What I've been up to lately: Fiction Poster & Icons for Spuffy_Luvr's Ipseity
Poster and icon to go with.
Click poster for direct link tospuffy_luvr's fic Ipseity on EF, or here for the story on A03. She was kind enough to thank me on her own journal (dig the cool new layout). Also check out the other banner for the story made by pfeifferpack, which is a gorgeous, gorgeous thing.
More icons and thinky-thoughts after the cut:
[CAN WE TALK?]
I made the icon first by downsizing the image of Buffy that I'd cropped, ligntened, etc and layered two icon-sized textures by lookslikerain from their aptly named "When the Wheels Fall Off" icon texture set over it.
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Then I went back to the 310sq crop of the screencap image in Layer Mode and expanded or "upsized" just the second "ladder" filter to fit over it. You almost always want to go the opposite direction in sizing, but it worked here with some sharpening and bloom/softening filters to balance the other out. I think in Photoshop you'd use a single "unsharp" mask to achieve the same effect?
More alts of the icon:
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It would be easy to overstuff the image and I originally wanted to add the images of other characters on the right hand side, a la one of Jo Chen's wonderful cover illustrations for the S8 comics. But I don't have the skill (or the patience, frankly) to made the faces of other characters work at the size I needed. So I subsituted the text, which is the central mystery of the story to most of the other characters around Buffy; and also is a nod to S4's "Who Are You" which, like Ipseity, deals with questions of identity and how the people around Buffy Summers shape their identities in response to her; and how they perceive her according to their needs and in response to the masks she wears.
Sometimes I want a banner to tell a story but with this poster I wanted to imply or impart a flavor of the author's story without giving away the goods. Frankly the story is so complex and twisty I don't think I really could give away anything. Her story has me wondering at every turn what's going to happen next (and so far? I haven't been able to predict a thing.) She twists, deconstructs, and/or slyly smashes any number of tropes which are not exclusive to Spuffy fic; but if you're looking for the same-old, same-old Spuffy schmoop/porn/fluff, don't go here. If you're looking for an actual story, by all means hop on over immediately.
I'm borrowing starry_night's succinct rules regarding my own arwork:
~ DO NOT RE-POST TO OTHER SITES (INCL. FANPOP) OR LJ COMMUNITIES WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!
~ Take what you like for personal use but please credit if used :)
~ No hotlinking!
~ Comments are appreciated :)