Tutorial 1 - Faramir and Eowyn
How to make this icon: 
For GIMP, but should translate pretty easily to PSP/PS. Warning: a bit image-intensive. 'Cos pictures speak a thousand words, and all that.
We'll start with this base:
The first thing I'll do with it is copy the base layer and set the blend mode to Screen and the opacity to 62.8 %. The image now looks like this:
Now, I create a new layer, set the blend mode to 'Soft Light' and the opacity to 81 %, and fill it with the 'Wood 2' gradient (default in GIMP).
My icon now looks like this:
Now, another layer. Again, set it to Soft Light, and set the opacity to 58 %. Then, fill it with this gradient:
(It's a default GIMP gradient called 'Golden'.) My image now looks like this:
Next, I added this brush:
by crumblingwalls and set the layer, again, on Soft Light. My icon looks this way:
I drew a 1 px line with the pencil tool:
and added text in the 18thCentury font.
This is the finished icon:
.
Hope this was helpful.
For GIMP, but should translate pretty easily to PSP/PS. Warning: a bit image-intensive. 'Cos pictures speak a thousand words, and all that.
We'll start with this base:
The first thing I'll do with it is copy the base layer and set the blend mode to Screen and the opacity to 62.8 %. The image now looks like this:
Now, I create a new layer, set the blend mode to 'Soft Light' and the opacity to 81 %, and fill it with the 'Wood 2' gradient (default in GIMP).
My icon now looks like this:
Now, another layer. Again, set it to Soft Light, and set the opacity to 58 %. Then, fill it with this gradient:
(It's a default GIMP gradient called 'Golden'.) My image now looks like this:
Next, I added this brush:
by crumblingwalls and set the layer, again, on Soft Light. My icon looks this way:
I drew a 1 px line with the pencil tool:
and added text in the 18thCentury font.
This is the finished icon:
.
Hope this was helpful.