I'm dumb. Could have sworn that I had posted about
mangabattle and
shounenbattle round 3. I can't be bothered to find the crits for any of these so it's pretty much just the icons and my thoughts/feelings on the themes. This is a lot of tl;dr and kind of messy, so just look at the pictures?!
This post contains icons from:1 ao no exorcist, 1 armitage III, 2 baccano!, 1 berserk, 1 castlevania: aos, 1 d. gray-man, 1 deadman wonderland, 1 devil may cry, 1 fullmetal alchemist, 2 gundam 00, 1 heart no kuni no alice, 1 house of five leaves, 4 kuroshitsuji, 1 le chevalier de eon, 2 le theatre du grand guignol, 1 leviathan, 1 litchi hikari club, 1 mononoke, 5 mushishi, 1 natsume yuujinchou, 1 one piece, 2 panty & stocking with garterbelt, red garden, 3 saint seiya: tlc, 1 samurai champloo, 1 seirei no moribito, 1 sengoku basara, 2 sentou yousei yukikaze, 3 shiki, 1 togainu no chi, 2 umineko no naku koro ni, & 1 zeta gundam.
there are a total of 53 icons.
mangabattle round 1
This was a great contest and I applaud
tearings for running it despite being so busy! She always managed to come up with fun, challenging themes and I really enjoyed that.
I participated in this round under the identity of Zera from Litchi Hikari Club. The overall theme of the round was Alice in Wonderland.
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challenge 01: provided image + going down the rabbit hole
Simple enough. I was way more excited for the through the looking glass bonus icon theme, since as cute as Heart no Kuni no Alice is, I am not good at making cute things. I don't have much to say other than that I think I kind of failed in my execution of the through the rabbit hole icon. The main challenge icon had all sorts of bonus requirements we could use to get more points, and if I recall correctly I managed to do them all.
special placement: none
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challenge 02: drink me, eat me
This was fairly simple. Either make an icon with a close crop or a far crop. You got extra points if you submitted one of each, and since I'm a points whore that's exactly what I did.
special placement: none
challenge 03: who are you?
This challenge had us making an icon of the character we used as our alias. You got an extra point for using the image you signed up with, which I did. We also had to make sure that the character's eyes aren't shown, and there were a load of bonus requirements based on your alias character's gender.
special placement: none
challenge 04: we're all mad here
1. The character in the icon has to be smiling.
2. The crop cannot be "square" (like, 100x100 exactly.)
special placement: mod's choice.
challenge 05: the mad halloween tea party
We had to dress up a character for Halloween! We got bonus points for each additional costume part we added to the character in our icon, so I went kind of wild. I wanted to dress somebody up in lolita, and I was dead set on using someone big and manly. I settled on Guts from Berserk. I think I probably put the most work into this icon just because of all of the manipulation I did. I wound up only using Guts' head from the original image, and used a mannequin's body for the neck and hands. I then took a blouse (Bodyline, I think) and a dress (Angelic Pretty, IIRC) and placed them on the mannequin. They were pink to begin with, but pink wasn't that good of a color for Guts so I made them mint green. I added a sword strap (to match the dress, of course!) and put Guts' sword back in (from another image). Guts' regular 'do just wouldn't work with loli, so I nabbed a wig from Cryperous and stuck that on him. His hair was still looking a little plain, so I decided I'd fashion a hair piece out of the Berserk brand so that he wasn't just another girl with a head eating bow.
This is what I wound up with:
Disregard the crappy extraction and the fact that he has no legs etc etc
special placement: none
challenge 06: off with your head!
We had two themes:
1. The character in the icon had to display the emotion of rage.
2. The icon had to be all in black and white with the exception of a selectively colored red area.
I started with a flat manga image and colored it in normally, then turned it grayscale just because I wanted it to have proper shading. I was planning on posting my coloring, but I can't find it at the moment and don't really care that much. I'll post it at a later date if I stumble upon it. We also got a bonus point for adding a ♥ symbol.
special placement: none
challenge 07: who stole the tarts?
We were given the choice between displaying a character in our icon as being "guilty" or "innocent". Fuck that innocence shit, I went with guilty. No bonus points. I also wound up coloring in this image myself, but I have no idea what I did with it (or if I even saved it) so once again, ain't posting it.
special placement: people's choice
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challenge 08: the new queen of mangaland
This was it, the final challenge. Make a triptych of icons that are all cohesive, but following 3 different themes. The first theme was lyrical, the 2nd theme was to use
this texture and the third was a free for all theme.
