft and on the monochromatic side. I hope you all will still enjoy visiting my icon journal with the new layout. :)

*waves*

Moonlight, Gerard Butler, Stock Photo Icons

2008-04-30T04:30:24Z

+ 9 Stock Photo Icons - Lady Bugs and Flowers
+ 73 Fated to Pretend - Moonlight icons 10 - 80
+ 11 Misc. Moonlight related icons: 81 was made for vampire_lims
82 - 88 are icontest icons mickbeth_stills Icons 83, 84, 85 and 86 placed in the contest.
89 - 91 are Alex O'Loughlin from NYCC
+ 5 Gerard Butler icontest icons. Icon #92 won 3rd place.
+ 3 MickBeth header/banners
+ 1 MickBeth wallpaper

Trying to icon that rooftop kissing scene was a bitch. I kind of gave up after the fifth icon. bleh. I hope the next kissing scene is in a nice bright room with a solid colored backdrop. Who cares if bright light is not romantic. :)

I iconed the whole dang episode. So much stuff happened I couldn't resist. And I still have a few quote icons I want to make. I'll save those for the next batch though. I did icon what I thought was one of the best quotes of the episode. By Josef of course. He always gets the best lines. :)

Please let me know if I spelt anything incorrectly. I messed around with color quite a bit in some of these icons. Icon #73 is my personal favorite.

Teasers:

9 Stock Photo Icons
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

73 Fated To Pretend - 11 Misc. Moonlight
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 464748 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91

5 Gerard Butler icontest icons
92 93 94 95 96

MickBeth - Roof Top Kiss FO banner and header
97

98Roof Top Kiss - blank

MickBeth - Beach Picnic Header
(I think he's looking at her cleavage in this picture. Hee.)
99

MickBeth - Roof top Kiss - Wallpaper 1440x900
Click the thumbnail to see the full size wallpaper
100

+ Please comment. I'm curious about what people like and what they are taking.
+ I will be happy to customize any of the above graphics. This is limited to text of course. Leave a comment detailing what wording you would like.
+ Please do not alter any of my graphics.
+ Please credit either endlessdeep or phlourish_icons

Thanks for stopping by. :)

Moonlight Tonight

2008-04-25T22:25:21Z

A thought I'd post a friendly reminder that Moonlight airs tonight with a brand new episode.

That's in less than 3 hours.

Moonlight Newsletter - Edition 29

2008-04-24T19:50:30Z

Moonlight News is never boring.

Catch up on all the Moonlight news.

Please join to recieve the weekly newsletter. mlnewsletter

Thanks everyone! :)

Moonlight, Battlestar Galactica, Stock Photography

2008-04-12T19:59:26Z

+14 Stock Photography icons - flowers mostly
+ 9 Moonlight icons - Mick St. John
+26 Battlestar Galactica icons
+16 Icontest Icons = Gerard Butler, Moonlight, Btvs
+ 2 Mick St. John - 1 FO banner and 1 Art Graphic
+ 1 Lee Adama banner
+ 1 Head Six banner
+ 1 Battlestar Galactica Wallpaper

I made a couple banners of Mick St. John in all his open-shirted wonder, strolling down the beach, and some icons to match. Also, a few icons of Mick's face when Coraline was trying to entice him to go away with her...from the Mortal Cure. He looks all vulnerable. Poor Mick. ;)

BSG
I haven't made any Battlestar Galactica graphics in a while, but I was inspired by all the hype about BSG starting up again and excited about finally finding out who the 5th Cylon is, so I made some icons and a couple of banners from the Season 4 promo pics. I don't have all the characters iconed, but I did a few of them. I'll probably icon the other characters for another batch.

I think Jamie Bamber/Apollo is OK, but I am by no means a big fan of his. But, I thought his promo photos were some of the better ones in the batch so I made a Lee Adama banner out of them. If you want the text changed to make it a header or a FO banner I will be happy to do that for you. Also, I can reduce the size, especially if you want it as a FO banner. I think the size it is now might be too big for an FO banner. Just let me know in a comment. Don't reduce the size yourself, because the text will look funny.

