icons by luppiters

32. [bestof_icons] and the winner is...

luppiters — Sat, 27 Feb 2021 16:50:57 GMT

Without much ado, the people have decided that my best icon of 2020 (or is it their favorite icon of mine?) is…

Thank you, once again, for all the votes and nominations. It means a lot ♥ I do think the poll had many, if not most, of the icons I would've picked for myself so that's pretty cool.

Unlike last year, the votes didn't favor a nice distribution. The top 2 were pretty much tied till the eleventh hour! (And, maybe, I'd have broken in favor of the one that placed second.) Then there were two tied for 3rd, and 3 icons tied for 5th and 8th respectively (or 4th and 5th, ha).

(hover for month and fandom)

I actually like this top 10/11! (I added that 11th icon because the CJD icon was too similar and felt odd, ha.) I was so happy to see my favorite icon made it to the nomination round (a few times!) and got two of its versions into the top 10 ♥ (even if the alt version got the most votes, lol… guess the other one's font is too light? Oops).

As I mentioned before, I like the winning Beth icon and remember struggling while I made it (since it was for somein30's muted vs. vibrant round, I tried hard to find the balance) but it's mostly really simple, save for the extra painting I added to the eyes and hair. Not that the Aimee icon is too complex either but I guess the palette and its playfulness appeal more to me. I just know that I didn't think either of them would be the winning icon of the year, the same way it was kind of obvious the Saoirse and Elizabeth icons would win… but I also don't know which one it could've been. Looking back, I guess I knew it'd be out there since it stood out from that set – which I loved. It's a very solid pick, nonetheless :D

I am not too sure of what five icons I'd have nominated or which ten I'd choose to showcase here but this section of last year's scrapbook contains some of my own favorite icons + my favorite sets I put out – because I often like the group more than the individual icons. We all know that CJD icon (here as 3 and 9) is my favorite and I've talked about it at length in a couple of posts so, I won't ramble about it. It's a good selection :)
I like these ten that were picked and there are some overlap with the ones I would've probably picked from the nominated bunch! (For the CJD one, imagine either version worked :-P)
In no particular order…

I kinda miss the Susan/Narnia icon, or the beautiful The Crown icon but I liked the colors and compositions of the couple I've added. I wish I could've added a couple more Queen's Gambit or the Chernobyl one or even others from some of my favorite sets.

Thanks again for the votes ♥
Let's see if I get inspired to make anything this month so I can post the < 10 icons I made in January :-P (So far, I've made 0 this month and I don't know if that'll change, oops.)

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BEST ICONS OF THE YEAR

2020	2019	2018

31. [bestof_icons 2020] · voting!

luppiters — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 21:53:55 GMT

BEST OF 2020 - JOIN IN! | MY POLL
I would really appreciate it if you took the time to vote in this (and everyone else's!) ♥
Thank you in advance! (And thank you for the noms!)

30. [bestof_icons 2020] · icon nominations

luppiters — Sat, 02 Jan 2021 14:00:57 GMT

ICON NOMINATIONS - JOIN IN! | MY THREAD

Happy New Year! If you're so inclined, that's my thread for icon nominations :)
I'll be slowly going through everyone's threads once I have some time.

29. 2020 icon progression

luppiters — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 15:35:32 GMT

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!
Hope 2021 is your best year yet. After such a weird and seemingly bad year, I hope the next one brings lots of happiness (love, laughter, friendship, purpose, and a dance 😉) your way ♥♥♥♥♥

My idea for this year's icon progression is to have a couple of longer explanations for the process behind 1-2 representative or favorite icons per month if I remember enough. We'll see! Brace yourself for long ramblings (pls skip those).

layout credit: rocketgirl2

January

jan.

Both my best icons from 2018 and 2019 were from January... so I felt both this responsibility to make something great but also to switch it up? (I don't know what it says about me that the best icon is from January.)
This time around, I didn't make that many icons in January, unlike last year (2018 was quieter, and yet that Saoirse icon stood out immediately).

Spotlight: I really like how the Dunkirk icon came out – not only because the colors do evoke the vibrant blue summer sky but the sun texture (desaturated, probably sized down slightly) truly adds something. I also like the Narnia icon for Susan – the hair painting, the flower texture erased to seem like a hair piece, Aslan as the background texture (it was part of the og screencap, to the side).

