#20
Twentieth post y'all!!
In this batch:
20 Merlin icons for merlin20in20
20 Hawaii Five-0 icons for inspired20in20
Teasers
10 THEMES
Aim
Backwards
Distance
First
Flowers
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Skin
Sleeping
Storm
This Is It
White
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5 CATEGORY - Lines
Category #1
Category #2
Category #3
Category #4
Category #5
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5 ARTIST'S CHOICE
Artist's Choice #1
Artist's Choice #2
Artist's Choice #3
Artist's Choice #4
Artist's Choice #5
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Aim In my head the show is aiming for a future where Arthur is king and Merlin is out and proud magic-wise and the two of them are shagging like there's no tomorrow
Backwards I interpreted this as an 'I've got your back' sort of thing with Gwaine and Merlin trusted to look out for Arthur
Distance I chose this crap for the distant crop and also because there's a sense of Arthur and Merlin looking into the ditance
First Such an unforgettable first meeting. It really did set the tone for the rest of the series
Flowers I was going to take and outdoor crop and blend in a cap of flowers but I really love this brush and jumped at the chance to use it.
Skin I know it's covered by textures but Merlin is shirtless in this icon too
Sleeping I've seen this same concept done really brilliantly by other makers before and I'm certain I haven't done it the same justice but I took the chance to prctice putting contrasting colour in an icon without it becoming an eye-sore
Storm The first thing I thought about when I saw this theme was that epic confrontation between Merlin and Nimueh. It remains one of Merlin's most bad-ass moments ever
This is it The entire scene never fails to get me on the edge of my seat because it feels like something momentous is going to happen between Merlin and Arthur and although very little does actually happen you still get the feeling that Arthur' view of Merlin changes from then on in. Or that may be wishful slasher fangirl thoughts rearing their persistant heads :)
White Merlin's socks are white but I added the text to give extra emphasis to the theme
video/inverse/smooth/colour/blur
frame/blend/grunge/pattern/light
black and white/texture/colour/polaroid/rotate
frame/gradient/grain/filter/pattern
Video I loved the painted, stained glass effect in Gotye's video. I didn't know how to get the painted look and all attempts at doing so produced absolute monstrosities of icons. So much so that I didn't even bother keeping the PSDs. Still, I kinda managed the stained glass effect.
Inverse There's so much brightness and colour on Five-0 and the cast all have really interesting features and are a dream to icon. Steve's awesome and this icon is an homage to his badassery.
Smooth Did I mention that Steve was awesome? Also did I mention the pretty cast? Also, did I mention the badassery? Jokes aside, I smoothed out Steve's skin here but I also love how his expression could be interpreted as either 'I'm a super SEAL and can kick your ass' or as 'fuck yeah I'm gorgeous'!
Colour I love red, both in icons and in every day life. Also, Steve's a pretty dangerous guy and I love the association with red and danger. Plus, even more Steve. Guess who my favourite character is?
Blur I love that softly blurred effect some maker get and I tried to replicate it here but I'm not sure it was entirely successful. Still, I like the blues and the contrast in this piece.
Frame Three guesses as to who I ship and the first two don't count. These two have such great body language and I thought that putting a frame on this icon would emphasise that.
Blended I'm not very good at this technique but I have been practicing. I mostly like how this turned out although Steve's face appears a little flat to me. I tried to fix it with Black and white gradient maps and even with colour fill layers on colour burn but it didn't work all that well I think.
Grunge I tried to push myself with this one because grungy icons are a little out of my comfort zone but I'm not sure how well it worked. I think this is about as grungy as I'm able to get without a tutorial or guide of some kind (so if you guys know of any, please point me in the right direction :))
Pattern I re-organised my textures folder recently and dicovered a whole load of gorgeous patterned texture hidden in the dark and musty depths of my hard drive. I really had fun playing with some of them. More problems with Steve's face here. I tried blots of colour (on white and on light blue) set on soft light to get rid of the redness and I also tried using gradients but Steve's face still looks too red for my liking.
