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Full Icon Tutorial for Paintshop Pro 8, by Syndarys.

How to make this icon:

First, we need a base. I used a publicity photo from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which you can get here if you want to start from scratch. I rotated the image so Harry was at a slight angle, and cropped it.

Duplicate this layer (Layers>Duplicate). Now, it's a bit fuzzy. So, we're going to sharpen the top layer. Go to Adjust>Sharpness>Sharpen More. Now it looks like this:

Duplicate the sharpened layer. Set the first layer to Screen, and the top layer to Soft Light. Select the top layer, and go to Adjust>Hue & Saturation>Hue/Saturation/Lightness. Set Hue at 0, Lightness at 0, and Saturation at -100. Click okay. It should now look something like this:

Pretty, huh? Now, create a new layer, and place it between the Screen layer and the Soft Light layer. Select the fill tool, and fill this layer with the Ice Blue gradient, with the angle set to 255. This is adjustable, and it's entirely up to you what gradient you use, and what angle you set it to!

Set this layer to Exclusion. It should look like this:

Horrible, isnt it? Set the opacity down to 50% - it changes the look of the icon entirely... and makes it look very pretty!

Now, thats not too bad, but it could do with a bit more colour. Create a new layer. Using the brightest shade in the gradient fill (or just a light, bright colour of your choice if you're using a particularly colourful gradient), in this case, #8DCDFF, fill the new layer, and set it to overlay.

Still not too bad, but a bit too bright for my tastes. Let's lower the transparency of the overlay layer to around 60%.

Ah, much better! Now, I really like that. The colours are lovely, but not obtrusive. I'm going to stick with it. Now, it's border time. I'm going to use a border brush I made myself. If you want, you can use it yourself:

Use a dark shade from the icon for your border. This just helps tie the whole icon together.

Now, I think it's ready for the BANE OF MY VERY EXISTANCE. ...or text, as some of you may know it. I never have the faintest idea what I want to write on icons - infact, I tend to rely very heavily on the use of song lyrics and movie quotes for my icons. I sometimes spend more time trying to come up with text than I do actually making the icon in the first place! I'm listening to I'd Die For You by Bon Jovi at the moment, and so the lyrics, "I would never mean to hurt you," are what I'm going to use. The font is Trajan Bold, and the size is set on 6, and it's the same colour as the border. After a bit of fiddling to get it positioned nicely, I ended up with this:

Now, I think the text could stand out a bit more. Selecting a colour from Harry's cheek (#C5BECE), I put a drop shadow on the text. Effects>3D Effects>Drop Shadow, with the settings on: Offset: Vertical: 1, Horizontal: 1. Attributes: Opacity: 100, Blur: 2. Click OK.

Now, that's nice, isnt it?! I think I'll leave it at that, 'cause it's just pretty.