February

feb.

All year I've felt like I didn't make many icons in February didn't have that many icons but it did, and somehow there were small batches that were amazing, imo?
* The One Pair, Five Icons small battle from itsabattlefield was a great opportunity to make some Shibert icons, which were a new OTP at the start of the year (RIP, AWAE).
* The kiss prompt at tvshowsic? I love all four icons dearly (and picking between this Jafael icon and the B/B one always hurts me; that one's so colorful!).
* The B&W small battle from itsabattlefield got some solid icons out of it (and I love the variety of grays I got in this icon).

Spotlight: I've felt like I told the story about this AWAE icon on its post (link above) but I'll try and summarize it– I wanted to do some floating, negative space-heavy icon that was simple yet beautiful. The frame texture hadn't even been what I had in mind (it was some other, slightly more modern technique) but once I saw it in the folder, I knew it'd work out even better. The background is halfway between clouds and paint and it works really well? I dig it a lot.

March

mar.

This month, my main set was for the TV Tropes challenge over at fandom10in30 @ DW, whose premise I loved instantly. It was the first time in a while I made more than 5 icons with the same fandom for an actual challenge (if we don't count that CJ set from late last year that I did for myself) and it was fun to just try and stretch those muscles. It made me realize that a lot of TWW's tropes are in things that are hard to show on an icon but I tried my best.

The other challenge I dug a lot was elitesimplicity's "One Decade" in which every icon you entered had to be from a different decade. In fact, the other two icons I chose are from this one. Spotlight: Aimee's was fun because green isn't a color I use a lot but here's so prominent. I think the hints of color from the headphones + the music texture are just fun. (The scene itself is… not.) The crop and the coloring are fun and overall, I think it's a beautiful icon that just pops.

April

apr.

A couple of solid batches of icons are here: itsabattlefield's techniques (here represented by the S60 icon) and iconthat @DW's 1980s' challenge. (I surprisingly didn't pick the icon that won something, aka the droids, lol). I also entered the bingo at the7days, and... god, even if I like a lot of them individually, I don't love it as a set. (Since it was such a productive month, I also struggled to pick icons.)

Spotlight: attempts at originality! Wow.
* The first icon (Jack from TIU) was another one that I started playing around with; maybe the fully colored versions look better but I think this mix of B&W and color came out really nice! You could argue it's about memories on more than one level.
* Crops! I love the closer crops in these Chernobyl and AWAE icons, and the coloring in the former just looks incredible, if I say so myself. Fun coloring!
* And finally, that S60 icon. I have mixed feelings on that show but I've been trying to get this icon right for the last 2-3 years (to a place it was close to my vision) and I think I finally did. The simplicity of it is great but I love the little composition details – e.g. how the Cal and Allison just fade into the background and sit on the text without it being extremely obvious.

May

may. also may.

This might have been my most productive month? Whew.
I am actually proud of the the7days' 7 genres batch – I made it in a week (something I can't simply do; I overthink my picks too much) because I had somehow missed the first posts and reminders and it's such a fantastic prompt?! I had to enter. I'm actually proud of that set and how colorful it is – definitely one of my favorites this year.
While I missed those posts, I was making my second set this year for fandom10in30 @ DW, where there was a mystery box challenge (with so many great prompts and inspos!) and I actually won?!?! It wasn't a set I loved at first, either, but I truly like a lot of the individual pieces and it ended up working as a more or less cohesive set.
Also here, the elitesimplicity's Unknown challenge. I love how this Russian Doll icon came about. Love the crop; love the vibrant coloring with a hint of muteness that is unusual for me.

As for the spotlight – JTV! It's not a complex icon but I went crazy with my liberal use of different light gradients and textures for this, to make it so vibrant and yellow (a color I also don't use much). I think the pièce of resistance here is the petals texture that just 1) blends so well with the icon and J/R 2) truly fits the J/R motif from the show. It tickles me when I can add that type of layer to the composition of an icon.

