Retrospective
I joined ugly_icons today and took a few minutes to look over the locked entries. There are some massively ugly icons there...and there are also some icons that look to me like typical beginners' efforts. Every one of us started out as a nOOb. I shudder every time someone digs out an ancient icon of mine, adopts it, and tells me that she'll be certain to credit. Ha! Some of those I'd prefer to forget I ever made. *grin*
In my head, I think of my icons as Before Paddies (B.P.) and After Paddies (A.P.). Every icon maker should have an "elder statesman" icon maker like paddies who is as generous as she was with me. She gave me straight talk about my work and solid suggestions to improve. I'm still working my way through her comments after all this time. I seriously heart her.
Every icon maker should also have her own cheering section. Mine has been jalabert. From the first day I cracked open my copy of Photoshop Elements 3.0, she supplied me with a demand for my work, even when it mostly sucked, and gave me direction when I was first trying. She also said things to me like, "He's urine yellow! Why would you make him urine yellow?!?" Which, you know, I'd MUCH rather hear in private rather than see in a comm making fun of ugly icons. :)
All of this nostalgia got me to wondering about my own roots, where I've gone, and where I am. Thus...
I don't think that I started out *too* scary, but my penchant for oversharpening was evident from the start...
And oh boy, that sharpening had gotten a LOT worse by several posts later, when I think I'd graduated to using the sharpen filter TWICE before smoothing out the skin bits.
Thankfully, paddies pointed it out. Honestly, I didn't see it as oversharpened. I saw it as defined and definitely not "blurry." I just shake my head. The other thing she kindly suggested was that I learn to use textures. Oh boy.
I started out okay...
...and then I veered into the realm of nuclear holocaust as I tried to figure out how oxoniensis made these beautiful icons where it looked like she painted with textures. (To be clear, HER icons were not nuclear holocausts. My attempts to incorporate her methods into my own style were the scary ones.) I was playing with that at the same time I discovered selective coloring. Sometimes, I like what I came up with but other times? *shudder*
the Good:
the Bad:
the Was I Blind?!?:
One of the things I've found most disappointing in my work is that I tend to focus on faces rather than scenes. I love portraits; they're my favorite painting group and that shows up in my iconning. It doesn't help that my favorite fandom to work in is SG-1 and a lot of the filming on that series is tight shots of single characters. Multi-character shots often have a narrow focus depth so only one of the characters is truly in focus. I used to think the lack of variety was due entirely to my bias but choosing caps for sg1_lims has proven to me that I'm only *partly* to blame. Don't believe me? I randomly selected an episode from about mid-way through the series (Season 5): this is the first page of screen caps I chose. I didn't have to *look* for this. It's the norm for how the show is shot.)
That isn't an excuse; it just reinforces my weakness for the pretty shot of a pretty actor. Those icons are popular, but they're boring compositional-wise and they become boring to make. :|
I tried branching out. I sought out scenes. I discovered the joys of black and white. I iconned in other fandoms. I played with negative space.
I joined lantis_lims and started throwing anything and everything into the mix, trying to develop a style of my own:
I still don't know that I have a particular style. I don't know that one could look at an icon and know for certain that I made it. I've recently discovered "levels" (hey, I never claimed to be a quick study in Photoshop) and that has taken me new places with black and white icons. Instead of relying on the duotone/tritone/quadtone pre-sets, I can really play with them now. :)
I'm still far too fond of the head shot icon and centered cropping. Even though I *know* those don't typically make for visually interesting icons. If I knew everything and didn't still have a lot of room to improve, though, I don't suppose I'd be making icons at all because it would be just so *boring.*
In my head, I think of my icons as Before Paddies (B.P.) and After Paddies (A.P.). Every icon maker should have an "elder statesman" icon maker like paddies who is as generous as she was with me. She gave me straight talk about my work and solid suggestions to improve. I'm still working my way through her comments after all this time. I seriously heart her.
Every icon maker should also have her own cheering section. Mine has been jalabert. From the first day I cracked open my copy of Photoshop Elements 3.0, she supplied me with a demand for my work, even when it mostly sucked, and gave me direction when I was first trying. She also said things to me like, "He's urine yellow! Why would you make him urine yellow?!?" Which, you know, I'd MUCH rather hear in private rather than see in a comm making fun of ugly icons. :)
All of this nostalgia got me to wondering about my own roots, where I've gone, and where I am. Thus...
I don't think that I started out *too* scary, but my penchant for oversharpening was evident from the start...
And oh boy, that sharpening had gotten a LOT worse by several posts later, when I think I'd graduated to using the sharpen filter TWICE before smoothing out the skin bits.
Thankfully, paddies pointed it out. Honestly, I didn't see it as oversharpened. I saw it as defined and definitely not "blurry." I just shake my head. The other thing she kindly suggested was that I learn to use textures. Oh boy.
I started out okay...
...and then I veered into the realm of nuclear holocaust as I tried to figure out how oxoniensis made these beautiful icons where it looked like she painted with textures. (To be clear, HER icons were not nuclear holocausts. My attempts to incorporate her methods into my own style were the scary ones.) I was playing with that at the same time I discovered selective coloring. Sometimes, I like what I came up with but other times? *shudder*
the Good:
the Bad:
the Was I Blind?!?:
One of the things I've found most disappointing in my work is that I tend to focus on faces rather than scenes. I love portraits; they're my favorite painting group and that shows up in my iconning. It doesn't help that my favorite fandom to work in is SG-1 and a lot of the filming on that series is tight shots of single characters. Multi-character shots often have a narrow focus depth so only one of the characters is truly in focus. I used to think the lack of variety was due entirely to my bias but choosing caps for sg1_lims has proven to me that I'm only *partly* to blame. Don't believe me? I randomly selected an episode from about mid-way through the series (Season 5): this is the first page of screen caps I chose. I didn't have to *look* for this. It's the norm for how the show is shot.)
That isn't an excuse; it just reinforces my weakness for the pretty shot of a pretty actor. Those icons are popular, but they're boring compositional-wise and they become boring to make. :|
I tried branching out. I sought out scenes. I discovered the joys of black and white. I iconned in other fandoms. I played with negative space.
I joined lantis_lims and started throwing anything and everything into the mix, trying to develop a style of my own:
I still don't know that I have a particular style. I don't know that one could look at an icon and know for certain that I made it. I've recently discovered "levels" (hey, I never claimed to be a quick study in Photoshop) and that has taken me new places with black and white icons. Instead of relying on the duotone/tritone/quadtone pre-sets, I can really play with them now. :)
I'm still far too fond of the head shot icon and centered cropping. Even though I *know* those don't typically make for visually interesting icons. If I knew everything and didn't still have a lot of room to improve, though, I don't suppose I'd be making icons at all because it would be just so *boring.*