Tutorial: Icons - "My style". :)
This is my first and probably only tutorial. :) I use Paint Shop Pro 7 and I almost always use the techniques that I use in here to make my icons.
This is the icon that I made for this tutorial.
Info:
For parts where I go into quite a bit of detail for beginners I will use Deep Blue Green text - It's worth reading if you have the time, as I've added all sorts of info and tips in there, but it's mostly stuff that experienced icon creators probably already know. I've tried to make everything as clear as possible so that this will work with other pictures, not just this one, so that makes this tutorial really long. Often I give info on how to make it work with other pictures underneath the results sections. Light Blue shows good places to stop and take a break, or to end the icon, instead of going on to the next part, if you want. Sometimes I use it for tips too.
While I had wanted to use a different picture so that for the preparation you could see "my style" even better, this one works well, even if it does have more yellow tints in it than I had planned on using. It is sometimes hard to see the difference with all the things I do to prepare the picture with pictures that have a lot of yellow or blue in them.
I'm going to start out with pictures at nearly every step, but by the end it will only be after a few steps. It's just important that you see what happens to get the picture prepared.
Some General Tips:
Resizing And Sharpening: Normally, I work from screen captures from movies that are in wide screen and the captures are 1024x576 pixels in size. In order to get the pictures ready for iconing I double click on the rectangle selection tool. A box will pop up. First if it's needed I check custom size and position at the bottom and then I enter these settings - Left:0 Right:1024 Top:70 Bottom:500 - then I click ok, and that will give me a selection that I can copy and paste as a new layer* onto my icon square without having all that ugly black in there. I almost always make my icons at 100x100 pixels so that I can use them on Live Journal. Now, the screen caps are pretty big, so I resize the picture by 50% and I usually have to resize them again by 50%. (Sometimes if it needs it I resize it again by 96%, but beginners don't worry about that right now. Although depending on the size of the object that I'm focusing on it can be anywhere from 50-75% to get it to be at the best proportion. You really need to use your own judgment on what seems best.
After each resize you will have to sharpen your pictures. Sometimes it doesn't look good if you sharpen it each time, so when that happens you will only sharpen it the last time. After I create an icon where that happens I'll come back here and give you examples to show you what I mean.
* All my icons have the picture pasted as a new layer above the empty bottom layer.
Image Placement:
Pictures with people in them look so much better when you put text on them if you have your person placed to the side of the icon. And, they generally look better that way anyway, even if you don't have text on them. It usually looks really boring to have the person smack dab in the middle of the icon, especially when they are looking straight at you. Of course there are always exceptions, but they are rare. This works well with most other objects too. Flowers look good placed to the side, but sometimes they actually do look good in the middle.
Tutorial:
1. Create a new image at 100x100 pixels with a transparent background, and copy and paste your chosen picture as a new layer. (And usually resize and sharpen the picture so that it looks right.)
For this icon, we will start out with this selection from a screen capture I took. It has already been resized by 50% from the original which happens to be the correct proportion for this icon. It has already been sharpened as well. I had to make the picture this thin in order to be able to host it at photobucket. You are free to save it to your computer and use it if you want to follow this tutorial with this image.
Result:
2. Then, we move Eowyn's/Dernhelm's face so that it looks like this.
3. We don't want the Witch King's crown in there because it looks kind of silly to have those two points sticking out, so we are going to use the retouch tool to get rid of it. (It looks like a hand with it's index finger pointing down.) We set it to Smudge these settings - Shape:Round Size:20 Hardness:0 Opacity:100 Step:1 Density:100 and we use small strokes to smudge the crown out.
Result:
4. The next step is to go to Effects>Noise>Edge Preserving Smooth and set it to 1. Because there is no really big change here, I won't post a picture.
I'm not sure if this really does any good, but I always do it.
5. Go to Effects>Enhance Photo>Clarify and set it to 5.
Result:
Now this is one of those things that are very touchy - Occasionally it needs to be set to 1, but usually 3 or 5, or sometimes not at all if it doesn't look right. (Usually the face of the person has an almost grey tone to their skin and it also has an almost metallic look to it if it doesn't look right.)
