How I made this weird-ass RLR icon!

[zerographic]

How I went from:      to:  

Warning: I am long-winded! ;) And I like telling you why I did something, not just that I did it.

Software: PS 7, check my Resource Post (linked in User Info), for brushes and gradients

I have an action set up that I play as soon as I have cropped a screencap.

The action is as follows:

Auto Levels > Auto Contrast > Auto Color > Sharpen > Sharpen Edges > Duplicate Base > Duplicate Base > Set top layer to Soft Light > Set middle layer to Screen > Drop Opacity of screen to 50% > Create two new layers between the Screen and Soft Light layers > Fill top new layer with E0BA7E > Set to Soft Light > Fill second new layer with 00263E > Set to Exclusion > Set Opacity of Exclusion layer to 75%

After this Action plays on my above base, I have this

  Prettier and clearer. eh?

I wanted to emphasize all the blank space I had with this cropping, so I chose a gradient :

, set it to Radial Gradient, REVERSED it, then from a point roughly in the middle of the blank space I pulled the gradient out.

After playing with Blending Options, I decided this looked very cool:

 - Gradient set to Lighten

I didn't like how I lost some detail in her face and body though. So I duplicated my base once again, desaturated it, and set it to Overlay.

 - details pop out much better, no?

This is the step at which, quite by accident I achieved the rather other-worldly appearance of the icon. I thought that I wanted a slightly warmer effect, not quite so much blue all over. So right behind the previous gradient, I created another RADIAL gradient using this: . Again, I played with Blending options.

When I came to Color Burn, this:  popped out at me.

I wanted to soften and texturize the yellow and blue sections of this icon, so I used this brush  and this brush

Blending Option - Screen, Opacity - 45%.  Both of these brushes are originally 100x100, but I erased the parts that overlapped Lola and Manni.

Now this is a lot of effects going on, so I opted for no border and simple text.

 - High Tower Text. White. 5pt. Also an Outer Glow, color black, mode Darken, set to 30% opacity

 

Ta-Da! I hope someone gets a great tip or idea from this tutorial :)  Feel free to ask any questions and I'll try and help you out