MSN Emoticons

Create a new image 19x19px and Zoom In ( View > Zoom In ) to 800%.

Take the Elliptical Marquee Tool and change its settings to:

Fixed Size
Width: 19px
Height: 19px

Make a circular selection and Fill ( Edit > Fill ) it with color Hex #5B5B5B.

Create a new layer. Change the settings of the Elliptical Marquee Tool to a width of 17px and height of 17px.

Make a circular selection in the middle of the gray circle.

On your Color Palette, change the Foreground Color to color Hex #FFF752 and the Background Color to color Hex #EFB521.

Using the Gradient Tool set to linear, Fill ( Edit > Fill ) the circular selection by dragging from the top-left to bottom-right of the selection. You should have a gradient like the image to the left.

Good! You just made the base for your smiley! Now it is time to draw the face!

On MSN smilies, their are some default colors that act as great places to start:

Lips: Hex #BF7120
Pupils: Hex #521808
Eye outline: Hex #77651A

For this tutorial, we will be making a smiling emoticon!

First we will make the outlines of the eyes. Zoom In ( View > Zoom In ) to 1600%. Create a new layer.

Take the Elliptical Marquee Tool and change the settings to:

Fixed Size
Width: 4px
Height: 6px

Change the Foreground Color on the Color Palette to color Hex #77651A.

Make two circular selections and Fill ( Edit > Fill ) them with color Hex #77651A. Refer to the image above.

Change the Foreground Color to color Hex #521808, the default color of the pupils.

Select the pencil tool and draw the pupils in the eye outlines

Color the rest of the eye (inside the outline of the eye) with white ( Hex #FFFFFF ).

Change your Foreground Color to color Hex #BF7120.

Using the Pencil Tool, draw a mouth like the picture. Finally, save your emoticon as a .Gif.

You are done! Now you can make your own faces! Remember, follow the color guidelines and you will be fine!