created my first icon: feedback?

[sahnert]

I taught myself how to make my first icon today.
My dad has this external hard drive and he has a mac mini icon for his mac mini, so I thought it would be cool for him to have the picture of his external drive for that icon. I searched and couldn't find any premade that matched, so I thought I'd learn to make my own.

Started with an image from google and used Elements 2.0. I'm a novice at this stuff so it took me a bit, but it was fun. The hardest part was getting rid of all the white stuff around the edges. I used the magnetic lasso tool and had to do a couple of passes. Does anyone have better suggestions on how to do that?

anyhow, I just wanted some feedback to see what you guys think of my first attempt. Thanks

 

[Aperture]

Never used Elements.. I have CS. I use the magic erasor.. work like a charm. Most of the time

 

[zane]

I think it looks perfect.

 

[bwanac]

I find the fastest and safest way is to create a layer mask and mask off waht you need to get rid of. Then if you make a mistake its as easy as painting over that section in white.

 

[Foxglove9]

That's what I do too.

I find the fastest and safest way is to create a layer mask and mask off waht you need to get rid of. Then if you make a mistake its as easy as painting over that section in white.

 

[sahnert]

thanks for the ideas guys. I'll give that a go on my next attempt.

 

[dogbone]

Looks fine, but it bugs me a bit that it is falling over.

 

[sahnert]

Looks fine, but it bugs me a bit that it is falling over.

I tried rotating it a bit, but then the feet look like they are at an angle and I think it looks worse. Anyone have ideas to correct this?

 

[beatsme]

I tried rotating it a bit, but then the feet look like they are at an angle and I think it looks worse. Anyone have ideas to correct this?

yer dad has one of these, yea? Why not just take your own pic of the thing and work from there? I don't think you'll be able to fix the "falling over" thing from the pic you've used...the perspective on that photo just makes it look that way. Not much you can do about it, really.

 

[ATD]

I tried rotating it a bit, but then the feet look like they are at an angle and I think it looks worse. Anyone have ideas to correct this?

Skew and Rotate in PS.