Hi everybody

Hi this is my first tutorial here but I have recived some amazing results with some of the tutorials i have found on here. I would love some feedback on this tutorial. We will be going from This pic to this Icon in Photoshop7

Ok so we start with our pic...I have chosen this one of the very beautiful Amanda Tapping.  I just want a small bit of her face so I crop it and resize it to 100x100 pixles

I futzed with it until I got the base I wanted...

To get the base to look like this I Sharpened twice. [Filter> Sharpen> Sharpen]

Then I smoothed out all of her skin using the blur tool with a small round brush size 9, mode normal, strength 40% I avoided anything other then the skin.

I then sharpened the eyes and the lips.  I used a small round brush size 7, mode normal strength 30%

I duplicated the base and set to screen and then duplicated again and set to soft light.

You should end up with something that looks like this...

I then got this image  by using the Marquee tool.  [Right click> Selct all]

and I copied what I had [Edit> copy merged, Edit> Paste]

Desaturate the new layer [Image> Adjustments> Desaturate] and set the layer to soft light to get this

Then take this  [#E0D6BC] and set it to Multiply which gives you this

The next three layers are

 set to screen 100%

 set to screen 100%

 set to screen 36%

(I'm sorry but I don't know who made these individual textures.  I am sure they are credited in my user info.)

Then go back to the base image duplicate it and drag it to the top and set it to Overlay.

This is the finished Icon without text

I put the word 'Smile' in the middle of the icon.  I used Decker font, size 14 in a bright pink colour [#FF236D] and set it to Overlay.  I duplicated the layer twice and that leaves me with this...

hope someone found that useful!