June

I don't seem to have made any icons this month. Part of it was due to my other laptop's battery problems (the charger wasn't working or connecting well). I have not gotten used to this laptop yet and hate how most icons I make look in it.
Another important part was probably being busy with work but let's ignore that.

July

jul.

There is a bit of a trend: darker colorings, for the most part, more muted tones.
I love that Pose icon so much – seems to have that the squad/community feel the show has. Also taking out its real background was hard (this was made for elitesimplicity's LGBT). I thought my capicontest's Zoom entries were strong overall but the coloring for this one took me by surprise – such a noir feel, especially the way the coloring brings out the red. And tvshowsic's Never Iconed Before gave me the opportunity to try and icon shows I had never used before (Babylon Berlin, Catastrophe, For Life (2020)) and I love the crop and earthy tones of these two.
Spotlight: the unexpected cohesiveness and zoom-like nature of those tvshowsic entries. :D The Pose icon. I know it aint much and it probably isn't even the best here (I'm partial to the The Notebook icon) but I love the warm gradients, the pink colors, the texture that brings together that pink/yellow scheme… and how it reminds me of that scene. Pose has been one of my favorite binges this year.

August

aug.

HELLO, MY FAVORITE SET THIS YEAR? (Probably? It was when I posted it. I do love 7 Genres and Muted/Vibrant, too.) I feel like no one feels like I do but it's my most cohesive set so far this year and one I truly loved making. Maybe it's because I worked on it over my vacation and forced myself to think about it and play around, and having that time clearly shows. I think it's fun and closer to the ideas I had in mind for some icons (for the most part, I tried to respect the original's prompts). Also, my two good Mandalorian icons were from this month. Please clap.

Spotlight: I'm obviously going to talk about the first icon, which I'm proud of and probably overrate but it took me forever to figure out and make, SO. It was the last icon I made in this batch, almost giving up on it until some other moment. My original idea was to make an icon about the 'pick something' line, with Toby and Danny (and maybe Bartlet/Santos too) but I just couldn't find a Toby screencap for the episode that worked well. Somehow, I started playing with the other caps I had for other icons and decided I could make it about the very last scene and the conflict they've argued over in the episode. Could it be better? Sure. (In December, I changed its background colors and it shone even more, imo.) But I'm just proud of myself for making anything like this. It's almost as complex as I've done… and love there are some ~~layers to it.

September

sep.

This was a month dominated by the first ever somein30 challenge - a fun technical game that I decided to try and enter hard mode and… I don't really know how I feel about the set, even three months later. It's grown on me and I like a lot of the icons on their own. I think I was so high on the August set I hated everything else but I worked on it for weeks, in whatever free time I had.
Spotlight: I simply love the greens on that Bones icon – they look so soft and fairytale-like. The original cap has very dark blues so for the unnatural coloring, I went with this sea green that would still look nice. (It's a v mild unnatural route, I guess.) The other half of the hard mode was text texture and I found that one (don't call this love) that fits B&B at any point in their courtship. I guess I'm just fascinated by how soft and lovely this looks – compared to the harsher versions, you can tell there is a bunch of grungey textures, some starry like and many gradient maps, hah.

October

Another month I truly didn't open Photoshop (and LJ, for the most part) and was mostly out – unlike June, I just couldn't bring myself to d. It was an important month for me personally. Started doing things I should've done forever ago, like telling my bosses I was interested in a change of project (of course, they conveniently forgot and had to remind them in November… and it's early December and I'm still waiting for the actual change.) and worked a bit on myself. I'd also say I just didn't have time and wasn't in the right headspace.

November

nov.

Most of what I said in October applies here but the funny thing is that I looked at this month's somein30 challenge and kept thinking that it'd be fun to make something for it. (But first, I warmed up with some elitesimplicity lol).
So ofc, out of nowhere and with a week?, ten days? to go, I decided to make a set. Even if it was just 5 and awful. It helped me reaffirm I'm a natural, vibrant-ish coloring person when it comes to my own iconmaking. And that not being able to decide got this set from 10 to 15 to 16. And I still really dig it – the contrast between both styles just looks pretty.
It's nothing adventurous and I feel like they might be too simple, yet some of these look pretty despite not having made anything since the previous somein30 round.

