I LOVE YOU TOO. I think it's cool you take your own screencaps. XD; I tend to rely on caps from other people.
I find that if the subject -- especially the face -- fills most of the icon, it looks a bit odd to the eye, although that doesn't mean center crops can't work either. :3 But with partial-face crops, you can use it to emphasize the character's expression, too, since then you're looking at just the most important part of the features instead of the whole face.
Oh but -- speaking of .jpgs, I think another thing that can help up the quality is if you save your icons as .png. The quality difference isn't immense and sometimes you can't even notice, but it does help in other cases.
Layers are a lifesaver once you get the hang of them. icon_tutorial has a bunch of tutorials that show you how to use layers. That's kind of how I picked up how to use them at first, and then you just sort of start figuring out your own style after awhile. ♥
no subject
I find that if the subject -- especially the face -- fills most of the icon, it looks a bit odd to the eye, although that doesn't mean center crops can't work either. :3 But with partial-face crops, you can use it to emphasize the character's expression, too, since then you're looking at just the most important part of the features instead of the whole face.
Oh but -- speaking of .jpgs, I think another thing that can help up the quality is if you save your icons as .png. The quality difference isn't immense and sometimes you can't even notice, but it does help in other cases.
Layers are a lifesaver once you get the hang of them.
GLAD I COULD HELP THOUGH.