6. Go to Effects>Enhance Photo>Automatic Saturation Enhancement> and set it to Bias:Normal and Strength:Normal. Also check Skintones present.
Result:
This is something else that you will want to play with depending on how "red" your picture is. (I'm particularly talking about faces.) Sometimes you may have to play around between the normal and the less colorful and weak settings. Sometimes you'll need to use less colorful/normal or normal/weak or less colorful/weak.
7. Go to Effects>Enhance Photo>Automatic Contrast Enhancement and set it to Bias: Darker Strength:Normal and Appearance:Bold.
Result:
This is yet another thing that you will have to play with. You will need to play around with the different settings on there. I've only needed to use the flat setting once, and I can't remember what icon that was for. You usually want your picture to be nice and crisp.
8. Go to Colors>Adjust>Color Balance and make sure that on Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights that the color levels are all on 34, 34, and 40, also, make sure that Preserve luminosity is checked.
Result:
Sometimes, if the picture is really dark, I'll uncheck preserve luminosity, but you have to be careful because sometimes it makes the picture too bright - and that doesn't look good. Occasionally the picture doesn't even need this step, but I usually use it.
Okay! You can take a break and get a sip of water, or tea, or whatever you want because the preparation work is finished! :) But don't go too far, because now we can go on and get started on the fancy details work that really makes the icon great! :)
9. (There are a lot of steps here.) Go to Layers>Duplicate and duplicate Layer 2 (your image layer) 5 times! Set the blend mode on your first duplicated layer to Soft Light, your second layer to Screen, your third layer to Multiply, and your last two layers to Screen* - only, you will hide the top layer for the time being (By clicking on the eyeglasses.) and forgetting all about it for a while. Now, click on the multiply layer and go to Effects>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to 3.00.
Result:
Sometimes that is too blurry, so I set the radius down to 1.00 and occasionally down to 0.50 or 0.70/0.75 - but that is usally if I don't continue. If I don't continue, I sometimes set the screen layer above multiply down to around 50% opacity. (75% sometimes, if I'd rather have that look.)
(This is actually when I used to consider myself done, before I decided that I liked the way this next part looks.)
10. Go up one layer to the screen layer and click on it. Go to Layers>New Raster Layer and set the blend mode to Soft Light. Fill it with the Violet-Orange gradient, set at Style:Linear Gradient Angle:45 Repeats:0
(I pretty positive this gradient should be in PSP already - if it isn't you may save this image and past as a new layer instead, but it's better to use/create the gradients in PSP because I'm not sure if these saved "true to color".)
Result:
11. We will create another gradient. :) Beginner learn something new alert! :) Click on your gradient fill thing and select Edit. Click New and name it something. (I named mine pinknpurple.) Click on the custom (color) option in the Gradient section. When you have your mouse over the color rectangle an eyedropper will show up. Click and enter #9067CD into the HTML Code option at the bottom right and click OK. Oh, and make sure after you have the color added that the location is set to 0%. Now click on the colored pencil (I guess that is what it is supposed to be.) on the other side and do the same thing, but enter #CE66A3 into the HTML Code option and make sure that the location is set to 100%. After making sure that there is no opacity, you will have my gradient, so you can click OK. Before you go add it to icon the only change you will make to the gradient box is to click on the Invert gradient option.
Here is what the gradient will look like.
Duplicate the first gradient layer and fill it with our new gradient.
Result:
12. Create a new layer and fill it with this color. (#254974)
You can also make visible the screen layer at the very top now. (Unclick the eyeglasses.) Set this layer to Exclusion - for now.
Result:
You could call it "done" now - except for text - but...