Spotlight(s): That Queen's Gambit icon that was the people's choice for the set took me a while because I kept making it both muted and vibrant depending on the amount of each I had for the set – somehow the constant ended up being the green makeup in the eyes and the fact it looks too pink to my eye sometimes. OTOH, that TGP icon was fun and actually preserves part of the dirt on the feet from the original cap because removing it made the feet shape strange. I think the choice of a blueish purple and the flower texture give it a nice touch and complements colors already present.

December

dec.

I didn't do a lot this month either, yikes. I did love a few of the challenges (like Memory Lane at somein30 that inspired me but c'mon – my fandoms have been pretty constant even if we've added + I didn't want to go back to check sunny-raining) but in the end, I only made the remakes activity for bestof_icons – and lots of the requests happened to be icons I liked (some I even loved), including my most favorite icon of the year. This is always a really fun activity, particularly when ~~older icons are chosen or inspiration strikes, and you can make a whole new icon, or when an icon that wasn't quite there becomes something else (I'm thinking of this first CJ icon, for instance).
The icons I picked seem to have a bit of a palette going on and that's amusing.

Spotlight: Wait, me, talking about a different version of an icon I've already talked about? For that ~~fave icon, this gave me the chance to change that icon's background color (the original was gold because of the post palette, iirc, IDK why I didn't choose the lavender I made this month) but then I tried to remake it in a way its essence remained but was also different… and I think it still looks cool. Some of the remakes were more succesful than the others. I also made a couple of Taylor Swift icons (yet not as many as I'd have liked) and some stock icons so it was a bit of a full circle thing with January. For more on my chosen icon of the year head here, where I talk about it in a lot of detail.

Goodbye, 2020

looking back… It was not my most productive year, against all odds, and I keep being somewhat inconsistent when it comes to resolutions… but hey, I'm quite proud of some of the icons I made this year! I think I have my small niche and a somewhat defined style. It can be hit or miss but I'm slowly trying to step out of my comfort zone from time to time, with mixed resultls.

looking ahead… I'm hoping to participate in the current your_favourites challenge if I get the time in the next couple of days? I'd love to say I'll participate in a challenge a month but I can't control my muse and work (both professional and personal). I'm also hoping to keep evolving and trying out new things and keep improving my current "technique".

Here's hoping 2021 is a much better year for everyone and that I'm slightly more consistent with my iconmaking :)

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2020's icons

December	November	September	July/Aug	May	March	February	January

28. [multi] icon remakes for bestof_icons

luppiters — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 17:30:26 GMT

Wait, am I posting an update before the end of the month!? Wow. I don't know if I'll have the time to make any more icons this year and, if I do, I'll probably add whatever remakes they likely are to this post.
bestof_icons is back this year and I couldn't be more excited. The remakes activity is so much fun (and god, I still have to pick other people's icons!) and this year was no different – even if I really liked most of the icons that got picked and I found it difficult to find a new spin. That's the fun of it, isn't it?
You be the judge of how they turned out. I like a couple of them quite a bit! ~~They're not the best, I'm telling you that for free. They're… fine?~~

Includes…

TV: La Casa de Papel, The West Wing, The Good Place, Brooklyn 99, Bones [19]
Movies: Enola Holmes, Dunkirk [4]
People: Taylor Swift [3]
Others: Stock images [8]

