This tutorial is the ‘basic’ coloring that I normally use. A lot of times I throw in some curves at the end, or something else, but it all starts with this coloring.
I haven’t written a tutorial in a pretty long time, so go easy on me. ;)

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TUTORIAL #01

Get your base, whatever it may be. Prepare however you normally do … Sometimes I crop mine and leave it, but the majority of the time I resize it to 100x100 at this point.

Create a new raster layer >> New Solid Fill Color and fill it with a dark brown color. For example I like to use colors like #241400 or #2f2119. But you can do whatever you want. Go ahead and set this layer to EXCLUSION 100%.

Next just duplicate that layer and change the opacity to something around 30% and then change the layer to OVERLAY. Pretty simple so far? All good? (:

The icon/image is gonna get pretty ugly throughout the next several steps, so just bear with me, alright? Duplicate your base and drag it to the top. Set this to SOFT LIGHT 100%.

And we are gonna make another New Raster layer! This time fill it with this strange looking color #d6c5b6. And set this to something in between 30-40%. This layer will look MUCH better if you set it to BURN, instead of NORMAL, so go ahead and do that before completing this step.

Next you might want to duplicate the base and drag it to the top and set it to SCREEN at 100%. You may want to lower the opacity, or you may need it brighter. If that is the case you can always go back to the bottom and in-between the exclusion layer and the base duplicate it and set it to either SCREEN or SOFT LIGHT. 

Next,  I would either merge all or just copy the whole thing, paste and sharpen it once.

I know you guys can figure this out. Improvise; it’s very simple. ;) As I said before, experiment and add to this. You can change the color around some with curves or color balance.

Last of all, I’ll try and add some decorations to my new shiny icon.
Textures are my love. I love using textures on my icons to add something interesting to them. ( Check out textures from knooqi or xtatiq. ) Patterns are even more fun! ( Check out appletooth for some great ones. )

And then we come to text. Text is something I am boring at, but I try and do it anyways. Fonts like BADA BOOM BB or GARAMOND are the ones I regularly use when adding text.

And then ~Voila! You should now have any even shiner new icon! (:

EXAMPLES :
  

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BLACK AND WHITE ICONS TIPS AND TRICKS

Repeat the coloring above or your own coloring.

Merge all.

To make my icons black and white I resolve to several different methods.

>>

1) Desaturate

2) OR go to EFFECTS >> PHOTO EFFECTS >> BLACK AND WHITE FILM; that is really helpful and looks really nice in green or blue!

3) Also, you can go to NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER >> CHANNEL MIXER to make the image b&w, but this doesn't always look that great

Sometimes I can stop there, but if it looks hideous I like to continue on and add some helpful details.

One thing I do is to use black, white, and gray to add lighting effects.

Creating a New Raster Layer, fill with either black or white, and using the eraser tool (set in-between 40-90 size) brush over certain random areas. Then lower the opacity (still set to normal!) to whatever you please.

More commonly I use a dark gray color like #555555 and using the brush tool add a small dot around the object of the icon, then set the layer to LIGHTEN.

 
EXAMPLES :

Alright – y! So, hopefully I didn’t totally lose you all in this! Hopefully you can benefit from my insane tutorial, and you enjoyed reading it!

A couple of last things …
01. Feel free to mix up the coloring, but if you use it exactly the same, GIVE ME CREDIT if someone asks for the coloring.
02. Show me your results! I’d love to see the dazzling icons you all have made!
03. Um. I think that’s it! ;)