You know how to make me smile. Please, if there's ever anything you want to know: how I made an icon, how I got an effect, where I got my original picture from, whatever, please do not hesitate to ask.

I love to give credit to people whose tutorials, resources, caps, and expertise helped me and I love to help others. I'm happy to answer any questions. My icons are very simple and it's a little embarrassing sometimes just how easy they are (nobody ever likes my complex, "creative" ones and they love the easy ones!) but I'm more than happy to share what I know.

I like the simplicity ;) (and between you and me, my icons are not very complicated either...)
Infact, i find that the effet (number 50 for instance) is really beautiful, it's very net and brilliant... (I am in love... :D) You use photoshop?

I do use Photoshop CS2. I did most of my learning on Photoshop Elements 3.0 but it's missing some very useful tools so I splurged on a copy of Photoshop.

#50 is pretty mostly because it was an excellent source picture of Torri. :) I'm a huge fan of eyes and in this one, she just sparkles.

I started to write out a detailed explanation of how I made it but realized you didn't ask me to. I will happily do so if you want to know, but I don't want to dump information you didn't ask for.

oh sorry!! of course I am interested!! well it is true, i did not to ask... sorry... (Is not easy to speak in English for me :()
But, if you want, I would really like to know!!!

Please! Do not apologize. :) Your English is good, it occured to me as I was writing that you might not have Photoshop and it might be pointless for me to write it. Since you wish to know, I'll tell you.

I started with this cap from dbw and cropped it make my base. I crop to 100px x 100px at a resolution of 100px/in. (I don't know how that translates into cm, but essentially I set the resolution a little higher than I will need for the web.)

I did my usual base prep: cropped, copied the layer, sharpened the copy (twice I think because I wanted to highlight the sparkle in her eyes), smoothed the skin on the copy using the smudge tool (5 px, 11%), added a mask to the copy and very carefully deleted the signs of over sharpening. I erased (1 px, pencil, 100%) the sharp white lines at the intersection of light and dark areas that are caused by oversharpening. I erased (~9 px, brush, ~50%) over her hair end eyebrows to get rid of white blotches caused by oversharpening. Probably this isn't necessary is you only sharpen once - or if you know more than I do about the "unsharpen mask." Obviously, I can only do this because it's only 100x100 pixels.

Once I have an image I like, I stamp the image onto a new level (Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E), but you could flatten all the layers if you wanted. I copied twice. The top most layer I set to soft light; the middle one I set to screen. Between the screen layer and the soft light layer, I added a gradient map (foreground = black, background = white) to emphasize detail and set it to multiply. I lowered the opacity until I liked the effect; here it's 38%.

I thought it had too much contrast so I added a dark blue exclusion layer on top of the gradient map(#242b2f) and left it at 100%. That dulls it the colors so I added a gradient map using a brown gradient from the Skin Gradient Pack made by oxoniensis. I used the first one in that set. I set it to soft light and 100%.

That gets me my basic coloring. After that, I worry about lighting. All the next steps are on top of the soft light layer.

I wanted it to appear brighter still so I added gradient #28 from the Art Gradient pack, also by oxoniensis. The gradient is in the middle of row #6 in her preview. It's soft light, 100%, and the gradient itself is linear, 180­­ degrees, so that the darker part falls on the left. Now the colors looked a bit too, "blah" so I added another gradient set to soft light, 100% from the same Art Gradient Package (row #3, gradient #2) also linear, 180 degrees.

That empty left side bothered me so I set my foreground color to black and added yet another gradient. It's linear, set to 0 degrees, and 100% hard light. Great, except it covers up too much of Torri. I clicked on my gradient tool, linear. Make certain to click on the mask for the gradient we just added, then on the picture draw a line from the left side to the right. Magic! No more gradient on Torri's face. It doesn't always work this well, but it did here.

I'm fanatical about keeping detail so on top of all this, I placed one more copy of my improved base, desaturated it, set it to soft light, and then lowered the opacity until I liked it. Here, it's 40%.

One final layer. I chose this pic because I liked Torri's eyes and red shirt. I've lost the red of her shirt so I added a curves layer. I make only the tiniest of changes here because I'm still learning curves. For each separate color (R,G,B), I placed a point in the middle of the line and pulled it up very, very slightly. For the RGB line, I placed points on the lower 1/3 and upper 1/3 of the line and very slightly pulled the lower down and the upper up to increase the contrast just a little.

I'll make a second comment just listing my layers in case that's easier to follow.

