There are angels in your angles

Impasse

boxed — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 07:25:52 GMT

-

Teen Wolf:

(01-05)
(06-10)
(11-15)
(16-20)
(21-22)

01-22: Teen Wolf

I may have had too much coffee at work today, so instead of being in bed this happened!!!

And because there's such a tendency for me to go dark with Teen Wolf caps (lbr the show gives us so many night scenes and broody interiors), I decided to try and make these icons as light as possible. So basically all of these were just exercises in lighting TW caps without them looking super degraded. YAY. There's a lot of Stiles and Lydia and Isaac because... um. Because. And I would have done a few more icons of Derek (Dumbest Face Award 2013!!!), but he kind of spent the entire episode run through with a pole, so...

Crop, crop, crop

boxed — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 02:00:58 GMT

-

Doctor Who:

(01-01)

Generation Kill:

(02-06)
(07-08)

Hannibal:

(09-13)
(14-18)
(19-21)

Supernatural:

(22-26)
(27-29)

Teen Wolf:

(30-34)
(35-39)
(40-41)

The Vampire Diaries:

(42-47)

01-01: Doctor Who
02-08: Generation Kill
09-21: Hannibal
22-29: Supernatural
30-41: Teen Wolf
42-47: The Vampire Diaries

HI I'M ALIVE. I've just been working/spending my time on Tumblr. Also, this post is made entirely from fanmix art, because I've been making a shit ton of fanmixes and show no signs of stopping!! YAY

Friends/Enemies

boxed — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:55:26 GMT

I know I never crosspost fanmixes anymore, but it's the first one of 2013 and couldn't resist because TEEN WOLF! YEAH!!!!

Stupid idiots that have feelings for each other! at timeisfiction.

Regularly Scheduled Programming

boxed — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 03:52:27 GMT

-

The Avengers:

(01-05)
(06-10)
(11-15)
(16-20)

For the new round at 20inspirations! Hover for emotion. :)

01-20: The Avengers

I interrupt to bring you this Public Service Announcement

boxed — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 05:50:27 GMT

I might be working on something. Something cool. It’s a personal project that I’m dedicated to making happen and I need help from you guys.

I need articles/blog entries/meta discussions/fandom/ship manifestos/etc on your favorite television shows and films! They can be your articles. They can be your friend’s sister’s Star Trek collage. I’m gathering content, and it can be as big as a blog entry on gender tropes in science fiction, and as small as meta discussions from your Tumblr. Link me things!!!

And secondly:

My thread at Ask the maker! I'm trying to put together tutorial/guide/walkthrough/explanation.. things. But if there's anything else you'd like to know about how I do things, please ask!!

Running up that hill

boxed — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 02:10:38 GMT

-

Avengers:

(01-05)

Beauty and the Beast:

(06-10)

Being Human:

(11-13)

Elementary:

(14-18)
(19-23)
(24-25)

Lost Girl:

(26-29)

The Vampire Diaries:

(30-34)
(35-39)
(40-44)
(45-49)
(50-52)

Misc:

(53-57)
(58-62)
(63)

01-05: The Avengers
06-10: Beauty and the Beast
11-13: Being Human (UK)
14-25: Elementary
26-29: Lost Girl
30-52: The Vampire Diaries
53-63: Misc

I hope everyone got their holiday cards! Happy 2013. :)

It's that time again

boxed — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 21:09:30 GMT

Leave me your address in the comments (they're screened!) or PM me. Do ittt!! I bought festive ink for my calligraphy pens and I'm dying to use them! :')

Accidental Memory

boxed — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 23:49:00 GMT

-

Grimm:

(01-05)
(06-08)

Haven:

(09-13)
(14-18)
(19-23)
(24-28)
(29-33)
(34-35)

The Hunger Games:

(36-40)
(41-45)
(46-49)

Teen Wolf:

(50-54)
(55-57)

01-08: Grimm
09-35: Haven
36-49: The Hunger Games
50-57: Teen Wolf

I'm back! Kind of! Mostly all of these were made for theiconquest, because their latest challenge is about going crazy or going home, and I must admit I'm a bit of a homebody these days.

Front Row

boxed — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 03:07:06 GMT

-

Burn Notice:

(01-03)

Doctor Who:

(04-08)
(09-11)

Fight Club:

(12-16)
(17-17)

Teen Wolf:

(18-22)
(23-27)
(28-28)

Misc. (Andrew Garfield, Downton Abbey):

(29-30)

01-03: Burn Notice
04-11: Doctor Who
12-17: Fight Club
18-28: Teen Wolf
29-30: Misc.

