Icon Progression 2017 - Sheliak

[sheliak]

★ F e b r u a r y ★

I got my account in February, and made my original default icon around then. It's very simple—just a square section of a photo I'd taken earlier. I'm pretty sure I didn't even resize it. As far as I remember, I made no other icons in this month or the next.

★ A p r i l ★

At this point, I began to make icons from book covers. I had no idea what I was doing. I hadn't used a graphics program of any kind in years, and since then I'd switched operating systems, so the one I'd once been semi-competent with wasn't available to me anyway. I made the icons above by the following utterly ridiculous process: First, copy a square section of the original image. Paste it into Google Docs. Copy that image into an email, send to myself, and download. Resize this image to 100x100 pixels, using a one-line program I wrote in Python. Upload to Dreamwidth. If in the process I discover a problem that only appears when the icon is surrounded by black (in these pictures, that usually meant an awkwardly disembodied cat tail), delete the icon, mourn, and start again. I mention this because, in retrospect, I think it's kind of funny. And because I've come a long way since then! I made my first icon post in April. https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/2876.html

★ M a y ★

For the most part, I kept on doing the same thing as in April—just with different books, and a few interior illustrations in addition to the covers. However, I did replace my default icon with one based on a tapestry I made a few years ago. After numerous failed attempts to make said icon work as a square, I figured out that PNG format would allow me to do it as a circle! Other than that, my process was exactly the same as before. About halfway through the month, I figured out that Preview (the basic image-viewing program on Mac) has a cunningly-hidden crop function. I also downloaded a dedicated art program—I picked GIMP because it was free. And somewhere around this time, I discovered and joined icontalking! I started making actual modifications to my images—painting out backgrounds (as in icon #4) and using the burn/dodge tool to emphasize bright and dark areas (icon #5, where I actually drew in extra clouds—the original image is much flatter). Once again, I made only one icon post. However, I also entered the Got Fandom? challenge on this comm, and posted to the friending meme; both of those included icons that I ended up adding to much later posts. (As well as a couple that I still haven't reposted. Headdesk.) https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/4445.html https://icontalking.dreamwidth.org/1574.html?thread=35366#cmt35366 https://icontalking.dreamwidth.org/2822.html?thread=35078#cmt35078

★ J u n e ★

June was one of my most productive months this year! Five icon posts is still the most I've managed in one month. During this time, I continued with last month's techniques—at this point, painting out backgrounds was still a bit exciting—as well as experimenting with new ones. I started to use brightness/contrast and color balance to make my images clearer and more intense (icon #3). At the same time, I started to use layers and textures, fading them in as in icon #5, or erasing parts of an image to let a texture show through cut-paper style as in icon #4. https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/5642.html https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/6606.html https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/7698.html https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/9464.html https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/9706.html

★ J u l y ★

I didn't make many icons in July—maybe I was exhausted after June, or maybe I was overwhelmed by the local weather. All of the ones I did make were for the Chronicles of the Kencyrath, one of my favorite book series that has had a very mixed bag of covers. In terms of technique, I started painting over inconveniently placed titles while preserving the original background (icon #1) and making more drastic alterations to color (icon #3, one of many variants I made on my first Kencyrath icon). https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/10156.html

★ A u g u s t ★

After some unsuccessful experiments with text, I finally managed it in August! ... by retaining existing text. (Icon #1's source image is a chapter heading.) Still, it's a start! I also revisited my old cut-paper layering technique, as well as one of my first icon fandoms, the Land of Oz books. https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/11913.html

★ S e p t e m b e r ★

In September, I was very sad about Cassini, and very nostalgic about Star Trek. I didn't really pursue any new techniques, but I had a lot of fun. And the Trek icon post was my most popular one to date, so there's that! In retrospect some of the more abstract-looking astronomy icons look more like textures to me. But that really wasn't on my radar at the time. This is the month when I finally managed to make icons with (added) text! A milestone. https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/12615.html https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/13269.html Not exactly icons, but I also made two headers in September: https://icontalking.dreamwidth.org/8582.html?thread=140422#cmt140422

★ O c t o b e r ★

I only made one icon post this month, but it was a big one! I think this was one of my better months in terms of icon quality, although honestly that's more thanks to the original artists than to me. For most of them all I had to do was crop/resize, although I sometimes painted the edges slightly or tweaked the color balance or contrast. https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/12883.html

★ N o v e m b e r ★

I had a lot going on in November—most of it good, actually, but the end result was very little iconmaking. I participated in a challenge at the last minute, mostly because I wanted to make something, and put together a post that included some old stray icons of mine. I did take the chance to revisit some old icon fandoms of mine, though! I also used textures in some new ways (like the "spotlight" in icon #2 above) and experimented with gifs for the first time. https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/14768.html

