027 | Icon Progression: 2012
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January
January was a great start to a year for me, as it was my first month with wonderous_stuff and a really fun Out of the Box theme at inspired20in20. Both challenges pushed me to try new things. My style back then was a bit more blurry than it is now and looking at my icons, I don't think I had as good a grip on coloring or texture use (or probably anything, really). However, I still do like some of the icons I made then - the Rory one for the more muted tones, even if the texture use is now a bit strong; the Jo one for the colors, the River Song one for the idea and the colors even if I would now make it sharper and brighter.
This month I also made a batch of stock icons for iconbattling that never got posted here because I ended up sort of rushing them and they were more fashion-stock than the kind of stock I prefer to work with. It was not an overly successful batch, that.
Other favorites of that time include this (which was groundbreaking texture work for me at the time), this (blend that actually didn't fail) and this (colors!).
February
February brought a Castle battle with sstarlz, a Doctor Who activity at w-s, and, apparently, not much else for me. My icons are still sort of a clusterfuck of bad coloring and wtf texture use, but there are a few I'm happy with still. I like the cleanness and lightness of my Castle icon, the composition of the Daleks icon, and the ACTUAL SHARPENING of the Echo icon (even if it could use a bit of work evening out the colors). This month was apparently a busy one for me, since I don't have much made for it.
March
March was a fun time of Sherlock icons and icons of small fandoms for w-s. My work is still pretty hit-or-miss, I think, but with the Sherlock set I see a lot more coloring that's achieving its goals, and less overtexturing. Improvement! \0/ I also started looking at the way I made icons in this month and challenging myself to step outside that, because I would always contradict my work during my process and it was kind of silly. I'm not sure how much of that I got rid of, but I, uh, tried?
There are a lot of icons I would feel okay with showing from this month (yay!), but I'm gonna go with Sherlock (that coloring took so long! But I'm happy with how it turned out); Irene (doing crazy things is good! I should do it more); and Sam because LOOK I FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO USE TEXTURES!
Things I did not understand this month: why everyone liked this icon so much (ugh look at how bad the colors are, I did not like it even then). Other exciting things from this month: my text work on this icon.
April
This was a busy month and all I made were textures so here have a look at those. I literally made zero icon this month and that is terrible and I would like to not do it ever again, thanks. At least making textures allowed me to explore some new things in Photoshop?
May
Look, icons! I did stuff for insp20, w-s turbo_rumble, and a few for trope_overdosed and supernatu_elite in May. I made my first Community icons this month, and a bunch of multifandom things for the picturesque round at insp20. I also went back to iconning stock, which I always mean to do more of.
My work this month was on the blurry side, but I was also really happy with the colors! My texture work was a bit more laid back in some places and in some ways I kind of miss my prior boldness. This was sort of the month of making things I thought were really good at first and then they actually weren't when I looked back at them, but at least I was excited! The only thing that really didn't work out well for me was t-r, where the themes totally kicked my ass. I made one icon from that set that I'm still happy with. Oops.
My faves from this month: I forget the fandom, but pulling the colors out of that cap was so fun; the lighting on this Supernatural cap and the coloring/texture use were pretty different for me, and I think this was a nice experiment; and, of course, my new default with fun composition work and texture use. I think May was a pretty good month for my work overall.
June
Another busy month! Sort of too busy, I think. After the blurry colorfulness of May, I was like, screw this, I'm going grungy. So I did, and also experimented a lot with my coloring in my set for insp20. I also participated in the battle at icon_talk, continued doing stuff for the t-o rumble, and then lost my inspiration halfway through the month and did the w-s activity with caps from Smallville, which I have never watched, to try to help myself get back into the PS thing. Because I was playing around with coloring and different uses of textures and stuff, I had some icons that were definitely flops this month. But I think in the end I probably learned a lot, and my icons did start going in a different direction from this point forward.
As for my faves this month: Thor&Loki! No one liked this icon as much as me, but I did because a) it took ages so it would have been a bummer if I'd hated it after; b) silhouettes and blending!; c) look I did an outline with the pen tool awwyeah; d) I used ALL THE TEXTURES and e) this was really different coloring for me at the time. So yes, this one has a special place in my heart. With Britta, I used the Invert and some crazy texture work to come up with this composition. It's sort of unlike most things I do and I still really like the idea, even if I'm still not too sure about how the icon itself turned out. And then Britta again; this icon kind of came from...well, who knows where, but it was another one of those things that was crazy for me and I had a lot of fun with. I also really liked this icon (but apparently no one else did, and I can kinda see why now even if I still like the idea), this icon (it was SO HARD to get the lighting and coloring on this to work!), this icon (the simplicity and soft colors aren't my usual, but I think it turned out well), and this icon (coloring it was so much fun!).
July
July started with an insp20 batch that was looking back at trends over the past year, which gave me more of a chance to stretch my skills. theiconquest also happened, and the i-t anon battle. I'm only happy with maybe ~60% of my icons from this month; others just feel rushed and not very good. I think the ones I got right I did pretty well on, though, so at least I have that?
The Cas icon of crazy composition was sort of...well, it felt forced when I made it but then everyone really liked it, which was unexpected! So apparently I should try to push myself to do different compositions more often. I was really happy wiht the Amy icon as a whole because that cap has been iconned so many times and I wanted to do something a bit different, and I think my more muted coloring and text work turned out nicely. And then the Haven icon! It was made for a guild activity at IQ and I just like the composition/texture work on it. Other highlights: colors!; perhaps the only time I've painted something well; and more coloring + text I was really happy with.