This is image heavy. I didn't realize I had so much stuff to post.

Teasers:

14 Stock Photography Icons
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

9 Moonlight Icons
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Animation by twenbachen

26 Battlestar Galactica icons
24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49

16 Icontest icons - Gerard Butler, BtVS, Moonlight
50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65

Mick St. John Matching icons above
66

67

Lee Adama matching icons above
68

Head Six matching icons above
69

Battlestar Galactica wallpaper

70 Click to see 1680x1050 wallpaper
71 Click to see 1440x900 wallpaper

+ Please comment. I'm curious about what people like and what they are taking.
+ I will be happy to customize any of the above graphics.
I can reduce the size of any graphic, but I cannot make it larger.
I can change the text on any graphic or icon.
Please leave a comment detailing what wording you would like and/or what size you would like.
+ Please do not alter any of my graphics.
+ Please credit either endlessdeep or phlourish_icons

Thanks for stopping by. :)

Click the banners

2 Moonlight wallpapers from ep 13 promo pics

2008-03-27T04:41:31Z

Like everyone else I was "inspired" to make some graphics from the recently released promo photos for episode 13 "Fated to Pretend" of Moonlight.

For now, I have a couple of wallpapers. One Mick and Beth and one of just Mick which is kind of an experimental graphic using stock photography.

These could be SPOILERY for people who are trying not to be spoiled at all for new episodes of Moonlight so they are under the cut.

Oh, the mushy, romantic poems on the wallpapers I got from a journal I found at B&N, called "Desire". I like them. :)

Mick and Beth - "Fated to Pretend" Ep13

Two Widescreen size wallpapers
1680x1050
1440x900

Two Regular size wallpapers
1600x1200
1280x960
Words by Sappho (6th century B.C.) Fragment 2

Mick St. John - Deprive me of my Wits

Widescreen size wallpaper
1440x900
Regular size wallpaper
1024x768
Words by Gaspara Stampa (1523 - 1554) Untitled Sonnet

+ I don't mind if you alter the size yourself for use on your desktop, but please do not alter the size for use as a header or other graphic. It will just look weird.
+ I will be happy to change text or alter the size of the wallpapers for you. Just leave a comment here stating what you would like.
+ Please comment. Credit is unnecessary in this case since it's a wallpaper. I ask for comments because I like to know what people like and think of my graphics.
+ Please do not post these anywhere else. And please do not hotlink.

I'll have some headers, FO banners and icons of these promo pics later this week.

If you have a problem seeing the "actual size" of the wallpaper after you click on the link, please let me know in a comment.

Thanks so much for stopping by. :)

Sophia Myles - 12 icons, 1 header, 1 wallpaper

2008-03-18T22:04:10Z

I just found out a little while ago that today is Sophia Myles birthday. I was going to wait till I had more icons and graphics to post, but since today is her birthday and all, I thought I'd go ahead and post these now. I made these yesterday, coincidentally.

Wallpaper and header made from this scan...Scan - Sophia Myles found at hires_hotties

Teasers:

12 icons - Sophia Myles
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Sophia Myles - header

13

Sophia Myles - wallpaper

Click the thumbnail to see the original size wall
14

+ Please comment, let me know what you like and what you're taking.
+ As usual if you want something different like an FO banner, different text or whatever from the above graphics please leave a comment letting me know what you want. I'd be happy to customize the graphic for you.
+ Please do not alter any of my graphics yourself.
+ Please credit either endlessdeep or phlourish_icons

Thanks for stopping by. :)

Stock Photography, Moonlight, Gerard Butler and BtVS - icons and banners

2008-03-02T23:32:40Z

+ 25 Stock Photography Icons - Ireland and Kitties
+ 25 Moonlight Icons - Random
+ 7 Gerard Butler
+ 23 Icontest Icons - 6 BtVS, 14 Gerard Butler(kissing theme), 3 Moonlight
+ Gerard Butler - 1 header and 1 FO banner
+ Mick St. John - 1 header and 2 banners
+ Stock Photography - 2 headers and 1 FO banner

If you take something I would really really appreciate a comment. Even if you just say what number you are taking. It helps me to know what people like and it's polite.

