89. 2014 icon progression!
I tried to remember when I made the icons, rather than posted them, so I think this is accurate?
Anyway, enjoy my ramblings! The lovely layout is by rocketgirl2 :)
Oh, and to think 2014 was going to be the Year of the Big Hiatus. That didn't happen. I didn't enter any challenges in January apart from the first iimpossibletask challenge (icons 1 and 6 here) but I practised in PS and got icons that look like I called it a day while there was still a lot of work to do. No variety in colours, no actual ideas, and image quality problems due to being rusty - I was trying but it wasn't great.
J A N U A R Y
Looking back at things, I'm pleasantly surprised? These look quite LQ but style-wise they're a big step forward. I decided to try more complex things and didn't do too badly. I was less lazy and spent more time on icons like 2 and 6. I still like the colour schemes and ideas behind a lot of my February icons.
F E B R U A R Y
My first entry for the amazing tasteislife! Sadly I was terribly uninspired and apart from those few Orphan Black icons and the first Bel Rowley icon that I still like, everything I made in March was terribly ugly and I can hardly bear to look at those icons now. I was trying to get muted colours right, and obviously failing. My worst month this year.
M A R C H
Pretty sure most of the icons I posted in May were actually made in April. I wasn't making icons for anyhing specific so I experimented, for better or worse. I was on an Orphan Black and Elementary kick. Everything is muted and boring though I still like some of the Moriarty ones. I'm still fond of the Irene/Irene crossover icon, but because of the idea, not the execution.
A P R I L
I made a bunch of Orphan Black icons on a whim and they weren't bad, but they weren't interesting either. I was coming back from a small break and I didn't know what to do with PS. Then this great activity happened, plus a really cool iimpossibletask challenge, and my inspiration came back! It probably had to do with the end of my uni year and my OUAT marathon. I made my 'chosen one' Emma Swan icon that was my default for the second half of the year. It was a big turn because I started taking a real interest in text and remembered strong lighting and vibrant colours were my favourite things.
M A Y
20inspirations came back with the Wonderland theme and damn, did I slave and lose sleep over that set! I'm so greatful for that round, it pushed me in the right direction and I probably wouldn't have tried complex things in the second half of the year if making this OUAT set didn't give me the practise I needed. I was going for a dark fairytale vibe, so the colours aren't as vibrant as they could have been. I made some very weird and ugly things but also hopefully some interesting and pretty things. Each of the icons taught me something, I downloaded many resources and learned how to use new PS tools, rediscovered filters...only good things!
J U N E
I visited my hometown and was a bit sick so I didn't have a lot of time for icons. I did, however, enter marcasite's super cool rainbow challenge (who doesn't love rainbows??) and did a Hook battle with the amazing absolutelybatty! The Killian set is definitely one of the highlights of my year - I was quite nervous at the thought of having my icons next to hers so I worked really hard, especially on text and composition!
J U L Y
I made a poor set for the 20insp DIY round, those Orphan Black icons look really bad except for the first Cosima icon here, maybe. So, when I got my textures and fancy fonts back it was a blessing and got me inspired again, though negative space + text was slowly becoming my default mode and I could have tried other things. I was enjoying feeling comfortable in a style, so. My love for the Twelfth Doctor starts here and led to many more Doctor Who icons, as we're about to see...
A U G U S T
A half-finished turbo-rumble entry and a the7days 'zombie apocalypse' set I was quite fond of, though it was done in a hurry. Vibrant colours, texture experiments, more text and more focus on lighting. It was a pretty good month overall and I was really settling in a style.
S E P T E M B E R
October was so challenging and fun! Frustrating, too, because my 'Trick' set for inspired20in20 drove me nuts! I was in the mood for candy colours and I had to make scary manips instead. I'm quite proud of a few icons though, and the first one here got me an IAM awards placement, another 2014 highlight moment! That batch looks like the Doctor Who sequel batch to my 20inspiration Wonderland set, haha. They're quite similar. Anyway, it made me want to do more manips in the future. Then I made icons for the tasteislife colour palettes challenge, which was also a lot of fun, if a bit hard because sticking to a palette is so difficult for me. The five icons I made are some of my favourites I made all year, I like where I was at in terms of contrast, text use and icon ideas.
O C T O B E R
A lot less icons, due to lack of time and motivation. I am so thankful for tasteislife - it made me icon every month even if I only made a few icons, and it's been so important to me as I never felt completely rusty and out of touch with PS. Anyway, those Doctor Who caps were hard to work with but I had ideas and I managed to stay consistent with my lighting and text use. The last icon was me procrastinating stuff by reading pamkips' painting tutorial again and trying things out - still not getting how it's done, but I like the background!
N O V E M B E R
Secret Santas and icons I can't post yet, so here are my personal gift favourites - I tried to be creative and make icons people would actually like, instead of just doing what I like - hopefully, it worked. I stayed true to my overall style progression and had fun iconning different subjects, like Bowie here. It was a fitting way to end the year.
D E C E M B E R
In retrospect...
Key facts:
The fandoms: Once Upon a Time, Doctor Who, Community, Orphan Black
The colours: Purple, Pink, Blue, Cyan, Orange, Red.
The surprise friends: Text, more complex backgrounds
The lesson learned: I always go back to vibrant colours and glowy lighting so let's keep my style this way and improve some more!
The things I want to work on: cropping, image quality, animated icons, composition, text.
As disappointed as I was in my 2013 iconning, I'm quite satisfied with what I achieved in the past year. I didn't start the year as badly as I thought - February was in fact an okay month, but March-April were truly awful. Things picked up after May and I think I consistently improved since then. Here's to being more adventurous in 2015. Happy new year, everyone. <3