Iconmaker Friending Meme 2019

[tinny]

We haven't had a friending meme since this community first opened, and someone asked if we could have another one. Of course we can! Here we go:



Copy this code and tell us about yourself! (feel free to skip anything you don't want to tell)
<b><u>ABOUT YOURSELF</u></b> Name: Age: Place: Where do you post your icons: <b><u>Share Your Interests!</u></b> Favorite Show: Favorite Movie: Favorite Character: Favorite Pairing: Favorite Food: <b><u>LET'S GET TO ICONING!!</u></b> <b>What are your personal picks for the top 5-10 icons that you've made in the last 12 months?</b> <b>Show us five icons that you think best represent your iconing style</b> <b>What has inspired you over the last 12 months? (techniques, subjects, challenges, other makers, etc.) Provide examples if you want.</b> <b>What's your favorite show and/or movie to icon and why?</b> <b>Who's your favorite character to icon and why?</b> <b>Close crop or far-crop? Why?</b> <b>Vibrant or muted? Why?</b> <b>Text or minimalistic? Why?</b> <b>What's your current iconmaking goal?</b> <b><u>Let's Ask Some Questions!!</u></b> <b>List three questions that you would like to be answered by other icon makers:</b> <b>Any last words?</b> <b>A gif or image (or icon!) that describes you right now:</b>

Promote the meme using this code:
<center><a href="https://icontalking.dreamwidth.org/28592.html"><img src='https://tinny.dreamwidth.org/file/480x480/19384.png' alt='FRIENDS'/> Interested in icon-making friends? Join our 2019 friending meme!</a> </center>

Comments

[seraphina_snape]

Thank you! I haven't really made many Stargate icons, but I participated in a Stargate battle last month so that's why Daniel is there. *g*

I can't remember my first icon, but it surely was badly resized and cropped, had default photoshop brushes all over it and maybe even some decorative lines here and there

Yup, that sounds familiar. :p I think mine had text in the pre-installed fonts of Paint (yeah, I used Paint for the earliest icons, before I got PaintShop) on them and it was horrible.

[goodbyebird]

I love your use of background textures!

Do you ever give up on an icon? (And if so, what do you do? Delete the attempt? Save it somewhere to start over again at a later point?)

If the icon had more than a few layers, I'll save it and post lol. I've never cared about maintaining esthetics in my posts. I guess I post in a very selfish way :p
(and sometimes the icon you super disliked is the one everyone comments on, so *hands* people have different tastes)

[nightbulbs]

Thank you so much! :)

Small fandoms often suffer from lack of icons, and so do really old fandoms.
Sadly true, I watch so many British crime shows for instance, and there no caps or icons, sadly.

Very orange-y and at the time I didn't have the skills to un-orange everyone's faces. :p
Haha, same here, my first icons were all yellow and reddish faces!

[seraphina_snape]

I think it took a few months before I learned what aspect ratio was and why you should lock it when you resize an image...

Honestly, as bad as those first attempts were, it was fun making them, and I guess that's why I stuck with it.

[nightbulbs]

I have no idea why I didn't watch Penny Dreadful sooner - it was basically the perfect show for me and I fell in love with Vanessa. <3

Sad there wasn't more The Americans and Bates Motel when those were airing. Right now, I want more Killing Eve, Harlots, GLOW, Supergirl
Out of all of these I've only watched Killing Eve, so I'm definitely iconning that soon. Some shows do fly under the radar icon-wise, don't they? I always wonder why some are so popular and others not.

navras_rheya, letsey_x, flatlined, motirized, and mouthfullofdust
Damn, those makers were good. Sometimes I look at old folders and remember all the makers I used to love and weep a little, lol.

[alwaysbeenasmiler]

I really want to be your friend.. can I be your friend? More to this post later.. I am at work and on a cellphone!

[seraphina_snape]

Thank you!

(and sometimes the icon you super disliked is the one everyone comments on, so *hands* people have different tastes)

OMG YES. Pretty much every time I post a batch of icons there is one that is just... done super fast because I ran out of time/energy/interest and of course that is always everyone's favourite. Ugh.

