People Put Effort Into Making Icons? Shocking!

[cynicalshadows]

There was a discussion over at thesovereignty today about elite icon challenge communities. I don't really feel one way or another about them, so I was just skimming through the responses. And then I ran across this little remark:

and really, i mean, they're livejournal icons. that's probably the most trivial thing on the internet to get all worked up over

Which

Comments

[scifishipper]

Now I know why your icons are so interesting. I'm not yet talented enough to combine caps into amazing singular images. You work hard and fast on the icons, my dear, and you should received credit.

Personally, I don't mind if people use my icons or bases. And I don't really care about credit. I might get pissed if someone took one of mine and lied about creating it, generally, I'm just flattered that someone would think enough of an icon of mine to use it.

That said, I do respect the hard work that goes into icons and always credit with I can (and even feel a smidge guilty when I use one with no findable creator).

If I need to virtually kick someone's ass for stealing and lying about one of my icons, I'll call team badass -- one Ms. Cynicalshadows, tyvm. :)

[cynicalshadows]

Give yourself time and keep trying. You will get there. It took me a solid year to be able to figure out how to do some of the stuff I can do now. It just takes a lot of experimenting and practice, practice, practice because Photoshop definitely has a learning curve. I wish I could show you some of the first icons I made (and never posted because they were god awful) but they were on my old laptop which died this summer and I'd never bothered to back them up. :( Believe me though, they were BAD and for the longest time I couldn't even figure out how to get text on an icon because I kept trying to out it on a locked layer. *facepalm*

[scifishipper]

That is very encouraging. I do see a positive progression in my icons and need to keep that in mind when I get frustrated. I thought my last batch for karastillness was an important style progression for me (kara and the prez). I also really liked some of the icons I did for bsg_20in20.

Do you usually have a vision for your icons or do you experiment until you find something that works?

[cynicalshadows]

Honestly, most of the time I have no idea what I want my icons to look like. The one I'm using now is an exception. I remembered the paint sex dream and I was like I want an icon with Kara and Leoben getting it on with the mandala in the background! Then I looked for caps and realized that you never actually see all three of them at once so I had to blend three pics to get the image I wanted.

Usually when I am making icons, I just look at whatever the challenge is (cause I pretty much just make icons for challenges) and then look through lots and lots of caps, setting aside all of those that I find visually interesting. Then I narrow it down to the five I like best and go from there. I experiment a LOT. I throw on dozens of layers and then play with them to see what looks good and delete the ones that don't. I also mess around a lot with the layer settings and opacities.

And I agree that your icons are improving. Your set for bsg_20in20 is really nice with some excellent crops. Have you got your entries for karastillness in?

[scifishipper]

I think I'm better at cropping than coloring or special effects. I've been obsessed with learning photoshop tricks and haven't paid attention to the cropping as much as I should have. Especially since that is where I feel most comfortable. Annoying that the tool dictated my focus.

I did the karastillness icons, but they're nothing special. I really blew my wad with the bsg_20in20 and kind of ran out of time and energy. That said, there are two that I like pretty well.

I'm been messing around with my cylons_stills but it's a tough challenge. I don't feel inspired.

You know, I wish they would bring back the leestillness icon challenge. I love Lee and love making icons of him. Sigh.

[cynicalshadows]

Yeah, I haven't been too inspired with the cylons_stills challenge this round either. I like that the images are so clear, but I have no idea what to do with them.

Oh, I wish they would restart leestillness too. And katee_stillness. I feel like I missed out on a lot of the fun icon contests because I came late to the fandom. :( Thank goodness karastillness is still going strong.

[scifishipper]

Yes. I am sad to have missed the fun and excitement while the series was still on. Wonder what kind of interest there would be for restarting leestillness. Do you think some of the other usual iconmakers might be interested? Do you know any of them? Maybe if we get a quorum (heh) we could convince the mod to re-start?

[cynicalshadows]

Never hurts to try. And if that doesn't work, we could always start our own comm! I think pilotstillness would be a fun to do. :)

[cynicalshadows]

Finally finished my cylons_stills icons. Woot. I think they are incredibly simple, but I can't do complicated all the time. *grins*

Now if I can only get those bsg_20in20 icons done. I am amazed that you got yours done so fast! I'll probably barely make the deadline just like last time.

[scifishipper]

Woot Woot! Good for you for getting them done. I wish I was more inspired by cylons. Just ain't. Alas.

As for a comm, I would be happy to co-mod. Should we see about re-igniting leestillness first? If no go, then pilotstillness sounds great. I reserved pilotstillness just in case we want it.

[cynicalshadows]

Some of the cylons make me inspired, like Leoben and Sam (apart from him being all lovey dovey with Kara), but most of them leave me going... meh. But I like BSG related icon contests, so enter I do. :)

Yay! So we have the name reserved? Awesome! *flails* I'm thinking we should send a PM to the mod at leestillness to see if they might restart it.

[scifishipper]

I sent the mod brokenmnemonic a PM about restarting the comm. Will let you know if I get a response.