E X T R A S Making avatars/icons is fun - but I find it's a lot of work. So, I hope that you'll find some use from what information I can gather. L I N K S Gravity Girl Icons Restless Tlace's LJ Daydreaming View Askew Digital Zephyr Buffy Icons @ Live Journal Itty Bitty Iconographic Virtuosities [Christie's Icon Journal @ LJ] Bay 12 Kimbrchick's LJ B R U S H : R E S O U R C E S Gravity Girl Damn Apple Touchstone's Art VBrush Thia's Icon Brushes @ LJ. Ethereal F A V O R I T E : F O N T S [A lot of these can be found at DaFont.] Script Fonts: Champignon, Chopin Script, Kims Handwriting, Selfish, LainieDaySH, Porcelain Print Fonts: Copperplate Gothic Bold, Perpetua, Times New Roman, Light & Black, Georgia, Felix Titling, Century Gothic, Courier, Arial, Barbarjowe Pisanki, Batik Regular Small Fonts: 04b, 04b_03b, Belmongo F A V O R I T E : E F F E C T S Gradients: Separate layers filled with the gradient of my choosing & different layer modes is great. Sharpen: This effect is essential since most of the images have been down-sized. Smudge Tool: It's nice to smooth out some areas and leave others sharp. Render Clouds: Often-times is a nice filler and creates a "misty" look. Shapes: Great for rotating, skewing, or using to accent or "cut off" and image. Transform: I use the rotate, skew options a lot - either on the images themselves or other layers.