<<<< BLEND TUTORIAL >>>> Note: the "original" image has already been heavily manipped but as I cannot find the psd file I'll just hand you the material =D This tutorial is for Photoshop (I'm using 7.0) but can be converted to PSP easily (tried it myself).
1. Start with this picture:
Copy and paste it onto a new canvas sized 480x600px (this is the size of the original image). Then open up this pic in Photoshop:
Paste it on the blend's canvas , move it on the left, then using the Eraser tool (make sure the Opacity is rounda 30%!) erase the sharpy edges. This far:
2. Duplicate the second image pasted, apply gaussian blur (radius=15) to the copy, desaturate it and change the layer mode to OVERLAY. Now comes the fun part.
3. New layer, LIGHTEN 60%. Make sure your foreground color is a bright and not too strong red (I chose #f19999), then using your Gradient tool with Foreground To Fade gradient cover Éowyn with it. Also, make a new OVERLAY layer between the first and the second original picture, use brushes on it (I'm using AvH's) Skip this step if needed.
4. The left side of the image looks a bit boring... so I added a SOFT LIGHT layer and brushed it with black squeary brush.
(no pic this time :P)
5. Time for some texture (and color! =D). As far as I remember making this blend, I used one from Soar Above The Sky, tis the #44. I reduced its saturation and pasted in onto the blend, put its mode to HUE 52%, then played around with the layer's settings (gah wish I could remember what exactly I did..) Also, add a new layer (OVERLAY 100%) and fill it with #9a3a53 (feel free to erase any parts of the layer that make the image look weird!)
6. Almost done! Now, add this pattern (move it to the left), make sure the layer it's on is under the second image of Ëowyn and change the mode to COLOR 100%. Feel free to add text now - I placed it under all the colored layers and lowered the Fill to 52% as i think that gives graphics a nice look ^^
Et voila!
Some credits: texture, images, brushes
That's it, I have given you some guidelines but now it's time for you to experiment and be playful. if you have found this tut handy or troublesome, drop me a line!