Icon making help

[Dark hamster]

Sorry to bother whoever is reading this but im having alot of trouble making icons, at the moment i am using a programm called GIMP. I have seen and tried many tutorials but i can't seem to get the hang of it very easily, i know it takes time and practise but is there any ideas or tips you folks out there will lay upon this thread?

 

[Dentothor]

The best place to look for tips and tricks about art is in the Hive Workshop's 2D art tutorials. They have a lot of good tips and they show you how it can be done.

 

[GnoobSauce]

try starting your image at 800x800 or whatever... just large. then draw a rough, but accurate version of your icon, resize it to icon size (70x70?? idk)
touch it up, adjust contrast, sharpen then taddaaaaaaa you're done... with an awesome icon

edit: here i decided to do this in like 3 minutes to show you how the quality looks when its resized.

 

[Deolrin]

Start with 256x256 then resize it to 64x64.

 

[chilla_killa]

This tutorial is pretty nice:
http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...gs-about-icons-my-style-icon-tutorial-139525/