Light More blending practice but, more importantly, practice at acheiving a good balance of light. I'm kinda proud of myself because I don't think the shadows are too heavy on this one but if you disagree, let me know!
Black and White Some people have told me that doing black and white is lazy and too easy but I had trouble with this y'all. Kono's skin kept coming out horribly pixelated and I had to try a whole variety of different methods to sort the problem out (because it was too pixelated to simply smudge smooth).
Texture I adore all the textures pandavirus makes and jumped at the chance to use one that was included in the inspirations post.
Colour Kono does great hairporn also she's kinda like a female Steve in the badassery stakes. Green is another one of my favourite colours and I chose these caps because the background was really bright and it gave me a chance to work on getting a good lighting balance
Polaroid Apart from lighting, working with contrasting colours is something else I struggle with. I thought that this was a good way of combining contrasting colours without the end effect appearing garish.
Rotate All I did was shrink and rotate the cap of Kono. I tried to produce a len flare kind of lighting effect to give the icon more interest and I think I managed not to blot out too much of Kono but let me know if you have trouble figuring out what's going on here.
Frame I used this theme before but here the view through the window provided a natural frame and part or being resourceful is using your screencaps in the best way possible right?
Gradients The colouring in this icon was achieved using only gradient maps and gradient fill layers. I did use a vibrance layer at the very end but I do that on almost all my icons.
Grain I think the grain effect here might be too subtle but, on my monitor, when I upped the opacity, it made the icon look low quality. Thoughts?
Filter I used the accented edges filter here to get a bit of a glowy effect. I'm not ure if it's noticeable to anyone else but I really like the effect the filter had on the icon.
Pattern More of thos patterned textures I've rediscovered. I'm not 100% sure about the crop but I do love the emphasis it puts on Steve's features.
~ If you liked these then please watch/join the community.
~ Please credit sheekap at rafanatical
~ Please DO NOT HOTLINK
~ Also, concrit is very, very much appreciated. Let me know what you like but, more importantly, let me know what you didn't ;D
In this batch:
20 Merlin icons for merlin20in20
20 Hawaii Five-0 icons for inspired20in20
Teasers
10 THEMES
Aim
Backwards
Distance
First
Flowers
Skin
Sleeping
Storm
This Is It
White
5 CATEGORY - Lines
Category #1
Category #2
Category #3
Category #4
Category #5
5 ARTIST'S CHOICE
Artist's Choice #1
Artist's Choice #2
Artist's Choice #3
Artist's Choice #4
Artist's Choice #5
Aim In my head the show is aiming for a future where Arthur is king and Merlin is out and proud magic-wise and the two of them are shagging like there's no tomorrow
Backwards I interpreted this as an 'I've got your back' sort of thing with Gwaine and Merlin trusted to look out for Arthur
Distance I chose this crap for the distant crop and also because there's a sense of Arthur and Merlin looking into the ditance
First Such an unforgettable first meeting. It really did set the tone for the rest of the series
Flowers I was going to take and outdoor crop and blend in a cap of flowers but I really love this brush and jumped at the chance to use it.
Skin I know it's covered by textures but Merlin is shirtless in this icon too
Sleeping I've seen this same concept done really brilliantly by other makers before and I'm certain I haven't done it the same justice but I took the chance to prctice putting contrasting colour in an icon without it becoming an eye-sore
Storm The first thing I thought about when I saw this theme was that epic confrontation between Merlin and Nimueh. It remains one of Merlin's most bad-ass moments ever
This is it The entire scene never fails to get me on the edge of my seat because it feels like something momentous is going to happen between Merlin and Arthur and although very little does actually happen you still get the feeling that Arthur' view of Merlin changes from then on in. Or that may be wishful slasher fangirl thoughts rearing their persistant heads :)
White Merlin's socks are white but I added the text to give extra emphasis to the theme
video/inverse/smooth/colour/blur
frame/blend/grunge/pattern/light
black and white/texture/colour/polaroid/rotate
frame/gradient/grain/filter/pattern
Video I loved the painted, stained glass effect in Gotye's video. I didn't know how to get the painted look and all attempts at doing so produced absolute monstrosities of icons. So much so that I didn't even bother keeping the PSDs. Still, I kinda managed the stained glass effect.
