Full icon tutorial (photoshop6)

I felt like doing another tutorial, and I really liked how my Eliza Dushku icon turned out, so I figured, hey, do that one. So, I am. This is done with PS6, but I'm positive all of it can be transfered to PSP.
This is the icon I'm taking inspiration from

Instead of doing the Eliza image, I found a scan of Majandra Delfino from Roswell. The image is here.

1. Open a new image 200x200.

2. Open the picture of Majanra and drag it into your new image. Close the original.

3. Edit/Scale and hold Shift while you drag one of the corners to resize it where you want it. I also decided to use Edit/Rotate and shifted it a little to the right.


4. Levels to darken it. Move the left slider over until it hits the black and darkens the picture a little. Not too much, or it'll start to pixellate. Now go to Curves and grab the line in the middle and drag it diagonally toward the bottom right corner, just until the picture's no longer washed out. My Input is at 139, my Output at 109. Sometimes I'll slide the bottom left to the right as well, to darken an image. Usually when I'm lightening it, which you do by dragging the middle to the top left corner.


5. Image Size: change it to 100x100.

6. Filter/Sharpen: Sharpen.

7. Move Layer 2--the image layer--below the blank layer. (if you don't have a blank layer, create one above the image layer)

8. Duplicate your image layer. Edit/Hue Saturation. Lower the Saturation to -50. For this image, I set the desaturated layer on Color. For others I've had to set it to Lighten, or Soft Light to get the right look to it.


Now, these next steps have been done by everyone and their brother, so I really can't credit any one person, but I think dtissagirl did the blue-layer Exclusion thing first.

9. In your blank layer on top of the other two layers, flood fill it with #060742. Set it to Exclusion. I turned the opacity down a bit to 90% for now.

10. Create another new layer and flood fill it with #F2E5D4. Set the layer to Soft Light at 100% opacity. Duplicate the layer and lower the opacity to 55%.

These next steps are partially taken from numerous other tutorials. I started following a couple that all had similar steps, but I veered. I don't remember whereabouts.

11. Create another new layer and use this peach gradient. I'm pretty sure it's one of crumblingwalls. Check here if you don't have it and want it. I set it to Linear Gradient and dragged it from bottom right. Set the layer to Hard Light, 30%. Duplicate the gradient and set it to Color Burn, 60%. Duplicate again, or create a new layer and do the gradient like I did, to make it darker at the top left. But that's just me. Set it to Multiply 15%.
So far.

12. Using the same beige color from step 10, grab a round paintbrush and set it to 4, Hardness 75. Create a new layer, and zoom in. Draw in a frame, just around the edges, not too far in. I rounded out two opposing corners a little on the side furthest from Maj's head. To draw a straight edge, put a spot in one corner, hold Shift and paint the other corner. The brush draws a straight line. Yay. Set the layer to Hard Light. I created another layer below that one and used the beige to draw a wider frame around the blank side, then blurred it a bit, erasing it from her face. I lowered the opacity of both to 55%.


13. crumblingwalls has awesome brushes as well as gradients. I used one from her Aged Brushes, I think from set 3 on a new layer above all the rest. The color I used was #706139. I set the layer to Hard Light. I used it at 100% opacity, and clicked twice. Edit/Transform/Flip Horizontal so that it's not on her face. There was a little bit of it still on her face, so I erased it carefully. Duplicate the layer. If you want, you can lower the opacity.

14. Another brush by crumblingwalls. Use black and click it once. Now comes the sort of hard part. Scale it down to slightly less than a quarter of its size. Make sure to hold Shift and drag a corner to keep the proportions right.

15. Place it just beside her face, along the edges of the previous brush, but over the edges. Don't worry about covering anything, we'll be erasing. Duplicate the text brush and layer it to cover the entire space between Maj and the edges of the other brush. Stagger them for variety, so they don't look lined up. It's okay to be messy, we'll be changing the blend mode.


16. Turn off visibility to all layers aside from the text brush, and merge visible. Using a small eraser, zoom in and erase the bits overlapping Maj, and the dark edges of the brush beneath. You'll probably have to lower the opacity to see the edges. When you're done, change the blend mode to Overlay. I lowered the Opacity to 50%, but you might not like it that faded.

17. Yet another new layer, and yet another brush by crumblingwalls. I think it's from her Aged Brushes, 2 or 3. It's a line brush that looks like this I used #685934. I dragged it across the bootm a bit, creating a smudge-type of thing. I set the blend mode to Hard Light.

18. Text. The bane of many an icon-makers existence, including my own, however, not this time. I used lyrics from Talking Heads' The Lady Don't Mind. The same beige color was used.
the lady:
Font - Heather
Size - 18
Tracking - 100
don't mind
Font - Georgia (Bold)
Size - 8
Tracking - 100

Position it on the green swipe, and that's it. This icon turned out a little lighter than my Eliza icon, so the text is a little harder to see, so I changed the blend modes to Hard Light, which darkened them a little bit.

I made two versions of this icon with two different pics, following the same steps I did on my Eliza icon. On the second one though, I have the desaturated pic on Lighten.
The one we just did... An alternate one I did
The icons are shareable, with credit and comment. No hotlinking, period.