★ D e c e m b e r ★

This month was my most productive in terms of the sheer number of icons I made and posted! I started out with two large art icon posts (Ivan Bilibin and Thomas Canty). I was halfway through another one of the same (Arthur Rackham, probably to be completed sometime in January) when I was distracted by the Red & Green challenge and decided to fill it with icons of Rachel Summers and Jean Grey from the X-Men. I ended up making 300 icons. (400 if you count the ones I decided against posting.) Although admittedly not all of them are red or green! I preserved the original text in some (usually making it proportionately larger so that it could still be read) although in most of those cases the preserved word is either "Phoenix" or "No!" I also took advantage of layering to try out some new effects, like the grayscale foreground in #5. https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/15182.html https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/16110.html https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/17045.html

★ 2 0 1 7 ★

I couldn't resist listing some more icons! And I wanted to do a direct comparison of my early and recent work. The icons in first row are from my raw beginner stage (April-May) when I was still figuring out the basics. The second row (June-September) dates from when I'd started to find my footing. And the last row (October-December) is about where I am right now. That last icon might be the last one I did in 2017; it's definitely one of the last. And the second-to-last one was one of the most ambitious ones I did last year, in terms of layers and color manipulation. I've come a long way in this year! I posted nearly a thousand icons, made quite a few more, and learned a lot. All in all, I'm pretty happy with my progress.

★ Resolutions ★

Next year, I want to continue making icons regularly and keep on experimenting and improving! Once I got started last year, I made at least one post every month. I'd like to keep doing that. I also want to dig up all my old-but-acceptable stray icons and post them, and not to have such a backlog next year. I'd like to experiment more with textures, maybe try making them. Maybe try new media; most of my icons have been book or comic based, and I feel like I should at least try animation and live action. (Okay, okay, live action will probably mean muppets for me. Still.) Not to mention manga; all my comics icons have been Western superhero stuff so far. I'd also like to get better with text; currently it's still something I struggle with. And I confess to being entirely baffled by brushes! I should probably remedy that. And I want to get more into the community aspect. This year, I basically only talked with other iconmakers here in icontalking, and even then I skipped a couple of challenges. I want to try participating in more comms, try more challenges, and generally talk to people more this year.

Comments

[tinny]

Wow, this is a great post! Your progression this year is really incredible!

(And you weren't kidding when you said you made 300 more red&green icons omglol!)

Thank you so much for writing up and posting this! I love reading (and making) progression posts. They're fun!

Good luck with your resolutions, too!

[sheliak]

Thank you very much! I have come a long, long way from not knowing how to crop. (And I kept using my stopgap method for at least two weeks, maybe a whole month! I can be very stubborn.)

I believe I said, when I posted to that challenge, that I'd gotten carried away? That was around the 200-icon mark, when I began to worry that if I waited until I was done to pick my favorites I wouldn't make the deadline.

I had fun writing up the post—it was interesting looking back on my progress!

[flikkeren]

So glad you posted, I've been looking through your icon posts and there are some beauties in them!

[sheliak]

Thank you! I'm glad you're finding stuff you like in my posts. ;)

[alexia_drake]

What a fun post! The explanation of how you made icons with an utterly ridiculous process made me laugh! Damn, you were really determined to make icons! lol

Wow, you made a lot of icons in December, that's impressive!

Great progress, I hope you will have fun experimenting this year :D

[sheliak]

At the time my workaround crop-substitute process was frustrating and tricky, but now it's awfully funny! I really wanted to make this thing work. (I did get several decent icons that way! And a lot of duds, which were more frustrating because they took so long to show their true colors.)

For a little while in December I felt like I was drowning in Phoenixes. But in the end I emerged! And I do like a lot of the icons I made last month.

Thank you! I expect I will.

[breyzyyin]

Wow, this was such an awesome post and I loved seeing how much progress you made from the start when you were determined to make icons even with such a daunting beginning process to where you're at now! You clearly have a great grasp on adding layers and color manipulation...and to have progressed that much in just a year? That's really amazing and shows just how creative and determined you are! Good luck with your resolutions too! ♥

[sheliak]

Thank you! I really appreciate that you like my colors.

[sallymn]

Definitely, the progress is wonderful -you're a fast learner!!

[sheliak]

Thank you! I I don't have much to compare my progress to, but I'm pretty happy with it.

[sallymn]

Oh yes, that first default icon - I made a totally crude one for LJ when I first joined {mumbled} years ago, and have redone and refined it over the years :)

I think you have a very elegant style and I can see how your cropping has become more subtle and unusual....

[sheliak]

Thank you! I'm glad you like how my cropping has developed.

I may revisit my first icon eventually, but for now I don't have any ideas for how to polish it.

[sallymn]

Yours is fine the way it is :)