[seraphina_snape]

Sometimes it feels like if it's not American, it's not important enough for people to cap/icon (when really it's probably just not well-known enough).

[seraphina_snape]

Sure! Let's be friends! *g*

[nightbulbs]

1. Is it an eternal struggle to not hate your icons (based on the great stuff others make) or can you grow out of it?
Bit of both? I still think I'll never be as good as my faves, and I get pretty frustrated sometimes! But overall, I do like most of my icons now!

2. When keeping the cap background, what's your prefered way of dealing with caps that are smaller than the icon?
Clone stamp tool, mostly.

3. How do you feel about screencapped.net's new way of offering caps?
I get why they're doing this, but I loved the galleries and "most viewed" and "random caps" options, so I've turned to other websites when they also have my shows.

[nightbulbs]

Thank you so much!! ♥

[nightbulbs]

True, there is some of that. Some British shows are/were pretty popular in iconning circles (Misfits, Being Human, Merlin, Ashes to Ashes...) but not so much in recent years, and I only know of one fellow French icon maker who sometimes icons French shows!

[nightbulbs]

1. Do you ever give up on an icon? (And if so, what do you do? Delete the attempt? Save it somewhere to start over again at a later point?)

Oh, many many times! Sometimes it just won't work and the result is too ugly. I either start over from the beginning and try doing it differently or just give up on the cap.

2. Who's your favourite texture maker?

mm3butterfly & raiindust @ LJ

3. When did you start making icons?

Late 2011 - I wanted to see more BBC Spooks icons so I made some, and then I got hooked!

[tinny]

I made all my Guardian caps myself.

I did share some (from eps 1-10) at iconbattles, where I am currently running the Guardian battle. (Wanna join?)

Did you see any others? I could link them there, as well, because mine are just a pitiful collection of closeups of Shen Wei. :)

I never watched Teen Wolf but I always saw tons of gorgeous icons so I assumed the caps were somewhat easy to work with!

I found them extremely hard. But I only watched one half-season, and maybe it was darker than some others.

[nightbulbs]

abyss_valkyrie at LJ posted some caps from episodes 1 and 2 so I think they're in the process of making some?

Wanna join?
Ooh, why not?

[tinny]

Pfft, i am so terrible with names. The ones I have are extrapenguin's. I will check out abyss_valkyrie's, too!

I'd be so happy to have you on board! The sign-up post is here: https://iconbattles.dreamwidth.org/5799.html

[carisma_sensei]

I love talking about first graphics! It's all so cringey hahaha!

Aww Daniel was one of my crushes from childhood lol. I would watch Stargate with my mum everyday, they aired it before lunch!

[delacourtings]

ABOUT YOURSELF
Name: layla / delacourtings
Age: twenty-three
Place: usa


Share Your Interests!
Favorite Show: the west wing, friends, gilmore girls, in the flesh, miss fisher's murder mysteries, b99, the good place, schitt's creek, grace and frankie, izombie. honestly all the shows, all the time. i love tv.
Favorite Movie: um, inception? clueless? ten things i hate about you? honestly, this is so hard. i kind of hate movies? lol. i just don't have the attention span for them!
Favorite Character: fleur delacour and harry potter, though they aren't really prime for iconning imo. derek hale, chidi anagonye, grace hanson. huh, it seems i don't icon my faves that much. i should really fix that.
Favorite Pairing: i'm so indecisive, i can't pick! also, frustratingly, most of my fave ships don't have many good scenes for iconning (see: bill and fleur).
Favorite Food: mac and cheese!! (although i'm allergic to gluten+dairy and i'm vegan so it's a bit different lol)

LET'S GET TO ICONING!!

What are your personal picks for the top 5-10 icons that you've made in the last 12 months?



Show us five icons that you think best represent your iconing style


i tend to make more simplistic, close crop, negative space icons but i'm trying to branch out and make more complex things!

