034 | 2013 Icon Progression
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I wasn't going to do one of these until I realized that I said at icon_talk that people should do it even if "you've made about two icons this year (like me)". So. Thus begins the saddest progression post I have ever made. :c
January
I started off with an attempt at round 18 (expect the unexpected) at inspired20in20. I'm kind of bummed that I didn't get to finish my set, because while my work wasn't technically perfect, I think I was doing a lot of interesting stuff with the DW caps. I also made some Revolution and Parks & Rec icons for wonderous_stuff...which apparently never got posted here. Oops. This month had some interesting composition and coloring work that I still kind of like.
February
This month was even worse; I made a few icons for rumblr's color round and a whopping one icon for turbo_rumble. Yikes. I don't like most of my rumblr icons because ew muddy colors, but Green Cas is still kind of close to my heart despite the its epic darkness. Bonus: random tumblr thing that I apparently tried?? Overall: not a stellar month.
March
All I did here were SPN icons for supernatu_elite, rumblr, and likethegun_lims, and a couple of Avengers ones for wonderous_stuff. Again, not much in the way of quantity. :( Natasha below spent a bit of time in my userpics, but overall, it was not a stunning month for me. My icons were pretty stylistically all over the place and ew.
April
GUYS! I MADE THREE ICONS THIS MONTH! So I have to post them all below. I don't really love any of them; between image quality and lousy coloring, they were not an high part of my iconning career. That's for sure. XD
May
This was the month of heroicon, which apparently inspired me again! I really like my lighting and coloring and texture work in these selections. I also did the battle challenge at supernatu_elite, which pushed me to interpret caps differently than I usually might. I'm happy with how creative my work was this month, and I think I put on a pretty good showing, especially considering how April went.
June
All I did in June was a Dollhouse set for wonderous_stuff, but I actually think it includes some of my better icons of the year. I really hit a good run with my lighting (which was a spin-off of that first IM3 icon in May) and had some successful experiments with text and textures and coloring. Not all of my icons were perfect, but I'm happy with a majority of them still.
July
July brought the tale end of my Dollhouse set, and a Revolution set for inspired20in20 round 24, which was a free-for-all. I went back and completed Round 18 (expect the unexpected) at last! Again, my icons weren't all technically perfect, but I had a lot of fun pushing myself. I used the kinds of crazy compositions, colors, and texture work that I wish I had the guts to venture into more often, and got a surprisingly good response. Charlie, number 1 below, is still in my userpics because that icon was emblematic of my experiments that paid off. I need more months like July!
August
Not as much from this month; just some Supernatural icons from wonderous_stuff's Back to School challenge. Some of my nervy composition and colorings hung over from last month, and I ended up with a halfway decent set. Naomi (number 2) is still in my userpics and I'm waffling on sticking one of my Charlie icons from this set in, as well. Overall: decent coloring and shininess (which was a style I hadn't done in awhile, but enjoyed enough to continue even after this set).
September
In September, I made four pathetic icons. Inara, number 1 below, was a bit of a happy accident for me, and that's about as good as it got for the month. I do mostly like the Dean&Cas icon that was the start of my black and white set for wonderous_stuff, but even that didn't turn out quite like I'd hoped. This month was a pretty big fall off from August, as school sucked my time and inspiration, and pretty disappointing for me. I also made fewer icons because I started attacking tumblr graphics again, and while it was hard to change gears (I have almost zero large textures that can be used for coloring! Eep!), I ended up with a couple I was proud of.
October
The rest of my black and white SPN set was made here, and another attempt at turbo_rumble...one icon again! I'm seeing a trend here. XD I thought the SPN icons were pretty hot when I was making them, and I'm still semi-fond of these two, at least, but the other two weren't great. They signaled a return to Epic Grunge in my style, which may or may not have been a great move for my image quality. The only redeeming factor of October was that I made one of my favorite tumblr graphics, which actually turned out as I envisioned (this is rare)!
November
Again, I wouldn't have made anything this month without wonderous_stuff or supernatu_elite. I got to play around with my style a bit for our Guess the Maker challenge (though I remained utterly predictable, for the most part). HOWEVER, someone thought my Wincest Icon (number 1) was by Shawna, which is awesome because that is totally what I was going for! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am not an utter failure. The second icon below actually placed in a supernatu_elite challenge, and on the third, I was just really proud of the coloring. Also, this tumblr thing turned out super well coloring-wise, in my opinion. Sadly, half of my icons for this month were still shitty-my coloring, image quality, and lighting work is extremely meh at times-but at least it had some upsides!
December
December was super crazy as a month! I made the second half of my Guess the Maker set, entered at supernatu_elite again, and then set to work making a lot of icons for my year-end post. I'm quite proud of about a third my icons from this month, but the other two-thirds either suffer from muddy coloring/too low of contrast, bad image quality, overtexturing, or just plain being boring. I'm honestly not sure why I had so much trouble making things, except for that I took so much time off iconning over the year that I lost my touch. Haha. Best things about this month: more composition experimentation for Guess the Maker, text use (!! I love text, I do), back-end changes in how I color my icons that helped bring about some nice results. Also, the fact that I made a decent amount of icons!
2013: A Summation
I feel like I may not have improved in 2013, due to my almost-constant hiatus, and even like I went downhill in image quality, coloring, and creativity. Boo, self. In the upcoming year, I'm definitely going to work on making my icons less boring. How? No clue. Composition, I think, and different types of colorings. Also: text! My 2014 resolutions include iconning each week and being bold, so hopefully those will help me stave off icons that are made in a rote fashion because I've forgotten how to do everything else. I also plan to keep working on a larger canvas (i.e., on tumblr). Here's to hoping my goals will pan out. Happy 2014, everyone!