August
August had more IQ icons and then my inspiration took a hiatus that made me v. unhappy. I didn't enter insp20 or finish things for the w-s challenge. I did cap the Revolution trailers and make a couple of icons from them, which was new and different. But overall it was not a fun time because it was my last bit of freedom before school and I wanted to be able to make things, dammit!
The Dean icon is sort of plain, but I kind of like it for its simplicity; I think it makes everything pop a bit more. I was also really happy with the colors and sharpness and texture work and text on the Iron Man icon even though face-text is, like, a sin and should not be used. But I still really like that icon, okay? And the Watson icon has sharpening, will ya look at that!
Not much else notable happened this month. I made a tumblr thing fo tumbleit and promptly resolved to get better at that. There was also this icon, which I like in theory for the idea and like in practice for the text and textures, but also dislike because of the way the colors are so muddled and indistinct. I still need to figure out how muted coloring works.
September
In September, school started and I was so so busy that I hardly had time to icon. It's no coincidence that my last big post was this month, haha. I started a batch of Community icons for the rainbow round at insp20, but that didn't get finished. Other than that, I just made a few random Other icons.
This month was a lot of playing around with coloring and some experimentation with textures. Some results I was happy with (the first). Some, not so much.
The composition and coloring on the Annie icon is not a style I usually do, but I think it turned out well here? And the Abed icon! Yay for overlapping textures and such, I kind of what to play around with them more. And then the light colors on the Supernatural icon were pretty hard to get, so I'm proud of them even if it does need sharpening like whoa. I'm actually happy with a large percentage of my work from this month, even if there's not a whole lot of it.
October
In October I thought I was doing some really cool new stuff but then I actually really wasn't. Haha. I also didn't make very many icons because ahhh busy :C.
It's actually kind of hard to pick examples from this month because a lot of my stuff just seems kind of bleh.
I did start trying to play around with crops and textures, hence the Charlie icon up there. In both that and the Natasha icon, I was going for a bit more dreamy coloring and more obvious texture use. I maybe succeded? And the the Cas icon I made for supernatu_elite - not gonna lie, I really like this one. I think maybe some deeper colors could have benefited it, but I like the way the colors work together and the lighting and the sharpening. I think I started using High Pass for sharpening this month, and it's still the thing that works best with my style.
November
November: also hell, but at least I had time to do turbo_rumble set during my Thanksgiving break! Some of the icons I am definitely not thrilled with (guys it's so ugly), others are sorta mehh in my eyes, and then some I actually really liked! Sadly, this set was the only thing I did this month.
The "vintage or muted coloring" theme at t-r inspired this Nora icon to go where I hadn't really gone before, but I was really really happy with the results! The texture work is a bit more visible, but that's really how I like it when I can pull it off. I also really like the textures in the Dean icon, and even though the colors were not what I wanted them to be, they're still nicely contrast-y. (This icon went through one hell of an iteration before it got to this point. It looked v. different from the planned icon). And then the last icon, which had a very mixed reaction. I was pretty happy with it myself, because I wanted the text and the texture to match, even though I perhaps would have placed the text a bit differently.
This month turned out some things I was really happy with and some that I saw very differently after receiving concrit on them, and though I didn't do much I think I learned quite a bit.
December
December! For most of the month all I did was write essays and study, so it was almost as unproductive as April. Maybe more, even, as I didn't make a full set of textures. :C I wasn't hugely impressed with my work this month, probably because it was rushed and I was stressed, but a couple of good things did come out of it.
The coloring on the Leslie icon was new and different for me, and quite fun! I want to try it more in the future. Same with the lighter colors on the Britta icon, with some texture work that's all Octobery. And then I-think-I-hate-this-less-than-the-other-options Cas, because I do like the texture work and at least the idea of the text there, even if it didn't turn out like I want.
December didn't feel too different from November or October, probably because I hadn't made enough icons for it to be different, haha.
Looking backFirst off, KUDOS TO ANYONE WHO MADE IT THIS FAR. I talk a lot. Sorry. Overall, I think this year was a year of branching out for me. I felt constantly underwhelmed by my work and tried to change my style pretty much every post. I'm not sure how much I succeeded. I also tried making textures, tumblr graphics, and wallpapers, none of which I really had experience with before. Hopefully I'll be able to continue with all in 2013.
Now that I've done this post, I can see clear improvement in my coloring and texture skills over the year. I've gotten a bit better at sharpening as well, though in all three areas I think I still have some ground to cover. I'm not sure that I improved as much as I did last year, but I still do feel like I'm moving forward. I'd like to start working more with composition because when I do things that aren't center crops, they sometimes turn out well! Then, of course, there's my whole list of resolutions I made at bestof_icons. Honestly, if I can stick to half of them, I'll be happy.
Some things that helped me a lot this year: inspired20in20, especially the more technical challenges; supernatu_elite; the turbo_rumble themes and votes; misc. crit picked up from anon_icon; the Style Editor Edition o icons_concrit (especiall absolutelybatty's contribution); advice and resources fro raiindust, and everyone who's taken the time to drop me comments and/or concrit over the year. Thank you so much, and I'll see you in the new year! ♥