My icons were cohesive in that: All characters were from the same series, I used the same font/typography style, all icons had a similar look (yet were still different enough- something I learned from shounenbattle round 2!) and font, I used the provided lyrics on all of the icons
special placement: first
end result:
Lolwat. Thank you so much to everyone that voted for my icons, or even gave them critiques!
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shounenbattle round 3
YESSS ANOTHER SB. I have so much fun at SB. The round's theme was about Neuro from Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro's penchant for eating mysteries (you got eaten if you were eliminated!) and since I love Neuro, I signed up as Godai. I found my alias icon really amusing:
challenge 01: talismans
This challenge had us making icons containing a taliman. I kind of perverted it a bit and used Panty's panties.
special placement: none
challenge 02: legendary creatures
Make an icon containing a legendary creature. I had initially had wanted to make something involving loli cthulhu, but I ended up settling on Samizo Kohei from Leviathan, who happens to be... Leviathan! Fancy that. I made like 5 bajillion versions of this icon and I really liked it, despite the fact that it is kind of on the eyeblinding side.
special placement: none
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challenge 03: trick or treat
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW YISSS. Another "dress characters up in stupid shit theme. There was even a costume contest in the voting!
The full version of Brook n' FurterNot only that, we were required to make a second icon revolving around Dia de los Muertos. There was a crazyass list of bonus requirements (like... 8 different colors, a skull and a marigold) and I think I got all of them in? If not, I may have missed a few colors.
special placement: Brook N' Furter placed first for sexiest and scariest costume.
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challenge 04: in the cards
AA THIS WAS MY FAVOURITE THEME. When we signed up, we chose 3 characters. I initially only signed up with Godai, since I knew that no one else would have chosen him, so I had to pick my characters after the fact (but before I knew what we were doing with them). Anyway, we had to use at least one of the two characters in a tarot-based icon using the arcana that you felt best fir the character. There were bonus point requirements for each tarot card (and/or the reverse card). I made both icons 'cause I'm a points whore. There's also like 3 or 4 alts that I made of my Ginko icon, which I'll post at the end of the entry.
Ginko was the Fool, which I filled all of the bonus criteria for: butterfly(1) which is red(2). The character is going on a journey(3) across a green(4) path(5) and Kusuriuri was the Moon. I only used 2/5 criteria (a moon and something dark) for him because I was feeling seriously lazy by that point.
special placement: none
challenge 05: creating a monster
Oh god this theme. I wasn't able to create something as disgusting as I wanted to, so I wound up with retard!Chii instead. Chii contains parts from Chi (chi's sweet home) and a face that only the devil could love (Neuro). The creature in your icon also had to have visible scars somewhere. I think you got bonus points for the additional body parts you used, but by this point I was suffering from serious LIMS burnout and only went with two, hoping that I'd be able to make up the points with votes.
special placement: none
challenge 06: 666: musical number of the beast
Lyrical challenge. The only requirement was to use lyrics from a song about the devil (or containing something regarding a devil). This challenge was pretty much right up my alley seeing as I am a metal fan, but I wound up going with some good old fashioned psychobilly. Check it out:
Click to view
special placement: people's choice (tie)
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challenge 07: seven deadly sins
The 7 remaining participants were randomly assigned one of the 7 deadly sins, for which we had to make an icon using provided criteria. Depending on how many of the criteria you used, you got bonus points. You also got bonus points for making an icon (with provided criteria) using the corresponding heavenly virture. I wound up with wrath. We had to use different characters for each icon, but I got by on the technicality that Halle and Allelujah are different personalities. Can you tell that I was coming off of a G00 bender?
special placement: none
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challenge 08: olympian bros
The final challenge. I had manage to scrape by to finals again. By this point I was not only suffering from LIMS burnout but also going kind of crazy due to IRL shit. I almost didn't even bother submitting since I was so busy and feeling so sick and disgusted by people that I knew that I just didn't want to do anything. We had to make 3 icons. One pertaining to Zeus, one to Poseidon and one to Hades. There were also related criteria. I copped out by using Saint Seiya. These icons are kind of bad and I'm not proud of them. C/P of what I submitted proving that they're all linked together: "same series (sort of? saint seiya and saint seiya: the lost canvas. Also all of the characters' names are from Greek mythology. also also I used the same overall style/textures (they sort of form a triptych) and text, and if you want to get really nitpicky, all of the text is from metal ("ride the lightning" is a Metallica album and everything else is from Symphony X's albums based around Greek mythology.)"
