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Q: Well I want to make Icons for my Icon site, and I was just wondering a few things

1. I know its 100x100 pixels, but a lot of the pictures get distorted because that's not the right proportion. Do I just crop it until its a square then resize it? Or is there an easier way?

2. What are some cool tricks I can do with the pictures? I have adobe photoshop 7.0 and I know how to mess with Curves, but thats about it. I would like to change the coloring to look more, idk, iconish lol. I want them to be good, so please, any tips would be great.

3. where are some places I can find cute pictures of celebrities and such to turn into icons?

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/7397/lov2iz9.png

http://p3.xanga.com/30/f1/30f115a50dd687d66c6fde13725ec9d829260218.png

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/8233/icons03yc3.png

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/6026/cuteeck3.png

^^I would like to create some like those.

Any help is appreciated, just please don't answer and say "Play around on photoshop, you'll learn". or something like that, because I DON'T know how. Thanks =)

i can't give you much advice except that to make icons with different effects, and colorings, you'd need to download brushes for whatever program you use. you can try PSPX but if you can't obtain that, try to find brushes in the abode format at a site like www.deviantart.com, or just google 'brushes for abode photoshop 7' and some sites should come up. and as to resizing, you'd need to take the 'crop' tool and just make a square, like you said, and then resize it so it doesn't get distorted. and that's pretty much all that you can do.

*EDIT

they're for making textures, or making your icon better looking. if you need help on using them, drop one in my box.