Er for an icy background, I accidentally found that using some textures or stock of trees, and snow, then throwing and blending like 5 layers of of an image with an interesting pattern on it all in different ways makes sort of an icy feeling as seen in the BG of this wall I made...

I tried to recreate the BG, but couldnt do it exactly, but it's made along using these blends...Overlay, Pin Light, Soft Light- sort of in that order. Play around with the blends and go crazy.. The images I used were first this image as the bg:

Then blending the layers of the girl in the pic, rotating and using its snowflake pattern to the fullest.. After trying to recreate the bg, I ended up with this...

Not exactly the same but you get the gist... Feel free to use that stock.. it's quite useful... :wink: You probably dont want a snowflake pattern, so instead use other shapes... or better yet, find another image of a character with interesting clothes textures and pattern... for example THIS:

was made using these...

See? No brushwork whatsoever... It gets handy and easy once you get used to spotting interesting patterns to use and stocks with vivid colors. I bet you could have never guessed if I hadn't told you... :D Secret is out!