Ok first I open the file with my icon base – - -> you can copy and paste it if you’d like. I believe I got this from Frozen Wings Designs but I couldn’t be sure. I think it’s beautiful, though you don’t have to use it. Use any base you want, or you can shrink a stock image down to 100px if you do not have a base (but please remember that it should go well with the color red for the tutorials sake.)

But anyway, moving on now… I right click my image layer and select “duplicate layer” than I go to my filters menu and select blur— > Gaussian Blur. Play around with the radius here. Your image should be quite a bit blurry but, as a general rule, you should be able to still see the outline of the characters eyes. My radius usually is between 0.9 and 1.5px. When you’re done select “ok”, then go to you’re layer menu (the one that’s right beside opacity) and select “overlay”. However, if that doesn’t look right, color burn or screen could be substituted.

****NOTE****
I’m not going to greatly in depth with this step because A) most people know how to do it… and B) I already gave an in depth explanation in Icon Tutorial I. If you’re totally lost, you should go read tutorial I.

Okay now we get to the texturing. With icon bases, what textures you use can make or break an icon. That said, I’m using this one from celestial star’s “colors” set – - -> I set it to overlay, which is done the same way we did the blur layer.

Next, I take this texture, again from Celestial Star, and set it to lighten. But this time I do something different. I’m going to erase the part that covers her face. But I WILL NOT use the eraser tool! Nope instead I will use the lasso tool and feather it by 15px. See below and I’ll show you how it’s done.

Click to see how you feather textures with the lasso tool!

Got that? Good! Now I will use an icon texture from Hybrid Genesis. Now HG has some awesome free resources but I will note something about their icon textures to those who have never used them. They’re HUGE for icon textures. This gives them two advantages, but one disadvantage. The pros are that you can move them around to get the lighting you want and they’re suitable for larger icon sizes, such as 120 x 120px. The one disadvantage is that you can’t be two places on the texture at once. So if you want two opposite points on the 200 x 200 texture to show on your 100 x 100 icon, you may need to shrink the texture or duplicate layers and blend. But anyway, I’ll save that for another tutorial. Here’s the texture:

center it how you wish and, if you’re like me you can set it to Lighter Color like I did. I also repeated the last step and erased some of the texture that was covering her face using the lasso tool set on 15px feather.

So the next thing we do is… yep MOAR TEXTURES!! Well, this is the last one. This one is also from Hybrid Genesis. *-icon texture IV-* All I do is center it how I want and set it to overlay. You should now have something like the sample below.

Now you might call that finished and if you prefer no text, swirls, or fancy borders than do not continue. But if you want to match my icon, then read on my friend! Ok so choose your text and a font you want. I have chosen to write “Flamboyant” on my icon because it’s a cool word and it fits with the hot colors I’m using. You may write whatever you please. I’ve chosen a font named “Plantagenet Cherokee” 11pt, sharp, and the color white. But the problem is, it doesn’t show in all places making it hard to read. So I’ll have to add an outline. To do this I right click my text layer and go to “Blending options…” I on the left side you should see a list. The last one on that list should say “stroke”. Check the box and than CLICK THE WORD. You’ll be taken to a menu as illustrated below. You’re preview will have a huge ugly red outline around it. Below I demonstrate how to change it as desired.

Click to learn how to use the stroke tool effectively!

I’m almost finished. I add some white low opacity text mesh brushes that I got from Aethereality.net and a dot like sub text brush I got from Ashikiyoko.net. Then, in another layer above my brush layer, I stamp on a really cool swirly boarder I got from Hybrid Genesis and call it a day. : )

I hope you found that helpful! If you did link back to us at http://splatterheart.skyefairy.net and show your support! Thank you!

Also: be absolutely sure to visit the credits page for the links to the websites where I got everything used in this tutorial! This icon would not be possible with out their resources!!