I'm bored and feeling a little egotistical tonightday, so I'll be making a lovely icon tutorial for you to point and giggle at. I'll be taking you from:
to 
This tutorial is for PSP 8 and is most likely compatible with PS and earlier/later versions of PSP. I have all of 5 minutes of PS experience, so I can't help anyone there. Sorry.Besides, PSP is teh sex. This is written with the assumption that you have basic knowledge of PSP functions and tools. For the sake of my laziness, assume all layers (unless otherwise specified) are Raster Layers. All resources used are listed here.
WARNING/DISCLAIMER: I like to fiddle around with my icons alot (and am rather indecisive), so I have a bajillion layers. I also ramble alot. I do not consider myself to be a great icon-ist, so I realize this is a tad presumptuous. This is also my first tutorial.
Now, I'll get on with it.
001. Start off with a decent quality base. This isn't to say that you can't make icons out of less-than-stellar images, but I'm too lazy to put in all the work that such a base would require. This particular base is from a Secret Obsession X-Men cap. It's been awhile, but I believe I duplicated my base once, screened that layer, merged it and did basic sharpening and smoothing to arrive at this base. If you need help with this part of icon-making, I highly recommend this guide.
002. Now Ms. Grey looked a little dark, so I created a new layer, filled it with a soft pink color (#F5C5E7), and set it to Dodge 100%. That washed the icon out (a lot, trust me on that), so I played with the opacity until I arrived at a measly 8% setting. With blend modes like Dodge or Burn, you're generally better off with a low opacity, unless you want the bold contrasty/shadowy look.
>>> 
It doesn't look like much of a difference, but ...yes, I liked the icon better this way.
003. The base looked too pink-y, so I created a new layer and filled it with black (#000000) and set the blend mode to Color. There IS a difference between Color and Color (Legacy, but I find it's all a matter of personal preference. I've p[rovided an example below, but it's best seen in PSP, when you can quickly flip b/w the 2 settings). Now, I don't want to desaturate the icon completely, so I lower the opacity all the way to 10% as to tone down the pink.
>>> 
Color vs. Color (Legacy)
See? There IS a difference.I'm only partially loony.
004. If I stopped here, I could probably have slapped on a brush and text and called it a day. However, the icon looked extremely dull and boring. So I added a texture (in a new layer) by
haligh, setting it to Burn at 30%.
>>> 
005. Eep. It looks a little dark, so I created a new layer and filled it with beige (#F5DDC1), setting it to Soft Light 40%.
>>> 
006. Eh. It's too flat. I added a gradient by
oxoniensis on a new layer, setting it to Burn 40%.
>>> 
007. To give the icon more color, I added two more textures (on their own layers) byhaligh.
@ Soft Light 40%, as to brighten Jean's face.
@ Burn 16%, as to add shadow to the background. >>> 
008. Yay! At this point, I was pretty happy with the icon's coloring, so I moved onto text. I actually had a semi-decent idea of what I wanted the icon to say, so I made my text legible. My personal rule of thumb is that if your text doesn't add anything to the icon, trash it/make it into tiny text, or you ruin the icon.
Anyhow. I created a new vaster layer and wrote "welcome back" in Georgia, 6pt in colors taken from the background. I then added (on a new vaster layer) ">>>" in Gloucester MT Extra Condensed, 6pt, in the pink-y color used earlier. I set this to Overlay 100% so I could actually see the little arrow... things, and for good measure, duplicated this layer and set it to Overlay 26%.
UNDER the "welcome back" and ">>>" layers, I created a new vaster layer and added "[]" in Times New Roman, 55pt (#000000)and set this layer to Luminance 20%.
009. So now I have an icon with decent text, but the text is kind of hard to read. So I add a blur (on a new raster layer) by using the Paintbrush in #D0C8C6, at the following settings [Size: 20, Hardness: 100, Opacity: 100]. I then went to Adjust> Blur> Motion Blur>, with a 90 degree Angle, with the Strength at about 50%. I then Gaussian Blur-red it (found in the Blur Menu, along side Motion Blur) at a Radius of 5. This will all vary on the size of the blur you need to create. Just fool around with the settings (the best advice anyone ever gave me on PS/PSP was something along the lines of "Click sh** and see what happens") until you get something you like. Make liberal use of ctrl-z (Undo). Anyhow. I set this to Dodge at 100%.
>>> 
It was still too hard to read the text, so I duplicated the blur and set it to Screen 56% (in fact, looking back on this, I need more contrast, so I should have pushed the Screen setting higher). I declared it done, and saved it as a .png.