What has inspired you over the last 12 months? (techniques, subjects, challenges, other makers, etc.) Provide examples if you want.
challenge comms have really inspired me to icon again! before 2018, i hadn't made icons in 3 years!
so a shoutout to fandom10in30, genre_icontest, hp_iconchallenge, iconthat, icons10in20, and ofc, icontalking!

and abyss_valkyrie,timetobegin, and tinny are always very inspiring.♡

What's your favorite show and/or movie to icon and why? currently, it seems to be the good place because they are one of the only shows to actually have decent lighting!
Who's your favorite character to icon and why? i don't think i have a favorite. maybe eleanor from the good place? i have a thing for blondes.
Close crop or far-crop? Why? close crop, all the way.
Vibrant or muted? Why? i love vibrant icons but i'm no good at making them so muted.
Text or minimalistic? Why? minimalistic! i'm horrible at text, i'm so envious of people who can make text icons!
What's your current iconmaking goal? to make more complex icons and more interesting colorings. i feel so basic. :(

Let's Ask Some Questions!!
List three questions that you would like to be answered by other icon makers:
what's your most recent favorite icon you've made? not necessarily the best or most popular but your personal favorite?

is there a show/movie/etc. that you've tried to icon before but can just never seems to work? i, for instance, cannot seem to icon any media set before the 2000s very well.

have you ever made icons for something you haven't seen? (i am v guilty of this.)

Any last words? thank you so very much to everyone here in the dw icon making community for inspiring me to create again. ♡
A gif or image (or icon!) that describes you right now:

[alwaysbeenasmiler]

Okay,

Your negative space icons are awesome, but really the composition is just great-- sometimes I am at a loss with composition but you seem to bring it ever time.

Also, I try not to give up on an icon, I just figure I was in the wrong headspace at the time and throw it back into my To Be Edited Folder, so that it can swim around and live to see another day-- creating icons, it's a really fickle process and if the muse isn't tickling you, she isn't-- and it's no good to force it.

I started making icons in 2005--alot of my older icons can be found at my icon community-- and I am embarassed of ALL of them, but I put them out there because then I can go look back and say "Okay this is what I've done and perhaps I can make it better"

[alwaysbeenasmiler]

I am notorious for not being able to have a single icon for the series "Supernatural" come out, and it frustrates me, perhaps because it's all so dark and my mind automatically wants to make things vibrant, and goodness I am not good enough that I can really make things vibrant from that series-- just one of those things I have to work at.

And yes, I've made icons for things I haven't seen however I always make a mental note to see them at a later date.. that was the case with Fire Emblem! Also people have requested stuff and I've been "Okay, time to investigate"

[seraphina_snape]

I don't think I've ever started over with an icon that wasn't working - I usually save the attempt and move on to the next.

I think I remember raiindust, but it's been a few years since I updated my resource folder, so maybe I should check for new stuff...

[seraphina_snape]

Thank you! (Of course these are some of my better icons. I also have icons like this where I needed it to fit a certain theme and I ended up hating it.)

That's a good point - without inspiration any icons I make for challenges (where I have to meet a deadline no matter how inspired I am) feel sort of flat and boring.

I am so embarrassed by my older icons, too. But on the other hand I was just starting out and learning how to make icons, so of course they'd be rough and somewhat ugly. Maybe if someone who is just starting out now clicks thought to the really old posts and finds those horrible icons, they will realize that they, too, will improve over time. That they'll learn something with every new icon they make.

[seraphina_snape]

A friend of mine got me into Stargate sometime before season eight. I think I spent an entire summer mainlining the first seven seasons to catch up before season eight aired. :D

[goodbyebird]

Some shows do fly under the radar icon-wise, don't they? I always wonder why some are so popular and others not.

I think part of it is if there's a big, active fandom for it - meaning there's both a need for icons and also stuff happening around the fandom that keeps it current, including icontests. And then when pretties start happening, other people are inspired to make the pretties hehe.

I do see you talking about things now getting a lot of love, like Brit crime dramas, French shows, etc. We should get an Un-American and Un-Loved icon battle going ;D

[goodbyebird]

I am notorious for not being able to have a single icon for the series "Supernatural" come out, and it frustrates me, perhaps because it's all so dark and my mind automatically wants to make things vibrant

Maybe post a couple of caps that give you trouble and I - or anybody else as well - can post some steps to brighten/color it?