Historic counties of England textless icons

[skellorg]

Several weeks ago I posted a set of Scotland bases and mentioned that I'd try to do England soon. Since I only visited the north of England, I thought to branch out a bit, and as a result ended up at the website of The Association of British Counties. If you're into British history at all, it makes for some interesting reading. I should mention

Comments

[skellorg]

Well yeah, I suppose I could have posted icons of industrial miasma but ... eh. The place in the Leicestershire icon is Belvoir Castle - not yet reduced to a pile of lichen and weed covered stones, but I could probably come up with icons of some of those, with the entry titled "these used to be castles." ;)

[skellorg]

I think the illustrator of the book (circa 1880) that the image of Belvoir Castle came from took quite a few liberties, or perhaps whoever maintains Belvoir now has taken liberties with the exterior, much like those who are taking liberties with "restoring" Stirling Castle. When I visited there seven years ago, it was half done and I much preferred the weathered, aged, soot-covered half. I often feel when posting here that my finger has slipped off the pulse of what members like; I try to please, and I've had quite a few "ooh castles!" comments in the past, so I tend to post fairy tale type images. Not that I don't like them too - they're pretty - but as you say they're not quite the picture of reality. I actually photoshopped a power station out of a scenic shot of Cumbria and a RAF jet out of a shot taken at Castlerigg Standing Stones for my site to make those particular fairy tales come true.

[magnolia_mama]

Thanks for these! I took Durham, Northumberland, Oxfordshire and Yorkshire. I will credit as directed when I upload them.

[jiatra]

I think these are stunning, and very classy-- what's that font you used? It's an excellent choice.

In terms of reality vs. fantasy: if someone were to make icons of Hollywood, they'd probably focus on Mann's Chinese Theatre or the Hollywood sign, not all the grime and pollution and homeless. Same goes for San Francisco: if someone grew up there, they might remember the fisheries, but the artist snaps pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge.

There are iconic images of every place, and it's only natural to focus on those when making icons. ^_~

[skellorg]

Thanks. :) The font's just plain ole' Trebuchet MS, 7pt. bold.

[jade_kadir]

These are fan-tas-tic! I'm snagging a whole bunch of them. Thank you.

[emmavescence]

Oh oh, beautiful icons! Saving both of the Cornwall ones. I've been wanting a nice Cornwall icon for a while now. It'll be difficult picking which one to use!