Icon Tutorial #2

This icon was made in Photoshop CS2 but it should work in newer versions as well. Resources in this tutorial have been credited on this page if they are not my own. If you found this tutorial useful, credit would be appreciated.

This is what the icon looks like before and after the tutorial:

I have used an image of a character from the movie 9, obtained from InformationTypes, and cropped it accordingly. Visit my first icon tutorial if you need a little help cropping.

Copy the following texture into a new layer. Set the blending options to Lighten at 25% opacity. You can do this by double-clicking the layer preview in the side panel, or going to Layer > Layer Style > Blending options.

Copy the following texture (available at 77words) into another layer. Set the blending options to Saturation at 100% opacity.

Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves. Click OK in the dialog box that opens.

A new dialog box should open with a grid. Using your mouse, drag the gradient of the grid a little bit upward, then key in the values 93 for Input and 147 for Output.

Click OK.

I’ve chosen to add a brush to this icon as a final touch. The brush I’ve used is from Moargh. Upon using a dark colour to stamp the brush in the corner of the image, I set the blending options to Overlay at 100% opacity.

When you’re done, go to Layer > Flatten image, and save your icon.