TUTORIAL: still prettier than you.
A semi-quick tutorial. I work with Photoshop, and the skill level should be intermediate (you have to know how to work with adjustment layers and gradient layers). The icon comes from this set
1. Get image, crop it, and do all of the fixing-type things you usually do to it (for me, it's auto contrast, a brightness/saturation adjustment layer, and sharpening). So then I had this base, and it wasn't exactly bright enough for me yet, so I used a curves adjustment layer to fix that. NOTE: I just used the default black and white one, to up the brightness and contrast just a hair, and then I set that layer to soft light.
The original base is on the left, and the one with the soft light curves layer is on the right. See the difference? You don't have to if you've got your base bright enough for your own tastes, but for me, it made the color more vibrant and richer--exactly what I was going for.
2. Duplicate the base layer, set on top of the curves layer, and set to multiply. Adjust the opacity and fill to fit your needs.
3. Duplicate the base layer again, set on top of the multiply layer, and set to screen. Adjust the opacity and fill to fit your needs.
4. Now begins the fun part. Get a light texture, preferably with white lights on a black background. When I did this icon, I used a texture from awmpdotnet ( here, to be exact), resized and rotated it, and made it black and white, then put it all over the previous layers. I set it to screen, and erased all the bits that covered Satine.
5. Place a texture on top of all previous layers, set on overlay. Adjust the contrast and fill to fit your needs. I used one of my own textures and lowered the fill a little bit.
6. Place another texture (or, in my case, a different part of the same one) on top of all the previous layers and set to screen. Adjust opacity and fill.
7. Go back and duplicate the base layer and set on top of the previous layers. Set to soft light.
8. Use a light colored gradient (or a light color, preferably blue or gray) on a blank layer, and set to color burn. Lower the opacity, because color burn at a high opacity tends to make your graphics look grainy and weird.
9. Look at your layers palatte. Near the bottom of it, there should be a circle that is half black and half white. Click on this, and go down to gradient map. Select a gradient that has black and a brighter color, so you can get a nice, glowy look to everything. I used a gradient with black and red. Now set that layer to soft light, and adjust the fill and opacity if you need to.
10. Add anything else to your icon--brushes, text, whatever makes you happy. I just typed some stuff using the font Texas Hero and I set the font size to 6 pixels, line spacing to 2 pixels, and the letter spacing to 50.
And that's it! I used a somewhat simular style with another icon from that set, give or take a few steps:
