post 122: look back on 2021 progress
Hmm....I don't know if I was as productive as I was in previous years but here we go :)
January
+ I started off the year by creating icons for somein30, colored_inspired, elitesimplicity, capicontest, stocklove_ic, twilight_con, perioddrama_ic and some icons for 100fandomicons at dreamwidth. I focused on composition, learning how to create gif icons and expanding my style.
+ Just follow my 2021 tags and you'll find all my icon posts for this year!
February
+ For February, I had one post, where I expanded on complex compositions and perfecting my simple icons. The icons were created for somein30, colored_inspired, capicontest, stocklove_ic, perioddrama_ic, and some icons for 100fandomicons at dreamwidth.
March
+ This month, I had one post, somein30 had various prompts and inspiration where I challenged myself and focus using the prompts to create unique icons and I also created icons for stocklove_ic.
April
+ This month, I had one post for my various icontests I participated in. I got inspired by iconsipirations, created some non-canon pairings that I love for somein30 (Dan/Blair happened in canon but were not endgame, but I wish they were, and let's not talk about how sterek was shipbaited the whole time during teen wolf, Lydia/Allison would have been a powerful couple but teen wolf tend to not do LGBTQ+ pairings (and if they did I think I stopped watching this show around season 3 or season 4 - whichever seeason that introduced so many characters and had no plot at all), Sam and Bucky are colleagues but Disney will never make them a couple, but the subtext is there, and Jughead & Veronica comes from the days when Archie fanfiction was allowed on ff.net and met some wonderful writers for the pairings (and discussion about the comic evidence for them) although I also ship Jughead and Betty and Reggie and Betty, although this is Riverdale, and Jughead and Veronica have some scenes together and a kiss because of reasons but in general the show writers will never explore this ship and I wish that they did). Enough about my rants about my non-canon pairings that I just love (LOL!) I also created icons for moviefilmstills (definitely after watching Sunset Boulevard - which is such a great classic movie and kept telling my family it's better then the other film that came out that year and beat this film (All About Eve) but this film is everything - especially for a film noir <3) I also created icons for itsabattlefield, elitesimplicity, twilight_con and for capicontest (and then didn't submit it because the icons were not the greatest and just decided to put them in my post). (I sometimes do that for some the icons I create) Just realized that this is the longest thing that I wrote but I love fandom things and explaining why they are important in my icon process.
May
+ This month, I had two posts, and one of the post was for somein30 where I couldn't think of a title for the post (LOL!) There were some post these years where I didn't want to find a quote and place it in the lj cut and decided to title things like sleepy, idk, etc (LOL!) For my somein30 post it was all about texture uses and I could at the time create a set of 5. For my other post, I created icons for stocklove_ic, itsabattlefield, capicontest and elitesimplicity. For elitsimplicity it was abour lighting (light vs darkness) I really love how my Allison icon came out because the screencap itself was pretty dark with poor lighting (screencap can be found here: https://pll.homeofthenutty.com/albums/324/0924.jpg or https://kissthemgoodbye.net/pll/albums/ep24/Pretty_Little_Liars_S03E24_kissthemgoodbye_net_2171.jpg or https://kissthemgoodbye.net/pll/albums/ep24/Pretty_Little_Liars_S03E24_kissthemgoodbye_net_2173.jpg I can't recall which screencap that I used I just remember that it was pretty dark). I just loved how the lighting, painting th e hair and colroing the red part of the hood was made to create this icon and is my personal favorite.
June
+ I believe I created a few icons for capicontest but didn't post them until my August post.
July
+I believe I created a few icons for capicontest but didn't post them until my August post.
August
+ I created one post and combined my June/July icons into this post. I created icons for twilight_con, color_inspired, capicontest, tvshowsic, stocklove_ic, oddlyspecificon, and icons10in20 at dreamwidth. I really went into improving and sharpening my coloring, composition and some of my complexity that I do. And also including lots of negative space.
September
+ No icons were created in september, if they were icons created in september, they are included in my October post.
October
+ I created one post for the month of October. Somein30 had an amazing challenge about cropping and I was all up in doing unusual/different cropping or having multiple subjects in the icon as well. I went wild for this challenge because I even created more icons even after finishing my set. I really focused on cropping and coloring and pretty much that's what drove me to create my icons. I also created icons for stocklove_ic, moviefilmstills, oddlyspecificon, and capicontest.
November
+ I had one post for November and focused on red for monthlyinspo and I love how the coloring, textures, and composition worked out in the set. I also created icons for twilight_con.
December
+ I have two posts for December - one for somein30 challenge where there were parent icons from previous years to inspire and help create a new icon to showcase my progress. I had a blast creating various iocns for this challenge, and trying to push my own style. Go ahead and see the progress that I've made from whenever the parent icons were from (probably 2015ish or something) to now. My other post is for montlyinspo which was all about fashion and my icons for capicontest and various other icons. I had fun showcasing the fashion whether through being on a cover of a magazine or using various textures to help make the subjects standout to highlight their fashion sense.
Closing Thoughts
+ I feel like I have grown as an icon maker, and tried working on text work, complex compositions and trying to step out of my comfort zone. I had tons of fun doing this, especially in challenges from somein30!
+ To work on: I still want to work on text work (so uncomfortable with that), blocking, complexity, step out of my comfort zone for sure! And definitely continue on the textwork!!! Maybe post more icons - but got to see with how everything is going for me.
^Same closing thoughts that I had last year (probably some difference in terms of what challenged me and to grow out of my comfort zone and to post more, LOL!)
Previous Best of Icons:
2022
(banner created by ella_rose88)
2021 | 2020|2019|2018|2017| 2016 | 2015
Please do not recommend any previous best of icons when recommending icons for bestof_icons! I keep this here to show the progress that I have made.
Icon remake for 2021; (requested > remake)
I loved the whole cropping and coloring in the requested icon that I decided to go back to the screencap and focused on the text work instead (but also coloring the flowers to be red again to stand out). For the second remake, I wanted to keep the close cropping and also work with the lighting -play around to have an equal amount of light and darkenss to the icon!
Giving credit where it's due: the template for the icon progress was created by
rocketgirl2