Here is my second attempt at making a full tutorial for making an icon in Paintshop Pro 7 (cause I noticed that there weren't that many tutorials made for psp users). In this tutorial I will tell you step by step how to make an icon similar to this one:





Like I said in my previous tutorial, selecting a good picture to make your icon from it a key factor in creating a good icon. When using screencaps, which is what I commonly use, try to find the clearest and best quality screencap available. The better the screencap is the easier it will be to make a good icon. For this tutorial I selected one I took from the movie Holes



Once your picture has been selected, click on the selection tool found in your toolbar. To avoid distorting the image during resizing, set it's options so the Selection Type is square, Feather is at 0, and Antialias unchecked. Now select the area of the image you want for your icon. Be creature, try a few different sizes and areas to find which one you think will work best. Try to avoid putting the main focus of the icon in the center, this makes it difficult to insert text into the icon. Placing the main focus off to the left or right not only gives you room to add text, but also gives your icon a better look (in my opinion). After you have selected the area, copy and paste it as a new image. You can close the original picture now.



The next step is resizing. Go to Image --> Resize. Select Pixel Size and enter 98. Make sure that you have Maintain Aspect Ratio selected to avoid distortion of the image.



The next four steps I have to give credit to dtissagirl, who explained in an earlier post how to do this type of recoloring to an icon. The first step is to make the image clearer. Go to Effects --> Sharpen --> Sharpen.



Now, copy the image and paste as a new layer. Go to Effects --> Enhance Photo --> Clarify. You have the choice between 1 and 5, I tend to use 3 (occasionally 4 depending on the darkness of the photo). Now, go to Layers --> Properties. Change the Blend Mode to Screen and hit ok. Your image should now look like this:



Now go to Layers --> New Raster Layer and select Exclusion for the Blend Mode. Hit ok. Now select a dark blue color. The one suggested by dtissagirl in her mini-tutorial is #013460. This is the one I normally use. Select the Flood Fill tool and fill the new layer with this color. Your image should now look similar to this:



Now, at this point you should still have the sharpened image copied so paste it as a new layer above the other three. If, for some reason, you no longer have this part copied simply go back to the base layer and copy again. For the final step of coloring, go to Color --> Adjust --> Hue/Saturation/Lightness. There's a number of options for this tool. For Edit make sure it has selected Maste. For Hue and Lightness enter a 0 (these can all be achieved quickly be hitting the defalut button that is located next to Help. The only thing you should chang is the Saturation. Move it down into negative numbers (from -1 or -100). Depending on the picture, this number will vary. Simply continue down until there is only a small amount of color left in your image. Hit ok. Now go back to Layers --> Properties and for Blend Mode select Soft Light. Our icon now looks like this:



This is much to colorful than I wanted. Play around with the Opacity layers for the top three levels until you find the balance you want. I usually focus mostly on the middle level of the three, the color one. When I'm done the layers Opacity is 100 - 60 - 95. Now our image looks like this:



You can leave the color as is if you wish, but I want to make mine lighter and the image slightly softer. To do this select the top layer and go to Edit --> Copy Merged. Now past this as a new layer onto of the four. Once you have this done, go to Effects --> Blur --> Gaussian Blur. For radius I select 1.5 and hit OK. Now go back to Layers --> Properties and change the Blend Mode to Screen. Now play around with the Opacity until you find a level you like. I selected '60' and my icon now looks like this:



Now that we have a color, it time to add some texture. Remember, the more choices of textures the easier it is to find one that matches your icon. To add the texture, open it and then copy (you can immediately close the texture window). Paste as a New Layer the texture onto of the already existing layers. Go back to Layers --> Properties and play around with the different Blend Modes. Once you have selected one, play around with Opacity. You want the texture to be visible but not overpowering to the image. Using a texture made by gegenschein, I select Hard Light for Blend Mode and 65 for Opacity.



We don't want the texture around our center person, so carefully erase the texture that covers your person/center focus. For the options, I set the Shape to Round, Size to 10, Opacity to 100, Step to 25, and Density to 100.



Now that I have him cut out, the texture looks to strong. So I return to the texture Layer Properties and lower the Opacity some more, from 65 to 40.



Once you have finished fixing your color and texture to the level you like, go to Layers --> Merge --> Merge All. It's now time to add text. If you can't think of anything to say, which happens all the time to me, look around for inspiration. Song Lyrics or Chapter Titles from the DVD always seem to work great. I always keep a stack of those pull out lyric booklets that come with cds next to my computer desk for quick reference. Make sure that you pick something related to the image in the icon. Also, the size of available text area on the icon should be taken into consideration. If you only have a small area to add text, pick something short. You don't want to be forced to smush it all together. Also, do not be afraid to try a number of different things. Experiment.

I've decided on the song lyrics "The Earth laughs beneath my heavy feet " from the song thirty-three by the Smashing Pumkins. The font I use in this icon is one of my favorites, Book Antiqua. I set the Size to 5 and type in all capitals. Stroke should be empty and Black should be selected for Fill.



Kinda boring, I want to add a line over and under the text to box it in more. To create a simple dotted line just make a number of periods and then change the font Size to 1. But I want something a little bit more rough. I hit text again and then type up the alphabet in all caps in the Text Area and change the Size to 1. Select different fonts and see how they effect the line. If you need to make the line longer, simply higlight the text, copy and paste it until it's the desired length. I end up going with the font Garamond



The text seems almost to strong and has a feeling of just being put onto of the image. We want the font to look as if it's part of the image. Go to Layers --> Properties. You can play around with the Blend Modes if you like, but for black font they usually don't do much (they work best when you use the color white as a filler). You can fade the text into the image quickly be lowering the Opacity. Remember, make sure it's readable. I lower mine to 06.



For the final touch, go to Layers --> Merge --> Merge All and then go to Image --> Borders. For Border Size make sure that Symmetric is checked and then enter 1 for top. This creates a simple border to give your icon it's finished look (it should be 100x100 now). To save the image go to File --> Export --> JPEG Optimizer. Set the Compression Value to 1 and hit ok. And you're done, with your new beautiful icon.



I would love it if you guys would show me any icons you made with the use of this tutorial or any feedback on how I can make it better. Even topics for future tutorial are loved :)