Activity #26 - Ask The Maker

[tinny]

this banner is featuring an icon by tinyumbrella

It's June, and that means it's time for Ask The Maker again!

Our poll decided that a good majority of our makers here would like to see this activity again, and I'm hoping for high participation.

Ask The Maker is where you can ask your favorite makers about how they do that thing. You can ask for tutorials, guides/"How to", or ask any other questions related to their work. Check out the Maker thread (below) for makers who have signed up and are ready to answer your questions.

You can also ask questions to the community at large, and hope that someone is able to answer them. Do this in the Questions thread (below).

By now this community has been active for over two years, and we've grown quite a bit, along with DW. This should make for an interesting mix. I for one am looking forward to interesting questions and discussions!

Please promote this activity!

You can use this code here:
<center><img src='https://tinny.dreamwidth.org/file/205196.png' title='Activity #26 - Ask The Maker 2019' alt='Activity #26 - Ask The Maker 2019' /> <user name="icontalking"> <a href="https://icontalking.dreamwidth.org/34730.html">Activity Post</a> </center>

The more participants the merrier! I will promote it at an official promo comm.

Here are the rules:

1) Maker-Driven


Rules for makers who want to sign up

Sign up by commenting to the Maker thread.

Please don't sign up if you know that you can't or do not plan to fulfill the requests you get within a month.

If you are an icon maker and you're willing to write tutorials, guides or answer questions (Q&A's), please sign up here with your name and where you post your work. Please state what you're willing to do/answer and if people can hotlink your work or not. Use this posting template:

<b>Username + where you post your work:</b> <b>What can we request from you (tutorials, Q&A, guides etc.)</b> --->(If you know of anything that you're not able to answer/do, please mention it)<--- <b>Can we hotlink your icons?:</b>

There is no fixed time limit in which the signed up makers have to write these tutorials or answer questions, but it would be nice if everyone managed to post their answers within the next month. I will make the master list post around mid-July (i.e. in six weeks). Even if you take longer than that, please try and answer your questions. Please let people know if you find out you cannot fulfill the requests. Try not to leave people hanging.

All tutorials/Q&A etc. need to be posted in your community/journal and be posted publicly. In-depth explanations on tutorials is not a must, but highly encouraged.

When you finish your requests, post a link to them as a reply to the original request comment here. That way, I and the person requesting will be able to see them and I can add them to the master list.



2) Question-Driven - I have a question and anyone can answer



If you have a question about techniques, a specific look, etc, but you can't ask any maker directly (e.g. because they didn't sign up or are not on DW or because your question is more of the general kind), you may ask your question in the Questions thread.

Be aware that there is no guarantee that you'll get your question answered. You will increase your chances by asking specific questions about specific techniques and by giving icon examples, from different makers if possible. Please don't ask about single specific icons, nobody should feel pressured into participating.

Please don't hotlink icons from other makers without asking them. Reupload the icons (e.g. to imgur.com or postimages.com) instead.



What's What


Question categories and examples

Guides - a guide is a general explanation post. The maker will make a post explaining how to achieve a particular effect, use a technique, use a tool, etc.

#1 - Text and typography in gimp by cool_spectrum
#2 - A guide lighten dark bases from last year by tinny

Tutorial - a tutorial is a step-by-step description of how to make a particular icon. Only the maker of an icon can make a tutorial of how they made that icon. If you ask for a tutorial, you must provide said icon with your question. This kind of question only makes sense in the Maker thread.

A tutorial by fueschgast
Example tutorial #2 by word_never_said

Q&A - everything that doesn't quite fit the first two categories. Ask away, hope for the best. :)


Maker thread

Questions thread

Comments

Maker Thread

[tinny]

Ask questions for a specific maker here

Re: Maker Thread

[sheliak]

Username + where you post your work: Sheliak + https://sheliak.dreamwidth.org/tag/icons
What can we request from you (tutorials, Q&A, guides etc.) I'm up for anything!
Can we hotlink your icons?: Sure.

Re: Maker Thread

[tinyumbrella]

I always struggle to make comic book icons look normal, do you have any tips and tricks for colouring? I like your colouring on these:

Re: Maker Thread

[tinyumbrella]

Username + where you post your work: tinyumbrella (previously timetobegin) and i post at oh_crime
What can we request from you (tutorials, Q&A, guides etc.) I'll give anything a shot! I don't save my psds, so i will recreate anything rather than showing the exact same icon
Can we hotlink your icons?: sure

Re: Maker Thread

[ella_rose88]

I really love what you did with these icons: https://i.imgur.com/34IGnom.png
https://i.imgur.com/aC6J3Ju.png
https://i.imgur.com/mjfaO3t.png

I just would love to know how you work out the composition (re. what textures to use, what images, the text and placement etc). Hope that makes sense *fingerscrossed*

Re: Maker Thread

[goodbyebird]

/

Would love a coloring tut on this. SO pretty!

Re: Maker Thread

[tinny]

Username + where you post your work: https://tinny.dreamwidth.org/tag/art-icons
What can we request from you (tutorials, Q&A, guides etc.) Anything
Can we hotlink your icons?: yes

Re: Maker Thread

[extrapenguin]

How do you do text so that it looks so ... un-blocky and fluid? Like here:

Relatedly, do you have any fonts you would recommend?

Re: Maker Thread

[tinyumbrella]

I've been loving your glow lately, any tips or tricks? I find sometimes my glow overpowers or underperforms

eg.


i adore that last icon too, if you feel up to a tutorial?

oh and maybe any info on how you blend your textures to make it look like a normal background/foreground, it's not one of my strong points. eg

Re: Maker Thread

[goodbyebird]

Username + where you post your work: goodbyebird @ spankulert
What can we request from you (tutorials, Q&A, guides etc.) I probably won't be able to do a tutorial for a specific icon unless I saved the PDF, but ask away.
Can we hotlink your icons?: Yup :)

Re: Maker Thread

[tinyumbrella]

I love your icons where they are quite monochrome, i never seem to get the colours right on those - eg that Villianelle icon up there, or even the last one. Just...working with more monochrome icons? IDEK

I like that third icon as well as it's so clear for such a tiny subject - any tips and tricks on that one?

Obviously a cropping guide would be amazing, i love your close crops on hands and faces that just look awkward when i try!

THIS IS A LOT, just pick one to focus on :)

Re: Maker Thread

[seraphina_snape]

Username + where you post your work: seraphina_snape | raptor_inc (icon tag)
What can we request from you (tutorials, Q&A, guides etc.) ask me anything
--->(If you know of anything that you're not able to answer/do, please mention it)<---
Can we hotlink your icons?: sure, they're all up on imgur anyway, so there's no point of reupping them

Re: Maker Thread

[tinyumbrella]

Your texture use is really cool and interesting, do you have any process on how you pick and apply textures? I know that's really broad, let me know if you want me to be more specific!

Re: Maker Thread

[ideare]

what is your process in deciding on how to use a texture? deciding if a texture should be used as a background or over the image?

Re: Maker Thread

[ideare]

would you be able to do a guide/tutorial on how you made this parker icon?

Questions Thread

[tinny]

Ask questions for the community here

Re: Questions Thread

[tinyumbrella]

What are your favourite fonts? I'm always on the hunt for new and interesting fonts!

Re: Questions Thread

[tinny]

YAY FONTS!!!!

This might be a bit of a niche thing, but the only new fonts I got this year are specialty Chinese fonts:

https://www.freechinesefont.com/

They're huge, of course. Installing them has slowed down my Photoshop considerably. /o\ Apparently, the other 2000+ fonts don't even make a dent compared to the half dozen Chinese fonts. (Worth it.) (And going there again has made me install four more. I am doomed. /o\)

Otherwise, the ones I know by heart what they look like and that I always use are

Aleo Bold, Stockholm, Bombshell Pro, Poster Bodoni, Times New Roman, and Xtreem.

https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/aleo
https://www.ffonts.net/Stockholm.font
https://www.dafont.com/font.php?file=xtreem

(bombshell pro is not free and i have no idea where i got it from, i usually only have free fonts. poster bodoni and times are also not free but were preinstalled on my windows.)

Times New Roman sounds boring, but it's actually really good for very small text. There aren't that many fonts that look good small. Handel Gothic is another one, and Book Antiqua. That's pretty much it. If you have any others, I'd be happy to hear about them.

Re: Questions Thread

[seraphina_snape]

I always struggle with text in general, but I do have some favourite fonts that I use a lot.

For small text, I like A Love of Thunder - it's an all caps font that looks good even in really small size.

I like God Bless America for anything cursive, but it can be a struggle to make it legible on something icon-sized.

Fox in the Snow is something I feel looks best the bigger the font, so I use it mainly for wallpapers and sig tags. It works great in contrast with a more blocky font.

Other fonts I like:
Moon Flower
Another Typewriter
Hearts (for when you need a heart but don't want to draw it or find a heart texture *g*)
Tall Dark And Handsome
Lemon Milk
Reklame
Federation Starfleet

Re: Questions Thread

[goodbyebird]

Do you participate in icontests? If so, what is most likely to make you want to participate? (themes, provided caps, fandoms, seeing other entries, open or anonymous makers, inspirations, etc.)

Re: Questions Thread

[tinny]

I personally am most inspired by themes and inspirational challenges.

I will almost never enter a challenge with provided caps because I like iconing my own things - which is usually why fandoms don't work for me either, because I just icon my current fandom and nothing else.

As to anonymous or open: I like both. Both have their attractions.

Re: Questions Thread

[goodbyebird]

What are some of your favorite tutorials?

Re: Questions Thread

[lutein]

For fake background icons, what are the ways you can get the cut out to blend in more with the background or vice versa?

I'm at a loss on how to make these icons better.


I didn't do any sharpening on the first icon but the edges of the cut out bugs me. The texture on the second icon was originally blurry, I like the colours and I know the icon could use more work.

[lavenderspark]

Ooo! I have a question for this!! I'll have to get on my computer later so I can pull example icons.

[lavenderspark]

Ok, the only place I'm seeing what I want to achieve is on Tumblr, so I just took a screen grab. I'm wondering how to get the coloring on these. Muted and soft, but not really altering the original coloring? I don't know how to explain it.