This tutorial is for Photoshop7, though I'm sure it could be followed roughly in PSP and Photoshop6-.

I've been making a lot of multi-gradient icons lately, so I thought I'd share my technique [if it can be called that]. So, I started off with this cap of Donna from West Wing.

Cropped it, resized it, and now I have this.

I duplicated that layer 5 times. Bottom layer is set to normal, the next one is set to overlay, and the other 4 are set to screen, which looks like this.

It's a little too bright, so I select layer copy 3 and set it to 75% opacity, and layer copy 4 to 50%. It's not much of a difference, but it pleases me.

Now comes playtime. I run all of the screen layers through the sharpen more filter, and it looks like so.

I like the sharpness, but not the way that her skin tone has gone all weird, so I select the uppermost layer and use the smudge tool on her face to even out the skin tone. It's just a small difference, but it looks much better.

Between layer one copy and layer one copy 2, create a new layer. Photoshop comes with a lot of pre-intalled gradients, so I select the pastels gradient set and use the "green, yellow, orange" gradient. Which looks like this on the icon.

I set that gradient layer to pin light and reduce the opacity to 65%.

On top of layer one copy 5, I create a new layer and use the "yellow, pink, purple" gradient from the pastels gradient menu on it, which looks like so.

I set that layer to multiply, which looks like this.

I created a new layer on top of the multiplied gradient, and do a plain color fill in #000b37, and set it to exclusion.

Now, it's time to use brushes. I use a plain horizontal lines brush in #000b37, set to soft light at 20% opacity. It gives texture and dimension without overwhelming the picture.

Next, I use a texture brush by Evenstar on a new layer in white, then set it to overlay.

It's time for a border, so I use one of Quebelly's fantastic thin borders in #000b37 and set it to soft light.

It's text time. Text is the bane of my existance, but let's play with it anyway. I use white Times New Roman (bold) size 6 capitals, with a strong anti-alias, and lyrics from Avril Levigne's "Together".

I set the text layers to overlay.

I go back between layer 6 and layer 7 (texture and border), and create a new layer, where I put a line brush by Sinecure in white. I set that layer to soft light, and voila.

We're all finished. And aside from all the layers, it's not really very difficult.

Brushes used in this tutorial: