icons meme ii
part i
I liked the first one so much I ended up doing it again! Twice over! It's an interesting trip down memory lane, for sure. I'm going to try to give a bit more context of the ones I remember better. (Quick note: I make icons with my old laptop so I'll try to find the original screencaps here. I have a large-but-clearly-not-large-enough collection of textures and unfortunately most have no credit... Just ask! And building on that, icons sometimes look different, particularly in regards to sharpening, from one laptop to the other because of resolution.) Also, these got very long this time around because I detailed a bit more of the process and definitely gave a lot of context. I tried to give context and thoughts if I remembered about them.
The usual rules:
1. Comment to this entry saying - 'Today we're cancelling the apocalypse' - and I will pick 3 of your icons/userpics.
2. Make an entry in your own journal (or just reply if you prefer) and talk about the icons I picked!
Thank you to novindalf and wunderkind_lucy for indulging me once again! ♥
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These were the three icons novindalf picked :D
[Anne with an E · itsabattlefield · 2020]I made this Anne/Gilbert (Shilbert?) icon for itsabattlefield around Valentine's Day, for a Five Icons - One Couple short battle. I have said it many times but I love challenges where the themes are specific in its looseness, if that makes sense. (Otherwise, my muse feels... limited? Pressured? Who the heck knows.) This was a perfect challenge in that sense! I finished binging Anne with an E in early February so I kind of wanted to make icons about it. So I did! (As the story goes, I also made two extra sets because I liked it a lot. But this one is the good set.)
The best part of this post is going to be that I got the idea for this icon during my commute. Maybe it wasn't composed exactly like this one but I knew I wanted to make with the subjects centered and floating (and something on the cut-off to hide the straight line). In the end, I think this worked out even better? This frame texture evokes that time period for me. I also like the color composition (literally all of the blue/grey/green-ish colors I tried kind of looked beautiful - this is all curves + color balance + selective coloring + low opacity gradients). It looks simple but it's also one of my best icons this year? It's definitely one I'm quite proud of.
[A Star is Born · elitesimplicity · 2019]I made this for the "Remake" elitesimplicity challenge last year and whenever I make icons for those challenges, I try to keep them beautiful without overcomplicating myself. "A Star is Born" was an obvious pick (and even a suggested remake) and this is one of the most popular caps (and one of the prettiest ones).
This screencap leads itself to a close crop (it's a closeup, duh) so... that is how I cropped it. I played with the coloring, mostly with greens and my usual natural colors. I do recall I had to use the brush with brown around the upper right (hair and eyebrow) because it got a tad too green over there when I used a couple of lighting textures. I think that's still noticeable in parts so my cover is blown! Then it was about getting the sharpening right so the tear was noticeable and so were the other details. Overall, I like it! I think that it truly lives up the simplicity of the community.
[This Is Us · itsabattlefield · 2019]Beth Pearson from This is Us. I love her. TIU is a show I enjoy watching and should probably icon more but I either can't find the screencaps I want or I just... forget?
It's part of the set I made for itsabattlefield's Close vs. Far (a big battle from last September, here's the post in my graphics comm). I was quite inactive over the summer because the project I was working on got quite intense for a bit. Then I installed Sims 4 in this laptop (I got it on the older one) and... started playing after work, even when I finally got the shortened schedule, because it simply allowed me to relax. I also went on vacation in between and all... so this is a very long way of saying I felt and was rusty when I made this set but I wanted to get back on the saddle.
I do like the crop and the colors in the icon quite a bit. I don't know if I have the psd for this one around but I probably used some selective coloring and color balance + maaaaybe red curves to get those glowy colors? I like the way the icon frames her face and her distraught expression. Nice use of light/shadows.
The set ended up being quite pink/purple-ish, which was unintentional at first but really works. (Around that time, I was obsessed with cohesiveness. Then again, if you've seen my latest the7days set... you know I still am in some ways.) Out of all those icons, this one was one of my favorites, if noy my outright favorite.
And these were the ones that wunderkind_lucy chose!
[The West Wing · fandom10in30 · 2020]This is a recent-ish icon from my TV tropes set last month! I can see a few things about what my icons have been looking like as of late: grunge-y textures in the background, (mostly not-great) attempts at text work. But in this one case, it fits because if anyone has seen a TWW around as of late, it might've been this one. (For context, the actual scene this screencap is from is this one, which highlights his undying loyalty towards his friends. Wholly different theme/trope.)
The biggest challenge I faced while making icons for this challenge - and Josh was a prime example of this - was that some of the character tropes that came to mind are mostly personality traits that just don't translate into icons (like the sarcastic quips they all have -- we all know I am bad at text). In this case, the quote is very Josh and his expression in the icon just fit perfectly with the sentiment of that quote (and it fits the trope I did end up going with, combat pragmatist). I thought it would be fun to make the quote with a fancy handwriting font to make it come off as a nicer message than it is. I then used a different font to emphasize the second part of the text. The rest of it is fairly simple -- I cut most of Josh and the table with quick selection + eraser and colored it. I went with a light purple-ish palette and added that lavender color to the text to bring it all together. The lighting is also nice, leaving him front and center.
[Avengers: Endgame · 2020]I don't think I made this one as a specific icon for anything, haha. It's likely I found the cap while looking for some for the first Partner Battle with wunderkind_lucy and it caught my attention even if neither of us chose it. This is another screencap that is ideal for a close crop so that's what I went with. I don't think I did anything special with it, other than going for a close, centered crop. It's colored naturally, with a bit more attention to the lips and the eyes (and some sharpening that looked good, most likely with daubs at 50%?). Did I add some additional lighting texture/gradient? Quite possibly. It's one I like a lot but it's one of the simplest, most straight-forward icons I've made lately.
[The Crown · monthlyinspo · 2019]My best icon from 2019! It's not just me saying that but the consensus from the wonderful community at bestof_icons a few months ago!
It was a January icon made for monthlyinspo, for their bingo round. I want to say that was their last round for a while, wasn't it? At least the last 20-icon set one, I wanna say (definitely the last "competitive" 20-icon set I made - I kind of made an unofficial one in November from when work was manageable and not a nightmare... good times). Anyhow, I'm digressing once more. I'm really proud of that entire set as a whole. With comms like this one and particularly in those challenges (and the exposure I know they might have), I try to push myself, and, as luck would have it, I was productive then. It feels weird to think about the month I started working and how relatively easy and calm things were, and comparing that to this January or even just now... but I was.
The screencap itself does feature all of Elizabeth but I thought it would be use some interesting crop that would allow me to have some negative space. Thus I used the quick selection tool + eraser (it's my method for negative space 90% of the time; worked well in this case) and decided to go with a light green -- a color I might not use a lot but would fit the colors of the screencap.
By itself, it looks good (this example is from an even closer crop I considered, too; had no idea I had one uploaded to Imgur). It looked good up till then but I added some light to it, so I played with gradients and the gradient light textures I love. That was a good first step. Then I kept thinking and wondered, "why don't I add a random texture and see if it works?" (clearly inspired by better and more inspired iconmakers than myself). And this one by soaked set to screen and rotated 90 degrees looked beautiful? I wouldn't say it's a perfect icon by any means but it looked really cool. And since it kind of goes with Elizabeth's safari outfit and the colors... I really dig this icon, hehe. And like I said, I'm impressed by some of the icons that are on that set.
(I was suprised it wasn't picked as the favorite from my set as that round - the Midge icon, which looks great, did.)
This was fun! Definitely explained myself a lot more. I'll probably go back to the first part and give some more detail. In fact, I am posting this one now so I stop talking.
Comment and I'll give you icons! :D