1) crop up your base:
2) desaturate and copy your now greyscale image > undo desaturation and paste the greyscale as a new layer set to screen:
3) create a new raster layer and floodfill with blue, set to exclusion at about 43%:
4) merge all, sharpen, adjust boldness (effects>enhance contrast enhancement> settings should be bold, darker and mild):
5) create a new raster layer and floodfill it with white, then turn down the opacity to about 30%, or whatever looks best on your partilcular image. This sort of hazes everything:
5)
6) If you dont want a plain square, which I usually dont, use a brush to go around the edges, I chose one of mine, and one from Indy; I arranged them around the bottom and left hand side:
7) Add a light texture, I used one of mine in this example. Set it as a screened layer, and erase the bits over Qui's face:
8) Add text. I usually handtype my larger text, if I'm making a specific theme for the icon, because it just means more that way - and then just add tinytext underneath (Who is this particular one by, anyone?). I arrange everything on a white canvas first, then paste as a new layer and set to multiply, possition it on my icon where it's readable:
9) Maybe youll want to throw a squiggle over a particularly bright light area, or a plain section that needs something. I used one from colorfilter, set to 43% opacity and sharpened for crispness:
10) then, just because I'm random and like funky chunks of color, I find a texture and add it in. This is about the only purpose I can think of for textures that i like on icons, personally. The texture you add in will of course determine the general outcome of the icon, and I always choose textures that have lots of color more than actual texture and design. Set your texture to multiply , and nod down the opacity to about 40% or so. Then get your eraser brush, and instead of using the default round setting, choose an actual brushtip, I usually use watercolors or things that are squiggly but not hard, watercolors tend to be soft and when you use them to erase, they do a light, feathering job of erasing.
Erase everything you want to lose, and on this icon it was pretty much anything overlapping Qui's face:
11) Merge all and sharpen again, but only opaque it at about 40% - dont want to overshapren, and I usually erase the final sharpening off of eyes and lips and anything that gets too pixely. Finished product:
12) lol, can you tell I can never make my mind up? You could also repeat step#3 and come up with the following, which I think I like best: