00. 2011 Progression Post
Oh gosh, four hours later than expected and A MILLION WORDS MORE THAN NECESSARY! Honestly, I in no way expect anyone to read my ramblings - a lot of it was mostly for my benefit so I can ~look back~ as I hope to do these every year. If you read then you're crazy,... we'll don't say I didn't warn you. There's a reason my lj name has said "see: rambler" for almost as long as I've been making icons. Just feel free to look at the icons! Everything is ofc free for taking, usual stuff applies (credit likealight over falloutoftrees, etc). I dedicate this progression post to wildpages who modded me to finish who has been an amazing amount of support and inspiration to me this post year. ♥ HOPE YOU GUYS HAD A GREAT NEW YEARS EVE!!!!
JAN 21st | 30 icons
So this was my second post to the community. I remember irl (like many times in 2011), at this time was one of the times where I didn't have internet regularly. I had a laptop and a lot of saved caps, so sometimes I'd just mess around - hence this post. Even though this is the second post and not the first one, I find this post my weakest post here in the community. Idk, I like a couple individual icons but over all I'm just like... gross.
MARCH 14 | 81 icons, 13 banners, 1 wallpaper
So beginning of January I was sorted at hogwartsishome! Despite still not having internet, I'd have it on the weekends and stock up on caps to icon during the week and post weekly for points, as well as enter their icontest. Idk why I waited so long to post here but whatever lol this is me. With HiH came THE INFAMOUS TIE ICONS! I can say without a doubt that the house tie icons are easily my MOST POPULAR icons period. I see them ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE. I honestly wish there was a way that I could take a survey to see what house is most popular lol. I remember making the ties out of boredom and thought they were qt but never expected them to take off. Later I made versions on grey backgrounds. Anyway, other icons. I can see I was pretty repetitive in my icons, but really I was entering more so for the points for my house than for ~learning~ purposes. I was fortunate to place often at the weekly icontest which was nice.
JUNE 5 | 74 icons, 25 banners, 7 wallpapers
Another two months between updates, le yeesh! I continued to make and make and make forHiH (ik Gryff appreciated my points :B)! I don't remember why, but eventually something snapped in me and I realized that I could maybe have fun with the icons and just try things/mess around. So it was less about cropping/applying same coloring and more about trying to learn new colorings and incorporating textures. We have my favorite Luna icon (green) that will forever be associated with me, not to mention I will forever use that icon as a reminder that accidents in icons can be awesome. Also I had a love affair with Folks, sue me.
JUNE 6 | 40 icons
Yes, a day later lol. Sara and I had planned to do this battle since we opened the comm back in Dec but finally got around to posting it now. I remember thinking that because I was going ~head to head~ with Sara I couldn't play it safe. I tried a whole bunch of crap, including throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the green Olivia icon which I guess... sorta put me on the map? I remember being super proud of it and a lot of people gave it recognition. Still didn't have a style, but wasn't afraid to try whatever and forever working on b/w icons.
JUNE 25 | 26 icons
In which I knock out my first 20inspirations claim in one day. I remember being sort of frustrated because I feel like because of the Sara battle, my icons were steering towards complexity then BAM, have to make 20 icons that fall under "simplicity". Despite it being a simplicity round, my love of texture is always there, even if I did try to be sly about it. This is me trying to be all ~glowy~. I think my (lack of) sharpness in these icon is very apparent, and let contrast get away from me a bit. I think I felt a lot more proud of this batch when I posted it than I do now.
JUNE 28 | 49 icons
This is when I get excited :3 This is a batch of stuff from help_japan and icontest entries. I remember not even considering signing up for help_japan because I didn't think anyone would bid/offer anything on lil ol me. However, a lovely friend (luv u cosmicfish) talked me into it and she said she'd bid on me so hey - that's at least something for charity. BLOWN AWAY. I was fortunate enough to raise about $85 for charity which felt awesome. I remember being super paranoid though because people were paying for this so I couldn't mess around. I definitely pushed my comfort zone with coloring and went there. Same with composition! I began to apply to elite challenge comms as a means to motivate my self to icon. I knew lighting was something I wanted to "master". While I hardly venture out and try text any more, I am more aware of my sharpening. I'd say this batch and on is when I definitely got serious with this iconning business and buckled down and tbh cosmicfish plays a big part in that.
AUG 18 | 42 icons, 3 wallpapers
In which in apparently meet the color green and refuse to part from it!!! As you can see, this is me continuing to strive for lighting (and around this point I think is when compliments about it start rolling in so yay success :3) I do notice that while there are a few cases where I stretch myself cropping wise, I still play it safe a lot. Along with lighting, I very much strive for those super colorful icons without (hopefully) blinding you. And ofc, forever and ever working on b/w icons.
SEPT 1 | 54 icons
I think we all remember my monitor issues -____- Resulted in me not being able to finish the iconsecrets battle booooo. I feel like I took quite a few risks during this time. Like the 11 icon isn't me at all YET there you have it. Also do you see this...there's text. Who am I? There's growth, least a little bit.
NOV 5 | 29 icons, 11 wallpapers
Yay new monitor AND YAY MARCASITE FOR HER BBC BATTLE. I owe that tiny little battle SO MUCH. DO YOU SEE THIS? Text! Text that isn't just a character name! Pretty much in the battle, we had a technical prompt assigned to a BBC show. Despite watching less than half the shows I still participated and BEST DECISION EVER. I just love how much it pushed me. I found more control in my coloring, branched out on composition, and again - look at me and text! At this point I'm pretty submersed in the ~icon community~ and was/am so fortunate to get a good amount of praise so idk it all pushed me to just do better! Proud of myself :')
NOV 20 | 20 icons
The icon post/20inspiration claim I will never. ever. be able to forget. I set a couple challenges for myself, one being - no alts. I can honestly say, save for maybe 2 icons in the enter batch - I wouldn't change a damn thing. The claim was light/dark btw. As conceited as this may seem, I find it hard to believe I made this batch. Especially given that the first icon placed FIRST PLACE TWICE at wonderous_stuff's awards. I worked on everything there is to work on and again, an instance where I'm just proud of myself and still overwhelmed with the response to this batch. ♥
DEC 30 | 83 icons
Last post of the year :') a complete icon dump. I'm not proud of every piece here and while I was annoyed that my muse left me come December, I can't be that pressed because it has been pretty generous lately. I don't think I necessary ~grew much lately with this post compared to last couple, I mean I'm less scared of text as I was and I'm less wary of experimenting with composition. But overall I'm just happy where I'm at. I love that I have room to grow and that I know for a fact that I have. SO I can't blend or block... but all in due time!
A few last thoughts on ~my style~ and this year. Despite iconning since 2006, I grew and learned the most in 2011. I know a HUGE HUGE HUGE part of that has to do with the icon community. I have so many of you to thank, I appreciate it so much ♥ I still don't think I have one specific style, (I don't think, but please tell me if you disagree) and I am more than okay with that. If I had to point out my own strengths, I would say my lighting and if I'm having a good day then my coloring isn't so bad. Things like sharpening and cropping could use more work, so here's to 2012. Whether you left me one comment of a couple words in the last year, or completely word vomited in caps and keysmashes, I appreciate EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Thanks for making 2011 so great for me online, despite being less so irl :3 HERE'S TO 2012 (where I have a resolution to post at least twice a month :o)
DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT
ICON POST FROM 2 DAYS AGO &
JAN 21st | 30 icons
So this was my second post to the community. I remember irl (like many times in 2011), at this time was one of the times where I didn't have internet regularly. I had a laptop and a lot of saved caps, so sometimes I'd just mess around - hence this post. Even though this is the second post and not the first one, I find this post my weakest post here in the community. Idk, I like a couple individual icons but over all I'm just like... gross.
MARCH 14 | 81 icons, 13 banners, 1 wallpaper
So beginning of January I was sorted at hogwartsishome! Despite still not having internet, I'd have it on the weekends and stock up on caps to icon during the week and post weekly for points, as well as enter their icontest. Idk why I waited so long to post here but whatever lol this is me. With HiH came THE INFAMOUS TIE ICONS! I can say without a doubt that the house tie icons are easily my MOST POPULAR icons period. I see them ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE. I honestly wish there was a way that I could take a survey to see what house is most popular lol. I remember making the ties out of boredom and thought they were qt but never expected them to take off. Later I made versions on grey backgrounds. Anyway, other icons. I can see I was pretty repetitive in my icons, but really I was entering more so for the points for my house than for ~learning~ purposes. I was fortunate to place often at the weekly icontest which was nice.
JUNE 5 | 74 icons, 25 banners, 7 wallpapers
Another two months between updates, le yeesh! I continued to make and make and make forHiH (ik Gryff appreciated my points :B)! I don't remember why, but eventually something snapped in me and I realized that I could maybe have fun with the icons and just try things/mess around. So it was less about cropping/applying same coloring and more about trying to learn new colorings and incorporating textures. We have my favorite Luna icon (green) that will forever be associated with me, not to mention I will forever use that icon as a reminder that accidents in icons can be awesome. Also I had a love affair with Folks, sue me.
JUNE 6 | 40 icons
Yes, a day later lol. Sara and I had planned to do this battle since we opened the comm back in Dec but finally got around to posting it now. I remember thinking that because I was going ~head to head~ with Sara I couldn't play it safe. I tried a whole bunch of crap, including throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the green Olivia icon which I guess... sorta put me on the map? I remember being super proud of it and a lot of people gave it recognition. Still didn't have a style, but wasn't afraid to try whatever and forever working on b/w icons.
JUNE 25 | 26 icons
In which I knock out my first 20inspirations claim in one day. I remember being sort of frustrated because I feel like because of the Sara battle, my icons were steering towards complexity then BAM, have to make 20 icons that fall under "simplicity". Despite it being a simplicity round, my love of texture is always there, even if I did try to be sly about it. This is me trying to be all ~glowy~. I think my (lack of) sharpness in these icon is very apparent, and let contrast get away from me a bit. I think I felt a lot more proud of this batch when I posted it than I do now.
JUNE 28 | 49 icons
This is when I get excited :3 This is a batch of stuff from help_japan and icontest entries. I remember not even considering signing up for help_japan because I didn't think anyone would bid/offer anything on lil ol me. However, a lovely friend (luv u cosmicfish) talked me into it and she said she'd bid on me so hey - that's at least something for charity. BLOWN AWAY. I was fortunate enough to raise about $85 for charity which felt awesome. I remember being super paranoid though because people were paying for this so I couldn't mess around. I definitely pushed my comfort zone with coloring and went there. Same with composition! I began to apply to elite challenge comms as a means to motivate my self to icon. I knew lighting was something I wanted to "master". While I hardly venture out and try text any more, I am more aware of my sharpening. I'd say this batch and on is when I definitely got serious with this iconning business and buckled down and tbh cosmicfish plays a big part in that.
AUG 18 | 42 icons, 3 wallpapers
In which in apparently meet the color green and refuse to part from it!!! As you can see, this is me continuing to strive for lighting (and around this point I think is when compliments about it start rolling in so yay success :3) I do notice that while there are a few cases where I stretch myself cropping wise, I still play it safe a lot. Along with lighting, I very much strive for those super colorful icons without (hopefully) blinding you. And ofc, forever and ever working on b/w icons.
SEPT 1 | 54 icons
I think we all remember my monitor issues -____- Resulted in me not being able to finish the iconsecrets battle booooo. I feel like I took quite a few risks during this time. Like the 11 icon isn't me at all YET there you have it. Also do you see this...there's text. Who am I? There's growth, least a little bit.
NOV 5 | 29 icons, 11 wallpapers
Yay new monitor AND YAY MARCASITE FOR HER BBC BATTLE. I owe that tiny little battle SO MUCH. DO YOU SEE THIS? Text! Text that isn't just a character name! Pretty much in the battle, we had a technical prompt assigned to a BBC show. Despite watching less than half the shows I still participated and BEST DECISION EVER. I just love how much it pushed me. I found more control in my coloring, branched out on composition, and again - look at me and text! At this point I'm pretty submersed in the ~icon community~ and was/am so fortunate to get a good amount of praise so idk it all pushed me to just do better! Proud of myself :')
NOV 20 | 20 icons
The icon post/20inspiration claim I will never. ever. be able to forget. I set a couple challenges for myself, one being - no alts. I can honestly say, save for maybe 2 icons in the enter batch - I wouldn't change a damn thing. The claim was light/dark btw. As conceited as this may seem, I find it hard to believe I made this batch. Especially given that the first icon placed FIRST PLACE TWICE at wonderous_stuff's awards. I worked on everything there is to work on and again, an instance where I'm just proud of myself and still overwhelmed with the response to this batch. ♥
DEC 30 | 83 icons
Last post of the year :') a complete icon dump. I'm not proud of every piece here and while I was annoyed that my muse left me come December, I can't be that pressed because it has been pretty generous lately. I don't think I necessary ~grew much lately with this post compared to last couple, I mean I'm less scared of text as I was and I'm less wary of experimenting with composition. But overall I'm just happy where I'm at. I love that I have room to grow and that I know for a fact that I have. SO I can't blend or block... but all in due time!
A few last thoughts on ~my style~ and this year. Despite iconning since 2006, I grew and learned the most in 2011. I know a HUGE HUGE HUGE part of that has to do with the icon community. I have so many of you to thank, I appreciate it so much ♥ I still don't think I have one specific style, (I don't think, but please tell me if you disagree) and I am more than okay with that. If I had to point out my own strengths, I would say my lighting and if I'm having a good day then my coloring isn't so bad. Things like sharpening and cropping could use more work, so here's to 2012. Whether you left me one comment of a couple words in the last year, or completely word vomited in caps and keysmashes, I appreciate EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Thanks for making 2011 so great for me online, despite being less so irl :3 HERE'S TO 2012 (where I have a resolution to post at least twice a month :o)
DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT
ICON POST FROM 2 DAYS AGO &