088: will you say to me when I'm gone / your face has faded but lingers on

[library_of_sex]

Because I recently began worshiping at the altar of Michael Ealy's face, I fell in love with a little series called Common Law. (Warren Kole's face is rather adorable, too!) And thanks to that love, I have this mishmash post of oddities to present. I've been working with this show's caps over the past month, and I think the icons are pretty much in

Comments

[tiptoetwirl]

Would you believe that I've had this post open in my browser ever since it went up?
Things have been insane lately and I had this and a few other icon posts open with the intentions of leaving proper feedback for weeks now :P

Okay so, I got here eventually right?
These are so awesome, Kim. There's something about your icons that always makes me want to watch the show they're from! I love #2, 6 and 8, the contrast of their skin against the blue background in gorgeous. The textures in #17 and 18 is also really awesome. I always, always admire someone who can use such heavy light textures and still keep their subject so clear and crisp. Both icons are stunning but if I absolutely had to pick, I really like the added focus the white at the bottom right of #17 gives to the subject :)

The crop on #19 and #20 is so great! A jawline like that definitely deserves to be singled out :) And there's that geometry I love so much in your icons in #22 and 34. You always use such interesting shapes and your work is definitely some of the most original I've seen. The blocking/levels in #33 and #35 is also really, really gorgeous. As for what you said about improving colour from the first to last icons - I SEE IT!!! I totally, totally see it and I've had that loss of colour between PS and browser sometimes too.

I got a new laptop a while back and, at first, the difference in colour between viewing an image in Firefox and viewing it in PS was astounding. Absolutely nothing I did helped and believe me I tried everything. It was only after a really disastrous post or two that tried switching to Chrome and that seemed to solve the issue (mostly). Also, I have to admit that I don't see much of a problem with the cut-outs in 23-26. They seem perfectly clean to me. Can I ask though how you remove the background from you images? Maybe trying a different technique? Idk. Also, lol at what you said about not being able to discard stuff you've put so much effort into! I DO THAT TO!! I hate trashing icons that I've spent ages working on and even if I don't post them, I usually keep them in my folder and try to improve upon them at a later date. Usually much later because I'm so frustrated that it's not working out :P

Anyway, I really enjoyed this post of yours! There are some real stunners here :)

[library_of_sex]

The fact that you even came back to this post to leave feedback is really awesome, Sheeka! Thank you! :D

I am often shockingly bad at achieving blue tones, so it's lovely to hear that you like the ones present in #2, 6, and 8! I give most credit for #17-18 to deny1984, without whose textures those icons wouldn't have been possible. If you haven't checked out her screencap and texture resources over at midnight-road, you really should! #17 has the larger image rotated, and like you, I enjoy the focus that's drawn to the bottom by the corner of his white shirt. Glad you noticed that!

Ughhhhhhh, Michael Ealy's jawline is AMAZING. There is no way to avoid close cropping him in that cap just so everyone can savor the beauty. It's absolutely flattering to read such effusive praise and in-depth feedback on anything I create, so thank you for acknowledging the coloring work, use of geometry, and blocking!!!!!!!

I'd never noticed this weird color loss in my browser until I began using Chrome actually. I'd used Internet Explorer for so long and never seen any coloring discrepancies between that and PS. It's very odd, and I don't know why it happens, but it's only a small minority of icons that it tends to affect so I can live with it. I'm glad switching to Chrome solved your issue at least! I tend to use a hard brush set on 30% opacity to remove backgrounds. It's a tip I read about over at anon-icon, and I've been utilizing it over the past few months. Do you have any good tips or techniques, hon? I'm always looking for different and more efficient ways to cut out my subjects! It's so cool that you keep some of your work around to improve it later on. I just get so lazy that once I'm done with an icons, THAT'S IT. No more flaw corrections or anything cuz I just wanna move on to something new already! :P

Again, THANK YOU for your incredible comment and feedback. It's meant the world to me to receive it in the midst of such a crappy week. <33333333333

[tiptoetwirl]

You're welcome :)
I love leaving feedback, I just don't always have the time to do so :P

I love deny1984s textures as well, I think I've snagged like everything she's ever made :P She really is fabulous. Just after that last comment I actually went back to firefox to see if they'd updated their colour settings and they had. It's definitely my favourite browser so I was beyond glad. Also, I normally just put the layer I'm masking against a transparent background and use a small, soft brush on 100% opacity (because I'm too lazy for lower opacities) and once I'm done I put either a black or white color fill layer behind the masked layer (depending on the original backgrounds colour) so that any bits I've missed show up clearly. Obviously I then delete the colour fill layer when I'm done. It's pretty rudimentary but it works for me :)

[library_of_sex]

I'm glad Firefox now works perfectly for you! And your removal technique is pretty much what I'd always done. The only difference now is that I lower the opacity of the brush, but other than that, we're using the same technique! :)