Remakes with "brief" explanations of intention (thread here, with probably more rambling)
-->
Enola was one of the most recent icons I've made (from November!) and one of the first I made after that month-and-three-quarters hiatus. I liked the vision in the original a lot; the frame reminds me of the time period and I liked it was all salmon-ish tones (there are also a few flower textures in there. So this remake was a closer crop slightly more focused on lighting and coloring. Do I love it? No. I think it's okay but I don't really have a better idea.
-->
This is one where I could see things to change in the original - that coloring is cold and the lighting looks off and the background… yikes. I kept it simple and though my intention was to have a closer crop, I took it even further out because the hug is lovely as it is. Maybe the maroon background wasn't the best pick but when I made it, I kinda wanted it to be similar to the jumpsuits. I think the warmer coloring and the new lighting suit the icon better. I made an alt with a grunge texture to keep that from the original.
-->
Aw, I liked this Amy icon. This was for the fandom10in30 Mystery Box challenge @ DW and the texture was one of my items. I liked the orange on lighter orange combo and how Amy looks… but I immediately knew I wanted to have a blue background for complementary color reasons. I like it now but it's lacking something. Haven't found yet what.
-->
The original icon took me a while to figure out and it was the same with these – finding the background was hard. The original's prompt for the technical game were close up and color explosion, so this is muted and farther away… sort of. I don't love it but the colorful texture I found in the eleventh hour works well? It's a contrast I dig. At least now we can see his froyo and his expression, which is priceless.
-->
The original icon, from the TV Tropes set in March, is one of my favorites of that batch if only of the almost douchrome aspect + how well that frame works. (I was into frames in February-March, oops.) The new one reminds me of the frames I'd use in 2008-2011 (aka my past LJ life) because of how I played with the background. Fun fact: the song playing during this scene is "Bang Bang" so yeah, the texture had to be there. Overall, I think it still fits its trope (it was The Big Kiss, after all) and has the same spirit as the old one (Josh and Donna in some sort of frame that happened unexpectedly).
-->
I simply love the simplicity of the original. I really do. The coloring is just pretty. The new ones are just… bad. Nothing I did would top that one. I liked the wave png I found on google (and copied a few times into the icon) but it came off too greenish in most passes. I don't love the cartoonish background vs. the subject all that much.
-->
I adore the original and it's possible most of that love is subjective… but I realy do love it. These icons are special because thye are remakes of a remake! As I might've mentioned in its original post (the Remakes batch from August), it was the last one I made for those because I had an idea rattling around on my brain but I couldn't put it to ~~paper~~ Photoshop. Maybe the background could've/should've been another color (I think it was this color to keep with my gold streak then) so I solved that in the alts below but figuring out how to remake it? Gah. Took me another day of playing around with the canvas and positions because I ended up with something close to the original every time; this one still gives off a similar vibe while being "different" enough. What started to get it there: making C.J. black and white(-ish) with a dark grey/white gradient. What probably got it fully there: this texture by fuuurs that's in the inspo post for this somein30 round. I just realized that I dug the vibe a darker palette was giving off and I kept it going through the vibrant yet 'darker' shades of the alts. (Also that texture looked great with the original in the indigo bg.)
tl;dr: it was all about vibes. I kinda really like this one even if its composition went nowhere like I thought it would (hint: closer to blocks than this). Also wtf, why don't I have as much to say about the others?

ALTS
Unlike what I did in the actual remake thread, I only picked two versions of what I did, since that seemed to be the average. Here are some extras, including some fun tweaking on one of the original icons. (I really love that icon. Have I said that recently?)

OTHERS
I started the year with stock icons so I decided to make a couple to bring it full circle. I also added an alt from the September post that I forgot. (It wasn't until I saw one of my fave tumblrs using the more intense green version that I saw I didn't have a textless version of this softer coloring, which I prefer.) Stock images are from unsplashed.

Bones · Taylor Swift

stock

stock

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Comments are ♥♥♥

Credit if you use them is also very much appreciated (luppiters, holyinterruptus or claudiajcregg @ tumblr).

Do not use these icons as bases or repost anywhere without permission.

Watch or join the comm for updates!

*******
2020's icons

November	September	July/Aug	May	March	February	January

27. [bestof_icons 2020] · icon remake

luppiters — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 22:36:48 GMT

ICON REMAKE - JOIN IN! | MY THREAD
Don't be too mean, please, haha. I'll go over everyone's threads once I have some time but this activity is always lots of fun! I've been a bit uninspired lately but we'll see what we can do.

26. [bestof_icons 2020] · coming soon!

luppiters — Sun, 06 Dec 2020 11:47:05 GMT

bestof_icons || activities start December 11

I have no idea if I'll be entering any new challenges this month (will I be inspired for somein30 again?) but best_of activities are always a fun time :) Thanks rizbef for organizing it once again and for all the work you put in!