I just started using photoshop elements 4 and it an all up hill battle for me. I thought the complexions of your actors was just amazing and I can see why a blur function would help that and thanks, I'll use it over and over, but what is sharpen? I'm worried that I don't have it in my version but since I don't know half of what my own program does I thought I'd ask. I don't see a sharpen option. Guidance?

Thank you for the compliments. :) You do, indeed, have the sharpen tool, but it is hidden on the "Filter" menu. To get to the various ways of Sharpening, select:

Filter -> Sharpen

I use plain old "Sharpen" but it *is* a blunt tool. If you're just starting, I'd stick with that but if you're intuitive about how the program works, "Filter -> Sharpen -> Unsharpen Mask..." -- is that counterintuitive name or what?!? -- allows you to control exactly how and how much it sharpens but I'd rather just sharpen, smudge, and delete the white lines. *shrug*

I started with Photoshop Elements 3.0. The most useful tools that PE 3.0 lacked were curves and the ability to add a mask to a layers. Most everything else is about the same. There were a few other differences but they're very minor.

If you're doing what I did, teaching yourself absolutely everything about using PE and you've never really used it before, I cannot recommend enough spending some time over at awmpdotnet's excellent set of Photoshop tutorials. She has an amazing grasp of the program and her tutorials take you on a fairly complete tour of the basics of PS.

If you're looking for tutorials, I collected my favorites and sorted them by info content and why I personally liked them. They're on this graphics intensive page. I'm certainly not the first person to do that and I have links at the bottom to other people's tutorial indices. If you're stuck on dial-up and waiting for 100+ icons to download is burdensome, you're always welcome to go through my memories, instead. I never did finish reclassifying them by WHY I'd added them the way I did on the index but at least you don't have to wait for a protracted download.

If you ever have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask me. I'm a newbie, too, and I don't really know a lot but I am more than willing to share anything I know. And welcome to the Photoshop addiction!

Wow! You've given me so much here. Your collection of examples is amazing. I don't even know where to start!

Thank you! And the sharpen worked great!

Thank you! And the sharpen worked great!

You're welcome. :) Sharpen is a beautiful thing. It's my new best friend.

Wow! You've given me so much here. Your collection of examples is amazing. I don't even know where to start!

It IS daunting, isn't it? otoh, it's also tons of fun so I have faith that you'll enjoy yourself and be turning out pretty icons almost before you know it.

Sometimes, it's easier for me to just look at a list of layers, so here's mine:

13. Curves Layer (Red I/O=127/137; Green I/O=124/132; Blue I/O=120/134; RGB lower I/O=65/61; RGB upper I/O=190/197) -- Normal, 100%
12. Copy of Base, Desaturated -- Soft Light, 40%
11. Black Gradient, Linear, 0 degrees WITH a linear gradient applied to the mask -- Hard Light, 100%
10. Gradient Fill -- Soft Light 100%
09. Gradient Fill -- Soft Light 100%
08. Copy of Base -- Soft Light 100%
07. Gradient Map -- Soft Light 100%
06. Color Fill #242b2f -- Exclusion, 100%
05. Gradient Map, foreground = black, background = white -- Multiply, 38%
04. Copy of Base -- Screen 100%
03. Base (made by stamping) -- Normal, 100%
02. Copy of original, sharpened twice WITH mask to erase signs of oversharpening -- Normal, 100%
01. Original image, cropped but untouched

Wow! Wow! Wow!! It's a beautiful day... :D
Thaaank you very much, you are a good Teacher!! I think of having understood everything...
I obtain this...

... and I am satisfied!!! It is correct?
I understood your manipulations. I am going to be able to work from it. I am happy!!!! :D
Moreover, I know again LJ!!! :D

May I add to you to my LJ friends list???

Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!

Yay! I'm glad it worked! You're more than welcome. I love the icons you created! I just went over to your LJ and I see you already make gorgeous icons so now I'm even more honored that you wanted to know how I made that icon. Again, if you want to know anything else, please do not hesitate to ask. It's flattering to know that someone else wants to know how I've done something.

Of course you may add me to your friends list! I've added you to mine just now, even though my French is nonexistent. Between English and Spanish I can puzzle out good portions of the French. This will be good practice. :) You are welcome to add me if you so wish.

I also added you to my friends. I saw that you had made a tuto... :D I must to try!!!
Thank you for your help! (and perhaps for the futur help...)
I try to make best that I can for my fanarts... but I learn everyday... it's cool!