Hello, all! Some of you have been wondering how I make my banners, so I thought that I’d make a tutorial showing you how I do it. I take no credit whatsoever for the whole glowy thing and the extensive use of Lighten; I stole the blur/soft light from Aramel and the Lighten from Skittehbeeh. This will work for those who don’t have Selective Coloring because, well, I don’t have it yet, either. Here goes!

I started out using these two images.
Elena
Damon

I brought the images into my 600x200 banner, but first I reversed the Elena image. Then I did the basic resizing thing. I positioned the images, put the Elena one on top, and set it to Lighten. Then I used the brush tool (colored black) to fill in the rest of the space that the Damon image didn’t. Elena’s shoulder looked really awkward, so I erased it and used the brush tool (colored black) to get rid of any light colors on both images that messed up the blending.



I merged the two layers together. To start the coloring work, I added a blank layer, filled it with a dark blue (#040223), and set it to Lighten. Then I went to Color Curves and adjusted it a bit to bring out some more of the light colors. I then went to Levels and enhanced the light colors a little. I brought in THIS texture, Gaussian Blurred the life out of it, and set it to Lighten. I went back to Color Curves to darken it a bit and take away some of the color.



Next I did the text. The small text is in capital Microsoft Himalaya, and the large font is Jey. I merged everything together, duplicated the layer, set it to 1.8 Gaussian Blur, and finally set the duplicated layer to soft light. I went back to Color Curves to lighten up the darkness of the duplicated layer. Then I brought in THIS texture, Gaussian Blurred the life out of it, set it to Lighten, and adjusted it with Color Curves.



I wanted more blue, so I brought in another dark blue layer and set it to Lighten. After adjusting the Color Curves yet again, I added a light yellow border, and that’s it!



I chose really dark and yellow-ish images to work with, but this is the formula I use with most of my banners. This banner didn’t work too well, but this is what I’ve been doing for my request thread.

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i'm back for a little! i'll see how this visit goes.

I followed your tutorial. Vaguely. And sort of came up with this, although I deviated from your instructions slightly.



[s]It's so cheerful[/s]

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- married fingon fingolfinion 6/4/13 -
~art credit~

I love it! It looks exactly like a Skitteh banner with a Silvereh twist.

[s]And yes, it's so cheerful. It reminds me of flowers and sunshine. [/s]

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i'm back for a little! i'll see how this visit goes.

Wait 'til I put up everything else I've made for the last two days, they're all sort of like that. Skitteh-with-a-Silvereh-twist in epic amounts.


[s]That's Richey Edwards for ya. Bundle of joy, that one. xD[/s]

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- married fingon fingolfinion 6/4/13 -
~art credit~

This is what I created using your tutorial with some changes

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The waves that C R A S H E D upon
The R O C K S that you were trying to step along

And in my head I heard them play a S O N G

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~~Siggy by Lembas~~

Seriously now, I never should have put up this tutorial. You're all making me look bad!

Panda and Goldie, your banners are stunning! I absolutely love what you've done with them. I'm just so stunned that you all like my work enough to follow my tutorial. I still feel like a newbie.

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i'm back for a little! i'll see how this visit goes.

Here's what I ended up with;



Thank you for the tutorial! It's awesome

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Even In Darkness [Updating]

Absolutely gorgeous, Enno! And you're welcome! I don't think I'm going to be making graphics exactly like this anymore (Photoshop CS5 ftw!), but I'll still keep the basics.

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i'm back for a little! i'll see how this visit goes.

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Chase a couple hearts, we could leave 'em in shreds
Meet me in the gutter, make the devil your friend
Just remember what I said, cause it isn't over yet

Get.Lost.In.The.Dark.To.Find.Yourself
-sig by Loafers-