Inverse There's so much brightness and colour on Five-0 and the cast all have really interesting features and are a dream to icon. Steve's awesome and this icon is an homage to his badassery.
Smooth Did I mention that Steve was awesome? Also did I mention the pretty cast? Also, did I mention the badassery? Jokes aside, I smoothed out Steve's skin here but I also love how his expression could be interpreted as either 'I'm a super SEAL and can kick your ass' or as 'fuck yeah I'm gorgeous'!
Colour I love red, both in icons and in every day life. Also, Steve's a pretty dangerous guy and I love the association with red and danger. Plus, even more Steve. Guess who my favourite character is?
Blur I love that softly blurred effect some maker get and I tried to replicate it here but I'm not sure it was entirely successful. Still, I like the blues and the contrast in this piece.
Frame Three guesses as to who I ship and the first two don't count. These two have such great body language and I thought that putting a frame on this icon would emphasise that.
Blended I'm not very good at this technique but I have been practicing. I mostly like how this turned out although Steve's face appears a little flat to me. I tried to fix it with Black and white gradient maps and even with colour fill layers on colour burn but it didn't work all that well I think.
Grunge I tried to push myself with this one because grungy icons are a little out of my comfort zone but I'm not sure how well it worked. I think this is about as grungy as I'm able to get without a tutorial or guide of some kind (so if you guys know of any, please point me in the right direction :))
Pattern I re-organised my textures folder recently and dicovered a whole load of gorgeous patterned texture hidden in the dark and musty depths of my hard drive. I really had fun playing with some of them. More problems with Steve's face here. I tried blots of colour (on white and on light blue) set on soft light to get rid of the redness and I also tried using gradients but Steve's face still looks too red for my liking.
Light More blending practice but, more importantly, practice at acheiving a good balance of light. I'm kinda proud of myself because I don't think the shadows are too heavy on this one but if you disagree, let me know!
Black and White Some people have told me that doing black and white is lazy and too easy but I had trouble with this y'all. Kono's skin kept coming out horribly pixelated and I had to try a whole variety of different methods to sort the problem out (because it was too pixelated to simply smudge smooth).
Texture I adore all the textures pandavirus makes and jumped at the chance to use one that was included in the inspirations post.
Colour Kono does great hairporn also she's kinda like a female Steve in the badassery stakes. Green is another one of my favourite colours and I chose these caps because the background was really bright and it gave me a chance to work on getting a good lighting balance
Polaroid Apart from lighting, working with contrasting colours is something else I struggle with. I thought that this was a good way of combining contrasting colours without the end effect appearing garish.
Rotate All I did was shrink and rotate the cap of Kono. I tried to produce a len flare kind of lighting effect to give the icon more interest and I think I managed not to blot out too much of Kono but let me know if you have trouble figuring out what's going on here.
Frame I used this theme before but here the view through the window provided a natural frame and part or being resourceful is using your screencaps in the best way possible right?
Gradients The colouring in this icon was achieved using only gradient maps and gradient fill layers. I did use a vibrance layer at the very end but I do that on almost all my icons.
Grain I think the grain effect here might be too subtle but, on my monitor, when I upped the opacity, it made the icon look low quality. Thoughts?
Filter I used the accented edges filter here to get a bit of a glowy effect. I'm not ure if it's noticeable to anyone else but I really like the effect the filter had on the icon.
Pattern More of thos patterned textures I've rediscovered. I'm not 100% sure about the crop but I do love the emphasis it puts on Steve's features.
~ If you liked these then please watch/join the community.
~ Please credit sheekap at rafanatical
~ Please DO NOT HOTLINK
~ Also, concrit is very, very much appreciated. Let me know what you like but, more importantly, let me know what you didn't ;D