First Icon tutorial, it's image heavy, I guess :S Hope you can find it easy and useful.

We'll go from this: to this:


Here we have Evangeline Lily, from Lost. The original picture can be found here
First we have make the image a little bit lighter since we can't even see her face.
Go to:

Adjust - Color Balance - Fade Correction - 100%.



Now, I believe that rotating a picture is a must. It can give a beautiful effect. I rotated mine 21 degrees to the left. Then cropped and resized at 100x100.

This is what it looks like now:



Then we'll make it brighter. Duplicate the image twice. Blend mode: Screen (on both of them).
It should look like this:



Then we'll add this gradient made by me: (no credit needed duh)
Set it to Soft Light (100%)



Well. Now make another layer and put this gradient on. Set to Exclusion at 58%





Next a little texture. Don't remember where i got it from so I'm sorry :S Hard Light at 50%



Now a little gradient that comes with PSP8, set it to Soft Light 100%.



Add this beautiful basic brush:



Now add a with the selection tool a white line (5px) vertically across the image. Paint it white.



Now another texture: Set it to Soft Light 100%. I erased some of the light that was covering Evangeline's face to make it look better.



Now I merged the layers and rotated. I added some text:

Kabel Ultra BT, size: 22 "LOST"
Georgia, size 3: "Im feeling kinda crazy" (It doesnt matter what your write since it wont be readable)
Merge again and that's it.
Hope it was easy, if you don't understand something, just ask me and I'll be glad to answer you.



To see where I got the textures you can go to my userinfo.