(The first part of the tutorial I learned using a tutorial by
First, you duplicate the layer and set the top layer to 'Soft Light'. Create a new Raster layer and set it to 'Exclusion'. Using the Flood Fill tool, fill the layer with a dark blueish color, I used #110A6A. It should now look like this:
Create another Raster layer on top of the exclusion layer, and set it to 'Color (legacy)' and the opacity at 50. Flood Fill the layer with #F5C095. Merge all the layers. You should have this:
Now, duplicate the layer. Set the top layer to 'Soft Light' and the bottom to 'Screen' (a tip I learned from
Doesn't look much different, does it? Still on the Darken layer, I applied a gradient:
The icon should look something like this:
Merge all the layers again! (I hope you are also saving periodically :)
Time to add the border! Create a new Raster layer (again) and set it to 'Soft Light'. I used this brush set to a dark redish purple color, I'm using #730539.
It should look like this:
Still on the Soft light layer, I added the text 'Miki' and 'Sama' on either side of him. I used the Georgia font with a dark navy color (#000040), size 6, all caps, and the kerning at 450.
The text is a little hard to see, so I duplicated the Soft light layer to make the text and the border darker. Merge all the layers.
And that's it! Hope this is helpful!