I don't have any other explanations. Just a bunch of icons and stuff I've been working on. Oh, just one thing. There are icons to match the headers and friends only banners. :)

I added the "Before" photos for the castle and the boat. Links at the top of the graphic.

Teasers:

Stock Icons - Ireland and Kitties
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Moonlight Icons - misc
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

Gerard Butler icons
51 52 53 54 55 56 57

Icontest Icons - Buffy, Gerard Butler
58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81

Gerard Butler
82

83

Mick St. John
84

85

86

Stock Photo Art banners - Ireland
Before
87

Before
88
Song lyrics What is and what should never be by Led Zeppelin

89

+ Please comment, let me know what you like and what your'e taking. I am curious.
+ If you would like text changed on any of the icons or graphics please let me know in a comment.
+ Please do not hotlink and please do not post my icons or other graphics anywhere else. They are for your personal use.
+ Please credit either endlessdeep or phlourish_icons

Thanks for stopping by. :)

My new icontest community...it's a rumble!

2008-03-01T03:58:17Z

I think the only place I haven't advertised my new community is here in my icon journal. What was I thinking?!

Anyway, in case you haven't heard, I have a new icontest community. It's called moonlightrumble Moonlight Rumble. It's like a LIMS except instead of someone being voted out every week, the icon makers collect points. Whoever ends up with the most points at the end of the 10 weeks/10 challenges wins.

Sign ups for Round 1 are being accepted right now, so if you are interested please head on over to the User Info page and find out all about the contest.

Sing ups close Sunday evening, March 2nd. That is also when your icon is due for challenge 1.

Sorry I didn't mention this here sooner, but there is still time to sign up and get your icons submitted.

Not an icon maker? No problem, you can still vote in the challenges. All you need to have is a LiveJournal and go ahead and become a member so you can keep up with the challenges.

I will be posting some new graphics within the next few days. I have banners with matching icons...stock photo(Irish scenery and kitties this time), Gerard Butler and Moonlight.

Thanks everyone!

Blending Tutorial 2 - Header on a black background

2008-02-18T05:31:11Z

A blending tutorial featuring Mick St. John. I'm kind of in love with every detail of Alex O'Loughlin's face, from his round forehead to his cleft chin and everything in between. ;)

We're going to be making this header from that lovely face: click the thumbnail

This tutorial was made using Photoshop CS2. We're going to blend again, using the "add layer mask" tool. I'm also going to show you how to use a "gradient map" to change the color of a screencap. This blending tutorial is a little easier than my last one.

Choose your screencaps

Like I said, I decided to go with some screencaps of 1980's Mick St. John from the Moonlight episode "Out of the Past". These have already been reduced to the size I think I want to use and cropped. Screencaps from CrystalFires.com

Click to see the caps I'm starting with
Screencaps I started out with - screencap

I was going to do this in black and and white, but I noticed that three of the caps have a kind of sepia tone to them with lots of contrast between the darks and lights. I decided to keep those colors, so I changed the two blue tinted caps to match.

TIP: This tutorial will not work well on screencaps that have a light colored or white background.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How to change the color of the blue tinted caps
You can skip this part if you want.

I made a three color gradient based on the browns and peaches in one of the sepia toned caps. Use your "Eyedropper Tool" to pick three colors - in a light, medium and dark shade. Make your gradient starting with the dark colors.

(If you don't know how to make a gradient in Photoshop, go to Help>Photoshop Help. When the "Adobe Help Center" dialog pops up go to the Index. Click on "G". Then Gradients>Creating. If your help center works the same as mine you should be at "To create a smooth gradient". Follow the directions there.)

This was my gradient.

Unfortunately I did something and lost it before I could save it as a .grd file, so I don't have that to share with you. But it's probably best that you make your own gradient anyway. Or just use one of the gradients you already have to experiment with.

When you have your gradient ready open one of your blue toned caps. In the "Layers Palette" click on the "Create new fill or adjustment layer" tool. Then click on "Gradient Map". In the Gradient Map dialog box that pops up find the gradient you made and select it. Then click "OK". Set the Blend Mode to "Color".

Now these are going to look a little flat. There won't be as many colors as in the three sepia toned caps, which have a lot of greens and grays in them. The grayish brown would be OK, but you want to avoid that green because we are trying to get the skin tones as close to those other three caps as possible.
click to see the result
The two blue tinted caps colored to match the other pictures

There are many other way to change the color of your caps. If you have your own way of doing it and it works, by all means go with it.

If all else fails, you could even just desaturate those blue tinted caps and use them in black and white if you want.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do whatever it is that you do to prepare your screencaps/pictures. I am going to wait till I have mine blended the way I want them before I do anything else to them.

Arrange your caps onto your canvas

Open a blank canvas and give it a black background. Drag your caps onto the canvas, above the black layer, and arrange them in a pleasing fashion. This is always the hardest thing for me and I don't think I get it right most of the time. So, if you are good at this sort of thing be proud. :)

Tip
OK, here's the really cool thing about working on a black background. You can set all your caps to "screen" and still see them! Personally, when I'm working on a black background it's the first thing I do because they are transparent and it's much easier to arrange them.

So here is how I arranged them.

Blending Your Pictures

Now it's time to start blending. I have a tutorial that already explains how to do this and if you want more detailed instructions you can go take a look at it BLENDING YOUR PICTURES, otherwise follow these simple instructions.

In your color pallette your foreground color should be black and your background color white. Click on your brush tool. For this size graphic I started out with a "soft 30px round brush" and set the "opacity to 100%". Actually you're going to have to play around with the opacity and size of your brush. You'll see when you start blending. But this is a good place to start. Ignore the brush size and opacity I have circled in the graphic below. This just shows you where they are.

Now go to your "Layers palette" and click on "Add layer mask" and you'll see a white rectangle appear in the layer you have selected.

Start masking out parts of the caps you don't want in your final product. For instance the parts covering Mick's face and the hard lines at the edges of the caps would be a good place to start. Go slow and take your time.

If you make a mistake use the "eraser tool" to fix it.

What I do is I work on all my images at once. So I will add a mask to each layer and go back and forth between each one and blend till I get my caps blended the way I want.

This is what I ended up with.

Sometimes it's good to leave a little of the background from some of the caps because it helps to connect them. You can also do this with textures.

That's the basics. You can add some textures or brushes and text. Whatever you want. This is my final product. A "1980's Mick St. John" header for the top of your LJ layout.

I hope this was helpful. If there is anything you don't understand or you see any mistakes please let me know in a comment.

The header is, of course, up for grabs. If you want to use it and need the text changed please let me know. Please do not try to add text to it yourself. It will look weird.

Please credit phlourish_icons or endlessdeep if you use the header.

I love comments, so please leave one.

Thanks everyone. :)

Moonlight and Stock Photo Icons, 1 Mick/Beth banner

2008-02-14T20:01:39Z

Just a few icons for Valentine's Day.

+ 15 Stock Photo Icons - Hearts and Relationship icons
+ 19 Moonlight icons
+ 1 Mick/Beth Banner

Please comment and credit. Thanks. :)

Teasers:

15 Stock Photo Icons
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

19 Moonlight Icons
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

Mick/Beth Banner
33

+ Please comment, let me know what you like and what your'e taking. I am curious.
+ If you would like text changed on any of the icons or graphics please let me know in a comment.
+ Please credit either endlessdeep or phlourish_icons

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Thanks for stopping by. :)

Gerard Butler wallpaper - Rough around the Edges

2008-02-11T23:23:39Z

Here is the Gerard Butler wallpaper I used for the tutorial in the previous entry. Rough around the Edges - Blending tutorial

I made a second version with a different text, but only one size. If you need it resized please let me know in a comment.