I had Big Plans for these icons. I was going to make an icon for every episode of Doctor Who. Teen Wolf was going to be a rainbow of seasons 1 and 2. Fight Club was going to be huge. Most of these started out being for theiconquest, but somehow they just became regular icons. It's just one of those things. I'm really only posting them because Real Life Stuff has gotten pretty crazy and I'm not going to have a whole lot of time for anything fun and LJ-related in the near future.

The Future's Not Ours to See

boxed — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 07:17:12 GMT

-

Dead Like Me:

(01-05)
(06-10)

Supernatural:

(11-15)
(16-20)
(21-25)
(26-30)
(31-35)
(36-38)

Misc (Being Human (UK), Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, The Vampire Diaries, The Hunger Games, Water for Elephants):

(39-44)
(45-49)

01-10: Dead Like Me
11-38: Supernatural
39-49: Misc

The DLM and Supernatural sets are both for theiconquest! I've always found Supernatural caps to be difficult to work with— I shy away from them a lot of the time because it's such a challenge to pull out vibrant, natural colors. So for this little batch I decided to try and conquer coloring when so many shots are muted or shadowed. I hope I succeeded!

No harm ever came from reading a book

boxed — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 21:13:56 GMT

-

Generation Kill (and James Ransone):

(01-05)
(06-10)
(11-15)
(16-20)
(21-25)

The Mummy:

(25-30)
(31-35)
(36-40)
(41-45)
(46-50)

True Love:

(51-55)
(56-60)
(61-64)

01-24: Generation Kill
25-25: James Ransone
26-50: The Mummy
51-64: True Love

If you guys are up for something SUPER AWESOME, sign up at theiconquest!!! IT'S AMAZING AND FUN AND EVERYTHING IS AWESOME AND NOTHING HURTS

Much good may it do you

boxed — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 03:02:14 GMT

-

"About me" 20inspirations icons. Hover over each icon to learn a fact about me!

(01-05)
(06-10)
(11-15)
(16-20)

Iron Man / Iron Man 2:

(21-25)
(26-30)
(31-35)
(36-40)
(41-45)
(46-50)
(51-52)

Misc (Firefly, Alexander Skarsgård, Game of Thrones, Doctor Who):

(53-56)

01-20: 20inspirations Multi-fandom
21-52: Iron Man/Iron Man 2
53-56: Misc

Assemble!

boxed — Wed, 30 May 2012 19:38:53 GMT

-

(01-05)
(06-10)
(11-15)
(16-20)

Another set for 20inspirations! And AVENGERS!!! This round was art (a very broad spectrum, I know), and even though I tried to make hover text work, here goes a bunch of explanations!

01. The main inspiration for this icon was Caravaggio (one of my favorite Master painters). He was part of the Baroque movement, which was generally characterized by specific light sources and the portrayal of human emotion. Who better for this than Tony Stark, I mean lbr.
02. Rauschenberg! The beauty of paint, photo, and collage combining to form one piece.
03. Hawkeye and Höch, a perfect combo? I was mostly inspired by her palette and unique edges.
04. Here we have a prime example of "Carina really liked this crop even though it didn't really fit into any of the actual themes", so I am deeming it "Negative Space." A huge principle to live by.
05. Okay, this one I kind of loved doing. It's Suprematism. Which... okay if you don't know what that is, it's a design movement that began in Russia right after the futurist movement (which in turn was born from cubism but let's not get nuts). It focuses a lot on geometric form and bold colors, and being that Black Widow is both Russian and bold, I thought it was appropriate.
06. Fury got collaged the hell out of.
07. This one I really enjoyed as well, because for me, I was drawing parallels between the characters' occupations (genius scientists) - and what do genius scientists do? They read (and sometimes write) books and articles in their field. Essentially I was pulling from basic editorial design concepts for them. Science bros!
08. Okay I just kind of loved the cropping and lighting on this one? So I kind of assumed that cropping would be the main point here, and considering it's another basic principle, figured that would be a-okay.
09. I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with processes in illustration, but one of my favorite things to watch friends do in school was oil rubs & washes over sketches in order to prepare them for painting. They had this sort of scratchy, misty quality I loved, and that's what I tried to emulate here.
10. This was kind of out of the box for me. I was going for Fauvism (something I've had to write essays on and don't wish to do now), but it ended up swerving into the late expressionist period. I'm pretty okay with that.
11. For some reason Hawkeye was just super "torn" for me, and I caught myself replicating it over and over. I thought the frayed edges and the texture it gave suited his character. I decided to roll with it.
12. Science bros!!! This was actually, strangely, inspired by one of my favorite design aesthetics to come out of Switzerland, when they were ramping up for tourism a few decades ago and used muted, blue/cool palettes and popped it with bright reds and whites.
13. Here we go with the whole torn thing. I focused mainly on the lighting - what he's doing seems almost ambiguous, and I thought it was a great way to focus on what Hawkeye does - he stays in the shadows, above where others see, and takes people out.
14. With this I was inspired by collaging and the idea that two ripped pieces from different places often complement each other better than the original photo. omg was that ~symbolism~ idk
15. For this I was focused mainly on keeping the colors vibrant which is totally the lamest explanation thus far but I do what I want, Thor.
16. Speak of the devil, here we go. I felt like there are so many dark icons with villains and I didn't want to fall into that cliché, so I tried to make this icon as light as possible, inspired mainly by the marble behind him, and the lines in greco-roman columns.
17. This one was all about John Singer Sargent. I adore his colors, his lighting and obvious brushstrokes. I tried to mimic this with tiny paint dabs, muted colors, and painting over the foreground a little.
18. For Natasha, instead of her bold overture above, I wanted this to be softer, I wanted to pay homage to her duplicitousness by leaving her only half the composition.
19. Ol' Captain America, what better way to feature than to give him the design from his home era? (Relatively speaking?) It's meant to reflect the new modern styles appearing in the 60s (not Pop Art let's make that clear) but using red/white/blue to mimic propaganda posters before the war.
20. Loki c'mon man what are you doing in shadows lurking all the time. Get outta there. Actually that was the whole point of this icon. After showering him in light, I tried to keep him bathed in shadows. How did all these washing metaphors get in here?