>>>
Feel free to ask any questions, especially if I haven't explained things clearly.
Please do not copy this tutorial step-by-step in your icon. It defeats the whole purpose of following a tutorial in the first place (ie, tutorials are for learning tips and tricks).
This tutorial is for PSP 8 and is most likely compatible with PS and earlier/later versions of PSP. I have all of 5 minutes of PS experience, so I can't help anyone there. Sorry.
WARNING/DISCLAIMER: I like to fiddle around with my icons alot (and am rather indecisive), so I have a bajillion layers. I also ramble alot. I do not consider myself to be a great icon-ist, so I realize this is a tad presumptuous. This is also my first tutorial.
Now, I'll get on with it.
001. Start off with a decent quality base. This isn't to say that you can't make icons out of less-than-stellar images, but I'm too lazy to put in all the work that such a base would require. This particular base is from a Secret Obsession X-Men cap. It's been awhile, but I believe I duplicated my base once, screened that layer, merged it and did basic sharpening and smoothing to arrive at this base. If you need help with this part of icon-making, I highly recommend this guide.
002. Now Ms. Grey looked a little dark, so I created a new layer, filled it with a soft pink color (#F5C5E7), and set it to Dodge 100%. That washed the icon out (a lot, trust me on that), so I played with the opacity until I arrived at a measly 8% setting. With blend modes like Dodge or Burn, you're generally better off with a low opacity, unless you want the bold contrasty/shadowy look.
>>> It doesn't look like much of a difference, but ...yes, I liked the icon better this way.
003. The base looked too pink-y, so I created a new layer and filled it with black (#000000) and set the blend mode to Color. There IS a difference between Color and Color (Legacy, but I find it's all a matter of personal preference. I've p[rovided an example below, but it's best seen in PSP, when you can quickly flip b/w the 2 settings). Now, I don't want to desaturate the icon completely, so I lower the opacity all the way to 10% as to tone down the pink.
>>> See? There IS a difference.
004. If I stopped here, I could probably have slapped on a brush and text and called it a day. However, the icon looked extremely dull and boring. So I added a texture (in a new layer) by
haligh, setting it to Burn at 30%. >>> 005. Eep. It looks a little dark, so I created a new layer and filled it with beige (#F5DDC1), setting it to Soft Light 40%.
>>> 006. Eh. It's too flat. I added a gradient by
oxoniensis on a new layer, setting it to Burn 40%. >>> 007. To give the icon more color, I added two more textures (on their own layers) by
haligh. @ Soft Light 40%, as to brighten Jean's face. @ Burn 16%, as to add shadow to the background. >>> 008. Yay! At this point, I was pretty happy with the icon's coloring, so I moved onto text. I actually had a semi-decent idea of what I wanted the icon to say, so I made my text legible. My personal rule of thumb is that if your text doesn't add anything to the icon, trash it/make it into tiny text, or you ruin the icon.
Anyhow. I created a new vaster layer and wrote "welcome back" in Georgia, 6pt in colors taken from the background. I then added (on a new vaster layer) ">>>" in Gloucester MT Extra Condensed, 6pt, in the pink-y color used earlier. I set this to Overlay 100% so I could actually see the little arrow... things, and for good measure, duplicated this layer and set it to Overlay 26%.
UNDER the "welcome back" and ">>>" layers, I created a new vaster layer and added "[]" in Times New Roman, 55pt (#000000)and set this layer to Luminance 20%.
009. So now I have an icon with decent text, but the text is kind of hard to read. So I add a blur (on a new raster layer) by using the Paintbrush in #D0C8C6, at the following settings [Size: 20, Hardness: 100, Opacity: 100]. I then went to Adjust> Blur> Motion Blur>, with a 90 degree Angle, with the Strength at about 50%. I then Gaussian Blur-red it (found in the Blur Menu, along side Motion Blur) at a Radius of 5. This will all vary on the size of the blur you need to create. Just fool around with the settings (the best advice anyone ever gave me on PS/PSP was something along the lines of "Click sh** and see what happens") until you get something you like. Make liberal use of ctrl-z (Undo). Anyhow. I set this to Dodge at 100%.
>>> It was still too hard to read the text, so I duplicated the blur and set it to Screen 56% (in fact, looking back on this, I need more contrast, so I should have pushed the Screen setting higher). I declared it done, and saved it as a .png.
>>> Feel free to ask any questions, especially if I haven't explained things clearly.
Please do not copy this tutorial step-by-step in your icon. It defeats the whole purpose of following a tutorial in the first place (ie, tutorials are for learning tips and tricks).