ok here's a little tutorial on how tomake a realistic looking sketch from a picture....true that it has nothing to do with icons, HOWEVER it can be used for it too, so i think this is teh right place to post it....if not...sorry
ok i took the wonderfull diego luna scan i got from www.diego-luna.com, it's not so great, since it's a scan, btu for this you don't need quality pics, anything will do...
1. duplicate base layer
2. set to invert (image/adjustements/invert OR CRTL+I)
3. set the copy layer to color dodge(set layer blending to color dodge, you'll find this in the layer palette along with the opacity and fill) (no, there's no pic missing, when you do it everything goes white)
4. apply gaussian blur, best at radius 4 pixels (but it depends on the pic)
5. merge layers/flatten image
6. desaturate (Shift+Ctrl+U)
and there you have your sketch
note: don't ever mix steps 5 and 6, if you desaturate and then flatten, you'll get somethign completely different that has nothing to do with sketch
ok i took the wonderfull diego luna scan i got from www.diego-luna.com, it's not so great, since it's a scan, btu for this you don't need quality pics, anything will do...
1. duplicate base layer
2. set to invert (image/adjustements/invert OR CRTL+I)
3. set the copy layer to color dodge(set layer blending to color dodge, you'll find this in the layer palette along with the opacity and fill) (no, there's no pic missing, when you do it everything goes white)
4. apply gaussian blur, best at radius 4 pixels (but it depends on the pic)
5. merge layers/flatten image
6. desaturate (Shift+Ctrl+U)
and there you have your sketch
note: don't ever mix steps 5 and 6, if you desaturate and then flatten, you'll get somethign completely different that has nothing to do with sketch