Borrowing an icon from esp_not_pms to do this, because she said I could! It uses mostly the same palette I have for Wakaba, though, because this is just for demo purposes. This is a fully-shaded icon style, because Matsushita doesn't do a lot of toning on her art. It took some trial-and-error, so the result isn't consistent on the one set I did, namely Wakaba's. This method no longer requires the Lasso tool though, haha.

--OH RIGHT, and this is for GIMP 2.6.5! Though everything I use is pretty basic and should be available in other versions, and in Photoshop.

( TUTORIAL/DEMONSTRATION THINGER )

Obviously these techniques aren't set in stone--different art styles look great with a variety of different touches. But it gives a pretty good basic idea of what you can do with textures and gradient, lighting, and the basic types of layers. ♥