Click on the thumb to download the wallpaper

Click on the thumb for the 1680x1050 wallpaper

Download 1440x900 wallpaper
Download 1280x1024 wallpaper
Download 1024x768 wallpaper

Please leave a comment. I love to know what people think. Thanks for stopping by. :)

endlessdeep

Blending Tutorial - using "add layer mask" and "feather"

2008-02-11T21:26:47Z

Blending Images

This tutorial is for alexandral and anyone else who wants to learn how to blend images. We are going to be making a wallpaper for your desktop. Beginners are welcome.

I'm wordy so be warned. But I think, if you're a beginner, the wordiness is helpful. But, I'll let you be the judge of that. :)

I use Photoshop CS2. You will learn how to use the "add layer mask" tool, the "Polygonal Lasso Tool" and how to "feather". I'm not sure if other graphic editing programs have the same tools, but they might have something similar. So even if you don't have Photoshop you might still be able to learn something from this tutorial or at the very least get some inspiration. I hope. :)

Beginners should be able to follow this tutorial. But, please don't look on this tutorial as a step by step tutorial. You will not be able to create the exact same wallpaper I have created. I'm going to show you where to find the tools I've used and how to use them, the rest is up to you. You can use the images I've used or use your own.

Most of the examples are linked and the graphics are reduced in size.

Gathering your photos

First I gather the pictures I think I might want to use in my wallpaper. I went with some pictures of Gerard Butler that are all from the same photo shoot and have the same background color. I've reduced them to the size I want to use them at on my wallpaper.

GB photo1
GB photo 2
GB photo 3
High Resolution photos from hires_hunks

I make a lot of icons and they are tiny. So, when I'm making a wallpaper I like to use large High Resolution Photographs or High Definition Screencaps. There is a lot to be said for the wallpapers with a wide expanse of textured background and a small picture. Yes, it looks artistic, it can convey a mood, or a scene, you have plenty of room for your desktop icons. I've made these types of wallpapers myself. But we're not going for any of that here. We're making a wallpaper of your favorite celebrity/actor/whatever. You want a closeup of that face. Don't you? We're going for "WOW!", look at his/her eyes, look at the expression on his/her face, look at those pores on his skin. Hee. It's the actor we want to see up close here, not a huge expanse of texture. So we are going to use large pictures and we are going to keep them large. Yay!

Choosing your Textures

OK, let's set those pictures aside for a minute and think about our background. You could leave it a plain color if you like, but I wanted to do something rough and grungy with the background and the overall wallpaper. So I looked through my graphics files and picked out some huge pictures(we'll call them textures from now on) that I downloaded from www.stock.xchng.com.

I really recommend stock.xchng.com because it's free and they have the most enormous stock photos I have ever seen. If you know of another web site that lets you download huge photos for free I would love to know about it.

Click on the links to see the textures
Txtr1 Ripped Posters
Txtr2 Cement and Brick
Txtr3 Light Streak
Txtr4 Red wash of light
These textures have already been reduced to the size I used them at in my wallpaper.

Let's get Started - Arranging your pictures onto your wallpaper

Open up your graphics.
Click on File>New
My New file/blank canvas is 1680x1050 pixels. Yours might be different. (Make sure your canvas is pixels and not inches.)
I have my Resolution set to 72
Color Mode - RGB Color
Background - it really doesn't matter because we are going to be adding a background. Some people like to start out with a transparent background. It's up to you.

Drag your pictures onto the blank canvas and arrange them however you want. The photo on the right with Gerry smoking a cig I flipped horizontally so that he's kind of facing the opposite direction to the picture on the left.

Each photo is on a seperate layer and they are overlapping each other. This is what you want because now your are going to start blending. I usually shift my main graphic to the right so that I will have empty space on the left for my desktop icons. You don't have to do this, it's up to you.

Blending Your Pictures

Now we can start blending the pictures together. This is the most time consuming part. I've decided to start with the photo on the left. Make sure it's selected.

In your color pallette your foreground color should be black and your background color white. Click on your brush tool. For this size graphic I started out with a "soft 65px round brush" and set the "opacity to 30%". Actually you're going to have to play around with the opacity and size of your brush. You'll see when you start blending. But this is a good place to start.

Now go to your "Layers pallette" and click on "Add layer mask" and you'll see a white rectangle appear in the layer you have selected.

Now you're going to start going over the areas of the photo you want to get rid of, or that you want to make partially transparent(this is where messing around with the opacity comes in). There is really no set order of doing this. My recommendation is that you experiment with different sizes and kinds of brushes and try setting them at different opacities. It's a lot of trial and error. Go slow and take your time.

Start on the straight edges on your photos and then gradually blend the rest of the photo into the background.

Ignore the colored background in this example. It's there so you can see the blending better.

Question: You might be wondering - why not just erase the parts you don't want? Why use the mask tool?

Answer: Because when you use the mask tool you can correct your mistakes very easily.

Go ahead and try it. Click on your "eraser tool". Select a brush, it doesn't really matter what kind, but you might as well stay with the soft round brush. Now go over one of the areas you just masked out and you will see it reappear. I know it makes no sense that the eraser tool would bring back your image, but what it is doing is erasing your previous brush strokes, if that makes any sense.

OK, let's switch back to our brush tool and keep working on blending our images.

What I do is I work on all my images at once. So I will add a mask to each layer and go back and forth between each one and blend till I get my images blended the way I want.

You have to make sure the layer you want to work on is selected and then click on the white mask rectangle to activate it. Then you can start blending.

Pretty soon your wallpaper will start to look something like this. Click to see the large graphic

Keep working till you get rid of all the straight edges. Use a brush with a low opacity and go over Gerry's shoulders so that his legs in the middle picture show through. If you take away too much just use the "eraser tool" to correct it, bring it back.

Add a Textured Background

Once you have your pictures blended the way you want, grab your "Ripped Posters" texture(Txtr1 above) and tuck it beneath all your layers at the bottom. So it will be above your main background layer and beneath all your pictures/blended layers. Like this.

Now you can do some touching up on your blended layers if you need to. If you need to get rid of more of the blue background from the pictures go ahead and and do that.

Add a Textured Foreground

Now we are going to work with another texture and learn how to use "feather". I like to use "Feather" because it gives you a more gradual and natural looking fade to opacity. You'll see what I mean.

Grab the "Cement and Brick" texture(Txtr2) and drag it to the top of your canvas. Lower the opacity on this layer till you can see your layers beneath. Click on the "Polygonal Lasso Tool" and outline all your blended pictures. To use the "PLT" start outlining your object, then click, then move it some more to outline, then click. It takes some time and patience but it's worth the effort.

When you're done make sure you connect back to where you started. You should have something that looks like a dashed line of marching ants surrounding your pictures.
Click to see example - example4

Now make sure the texture layer is selected.
Click on Select>Feather.
In the little box that pops up set the "Feather Radius" to 20.
Now tap the "Delete Key" on your keyboard.
Click on Select>Deselect to get rid of the marching ants.
Bring the opacity on the layer back up to 100% and have a look.
Click to see example - example4

Now play with the blending mode on that texture layer. I set mine to "Multiply" at 100%.
Click to see example - example 6

If you need to erase more of the texture from your graphic use the "add layer mask" tool(as described above). I used it to erase some of the texture from his hand and face.

OK, grab the "Cement and Birck" texture(Txtr2) again and drag it onto the top of your wallpaper, above the same texture you just feathered. Set the blend mode to "Soft Light". "Add Layer Mask" and mask out the texture that is covering his faces, all of them and any other skin that is showing. You don't won't mottled looking skin. Unless of course you do, but I don't recommend it. (You can skip this part if you want.)

