First, if you have existing Zelgadis icons, go ahead and pick one to work with. Even though I prefer the style of the three older series, the cleaner lines and colors of Rev-Ev make the editing easier so try one of those first?

Here’s the one I will be working with!

STEP 1

Open up your editing program of choice. I use SAI but I’m sure the process with Photoshop isn’t that much different. If anything SAI is harder to work with. Now zoom in on your icon so we can get all up close and personal.

STEP 2

Make a copy of the image and paste if over the original in another layer! I like to do hair before I get to the skin, Use that layer to go to the hue bar and start get it to where Zelgadis’ hair looks orange. Don’t worry about the rest of him, just focus on the hair color.

STEP 3

Orange turns brown when going dark. If you want your Zelgadis to have blue hair like he does in RevEv, by all means leave it the way it is and skip these steps, but not only do I imagine a head canon where he has brown hair, but there were some anime magazines in the 90s that showed him with brown here as well. If you choose my way, then mess with shading until you get it to be darker. That looks about right.

STEP 4

Start erasing around the hair. Make sure you are on the right layer! I would recommend you go in with a really thin brush and get the edges carefully first and take care of the rest.

STEP 5

This is what he’s going to look like when you are done with those steps. He looks like he just paid to have it look like Bieber hair. If you decide you don’t want it brown after all, just get rid of that layer.

STEP 6

Next is skin! Copy the bottom, original, image of Zelgadis and paste so you have three layers. Go into your hue bar and if you are editing RevEv Zelgadis, move it all the way to the left or right so that he is bright orange! Once you are there, just mess around with the shading again until you have a skin tone. Customize it however you want, he can be darker skinned if you want.

STEP 7

Once again, start erasing stuff like his mouth. I would use the lasso bar to get around his face so that’s the only thing that changes, and you can just erase the access around him. It should look like this when you are done. You may notice, that the TINIEST hint of blue can be scene in the line work, like around the neck or the mouth. I say, don’t worry aout it. The image is going to be too small for it to be visible and you need to be careful about what you edit. If you pain over him too much he will start looking even more fake and it will get sloppy.

STEP 8

Hair and skin tone is fine and all, but the really tricky part are the rocks on his face. This part may require some artistic assistance, so if you aren’t used to drawing this might be a little more difficult for you. Take a close look at his chin where I have started painting along the outside to try to find its shape under the stones. Once you have a jawline established, you can start getting rid of the rest.

STEP 9

Hm, his chin didn’t come out quite the way I wanted to on this one, but the rest of him is looking alright. Take some creative freedom and  be very careful. If he needs shadows added, use the eye dropper to borrow color and add them. If he needs an eyebrow, make one out of the stones that used to be there. When you are finished, it should look something like this. Remember not to go too over board, or he will look really funky.

STEP 10

That is it! YOu are done! here is the final product! Save and do more!