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June is the month where iconmakers on LJ run the popular "Ask The Maker" activity. I thought we could make our third activity centered around icon tutorials and iconmaking guides.

I have prepared a poll for this:

Poll #18477 Activity #3 - Ask The Maker

This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 14

View Respondents

How would you like to see Ask The Maker done here?

View Answers

Maker-driven: Makers post a comment and you can ask them questions
8 (57.1%)

Free for all: Within the three weeks of the activity, everyone can post tutorials and guides
4 (28.6%)

Question-driven: People comment with icon questions and everyone can answer them
9 (64.3%)

Other ideas (in comment thread below)
0 (0.0%)

Reminder:
There is still one whole week for you to make a rainbow!
We already have six beautiful sets!

Show us your latest creations
Share beautiful icons you found lately
Activity #3 Poll Discussion

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

tinny

Show us your latest creations! Please indicate if you would like to receive concrit or not.

From:

sheliak

Seeking concrit: These aren't exactly new (I've been taking a break and using simpler starting images for a bit) but here are some of my attempts at color-manipulation. Same base image, same crop.

From:

tinny

I personally like the left one better, because the subtle details in the greenish tones get lost in the red version. I like the fact that only the mouths of the fish(?) are red in the left one, too. They look more menacing that way. Also, I think you colored the subjects in white, which helps offset them from the background. I really like that.

In general, I would suggest trying to make the icon more contrasted (without making it too sharp). Some slight tweaking of the Levels or Contrast might make it pop a bit more. Or maybe painting the parts of the background in a slightly darker color (on Multiply) to increase the contrast between the white subjects and the background even more .

Overall, nice icons! The crop works well, is nicely balanced, and it's easy to tell what is shown on the icons. Very well done!

From:

sheliak

Thank you!

I hadn't tried Levels or Contrast—I think I got the red version by tweaking the color balance, which exaggerated the red traces in the background—and I think those tools are going to be very useful for faded images like this one.

From:

tinny

Share favorite icons by other makers you've seen lately.

From:

fueschgast

stnia

The colors, the contrast, the composition! Allround beautiful!

Edited Date: 2017-06-24 09:25 pm (UTC)

From:

tinny

If you have comments and ideas for the Ask The Maker activity, please leave them here!

From:

sheliak

I already voted a bit ago, but I like the idea of the event being based around asking specific questions (either starting there or asking makers who offer advice).

I realized, though, that I'm a bit confused by option 2. Does that mean everyone is free to post their own guides, links to existing guides, in the comm or in their own journals?

From:

tinny

Yeah, the second option is the least interactive. It means you can just post your own guides and links to existing ones, without people asking for it.

Whether the guides and tutorials should be posted to the comm or as replies to the first post, I haven't decided yet. I think maybe it's time to encourage people to post to the comm. Nobody has done that so far.

I think people are going for the first and third options in the poll, anyway, so I think I'm going to make it a mix of both. (Well, actually, I could just offer all three, it doesn't really hurt.)

My idea is to do it similarly to

icon_talk (here), where there is one post where everyone can start a thread if they want to be asked questions. Later, there is a master post collecting all the new guides and tutorials. We'll just have another thread for questions to all makers which people could claim and answer. And maybe another thread for unasked tutorials.