Legolas icon tutorial (Photoshop 7)
From this to this


I had some time to kill before going off to work and decided to take a whack at making a tutorial.
Just a simple Leggy icon.
This is my very first tutorial, *cringes* so please bear with me :3

Alrighty! From this to this ya gotta:



Step 1: Tuning the lighting
First sharpen the base.
Now duplicate the base 2 times. Change the top layer to "soft light" and set the opacity to 64%
Then set the middle layer to "screen" opacity 100%
...



Step 2: Lighting with texture
Now add this texture as a new layer, and set it to "screen"
And add this texture as a new layer for a sparkly effect and set it to "screen" as well




Step 3: Coloring
Add a new layer.
To make it look a bit more ethereal, I added this gradient of
#A0E1FF and #FFD08C
and set it to "color" and lowered the opacity to 61%
And for more umph, duplicate that layer, and set it to "soft light" opacity 59%




Step 4: Text
Add new layer.
I added ethereal beauty as the text in blueish color #244554 and just plopped it down there in the bottem and setting the opacity to 59%
Then right click the layer, go to blending options and set the blending mode to outer glow. Then duplicate the layer to get a little more of a glow, and set it to opacity 36%
Add new layer.
I'm a sucker for teeny itty bitty text, so I added a few lines in Arial 1pt above ethereal beauty and set the layer to "soft light" and set this layer to blending mode, outer glow, as well.



Step 5: Final Touches
Merge all layers and then duplicate two times.
To get that extra glow of the light and colors, I always add the finish layer as overlay or softlight.
So set both the 2 duplicated layers to "soft light" (looks much better now, ne?) And for the top layer, I erased a bit of light off the shoulder area so you can see the outline a little better.
Merge all layers and walla! A very...simple, but finished icon.
Pretty simple stuff, but I hope it came in useful ^_~