Wow! My first icon tutorial. That being said, let's get with the program people!
We'll be going from this to 
I will be using PSP9, but this should be pretty easy to translate into other programs.
1. Start by cropping the image and then duplicating the base. Set the duplicate layer to screen at 100% and duplicate 2x.
2. Leave the second duplicate layer set to screen 100% and set the third duplicate layer to color 100%. Duplicate this layer and set it to soft light 50%. Merge all at this point.
*** The cap that I used was pretty dark so I screened it twice to brighten it up a bit. If you're using a brighter cap, you may want to
only screen it once.***
3. Normally when I'm working with a cap I always play with the auto levels. Sometimes using all three can make a world of difference, but sometimes it can also distort the image. For this particular cap, I used all three:
Auto Color Balance>>6500K
Auto Contrast Enhancement>> Darker, Mild, Bold
Auto Saturation Enhancement>> More Colorful, Normal (make sure the 'Skintones present' box is checked)
After you've done that, sharpen the image.
4. Now select your sharpen tool from the side tool menu and set it to Size 10/ Hardness 50/ Step 10 and sharpen Willow's eyes/eyelids. I have begun to make it my ritual to sharpen the eyes, lips and sometimes eyebrows, especially on caps where it is very close up on the face. If you're really wanting to highlight the eyes or lips this is a great effect. For this particular picture, it just brings out the shading on her eyes a bit.
5. Duplicate your base twice. Set the first duplicate to screen 40% and the second duplicate to multiply 30%. Your icon should now look something like this:
6. Now, when I resized this to 100x100 and sharpened it, the resolution turned out to be horrible so I decided to crop it down a bit more and came up with this:
Now, resize the image to 100x100 and sharpen once.
7. Create a new raster layer and fill with this 
gradient by 
ladyheatherlly and set it to darken 50%. Merge all.
8. Now we're ready to add some text. I kept it pretty simple using 'research' in Rage Italic font 12 pt. I added one of my brushes [below] behind the text in black to make it more readable. Merge all.
Your final product should look something like this: TADA!!! You're finished!!!
- Screencap is from Screencap Paradise
- Please do not completely replicate this tutorial. That is just as bad as stealing!
- This is pretty user/beginner friendly because I'm not all that advanced to begin with, but if you have any questions please feel free to ask them and I will try to help you out.
- I would love to see what you come up with!
- This icon is shareable. Please credit eyecandy_icons or fuzzyluvbanana
- Comments and [constructive] Criticism are welcome.