Full PS icon tutorial

A tut for this icon:


Well, cropping is everything....I've developed a new style for myself
(im sure it's nto anythign new, but it sure is new to me), where
cropping really stands out, and is basically the only thing you need ot
make a good icon....the coloring is up to you after that
So we're starting out with this picture (from natalie-portman.org)

now if that's not iconic i don't knwo what is!!!

Ok so, make a new 100x100 canvas, transparent background. when it open, fill the bg white.
Now onto the cropping (well not really...)
Using a rectangular marquee tool and holding teh shift key select a
part of the picture and then using the move tool (V) drag it onto the
new canvas you just made
resize it to be really small and put it soewhere on the canvas (DON'T
SHARPEN OR TOUCH THE BASE OR ANYTHING, WE'RE JUST ARRANGING NOW)
here's my big crop
and here's teh small one
the first one is soemthing like +-355x355 and the small one is 39x39

now, do something creative with it..i, for example, duplicated it twice
and arranged them one above the other leaving a 1px line between them
(cause i love teh repetition of images in graphics)...not that creative
huh? but it works!!!
so heres' how it looks so far(ive added a 1px border to it so you see wheres what)


now, for the second crop we go back to the picture, and select another
part of it, now already havign an image of what it should look like
(the first cropped pic always decides where the others will go), using
the move tool again, we drag it to the icon canvas and resize to fit,
now doing a bit of cropping of itself cause you never know what will
work till you put it in there

heres teh big 2nd crop
and here it is when i resize it
so basically it goes from 534x928 to 37x100

i put it over to the far right, thinkin "MAN THIS LOOKS COOL" :)


now, select a 1-2px wide and 100px long line using the marquee tool on the second crop...copy it and paste :) duh
slide it over using teh move tool to teh far right.
here's the icon so far



and thats it for arranging the pics, not so hard huh?(deleting the black border from now on)
ok now onto teh coloring....
hit shift+ctrl+alt+e
there's your base and you didn't have to merge a thing!!!
slide the new base over to the top and duplicate it
set the duplicate to soft light, and sharpen it once....
teh colors get intense btu that's what we want right?

now, underneath the soft light layer, make a new exclusion layer and fill it with #010717


now add a gradient, set to multiply 80%
NOTE, youre doing all this underneath the soft light layer
--->

now, desaturate the soft light layer


yes i knwo what youre thinking, it was way better the other way, but no it wasn't....cause i say so
now add a texture by thia, again underneath the soft light and now desaturated layer
set it to soft light, 100%
--->

and voila, there's your icon
i think it looks cool even without text, but i added it anyways...
and here's my icon


so, heres teh comparison: original with recreated icon:
original ---> recreated
hmm...well...almost the same....

anyways...have fun with this...trust me it's sooooooooo much fun you
won't believe it....and you wont be liek every other icon maker (LJ
seems to be flooded with the same icons)