*deep breath* OK, are you still with me?

I am going to show you how I added the light textures.

Adding Light Textures

Grab the "Streak of Light" texture(txtr3) the blue one.
Drag it to the top of your graphic.
Set it to screen.
Get your "Polygonal Lasso Tool" out again and make a rough outline around the white streak.
Click on Select>Inverse
Click on Select>Feather
"Feather Radius" 20
Tap the "Delete Key" on your Keyboard.

Use your "Move Tool" to position the light streak over the straight line at the bottom of your blended pictures. Make a copy of the light streak layer and blur it.
Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur - Set it so that it makes the streak layer beneath look like it's glowing.

Light Streak - example7

Grab the "Red wash of light" texture(txtr4) and drag it to the top of your wallpaper.
Set the blend mode to "Lighten" or "Screen". I set mine to "Lighten"

Now this is covering way to much of Gerry's face and other parts I want to show so I want to get rid of some of it.
Light texture covering the whole wallpaper - example8

You can use the "Polygonal Lasso Tool" along with "Feather" to erase chunks of the red light texture from your blended pictures and parts of the background a piece at a time. Kind of like what we did with the light streak except you don't need to inverse.
After I've feathered out parts of the light texture - example9

Do some extra stuff

That's the basics.

I did more to the actual pictures of Gerard. Just do whatever it is you do when you are making graphics of people. I added a "Selective Color" layer and I also duplicated all the Gerard layers, desaturated them and set the blend mode to "Multiply" at 30% opacity. This will all depend on your pictures of course and what look you are going for.

You can add some text. I used a font called Trashed for the text at the bottom and for Gerard's name I used a font called Monika.

You can also add some brushes. I added some grungy line brushes under the text at the bottom.

The last thing I did was duplicate all my layers. I made a new layer at the top of my wallpaper. Then press in order "alt + ctrl + shift + e". Then I set the blend mode to "Soft Light" at 50% opacity. I might have desatured it a bit, I can't remember.

~The End.~

If you have any questions or something is not clear please feel free to ask in a comment.

If this tutorial was helpful please let me know in a comment. I really like to get feed back on these things.

I hope I have helped some people to learn some new techniques and I also hope I've inspired you.

The wallpaper is up for grabs if you like it. You can find different sizes here. Please please comment and credit if you take it home with you.

I am going to do another blending tutorial using black and white photos on a black background. Kind of like my black and white Mick St. John wallpaper. Basically we'll be use the same blending techniques we've used here with a few differences, but since it's a black background it's a little easier.

Thanks for stopping by. endlessdeep

Gerard Butler icons, banner and a wallpaper

2008-02-04T19:59:07Z

Remember I mentioned I made some Gerard Butler icons for an icontest? The icontest is over, so I can post these now! There is also a Timeline banner.

And I made a Gerard Butler wallpaper, which I agonized over for hours! And I still see things I want to change. So silly. Please comment if you like the wallpaper and take it home with you. His eyes are stunning aren't they? *sigh*

I entered 12 of these icons in Challenge 64 at gerrychallenge. The competition was tough, let me tell you. I managed to tie for second place with one of my icons. It's the first one in the teasers.

+ 20 Gerard Butler movie icons
1 - 8 Andre Marek from Timeline
9 - 17 The Stranger from Dear Frankie
18 - 20 Creedy from Reign of Fire
+ 1 banner and 1 wallpaper

Teasers:

20 Gerard Butler movie icons
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Andre and Claire banner Looks best on a white background
21

Gerard Butler wallpaper 1680x1050 It's hugemongous! I will be happy to resize the wallpaper for you. Just leave a comment telling me what size you need
22

+ Please comment, let me know what you like and what your'e taking. I am curious.
+ If you would like text changed on any of the icons or graphics please let me know in a comment.
+ Please credit either endlessdeep or phlourish_icons

I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't been intentionally ignoring your comments. I realized the other day that I had an old e-mail address for this journal and so I wasn't getting e-mail notifications for comments. *pfft* I've fixed that now.

