Here are several Terri Clark avatars I made today, they're either 100x100 for LJ users or 75x75 for Hat brat Club member like me! Hope you like them! Credit for the brushes I used go to

creamuts!

Tutorial time! This was again made in Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0, but it's SO easy and translatable! No color balance, selective coloring, or curves involved, it's just a few simple color layers! Ready to go? Make this icon:  using this pic (credit goes to Gemiz from Kellie Fans for making me TONS of awesome HQ screen caps from American Idol!)


Step 1) Take the pic you want, crop it (I cropped mine to the right so Ryan Seacrest wouldn't be in the pic), sharpen it, and size it to 100x100!
Step 2) Take your base, duplicate it, and set the new layer to screen 100% opacity! Play around with the opacity if you need to, my image was pretty dark, so I set the opacity to the maximum of 100.
Step 3) Onto the best part: the coloring! I'd like you to add a new layer, fill it with b3afff (a darker cornflower blue), and set the layer to "color burn" ("burn for PSP users!) at 100% opacity!
Step 4) Make a new layer, fill it with fedd9c (a yellow/tan color), and set this layer to "soft light" at 100% opacity!
Step 5) Let's make the icon a little more contrasting! So we add another new layer, and fill it with 9fffaa (a VERY light, lime green color). Set this layer to "color burn" at 100% opacity!
Step 6) Duplicate your base, bring it to the top, and set it to "soft light" at 100% opacity!
Step 7) Make a new image, 100x100, and paste this brush in the new image: , then take your finished icon, go to "select: select all" then go to "edit: copy: copy merged" and paste the icon into the new image and set the icon layer to "screen" 100% opacity!

And that's it! I added a few brushes: a mash brush by the talented Mutsie (creamuts) and a heart brush by Risha over at DeviantArt!

Wasn't that easy? I'd love to see your results!