You've reached the end!!!!

TL;DR: These icons were inspired by art.

01-20: The Avengers

Life

boxed — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:45:01 GMT

View Poll: #1835824

01-20: Life

The Reichenbach Fall

boxed — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 14:47:29 GMT

-

Sherlock: The Reichenbach Fall:

(01-05)

(06-10)

(11-15)

(16-20)

(21-25)

(26-30)

(31-35)

(36-40)

(41-45)

(45-50)

(51-55)

(56-60)

(61-65)

(66-70)

(71-75)

(76-78)

I loved making this set. I don't know what it was, but I had a lot of fun, and I'm weirdly proud of some of them. Also I didn't realize how much I loved Moriarty's face until I uploaded everything and haha wow new obsession but just look at him okay

Anyway yeah, clearly will never get over this show. But if you're sick of seeing it (how dare you), feel free to request something that isn't Sherlock related, I guess. Or just give me more pictures of their faces!! Yes good plan!!!

01-78: Sherlock: The Reichenbach Fall

On a completely unrelated note, how awful are LJ cuts now? Dingbats, LJ? REALLY? DINGBATS? SOMEONE KILL IT WITH FIRE. I hated it so much I came up with some weird hack to get around it and much like many other humans, I despise having to put actual effort into fixing something that should have never broken. Zero for you, Glen Coco.

Tiny In-between Post

boxed — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:06:37 GMT

Film/Television (Black Swan, I am Number Four, Snow White and the Huntsman, Sucker Punch, A Passionate Woman, Lost, The Hour, North & South, Paul McGann, Secret Circle):

(01-05)
(06-10)
(11)

Sherlock:

(12-16)
(17-21)
(22-26)

01-11: Film/Television
12-26: Sherlock

Weird stuff!!! Mostly entries from challenge comms and the like, but I feel like I haven't posted in ages, so here you are! I have another (relatively huge) post coming with Reichenbach stuff because let's face it, not going to get over that mess of emotions any time soon.

And in case you want to give your emotions a soundtrack (who doesn't!!!!), I made a fanmix over at timeisfiction, based on Sherlock & John during the episode. Emotions! What is emotions!

Last Known Surroundings

boxed — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:32:04 GMT

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (US):

(01-05)
(06-10)
(11-15)
(16-20)
(21-25)
(26-30)
(31-35)
(36-40)
(41-43)

Sherlock: The Hounds of Baskerville:

(44-48)
(49-53)
(54-58)
(59-63)
(64-68)
(69-73)
(74-78)
(79-83)
(84-88)
(89-93)
(94)

Misc (Doctor Who, Drive, Lost, Misfits):

(95-100)

My biggest post ever!

Small commentary: While making the Sherlock icons, I found myself investigating the space between Sherlock and John - and the distance (or lack thereof) between them. It was so apparent while sifting through the caps that I couldn't help it. Which is why there are a few (like 30) close-ups of them.

And now I'm off to watch Reichenbach Falls and then kill myself.

01-43: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (US)
44-94: Sherlock: The Hounds of Baskerville
95-100: Misc

Tutorials

boxed — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 20:05:15 GMT

Tutorials for these icons, asked by tor_na_do at Ask the Maker:

Original image

1. →

I've cropped the image fairly simply. To get a nice sharpness, I generally duplicate it, and sharpen it. Then, lower the opacity of the sharpened layer, until it's at a sharpness I like.

