Icon Tutorial for Photoshop CS

I'm using Photoshop CS, but it should be easily translated into earlier versions of photoshop and psp.

First, we start with this image:


It is a bit big, so we use the selection tool to select his face, like this:


Copy and Paste as you normally would into a new image 100 x 100.

You should now have something that looks like this.

Create a new layer. Fill it with one of the gradients in the "Simple" presets. (For this tutorial, I'm going to go with the Light Purple gradient.) Set the layer to "overlay".

You should now have something that looks like this:


We're not finished yet though!

Flatten the image (for Photoshop CS, the shortcut is: cntrl+shift+e), and select all using control+a. Right click, and make sure the selection tool is the one you're using, and select: stroke

Put it to 5px, black, with the location as "center" and the blending as the default.

You should now have something that looks like this


Here's where it gets fun.

Image>Adjustments>Brightness and Contrast

Set the Contrast slider to +41, and the Brightness slider to +16.

Now, save the image, and viola! you're done.

Comments, questions, constructive criticism welcome.