In deiner Mitte
Since I've been feeling particularly uninspired lately and tumblr prevents me from iconmaking by distracting me with pretty pictures, I thought it might be fun to make an icon progress post (Not dial-up friendly).
PART I
A: 2005 - 2006
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My first fandom! It's pretty obvious from these that I loved (and still love) Buffy. Oh God, looking at these is cringe-worthy and pretty hilarious at the same time. It's awesome that you can automatically define these as n00b material: No idea how to use the sharpening tool, abuse of textures, text TEXTURES (see the "for bleeding on your shirt" icon where the text fits perfectly to Buffy's expression. At least it's not Comic Sans?), abuse of PS filters, tiny text and mostly boring center cropping. And let's not forget floating body parts like that disembodied eye in the Alyson Hannigan icon, that's a classic. Also, I really want to know what I was thinking when I made the "Devil inside" icon, it looks like a weird combination between Hulk and the Evil Witch in "Wicked". I still love the Buffy & Spike sitting on the porch icon in the middle, though, it was the first one I was really proud of :).
B: 12/2006 - 8/2007
I think you can definitely see an improvement here, also because I learned some new "techniques" and stopped being frustrated with every single icon I made. I can still look back at the iconpost(s) in the first row without instantly wanting to delete everything. Still, I had an unhealthy obsession with a specific grey texture by
perforada and used it in every second icon. You can definitely see glimpses of my future "style" here (less messy textures; use of repetitive images; black and white icons; more interesting crops) but there's still much to learn in the texture and text department.
PART II
Part II is what I call my "bandom phase". From Panic at the Disco over my Chemical Romance to Fall Out Boy, I iconned them all. Most definitely not missing the crappy quality pictures and candids that came with this fandom even though they helped with challenging myself and becoming better in the process.
A: 09/2007 - 01/2008
Some experiments with text: I loved Cairo, Times New Roman and this weird font called 3 grammes 5. Lots of black/white icons again, I actually miss making them now. I think this was also around the time I started actively participating in challenges and my first LIMS ever so the fandoms are all over the place.
B: 03/2008 - 11/2008
I'm not sure how to describe this "phase". Beside the obligatory band members the majority of these are still challenge entries or icons of movies I enjoyed at that time. Maybe mastering the art of blending ;D? The Ugly Betty icon with all the faces on it probably looks crazy but I'm weirdly fond of it. Otherwise, negative space, daring cropping and textures are still awesome.
PART III
A: 11/2008 - 06/2009
MERLIN ♥! (I miss this show so much, I want the third season NOW.) I started to combine several images in an icon and the coloring started to become more vivid. Also, these are the last posts in my old graphics journal,kristallsturm, I needed a fresh start.
B: 9/2009 - 06/2010
A selection of icons that I posted to this community so far. It's really noticeable that there are barely any black & white icons inbetween which is too bad because I really love them. Apparently, I also forgot what text use is which gives room for experimentation in the future. I really miss all the crazy things I used to do with icons in the past. Sure, the outcome would look horrible at times or I ended up being the only one who liked the icon but who cares, it was FUN and that's what counts when making icons.
Allright, enough with the "analyzing", I hope this was as entertaining for you as it was educating for me!
PART I
A: 2005 - 2006
My first fandom! It's pretty obvious from these that I loved (and still love) Buffy. Oh God, looking at these is cringe-worthy and pretty hilarious at the same time. It's awesome that you can automatically define these as n00b material: No idea how to use the sharpening tool, abuse of textures, text TEXTURES (see the "for bleeding on your shirt" icon where the text fits perfectly to Buffy's expression. At least it's not Comic Sans?), abuse of PS filters, tiny text and mostly boring center cropping. And let's not forget floating body parts like that disembodied eye in the Alyson Hannigan icon, that's a classic. Also, I really want to know what I was thinking when I made the "Devil inside" icon, it looks like a weird combination between Hulk and the Evil Witch in "Wicked". I still love the Buffy & Spike sitting on the porch icon in the middle, though, it was the first one I was really proud of :).
B: 12/2006 - 8/2007
I think you can definitely see an improvement here, also because I learned some new "techniques" and stopped being frustrated with every single icon I made. I can still look back at the iconpost(s) in the first row without instantly wanting to delete everything. Still, I had an unhealthy obsession with a specific grey texture by
perforada and used it in every second icon. You can definitely see glimpses of my future "style" here (less messy textures; use of repetitive images; black and white icons; more interesting crops) but there's still much to learn in the texture and text department. PART II
Part II is what I call my "bandom phase". From Panic at the Disco over my Chemical Romance to Fall Out Boy, I iconned them all. Most definitely not missing the crappy quality pictures and candids that came with this fandom even though they helped with challenging myself and becoming better in the process.
A: 09/2007 - 01/2008
Some experiments with text: I loved Cairo, Times New Roman and this weird font called 3 grammes 5. Lots of black/white icons again, I actually miss making them now. I think this was also around the time I started actively participating in challenges and my first LIMS ever so the fandoms are all over the place.
B: 03/2008 - 11/2008
I'm not sure how to describe this "phase". Beside the obligatory band members the majority of these are still challenge entries or icons of movies I enjoyed at that time. Maybe mastering the art of blending ;D? The Ugly Betty icon with all the faces on it probably looks crazy but I'm weirdly fond of it. Otherwise, negative space, daring cropping and textures are still awesome.
PART III
A: 11/2008 - 06/2009
MERLIN ♥! (I miss this show so much, I want the third season NOW.) I started to combine several images in an icon and the coloring started to become more vivid. Also, these are the last posts in my old graphics journal,
kristallsturm, I needed a fresh start.B: 9/2009 - 06/2010
A selection of icons that I posted to this community so far. It's really noticeable that there are barely any black & white icons inbetween which is too bad because I really love them. Apparently, I also forgot what text use is which gives room for experimentation in the future. I really miss all the crazy things I used to do with icons in the past. Sure, the outcome would look horrible at times or I ended up being the only one who liked the icon but who cares, it was FUN and that's what counts when making icons.
Allright, enough with the "analyzing", I hope this was as entertaining for you as it was educating for me!