Here I've set the sharpened layer to 47%.

2. Next is a new adjustment layer, Vibrance, at +100. Saturation at 0:

3. A new Curves adjustment layer, with just a slight input/output ratio:

4. Here I've actually used a "texture" - a photo of a skate park in Sarasota. I've set it to Screen and lowered the opacity to 46%.

→

5. A new Color Balance layer, one where I bring out some more yellows and a bit of red in the Midtones and Shadows.

6. A Selective Color layer! I played with Red, Yellow, Cyan, White, and Neutral.

7. Last, a new Exposure layer. I only adjust the Gamma Correction by 0.82. And then, ta-da!

Original image

1. Here I do the same thing - crop, and duplicate the layer and sharpen. Here I've set the sharpened layer to 62%.

→

2. New Vibrance layer, set to +100. Then a new Curves layer with a slight curve for a bit of brightness. Also, I don't really like the sort of elbow behind Ray's backpack, so I use a brush on a new layer to swipe it out with some white. Nothing overly complicated.

→ →

3. Here, I actually use the original sized image and set it to multiply, while moving it downwards. If you look closely, it's just a bit of Ray's hair that creates the bottom block of color. I do this again, except I move the image enough so the front of Ray's shirt creates this texture on the left side of the icon.

→

4. A new Color Balance layer to bring out Reds in the Midtones. And last, a Selective Color layer where I play with the Reds and Neutrals until I get something I like!

→

blueymcphluey asked: I'm curious about your colouring because it always seems so natural, but there's always a bit of a kick! also would you describe yourself as a 'crop and colour' maker or something else?

I love bringing out the natural colors in photos! It's generally just a matter of tweaking adjustment layers until they're at a place where if you do any more it will become unnatural or even a bit muddied, which is something I hate to see happen. I love using vibrance layers to bring out stronger and brighter colors, instead of messing with saturation. I'll often have two or three vibrance layers, and about seven color balance layers.

I guess I would generally say I'm a crop & color maker? At least, I am at the moment. As far as the style of my icons I'm sure it has a crazy range, and often switches up every few months, but that's mostly a respond to trends. I have this thing where when something gets popular I do my damnedest to do any other thing than what's popular. It's a... thing.

:)

We Come From the Land of the Ice and Snow

boxed — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:20:43 GMT

1024x768 | 1280x960 | 1280x800
1366x768 | 1440x900 | 1680x1050 | 1920x1200

Lisbeth Salander, I am obsessed with you.

The Woman

boxed — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:38:27 GMT

1024x768 | 1280x960 | 1280x800
1366x768 | 1440x900 | 1680x1050 | 1920x1200

Irene Adler wallpaper, for intodelirium!!! Hope you like it. :)

Stuffity-stuff

boxed — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:14:48 GMT

MY THREAD! It's a thing where you can ask me... things, about icons and stuff! Yay!

Also, bestof_icons is doing some really lovely stuff, including Icon nominations! Tell me what icons you think are the best I've done from 2011, and don't forget to make your own thread so I can nominate your best of 2011 icons as well!

Don't forget that requests are always open, just drop me a few caps. :)

Strangeness & Charm

boxed — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:21:38 GMT

Doctor Who:

(01-03)

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (US):

(04-08)
(09-11)

Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia:

(12-16)
(17-21)
(22-24)

01-03: Doctor Who
04-11: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (US)
12-24: Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia

Two posts in two days?! What is happening to me!

The first of the year

boxed — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 23:05:43 GMT

Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia:

(01-05)
(06-10)
(11-15)
(16-20)
(21-25)
(26-30)

01-30: Sherlock: A Scandal in Belgravia

Work is slow, so I thought I'd ring in the new year with some Sherlock! I've already watched it about 4 times and this will probably turn into a problem but lbr how is being obsessed with Benedict Cumberbatch's face a real problem? Hahahaha oh god someone take Photoshop away from me.

Holiday Cards

boxed — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:45:19 GMT

Hey guys! I am sending out Holiday cards this week, so if you'd like one, please comment with your address! I'd be happy to give you mine in return as well.

YAY HOLIDAY TIME!!!!!!!!

Ain't nobody gonna love you like the Devil do

boxed — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 22:26:34 GMT

Fringe:

(01-05)
(06-10)
(11)

Merlin:

(12-16)
(17-20)

Misfits:

(21-25)

Trying to make some softer icons, I'm really enjoying the feeling of simplicity in these, and they were a lot of fun to do.