Thank you for your avatars, they're lovely.
I'm not an expert either, I just take some pictures and choose a "part" like the face and then I consider it as an avatar.
I haven't made any patchworks / collages through paint (the software) for many years, last time I did, I think it was for KOTANI Kinya-san's pics lol.
I did some rough avatars of DK a few days ago, you can have a look if you wish.
I can even put some quite recent pics of her (mid-August 2018). And please remember DK is a T-Girl (DK is unfortunately her dead name...).