special placement: third
end result:
Third place! I ain't complaining, since it got me a couple bucks towards renewing my paid account. Thanks, everyone! (and Lils, for giving us real prizes! ;A;)
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anime_rumble round 3
Ok, Imma be a dick here and say that I really didn't dig this comm. The themes weren't very creative and voting was kind of confusing. I don't even know how I managed to win, because I am pretty sure that the mod just gave out points at random and to this day I do not understand it. The mod also went MIA for like 5 months, which is why these icons didn't get posted until now (although now that I think of it, there weren't aliases so idk why I didn't do it. I think I just forgot.)
challenge 01: new beginnings
Make an icon from the first chapter/episode of a series.
special placement: none
challenge 02: black and white
:U
special placement: third
challenge 03: community icon
I fucking hate these themes with an incredible ragey passion. I don't even know why I bothered submitting. (especially because you could skip all you wanted in this comm)
special placement: best text
challenge 04: provided texture
We had to use the ugliest goddamn texture I have ever seen (apologies to whomever made it). No, seriously,
look at this thing.
The mod didn't say how much of it we had to use, so I tried to use as little as possible.
Even though the texture was fuck ugly, this was probably the most fun out of all of the themes because it was the only one that was actually challenging. Viva la fugly textures!
special placement: first
challenge 05: negative space
:U
special placement: first
challenge 06: specific series: full metal alchemist
I don't give two shits about FMA, and I'm really not a fan of specific series themes unless it's something way out there (like forcing someone who normally does seinen to icon shoujo stuff and visa versa). Did not enjoy.
Fun fact: Ed is wearing the helmet from Full Metal Jacket, because I am an asshole and enjoy mashing things together in Photoshop.
special placement: none
challenge 07: not square
:U
special placement: second
challenge 08: text only
This one was kinda fun. We had to use a quote from an anime or manga. The choice was obvious.
special placement: none
challenge 09: icon pair
:U
special placement: second
challenge 10: triplicated
Make an icon with a character, color and text that all starts with the first letter of your username. Armitage, Alizarin (what?!) and text that was pretty much how I felt at that point.
special placement: none
end result:
First... place?! I think? I am not sure how I got there.
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textless_battle round 1
I also did not enjoy this contest, due to the same reasons as why I didn't enjoy anime_rumble. Even the mod went MIA again (the contest itself never got finished). The voting system was kind of bleh and I am also not sure how points were tallied at all. This time I didn't even bother asking how stuff got tallied cause I really didn't care anymore.
My alias was Trish.
challenge 01: identity
:U
special placement: none
challenge 02: couple
:U
special placement: none
challenge 03: provided textures
Well, at least they weren't as ugly as that last one!
special placement: none
challenge 04: emotion
Wow what a lazy icon. By this point I did not gaf about the challenges and just slapped on like 2 textures and submitted something.
What emotion is he even displaying? Is "smug bastard" an emotion?
special placement: none
challenge 05: provided images
I skipped this theme because the images provided were my two least favourite things in the world: CLAMP shit and Final Fantasy 7. Please enjoy Dampierre's magnificent O face.
special placement: none
challenge 06: mirror
This theme was dumb. Not because it was boring (it was that too), but because we didn't actually have to mirror the image (uh?). We only had to use it twice.
However, I went all out with this theme because I was wanting to see if I could manage to place, so I colored a design sketch of Albitro from Togaynu no Chi, doubled him and superimposed him down a really neat hallway. I also added a shadow to create depth.
special placement: people's choice
challenge 07: half crop
:U
special placement: none
challenge 08: simple icons
No textures/brushes allowed.
Mod dropped off the face of the planet after voting was posted and then closed the community without even posting results.
special placement: ???
end result:
lolidk
the depressing graveyard of icons that weren't
Out of order because I DON'T CAAAAAAAAAAAAAARE. I'm also only posting a small number of the variants because I honestly cannot tell the difference between a lot of them. The icons here were those that I could actually differentiate from the icons that I wound up submitting.
t h e e n d