Starsailor Tutorial
Go from this to 
(and 4 other versions) using PSP 8.
+ Resize and crop your photo. I resized mine to 300x233.
+ Sharpen it once or twice. I only did it once. Flatten/Merge the layer.
--> 
+ Create a new layer and flood fill it with #353E5D. Set the layer to Exclusion and 54% opacity.
+ Duplicate the base layer and drag it to the top. Set it to Multiply and 58% opacity.
--> 
+ Create a new layer and flood fill it with #B39E75. Set it to Soft Light and 66% opacity.
+ Duplicate the base layer again and drag it to the top. Set it to Soft Light.
+ Next, take this texture, which I believe was made by
dearest, and paste it as a new layer. Set it to Hard Light. Play around with it's positioning until you get it in a place you like. I moved it all the way to the left, leaving just a slice of the white part visible. Depending on where you move it, some of the edge may be visible, as circled here:
What I did to fix this was selected my eraser tool and set it to the following settings:
Round Shape
Size: 16
Hardness: 100
Opacity: 48
Then, I went down the edge of the texture and lightly erased until the it appeared to blend into the background.
You should end up with this:
+ You don't have to do this, but for added effect I pasted this splatter image by
_hakanaidreams as a new layer and set it to multiply. (This splatter also came as a PS brush, but I used an image out of the image pack). Then I played with its positioning until I got it to a place I liked. You can also add text if you want.
Merge all the layers and you're done :)
Other examples using this tutorial...
this to
this to
this to
this to
I really suggest playing around with different images, the opacity in certain steps, and even omitting a step or two for variety in your icons using this tutorial. If you start with a color image, you can try destaurating it to 100% after cropping and resizing it, then proceeding with the steps. Or try going through the steps without desaturating the image and see what the end result is.
For instance, in example 1, I started with a color image and just went straight through all the steps. In example 3, I neglected to add the texture bydearest and left it as is. In example 4, I started with a color image and desaturated it 100% before proceeding.
Additional brushes used in the examples are by Candy Crack,_coquettish and one by "cold", but I'm not sure what their correct journal is. If you recognize the brush, please let me know so I can properly credit them. All James/Starsailor images are from SSFans.com.
+ Resize and crop your photo. I resized mine to 300x233.
+ Sharpen it once or twice. I only did it once. Flatten/Merge the layer.
+ Create a new layer and flood fill it with #353E5D. Set the layer to Exclusion and 54% opacity.
+ Duplicate the base layer and drag it to the top. Set it to Multiply and 58% opacity.
+ Create a new layer and flood fill it with #B39E75. Set it to Soft Light and 66% opacity.
+ Duplicate the base layer again and drag it to the top. Set it to Soft Light.
+ Next, take this texture, which I believe was made by
dearest, and paste it as a new layer. Set it to Hard Light. Play around with it's positioning until you get it in a place you like. I moved it all the way to the left, leaving just a slice of the white part visible. Depending on where you move it, some of the edge may be visible, as circled here:What I did to fix this was selected my eraser tool and set it to the following settings:
Round Shape
Size: 16
Hardness: 100
Opacity: 48
Then, I went down the edge of the texture and lightly erased until the it appeared to blend into the background.
You should end up with this:
+ You don't have to do this, but for added effect I pasted this splatter image by
_hakanaidreams as a new layer and set it to multiply. (This splatter also came as a PS brush, but I used an image out of the image pack). Then I played with its positioning until I got it to a place I liked. You can also add text if you want.Merge all the layers and you're done :)
Other examples using this tutorial...
this to
this to
this to
this to
I really suggest playing around with different images, the opacity in certain steps, and even omitting a step or two for variety in your icons using this tutorial. If you start with a color image, you can try destaurating it to 100% after cropping and resizing it, then proceeding with the steps. Or try going through the steps without desaturating the image and see what the end result is.
For instance, in example 1, I started with a color image and just went straight through all the steps. In example 3, I neglected to add the texture by
dearest and left it as is. In example 4, I started with a color image and desaturated it 100% before proceeding.Additional brushes used in the examples are by Candy Crack,
_coquettish and one by "cold", but I'm not sure what their correct journal is. If you recognize the brush, please let me know so I can properly credit them. All James/Starsailor images are from SSFans.com.