Two Icon Tutorials
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First icon: B/W Ryo! (Because Ryo's from Osaka & he's hottt. >_<)
From to .

1. Start off with a base. For this icon, I chose a B/W picture of Ryo from a Wink Up scan I snagged from boys_paper. It's necessary that you crop your picture closely to the person's face. (But that's up to you.) After cropping, I did what was necessary to fix the color (sharpen, screen, softlight & etc.) but if you think your image is fine the way it is... then leave it be.


2. Duplicate the base layer and resize that image until it is 50x50. Small, ne? But it will work. I promise!
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3. Under that screen layer, make a new layer and fill it black. You can merge the color layer and the base layer if you like. That's what I did anyway, like so:


4. Above all layers, I added a texture by shalowater. I set it to Lighten, 100%. Remember that 50x50 base you have? Move it around until you get it into a spot you like. :)
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5. I added another texture (Unfortunately, I don't remember where I got this texture. If it's yours... please tell me so I can give proper credit.). I resized that texture and set that layer to Darken, 100%. I also erased the parts of the texture that was covering Ryo's face.
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6. Now for the text! I like text on icons... but I like them more subtle that 'out there' so I wrote my text in white & placed it just under the little square pic of Ryo. :D I rotated it a bit and voila! XDDD


You're done! Yey!!!

Second Icon: Maki Horikita
From to .

1. Make a Color Balance Layer.
Midtones: +7 +110 -17
Shadows: 0 +1 +9

2. Make a Curves Layer.
RGB: I: 140 O: 133

3. New Color Fill Layer. Fill it w/ #EFDA4B. Set that layer to Softlight, 100%.

4. Hue/Saturation Layer. Saturation +17.

5. New Selective Color Layer.
Reds: -100 0 +100 0
Yellows: +38 0 -39 0
Neutrals: -29 0 -22 -23
Blacks: 0 0 0 +20

6. New Channel Mixer Layer.
Red: +97% 0% -5%
Blue: +3% 0% 102%

After all the coloring, it will turn out like this:


7. To make things better, I added a stock image of clouds, resized it and set it to Color Burn, 100%. I erased the parts that were blocking her face. Duplicate that texture image again and set that layer to Soft Light, 100%.
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8. Duplicate the base layer and pull it above everything. Set that layer to Soft Light.

9. Add a New Gradient Map Layer. I used a B/W gradient & clicked Reverse in the Gradient Options. I set that layer to Soft Light, Opacity: 100% Fill: 40%.

10. Add text or whatever & you're done!

found here @ urideul. (Must join to see.)