Anyway, I really do appreciate each and every comment.

Thanks so much for stopping by. :)

Moonlight and Valentine icons and banners

2008-02-02T23:21:11Z

+ 9 Stock photo icons - Valentine related - hearts, swans and a rose
+ 15 Moonlight icons - Mick, Beth and Coraline. (Coraline is starting to grow on me)
+ 2 Moonlight Mick/Beth themed
+ 5 Stock Photo Art banners - hearts and swans

Not a huge entry this time. I'll have some Gerard Butler icons next time. I'm waiting for an icontest to end before I can post them.

So, I've been practicing my blending skills again with that first MickBeth banner. What do you think? It's made with screencaps from "The Mortal Cure" and a promo photo. The Mortal Cure caps are from the scene in the hallway. Mick's reaction struck me as very paternal. He would forgive Beth anything, which is a very parental thing to do. So yeah, he sees her in a very complex way and really, he's so much older, wiser and more experienced than she is. So he's very patient with her.

The caption I just kind of made up myself. The small text is from "Kite" by U2. (Yes, I use a lot of U2 lyrics in my graphics)

The other banner is the flip side of the coin. Sexy and amusing. We can all deal with this, right? They are not related, so it's ok, calm down. ;)
Quote is from the episode "B.C."

I made those last two Moonlight icons for an icontest and forgot to enter them. *pfft*

Please comment and credit. Thanks.

Teasers:

9 stock photo icons
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

15 Moonlight icons
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25

26

Text - song lyrics "Babylon" by Clandestine (song lyrics based on childrens rhymes)
27

Song title "Two Hearts Beat as One" by U2
28

29
...and two more slightly different versions of the same picture.
No frame
30Fragile Heart w/no border

No frame with song lyrics "Love is Blindness" by U2
31Fragile Heart 3

+ Please comment, let me know what you like and what your'e taking. I am curious.
+ If you would like text changed on any of the icons or graphics please let me know in a comment.
+ Please credit either endlessdeep or phlourish_icons

Thanks for stopping by. :)

Moonlight, Gerard Butler - icons, wallpaper, FO and UI banners

2008-01-21T07:57:12Z

Hi everyone! I have oodles of stuff to share. :)

+ 6 Gerard Butler icons
+ 26 Moonlight icons - episodes 11 and 12 - possible SPOILERS in the icons
+ 3 Gerard butler graphics - user info banner, header, picture
+ 7 Moonlight graphics - Friends Only banners, user info banners, pictures and Wallpaper

I was going to say a bunch of stuff only now I can't remember what it was. Um.

Oh yeah, the words on the Moonlight wallpaper are U2 lyrics. Well except for that one line that Beth says.

And the graphics with white backgrounds will look good on your User Info page or ir you have a white background in your journal, they'll work there as well.

I'll be making more icons from eps 11 and 12 of Moonlight, eventually.

Comments are very much appreciated - Thanks

Teasers:

Gerard Butler
1 2 3 4 5 6

Moonlight
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

Gerard Butler graphic
34

Header and User Info banner from the movie "300" with Gerard Butler
35

36

Mick - User Info banner
37

Just a couple of pictures of Mick sparring with the punching bag and doing push-ups
38

39

Mick - 1 black and white and 1 color Friends Only banners
40
41Color version of the black and white FO banner

Beth Friends Only banner
42

Mick/Beth Wallpaper - 1680x1050
Click on the thumbnail. If you need a smaller size please let me know.
43
Lyrics on wallpaper

Hawkmoon 269 by U2
Like a rhythm unbroken
Like drums in the night
Like sweet soul music
Like sunlight
I need your love.

A Man and a Woman by U2
You make me want to lose myself.

+ Please comment, let me know what you like and what your'e taking. I am curious.
+ If you would like text changed on any of the icons or graphics please let me know in a comment.
+ Please credit either endlessdeep or phlourish_icons

That's all. Thanks for stopping by. :)