12a. This is when the fun begins! This is where you'll be able to get many different looks depending on what blend modes you choose. I will give examples and tell you the changes I made to the top two layers. I will call the blue layer L1 (because it gets changed more often than the top layer.) and the (top)sceen layer L2. The looks I use the most are marked with a * :)
- L1:Exclusion L2:Soft Light *
- L1:Hard Light L2:Screen *
- L1:Soft light L2:Screen (I don't use this one very often.)
- L1:Multiply L2:Screen
- L1:Color L2:Screen *
- L1:Saturation L2:Screen
- L1:Lighten L2:Screen
- L1:Normal L2:Screen (If you like this - all you have to do is prepare the image, set your image layer to screen, and fill the empty bottom layer with the blue.
Here is another point where you could consider the icon "done" - if you don't want to add text.
13. For text - a most excellent tutorial was written by my good friend iconisms - here. For this particular icon, I decided to use the icon from step 12 (L1:Exclusion L2:screen as that is the one I use most often.) Now, even though the picture really wants to say something emotional and unique - I can't think of anything. So, I'm going the obvious. Dernhelm, a line, and Shieldmaiden.
Details:
DERNHELM is in all caps in the font called Georgia with the text at size 5 with the color set to #254974 under fill with the stroke (The top color choice) set to OFF! It is also set to (Create as) Antialias ON and the text also a Kerning of 10. (It is also set to "centered text" but that isn't important for this icon.) The layer is set to Luminance.
LINE is set to Type:Single Line Width:1 Line style:Solid Create as Vector:checked and is in the same blue we have been using. This layer is set to Difference. Tip:To make sure that the line is straight - hold the shift key down while you create it.
SHIELDMAIDEN is NOT in all caps. The font is Maiandra GD, text is size 7, color is the same blue in fill (stroke is off again.) Antialias is on and the Kerning is set to 50 this time.
Now, you need to arrange the text and the line so they aren't too far apart and they are all in the yellow space we left open for text. I like to try not to put the text directly across from the eyes, but sometimes it looks good that way, and this is one of the times when that is the case. Also, for this icon I want the line to be slightly larger than Dernhelm, and slightly shorter than Shieldmaiden. I usually don't add a line, but this time I did, and I'm glad I did.
Results:
Tip: As you will discover - the kerning and font size will have to change depending on how big your word is, what fonts you used, and what size you used. The leading changes how far apart your lines are if you have multiple lines and are writing them all at once instead of putting them on new layers. Kerning is used to control how far apart the letters are from each other.
Oh yes, before I forget - the number 1 rule in creating icons with text is do not put the text across the face - it doesn't look good. At all. The only possible exception is when you use a light color, set on dodge, or overlay or some other blend mode that will make the text seem to glow from the face. (using a small word helps too.) Even then, I don't like it, but I've seen it done quite often.
Sometimes I call my icon done now, and sometimes I add a border.
14. I'll show you how I get the brush into my PSP7 program in a moment. First I'm going to show you the icon with the brush, and then the brush I used, which you can save and use to create your brush.
and the brush,
To put the brush into your program, first you need to find where you saved it and open it. They you press Ctrl and A at the same time to select the whole image. Then you click on the paintbrush and click the little paintbrush that shows up in the top right corner and select Custom. Then you click Create. Voila! A custom brush! You can do this with any selection - as long as the picture is under 255x255 pixels big!
Now, to get the brush on the picture you will need to make sure that you have the right brush selected and the settings are set to the following:
Size:100
Opacity: 100
Step:25
Color: the same blue that we have been using.
Then, create a new layer, set it to dodge, place your mouse over your icon and when it is exactly in the middle (50 pixels across and 50 pixels down.) click once. The border should be on perfectly! :)
This one is only here to show you as an example, but the brush that iconisms used for her tutorial here also works very well as a border on this icon. I used the beige color I talk about in my notes below, and I set the layer to Multiply.
In the end this is the way the layers should be:
Layer 1 - Empty
Layer 2 - Normal (This is where you have your first picture layer.)
Layer 3 - Soft Light
Layer 4 - Screen
Layer 5 - Multiply
Layer 6 - Screen
Layer 7 - Soft Light (Violet-Orange gradient.)
Layer 8 - Soft Light (pinknpurple gradient.)
Layer 9 - Blue Layer (Set to Exclusion - or whatever you have it set too.)
Layer 10 - Top Image Layer (Usually set to sceen.)
Layer 11 - DERNHELM
Layer 12 - Line
Layer 13 - Shieldmaiden
Layer 14 - Border
15. Save your image. When I have a icon with text, I prefer to save it as a .png file because the text usually stays nice and crisp and readable that way - just be careful that it doesn't get all "dotty" or you will have to figure out a different way to save it. Without text, .jpg files are usually ok. I usually have mine set to a compression of 5 for 100x100 icons.
Now give yourself a great big round of applause for making it through my tutorial! (And, maybe go get a snack to renew your energy after going through all this *giggle* )
----------
Notes: Depending on your icon the "pinknpurple" gradient may not work well - it may make the face too pink. Sometimes you can't even use the Violet_Orange gradient. I just hide the layers when I can't use them. Another thing to note is that occasionally #4F3A72
or #EAE1DA
seem to look good instead of using the #254974 color. (In fact, I often use the beige color instead of white when I need a light color for my text - it's a little softer.)
Sometimes, instead of having the layer above Multiply be set to Screen, I'll have it be set to Lighten, and lower the opacity to 50%. Just wanted to let you know as it gives a different effect.
----------
Well, I certainly hope that that was clear enough and wasn't too overwhelming. It took me a long time to write this - but it was fun! (Except for the intreruption of the "giant mosquito" - but that's another story. :D ) Creating the bases for the icons doesn't take that long for me. I can usually go through steps 1-12 in about 5 minutes. The text is the part that takes a while - you have to find the perfect text, and then find the perfect font in the right size.
I hope I didn't forget anything! :)
95% of the time all of this is what I do to create my icons.
I'm quite chatty this time! :)
Edit: 10/23/06 - Looking over this now, I don't think the this tutorial creates the best icon, but I'm leaving it as a public entry because I think there are some useful tips in it, such as the part on how to create gradients.
This is the icon that I made for this tutorial.
Info:
For parts where I go into quite a bit of detail for beginners I will use Deep Blue Green text - It's worth reading if you have the time, as I've added all sorts of info and tips in there, but it's mostly stuff that experienced icon creators probably already know. I've tried to make everything as clear as possible so that this will work with other pictures, not just this one, so that makes this tutorial really long. Often I give info on how to make it work with other pictures underneath the results sections. Light Blue shows good places to stop and take a break, or to end the icon, instead of going on to the next part, if you want. Sometimes I use it for tips too.
While I had wanted to use a different picture so that for the preparation you could see "my style" even better, this one works well, even if it does have more yellow tints in it than I had planned on using. It is sometimes hard to see the difference with all the things I do to prepare the picture with pictures that have a lot of yellow or blue in them.
I'm going to start out with pictures at nearly every step, but by the end it will only be after a few steps. It's just important that you see what happens to get the picture prepared.
Some General Tips:
Resizing And Sharpening: Normally, I work from screen captures from movies that are in wide screen and the captures are 1024x576 pixels in size. In order to get the pictures ready for iconing I double click on the rectangle selection tool. A box will pop up. First if it's needed I check custom size and position at the bottom and then I enter these settings - Left:0 Right:1024 Top:70 Bottom:500 - then I click ok, and that will give me a selection that I can copy and paste as a new layer* onto my icon square without having all that ugly black in there. I almost always make my icons at 100x100 pixels so that I can use them on Live Journal. Now, the screen caps are pretty big, so I resize the picture by 50% and I usually have to resize them again by 50%. (Sometimes if it needs it I resize it again by 96%, but beginners don't worry about that right now. Although depending on the size of the object that I'm focusing on it can be anywhere from 50-75% to get it to be at the best proportion. You really need to use your own judgment on what seems best.
After each resize you will have to sharpen your pictures. Sometimes it doesn't look good if you sharpen it each time, so when that happens you will only sharpen it the last time. After I create an icon where that happens I'll come back here and give you examples to show you what I mean.
* All my icons have the picture pasted as a new layer above the empty bottom layer.
Image Placement:
Pictures with people in them look so much better when you put text on them if you have your person placed to the side of the icon. And, they generally look better that way anyway, even if you don't have text on them. It usually looks really boring to have the person smack dab in the middle of the icon, especially when they are looking straight at you. Of course there are always exceptions, but they are rare. This works well with most other objects too. Flowers look good placed to the side, but sometimes they actually do look good in the middle.
Tutorial:
1. Create a new image at 100x100 pixels with a transparent background, and copy and paste your chosen picture as a new layer. (And usually resize and sharpen the picture so that it looks right.)
For this icon, we will start out with this selection from a screen capture I took. It has already been resized by 50% from the original which happens to be the correct proportion for this icon. It has already been sharpened as well. I had to make the picture this thin in order to be able to host it at photobucket. You are free to save it to your computer and use it if you want to follow this tutorial with this image.
Result:
2. Then, we move Eowyn's/Dernhelm's face so that it looks like this.
3. We don't want the Witch King's crown in there because it looks kind of silly to have those two points sticking out, so we are going to use the retouch tool to get rid of it. (It looks like a hand with it's index finger pointing down.) We set it to Smudge these settings - Shape:Round Size:20 Hardness:0 Opacity:100 Step:1 Density:100 and we use small strokes to smudge the crown out.
Result:
4. The next step is to go to Effects>Noise>Edge Preserving Smooth and set it to 1. Because there is no really big change here, I won't post a picture.
I'm not sure if this really does any good, but I always do it.
5. Go to Effects>Enhance Photo>Clarify and set it to 5.
Result:
Now this is one of those things that are very touchy - Occasionally it needs to be set to 1, but usually 3 or 5, or sometimes not at all if it doesn't look right. (Usually the face of the person has an almost grey tone to their skin and it also has an almost metallic look to it if it doesn't look right.)
6. Go to Effects>Enhance Photo>Automatic Saturation Enhancement> and set it to Bias:Normal and Strength:Normal. Also check Skintones present.
Result:
This is something else that you will want to play with depending on how "red" your picture is. (I'm particularly talking about faces.) Sometimes you may have to play around between the normal and the less colorful and weak settings. Sometimes you'll need to use less colorful/normal or normal/weak or less colorful/weak.
7. Go to Effects>Enhance Photo>Automatic Contrast Enhancement and set it to Bias: Darker Strength:Normal and Appearance:Bold.
Result:
This is yet another thing that you will have to play with. You will need to play around with the different settings on there. I've only needed to use the flat setting once, and I can't remember what icon that was for. You usually want your picture to be nice and crisp.
8. Go to Colors>Adjust>Color Balance and make sure that on Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights that the color levels are all on 34, 34, and 40, also, make sure that Preserve luminosity is checked.
Result:
Sometimes, if the picture is really dark, I'll uncheck preserve luminosity, but you have to be careful because sometimes it makes the picture too bright - and that doesn't look good. Occasionally the picture doesn't even need this step, but I usually use it.
Okay! You can take a break and get a sip of water, or tea, or whatever you want because the preparation work is finished! :) But don't go too far, because now we can go on and get started on the fancy details work that really makes the icon great! :)
9. (There are a lot of steps here.) Go to Layers>Duplicate and duplicate Layer 2 (your image layer) 5 times! Set the blend mode on your first duplicated layer to Soft Light, your second layer to Screen, your third layer to Multiply, and your last two layers to Screen* - only, you will hide the top layer for the time being (By clicking on the eyeglasses.) and forgetting all about it for a while. Now, click on the multiply layer and go to Effects>Blur>Gaussian Blur and set the Radius to 3.00.
Result:
Sometimes that is too blurry, so I set the radius down to 1.00 and occasionally down to 0.50 or 0.70/0.75 - but that is usally if I don't continue. If I don't continue, I sometimes set the screen layer above multiply down to around 50% opacity. (75% sometimes, if I'd rather have that look.)
(This is actually when I used to consider myself done, before I decided that I liked the way this next part looks.)
10. Go up one layer to the screen layer and click on it. Go to Layers>New Raster Layer and set the blend mode to Soft Light. Fill it with the Violet-Orange gradient, set at Style:Linear Gradient Angle:45 Repeats:0
(I pretty positive this gradient should be in PSP already - if it isn't you may save this image and past as a new layer instead, but it's better to use/create the gradients in PSP because I'm not sure if these saved "true to color".)
Result:
11. We will create another gradient. :) Beginner learn something new alert! :) Click on your gradient fill thing and select Edit. Click New and name it something. (I named mine pinknpurple.) Click on the custom (color) option in the Gradient section. When you have your mouse over the color rectangle an eyedropper will show up. Click and enter #9067CD into the HTML Code option at the bottom right and click OK. Oh, and make sure after you have the color added that the location is set to 0%. Now click on the colored pencil (I guess that is what it is supposed to be.) on the other side and do the same thing, but enter #CE66A3 into the HTML Code option and make sure that the location is set to 100%. After making sure that there is no opacity, you will have my gradient, so you can click OK. Before you go add it to icon the only change you will make to the gradient box is to click on the Invert gradient option.
Here is what the gradient will look like.
Duplicate the first gradient layer and fill it with our new gradient.
Result:
12. Create a new layer and fill it with this color. (#254974)
You can also make visible the screen layer at the very top now. (Unclick the eyeglasses.) Set this layer to Exclusion - for now.
Result:
You could call it "done" now - except for text - but...
12a. This is when the fun begins! This is where you'll be able to get many different looks depending on what blend modes you choose. I will give examples and tell you the changes I made to the top two layers. I will call the blue layer L1 (because it gets changed more often than the top layer.) and the (top)sceen layer L2. The looks I use the most are marked with a * :)
- L1:Exclusion L2:Soft Light *
- L1:Hard Light L2:Screen *
- L1:Soft light L2:Screen (I don't use this one very often.)
- L1:Multiply L2:Screen
- L1:Color L2:Screen *
- L1:Saturation L2:Screen
- L1:Lighten L2:Screen
- L1:Normal L2:Screen (If you like this - all you have to do is prepare the image, set your image layer to screen, and fill the empty bottom layer with the blue.
Here is another point where you could consider the icon "done" - if you don't want to add text.
13. For text - a most excellent tutorial was written by my good friend iconisms - here. For this particular icon, I decided to use the icon from step 12 (L1:Exclusion L2:screen as that is the one I use most often.) Now, even though the picture really wants to say something emotional and unique - I can't think of anything. So, I'm going the obvious. Dernhelm, a line, and Shieldmaiden.
Details:
DERNHELM is in all caps in the font called Georgia with the text at size 5 with the color set to #254974 under fill with the stroke (The top color choice) set to OFF! It is also set to (Create as) Antialias ON and the text also a Kerning of 10. (It is also set to "centered text" but that isn't important for this icon.) The layer is set to Luminance.
LINE is set to Type:Single Line Width:1 Line style:Solid Create as Vector:checked and is in the same blue we have been using. This layer is set to Difference. Tip:To make sure that the line is straight - hold the shift key down while you create it.
SHIELDMAIDEN is NOT in all caps. The font is Maiandra GD, text is size 7, color is the same blue in fill (stroke is off again.) Antialias is on and the Kerning is set to 50 this time.
Now, you need to arrange the text and the line so they aren't too far apart and they are all in the yellow space we left open for text. I like to try not to put the text directly across from the eyes, but sometimes it looks good that way, and this is one of the times when that is the case. Also, for this icon I want the line to be slightly larger than Dernhelm, and slightly shorter than Shieldmaiden. I usually don't add a line, but this time I did, and I'm glad I did.
