Activity #09 - Happy New Year

[tinny]

What better time to talk about icons than at the change of the year?


Show us what icons you made this year, select the best/the most extraordinary/the most representative, and tell us about them (if you want).

Tell us about your progress, your fandoms, your ideas and techniques. What changed over the course of the year?

If you want, you can make resolutions about your iconmaking: what you would like to do this year, techniques you want to try, goals you want to achieve.

If you have never seen a progression post, here are some examples of what they might look like:

Icon Progression 2016 by rashiea

Icon Progression 2016 by me

Icon Progression 2017 by sweet_lyri


If you want to use pre-made layout codes, here are some:

https://icon-talk.livejournal.com/106468.html (4 layouts)
https://icon-talk.livejournal.com/101746.html (3 layouts)

all by rocketgirl2


* Please post your progression/resolution posts as new posts directly to this comm
* If you post(ed) a progression post to your journal, make a new post here and link to your journal
* If you have more than 5 icons in your post, put them under a cut
* This time, you must be a member of this community to participate (or you can't post, duh :))
* It would be nice if you took the time to comment on other people's progression posts

Feel free to make resolutions in the comment threads of this post as well!

Deadline: Saturday, January 20 2018, your end-of-day, but you are free to post your progression posts to this comm after the deadline, too!

Comments

[breyzyyin]

Happy New Year! ♥ This is a really interesting idea for an activity. XD

[sheliak]

This sounds like fun!

Should we tag our posts to the comm activity?

[tinny]

Oooh, good point, I hadn't thought about that. I will create a new tag "progression post" for this purpose.

lack-of-progression comment

[fueschgast]

(This icon is not aimed at you or your activity choice, it refers to my creative problems.)

I'm feeling so very Nope about this activity. Finding out when I made icons would take some research, because I don't post them right away. And it's not worth the effort anyway, as I've made no progress (except mentally). On the technical side my photoshopping is fully developed. What I'm still struggling with is the creative side. I've tried but failed to make my icons more colorful (I'm such a fan of this vibrant style, but only accomplish it to a certain degree) and more complex (this one will probably elude me forever). The only progress I've made is being happy again with the iconmaker I am. I have my own style and it's fine. They may not be the most creative icons, but they're still pretty & clear, and that does count for something. When I think about it, I actually take quite some pride in making clear (I don't know if that's the best way to describe them, but it's the best description I can think of) icons.

Re: lack-of-progression comment

[tinny]

I'm sorry you feel your creativity is not where you want it to be.

I like looking back at my icons and checking - from a bit more distance - what I did that past year, and where I think I succeeded and where I didn't.
I keep all my icons on my computer, so I can see there which ones I liked best and which ones I made when, even if they were made for obscure or anon comms.

I feel the same about my PS abilities as you do yours, and I can't really tell any technical difference between my icons from the start of the year and the end. So... I think my progression post this year can't focus on that, either. But I still like looking back and maybe I'll find something to focus on this year.

I've made no progress (except mentally)

Mental progress is a good thing, no?

more complex (this one will probably elude me forever).

OMG I know what you mean. Mine just don't want to be complex, either, and when I try, it always feels like such hard work that I stop having fun. So maybe they're not for me after all.

When I think about it, I actually take quite some pride in making clear (I don't know if that's the best way to describe them, but it's the best description I can think of) icons.

I would interpret "clear" as "not too crowded" and "with a specific impact", and that's definitely a good thing. And I think your icons have that, so, yes, that makes sense and it's really something to be proud of!

I hope the next activity will be more up your alley again!

Re: lack-of-progression comment

[fueschgast]

I keep my icons on my PC too, but they're in their respective fandom's folder, so I have icons all over the place. Some even have subfolders by seasons. It feels like too much work to go through all of them.

Mental progress is good, but I can't really show it with icons.

it always feels like such hard work that I stop having fun
That's how I feels about drawing. It's intensely frustrating and nobody seems to understand.

Ah, as I thought, my description is a bit too open to interpretation. By "clear" I mean that my icons are sharp, but not too sharp, light, but not too light, and faces are unobstructed by textures. That kind of thing.