icon ramblings

[lyssie]

I was thinking about this, the other day, when I was making craptasticthe Shiny Spiffy Icons for Farscapecontest and bstgicontest and sg_lyrical...

My icon style has changed. I can't make the same icons I made half a year ago. I can't just crop, add on some text, and, BANG, icon. Now I have to fiddle with all sorts of settings, slap on layers and color-washes and play with the text and stick on a border, and...

I can't decide if this is a good thing or not.

I know, for instance, that with more playing in photoshop, I've produced some UGLY icons. But I also know that I've made really pretty ones that would have been ugly a year ago.

I know I have only a vague sense of what makes Arte. I know what looks pretty to me quite obviously does not please the masses--and before you tell me I'm wrong, I point you to every icon contest community out there. If it's shiny and ARTE it wins. If it's simple and clear-cut and basic? No one even votes for it, even if it's the better icon.

But back to style.

I think I miss the days when I didn't do color layers.

Hrm.

Comments

[nakedtoes.livejournal.com]

Your newer icons look sharper; I don't know if that's a style thing, or if you're just using better caps. And I like your icons (though I have the artistic talent of a scarab beetle, TBF) *snuggles*

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

I think--and this is something I've been poking at in photoshop--that playing with color/contrast settings de-sharpens an image more than slapping a layer on and making it an overlay layer or something.

So, yeah, they are sharper and clearer. I've got a better idea what will produce which result (although I'm still sometimes surprised, and go, "DUDE, I didn't know it would do THAT").

er... anyway. This was less a whine and more an observation and a disturbance.

[nakedtoes.livejournal.com]

Where the whine? I was just commenting because I was bored, er, and the computer was there

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

er, the whining was me, on what icons win awards.

[nakedtoes.livejournal.com]

As you said, I didn't take that as whining. And this comment feels a little gratuitous. And, and... *FLAILS*

I need chocolate, preferably via an IV for quick results. Or something, anyway.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

and I totally used the wrong icon. hrmph.

[liminalliz.livejournal.com]

My favorite thing about your icons is the text choices. <333

*loves this icon LIEK WHOA*

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

*snerk*

I still love that icon, too.

[surreallis.livejournal.com]

*luvs lyssie's icons*

I wouldn't give this one up for all the chocolate in the world. Nor the Sam/P-90 OTP one.

Still, it's kind of cool just playing around with whatever photo editing program you have and seeing what results.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

*g* Thank you...

Yes! The playing around is how I've made most of my icons. Or knowing what the playing around resulted in and using it on another icon... mm. playing.

[kkglinka.livejournal.com]

Eh? I like my icons to actually communicate things, usually my mood. Must be why I've yet to stumble across a contest community.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, I want mood. Sometimes I want shading or flare, or I have no mood and feel blank... hrm.

[timjr.livejournal.com]

...all I can do is crop and add text... :-(

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

er... sometimes, that's all you need? (seriously. play around with layers adnstuff)

[timjr.livejournal.com]

Well, part of my issue is not having Photoshop or anything. The best I got is Microsoft Picture It.

Which is kinda teh suck.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Am terribly attached to some of your B7 icons, yes. Though have found I actually like making icons after discovering random tutorials and doing strange things to pictures.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

hah. Good. *g* (and, oddly, it's that icon set that made me think about this. I don't think I could make the Avon/Jenna ones again--at least not in the exact same way...)

*nods* playing is, as said above, most of the reason I keep making icons... plus, Kara and Sam are hot

[jacksrubberduck.livejournal.com]

The basic rule of icon contests is the more brushes you apply the more likely you are to win.

I remember making the ugliest icon *ever* for a challenge and managing to win first place with it.
Purely cos it looked complicated.
Case in point.

Personally I just make things that look pretty to me and omg do I ever try not to obscure the pic with brushes for the sake of it.
Cos wtf is the point of that?

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

*stares at the icon* Yeah, I'm kind of getting that. Hence, my continued increase in fiddling for various icon contests (not that I'm not proud of one or two, but, er, still...)

I've never understood the point of concealing what's beneath for floaty text and some sort of shiny thingie. please pay no attention to the man behind the curtain

Although we will not get into what looks pretty at 3 a.m....

[shadowserenity.livejournal.com]

The icon that won first place in the bstg_icontest just recently was on the simple clear-cut style. I have to agree that, on the whole, super complicated icons win. I recently saw a few Helo/Boomer icons that were so stuffed with shiny things that it made my eyes hurt.

[livilla.livejournal.com]

Hey, practice makes perfect. Or at least, a better understanding. I have noticed a change in your icons, but it's all good!

And as a Visual Arts student, I can tell you, ANYTHING qualifies as art today. And there's always someone who will like it.