Results:
Tip: As you will discover - the kerning and font size will have to change depending on how big your word is, what fonts you used, and what size you used. The leading changes how far apart your lines are if you have multiple lines and are writing them all at once instead of putting them on new layers. Kerning is used to control how far apart the letters are from each other.
Oh yes, before I forget - the number 1 rule in creating icons with text is do not put the text across the face - it doesn't look good. At all. The only possible exception is when you use a light color, set on dodge, or overlay or some other blend mode that will make the text seem to glow from the face. (using a small word helps too.) Even then, I don't like it, but I've seen it done quite often.
Sometimes I call my icon done now, and sometimes I add a border.
14. I'll show you how I get the brush into my PSP7 program in a moment. First I'm going to show you the icon with the brush, and then the brush I used, which you can save and use to create your brush.
and the brush,
To put the brush into your program, first you need to find where you saved it and open it. They you press Ctrl and A at the same time to select the whole image. Then you click on the paintbrush and click the little paintbrush that shows up in the top right corner and select Custom. Then you click Create. Voila! A custom brush! You can do this with any selection - as long as the picture is under 255x255 pixels big!
Now, to get the brush on the picture you will need to make sure that you have the right brush selected and the settings are set to the following:
Size:100
Opacity: 100
Step:25
Color: the same blue that we have been using.
Then, create a new layer, set it to dodge, place your mouse over your icon and when it is exactly in the middle (50 pixels across and 50 pixels down.) click once. The border should be on perfectly! :)
This one is only here to show you as an example, but the brush that iconisms used for her tutorial here also works very well as a border on this icon. I used the beige color I talk about in my notes below, and I set the layer to Multiply.
In the end this is the way the layers should be:
Layer 1 - Empty
Layer 2 - Normal (This is where you have your first picture layer.)
Layer 3 - Soft Light
Layer 4 - Screen
Layer 5 - Multiply
Layer 6 - Screen
Layer 7 - Soft Light (Violet-Orange gradient.)
Layer 8 - Soft Light (pinknpurple gradient.)
Layer 9 - Blue Layer (Set to Exclusion - or whatever you have it set too.)
Layer 10 - Top Image Layer (Usually set to sceen.)
Layer 11 - DERNHELM
Layer 12 - Line
Layer 13 - Shieldmaiden
Layer 14 - Border
15. Save your image. When I have a icon with text, I prefer to save it as a .png file because the text usually stays nice and crisp and readable that way - just be careful that it doesn't get all "dotty" or you will have to figure out a different way to save it. Without text, .jpg files are usually ok. I usually have mine set to a compression of 5 for 100x100 icons.
Now give yourself a great big round of applause for making it through my tutorial! (And, maybe go get a snack to renew your energy after going through all this *giggle* )
----------
Notes: Depending on your icon the "pinknpurple" gradient may not work well - it may make the face too pink. Sometimes you can't even use the Violet_Orange gradient. I just hide the layers when I can't use them. Another thing to note is that occasionally #4F3A72
or #EAE1DA
seem to look good instead of using the #254974 color. (In fact, I often use the beige color instead of white when I need a light color for my text - it's a little softer.)
Sometimes, instead of having the layer above Multiply be set to Screen, I'll have it be set to Lighten, and lower the opacity to 50%. Just wanted to let you know as it gives a different effect.
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Well, I certainly hope that that was clear enough and wasn't too overwhelming. It took me a long time to write this - but it was fun! (Except for the intreruption of the "giant mosquito" - but that's another story. :D ) Creating the bases for the icons doesn't take that long for me. I can usually go through steps 1-12 in about 5 minutes. The text is the part that takes a while - you have to find the perfect text, and then find the perfect font in the right size.
I hope I didn't forget anything! :)
95% of the time all of this is what I do to create my icons.
I'm quite chatty this time! :)
Edit: 10/23/06 - Looking over this now, I don't think the this tutorial creates the best icon, but I'm leaving it as a public entry because I think there are some useful tips in it, such as the part on how to create gradients.