90. Icon Progression Meme 2013
( coding by rocketgirl2)
January
January was a month of experiments with a few surprise successes, but that mostly went wrong. I tried more complex compositions (still not my thing) and texture use (or over-use), but a lot of them ended up rather blurry. Nevertheless, the love of fake background/negative space developed, and I started being a bit more adventurous with text and blocking. January was also the first time I (knowingly) iconned Once Upon a Time, with mixed results.
February
In February, I discovered the fonts Faith Collapsing and Lucida Blackletter, leading to many an icon with calligraphic text. I experimented more with text in general, as well as yet more negative space/fake background and composition trails. For the most part I’m still pleased with the results now, which can only be good thing, right? (Yes there are some terrible ones in there, but anyway...) There were lots of Game of Thrones icons in February, partly due to the 12in20 challenge at thetourneys, and party because I was accepted into gotelite (and won my first challenge there, squee!)
March
March was the month of text using the Georgia and Folks fonts. It was also a month where I only iconned Robin Hood, and yet again played around with text (song lyric themes tend to do that to you...)
April
I think I can safely call April the month of failed complex compositions, Avengers and Disney icons, and my introduction to tutorials. This tutorial by gisbornes really helped me to use textures and the Screen setting in moderation, and although some of my Game of Thrones icons in April were complete disasters, the Daenerys one remains one of my favourites I’ve ever made.
May
In May I summoned up the courage to apply to a number of elite icontests, some of which I was accepted into :P It was a good month for me at elitetardis where I won Most Creative in my first challenge and Best Cropping in my second, and at gotelite the ‘Double Trouble’ theme meant I actually had to try blocking again, rather than run away from it screaming... I also properly iconned GoT S3, many of which I’m still really happy with (amazingly!) and participating in non-elite icontests like smallscreenic meant I got to make icons of shows I hadn’t iconned in a while, which was good fun.
June
June was a big month for me in icon-making (139 icons!!) and once again a definite mix of the good, the bad and the ugly. Several challenges, contests and battles (especially the hpotterelite Triwizard Tournament - I was Helga Hufflepuff :P - my battle with the_silverdoe, and the technical battle at rainbow_elite) allowed me to experiment quite a bit, and although I still (and still do :P) abused the negative space/fake background style, I tried a few others like close crops, blocking, blending, and yet more text experimentation, and started making icons with muted/‘vintage’ colouring.
July
If June was my biggest icon-making month, I think July was (if not the, one of) my most successful month. My icons were included in praise posts for the first time, used as examples in icontest challenges for the first time, and I came 6th (out of 18) in the hpotterelite Triwizard Tournament, all of which I was absolutely thrilled with. I was also accepted to a couple more elite icontests and, along with entries for non-elite contests, produced some of my favourite and more creative icons, many of which were fake background icons that matched the subjects clothing (I’m rather partial to them :P)
August
August was another really progressive month for me, and the month in which I got involved in the icon community as a whole. I made my first tutorials, my first textures (one of which got Best Interpretation in the contest!), and participated in a couple of iconning memes where I got some lovely and helpful feedback on my icons. There were more fake background icons (of course), but also a couple more text icons, a couple more successful applications to elite comms, two more inclusions in praise posts, and I made my all-time favourite icon I have made to date.
September
September was yet another busy month for me and icon-making, probably because it was the last month of my summer holidays before going back to uni. I participated in two icon battles: a The Hour & The White Queen one at theiconquest, despite never having watched The Hour - still need to do that! - and a multi-fandom battle at tvshow20in20 - where I’d only seen two of the four shows I was required to icon. Turns out iconning things you’ve never seen before is HARD. Anyway, overall in September I think I got more creative on the whole (compositions, colouring, texture use, text, etc.), with mixed results. Also in September, au_rooms opened its doors as a non-elite comm (I had applied when it was elite but not got in sadly), so I had a lot of fun fancasting Disney characters as live-action :D And the final round at bbc_uk_20in20 led to me making my second favourite icon I’ve ever made, and several others I was (and am) really pleased with. I think overall in September I started focusing more in ‘simple’/minimalistic icons though, with a lot of negative space/fake background, close crop and muted coloured icon as a result. Oh and I was included in three icon praise posts, and I revamped my icon comm! All in all, quite a good month :P
October
Just the one icon made in October! But that makes sense, because my old laptop died and I had to get a new one, and also it was the start of a new term at uni. Anyway, this icon was another for the capchallenge rumble that started in September, once again for something I’d never before seen (My Week With Marilyn), but because Smash is also about Marilyn Monroe I managed to get a Smash lyric in which I thought went well with the screencap. So yeah, more text! I was also included in another praise post, and one of my icons was used as an example for an icontest’s round themes. (This might not mean much to most people, but it means a lot to me that people think enough of my icons to include them in praise posts/use them as examples).
November
November was another fairly quiet month for my icons, and yet another month of mixed results. I was really happy with my gotelite Halloween entry, less so with my entry to the20rings, and even less so with my attempt at iconning non-live-action (Disney). I definitely need to work on that one! I was however invited to join the7days, which was a lovely surprise, and accepted to a couple more elite comms :D
December
End of term means moar icons! Not so many as in previous holidays though, because I was determined to focus on quality over quantity. RHFC 20in20 had a fantastic round where your claim was a theme, as opposed to a character/pairing/episode/whatever, so I claimed Negative Space/Fake Background, and the themes were actually to make a rainbow of your claim, which I really enjoyed. I picked Muted Colouring as a theme for the Artist’s Choice, because I’ve been increasingly inspired by aeris_eledhwen, starkwars and alfiri in that regard.
Of course December is not yet over, and I anticipate making at least a few more icons before 2014 arrives…
In reflection…So yeah, that was 2013, and I think congratulations are in order if you’ve got this far :P As one would hope, this has been my best year so far, with my best and favourite icons so far. I think my style has settled into something fairly regular (negative space, fake background, muted colours, vintage-y looks, grunge textures, close crops, shades of purples, and Catelyn Stark) but with a fair bit of experimentation along the way (some successful, some not).
I definitely feel like I’ve improved, maybe not as drastically as before, but more comfortably, especially in things like composition (which, I’ve learned, doesn’t have to mean complex!) and sharpening (saving directly from Gimp rather than copying into Paint and saving from there has done wonders - what on earth was I thinking before???), and generally making use of the resources that are out there (tutorials, guides, and amazingly helpful comments and critique from other icon-makers).
Thank you so much to anyone that has helped me along the way, be it commenting or snagging or participating and keeping the icon community alive, and here’s to 2014!
Coming up soon (hopefully!):
Icon Remake meme icons
Icon friending meme Top 5s icons
Two more Ask the Maker tutorials, and a load of my favourite textures
MOAR ICONS!