I tryed my hand at makeing icons

[Ryex]

I attempted a door hers the result EDIT: second version here now



comments? ideas on how to improve it? all are appreciated!

[Starrodkirby86]

I'm spoilering that because of Rule number 9.

That was a joke up there.

Anyway, the door doesn't really have any shading, but it resembles a retro door. The dots around remind me of a texture, or at least some sort of strange stain on it. o.o

You should add something to make it look wooden like, and make the outline more natural than just a plain black. Try making more icons!

[Ryex]

I was trying to make it look wooden but failed any tips on how to make wood textures?

I'm spoilering that because of Rule number 9.

That was a joke up there.

am man come on its only half a kilobyte  lol

oh and by the way give me ideas for some not so complicated icon and I'll give it a try and improve my skills

[Starrodkirby86]

Have a ring like pattern that is reminiscent of a the rings in the tree. Or just look at a real wooden door (Like maybe one at your house) and use that as a reference. If all fails, go on Google, find a wood texture, and resize it down to see how it looks. Textures are usually patterns as well, so take that into some consideration, I suppose.


You can always do a sphere. That gives you a test on shading. If you don't want to do a sphere, try out...how about a disc? Those have some interesting shines that you can replicate.

[DeathLock]

To be honest, the door's texture is pretty much random. Do you have a defined texture? Wood? Metal? These basic questions need to be answered first. From what I'm seeing, you're light source is from the upper right, you need to keep it clean. The outline is horrible, make it really light or match it with the color scheme of the icon. It really ruins the icon itself.

[Phasedscar]

Wood is actually a fairly flat texture to do, the reason is is that unless it has a rich stain the grain wont show up.  Darken the lines for individual boards will also help add more too it.  The texture you have there now is actually pretty good, I think those lines are all you really need.

Overall the shape is good, but it's VERY hard to make out the handle, try adding in a dark gray to the lower right of it, that'll give it a bit of pop since it'll contrast much more against the bright tope color.

As suggested remove the outline or make it match more into the overall theme for the icon, if you want a more realistic outline, then use a darker version of your current door color.  By darker I mean about 2 shades.  Clean up the lighting and pick a true lightsource.

Last piece of advice I can give you is..  just practice some more, find areas that don't look right to you and work on them.

[Ryex]

I tried again how do you like it? the first post has been modified so you can see them side by side

[Shadonking]

nice work, it looks good 

keep up the good work

[Starrodkirby86]

Ah, that's a way better door than you previously posted. You improved, good job.

However, there's still stuff I'm nitpicking with here. The door still doesn't look like it has a wooden texture. However, you managed to give it another texture; in my opinion, it looks like root beer or a wet door. o_o Doesn't look as arbitrary as the first one, but nevertheless.