Miss Psycho Pep Squad, the Monday edition!
1) Remember that post many moons ago when I asked if anyone knew of a genuine "Giles as a Big Bad" fic that sparked some great conversation and gave dragonyphoenix the inspiration to write such a one? THE PROLOGUE IS POSTED, with a banner by the talented pickamix (Giles looking sexy, shrewd and more than a bit dangerous) and oh my stars was it worth the wait! If this is the prologue, I can't imagine what the rest will bring - and can hardly wait to read more. Rated PG, with Giles/Ethan shippines.
2) More Voting goodness: slayerstillness challenge 30 voting ends tomorrow; there are 24 truly fabulous entries to choose from! And only 9 entries to choose from at otherworldlyric Challenge 181 but oh my, some eyepoppers in the bunch, so don't miss them.
3) Thank you VERY MUCH to the thoughtful person who nominated my "Becoming" icon for the 11th Round of the Wicked Awards! This round has been an embarrassment of riches for me and such a surprise. I've mentioned before how I never expected to be nominated for fanart and in competition with people whose work I admire. I was going to be a meta writer, remember? That was the plan and I WARN Y'ALL I COULD STiLL GO META ON YOU WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT 'CAUSE I STILL HAVE THE NOTES I SAVED FROM THE HOUSEFIRE. (Albeit slightly worse for wear.)
Which is to say, the nomination period ends TODAY, August 25th.
(01)
But wait, there's more icons and more talky after the cut!
So what do you do when someone nominates you? If you're me, you nominate other people in kind and encourage other people to do so because:
[Click the cut or walk on by, my friend]
1) You don't feel worthy of being nominated yourself, therefore nominate someone you think is better (even though you know that you are subtly downgrading the opinion of the persons who nomm'd you to begin with and you don't mean to do that but it's just so hard for you to really believe even though you do so love the kudos); or
2) You know that these awards are less about winning than about sharing the love - recognizing good work, and making it possible for other people to find it who might not have otherwise; or
3) You notice a shortage of nominations in your category, which means the category will be held over until next round and GOSH DARN IT but ow, you want to compete, win or lose, nothing selfless about it; or
4) A COMBINATION OF ALL OF THE ABOVE, pretty much.
I was going to write a post to report that the art categories were woefully underfilled. angelus2hot told me that usually the art cats fill up before the fic cats but it's been the reverse this year. Then I was going to scold and plead and pout if need be to make sure those categories got the sufficient number of entries to run. But I'm happy to say that they're filling up nicely and it all looks a go, but more art nominations are welcome (says the gal who doesn't have to plow through the noms or judge them - aka, do the actual work). Something seemed not quite right, especially with regard to best icons - there have been so many beautiful ones just the past 12 months, there's no reason that category shouldn't be overflowing.
More to the point, it felt weird to see my name on that list, and the categories so empty, when I know there are really great artists and really great art out there not getting its due. Especially in terms of icons because I'm well aware of my failings in this area. Now when I look at the categories everything feels better to me - there's art in a range of styles, covering every character and pairing, some by folks I'm familiar with but quite a lot of names and pieces that are entirely new to me.
***
4) Now while you're here, let's talk icons.
I never posted the Becoming icon here before, although I fell in love with it almost immediately and snagged it for my own userpics. It's essentially #2 oe #9 below with some cool effects added: crop, adjust and frame in Photobucket, add a text texture and a light leak texture in ipiccy, then bring back to PB for a "Bronze" color filter. It was intended it for my second try at btvs_hush Challenge 273 (the deserving winners were rua1412 and debris4spike) and of course I couldn't enter it because of the text texture. I actually asked dragonydreams if I could get away with it. Um, no. *Note to self: READ THE RULZ, dumbass.*
Idiot me, if I'd known grunge textures enough to replace the text with scratches, plain noise filters or even just hit the sharpen button enough times, I could have gotten a similar effect and still been within the rules. But I liked what I got so much I didn't care, and I knew my icons weren't going to be winners anyway; I was just learning and having fun at that point.
This was the second time I used that text texture from ipiccy and was so delighted by the result I had to play with it. It was another "I can do that? Look ma, I can do that!" moment. There's something about this icon that makes me think of fragments of ancient texts and classical marble portrait sculptures half-buried in desert sands; of things both time-worn and timeless. The way I've cropped the image it's almost hard to tell anymore that it's Buffy, but I fell in love with the way the strange beauty, the severity of the shape of her nose, seemed carved of marble. I think that suits a moment that seems utterly classic and timeless:
"Take all that away, and what's left?" / "Me."
Was it as instantly iconic to those of you who watched back in the day as it was to me two years ago?
(02-08)
My actual entries for the challenge:
(09-11)
The Willow icons I made for that round...I'm tempted to say The less said the better but I'm fascinated by the huge difference in quality in just a few months time between these and my VampWillow icons just a few months later. That moment in the episode was the first time, watching the series, that chills ran up and down my spine and I had to rewind and watch again. At the time I made these I did at least like the focus on Willow's eye and how that really stood out, but I otherwise don't know where I was going with the pseudo-psychedelic pop art effect in this one.
And I deleted most of the ones I made which were far worse, including the one in which the Orb of Thessulah looked like a glowing radioactive orange scoop of ice cream melting on the velvet pillow. You can thank me later (or just slip the cash under the door on your way out).