Tutorial 4
Making this icon



This is actually very simple, and I believe you can do it in most programs.


This is our base. It was originally black and white, but if yours is in colour, go ahead and desaturate it. (Ctrl + Alt + U for PS people) Now auto-level it. Go to image >> adjustments >> auto levels. If you don't have auto levels on your program, you can just play with the brightness and contrast. Sharpen it once or twice. Because this base was originally kind of brownish, I went to image >> adjustments >> auto color instead of auto leveling it. But you may not need to :)
-If your base is dark you may need to duplicate it and set that layer to screen. I don't recommend making your icon dark. The coloured shape will probably look odd if the base has alot of black and dark greys.



Take your Elliptical Marquee Tool and create a circle in the CORNER. You don't have to do it there, but I like half squares, and half circles. Make a new layer and fill it with a bold colour like royal blue or an orange red.


Now deselect the circle and drag the coloured shape to the centre or some other part of your icon. Set the layer to Multiply.


Using the type tool, I selected a random letter and set the font to white. Perpetua - 102pt was used for this.


I added some tiny text in the corner.
And there you go. :)


Variations
These are some other little things you can do to the icon.


Merged the icon, duplicated it, and set the layer to Multiply


Merged the icon, duplicated it, and set the layer to Soft Light


Merged the icon, duplicated it, and set the layer to Color Burn


Changed the shape to an orange red colour


Different shape used

Have fun with this, and experiment!