25. [multi] muted & vibrant for somein30

luppiters — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 19:45:43 GMT

A set of 16 normal mode muted and vibrant icons (and more than likely somewhere in between) for somein30. I loved the theme and its inspo post, which was simply stunning, but for the longest time, I wasn't sure I'd make anything for it. I haven't really made icons since the last post in here, for the inaugural somein30 round, and I feel rusty – I couldn't make anything work but I wanted to try to make a set of five, at the very least.
The result? 16 very simple icons that are not my best but hopefully aren't too awful. I normally gravitate towards vibrancy/natural coloring in my coloring and I felt I even struggled to take them fully there. Depending on the monitor, they look somewhat muted and weird. I also decided they were sixteen (and not fifteen) while preparing this post so yay.

TV: The Queen's Gambit, Succession, The Good Place, The West Wing, The Crown, Babylon Berlin, Gilmore Girls, Good Omens, Sex Education
Movies: Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Enola Holmes, Solo
Music/Celebs: Phoebe Bridgers

[01-04]
[05-08]
[09-12]
[13-16]

Others (alts/rejects/not quite there yet)
[17-20]
Succession · The Good Place x2 · Portrait of a Lady on Fire
[21-24]
The West Wing
[25-28]
Queen's Gambit · Phoebe Bridgers · Gilmore Girls · Sex Education
[29-32]
Good Omens · TWW: A Benefit for When We All Vote

elitesimplicity · 258: screencap pool
The actual first icons I made in forever. The caps were fun, even those from things I might've not watched (like XF). I didn't use all the ones I saved (looking at you, Disco) but maybe soon.
[33-35]
Queen's Gambit · Solo · Enola Holmes

[36-39]
Queen's Gambit · Jojo Rabbit · X-Files · The Good Place

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Comments are ♥♥♥

Credit if you use them is also very much appreciated (luppiters, holyinterruptus or claudiajcregg @ tumblr).

Do not use these icons as bases or repost anywhere without permission.

Watch or join the comm for updates!

*******
2020's icons thus far

September	July/Aug	May	March	February	January

24. [multi] technical game for somein30

luppiters — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 09:15:30 GMT

All the cool kids are doing it! somein30 had such a fun technical round this time around and though I've been out of LJ for most of the month, I've been catching up on everyone's stunning sets. Seriously, mine is nowhere as good but I figured I'd post it already. (After a good four weeks, I'm starting to doubt whether some of these, particularly in the first row, even fit their normal mode prompt, let alone their second theme. Yikes.)

60 icons total, from the following...

tv: The Mandalorian, The West Wing, The Good Place, Cardcaptor Sakura, Bones, Babylon Berlin, This is Us, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Dead to Me, Stumptown, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Sex Education
movies: Hamilton, Knives Out
people: Phoebe Bridgers, Allison Janney

"Hard" mode. Sort of. Maybe?

hover for fandom
my throws ft. jsfunction's great board

I would've loved to make 15 (the number of throws with prompts) but I was just... not that inspired or even happy with the first ten (... I am still not). So I focused on trying to make them half decent and make them "hard" mode but they're probably the simplest hard mode icons there are (Seriously. I keep doubting if some actually fit their normal mode, help). The set is the opposite of cohesive (not just because of how the random prompts worked though that didn't help). Part of me was still proud of August's set and wishing I could've been as imaginative, lol.

throws with the prompts they supposedly bolded have

1. MAIN - Contrast/lighting #1: Dark
HARD - Cropping #6: Center crop
EXTRA HARD - Composition #7: Text

2. MAIN - Contrast/lighting #9: Blob(s) of light
HARD - Composition #2: Fake background
EXTRA HARD - Textures #6: Borders

3. MAIN - Cropping #10: Focus on top
HARD - Textures #6: Borders
EXTRA HARD - Coloring #10: Unnatural

4. MAIN - Composition #7: Text
HARD - Coloring #2: Vibrant
EXTRA HARD - Contrast/lighting #1: Dark

5. MAIN - Cropping #7: Side crop (hopefully it counts since it's only the guitar out)
HARD - Coloring #8: Pastels (the bg was too dark but I promise it's pastel)
EXTRA HARD - Contrast/lighting #9: Blob(s) of light

6. MAIN - Composition #6: Minimalism (the icon uses its original bg save for the clouds)
HARD - Cropping #5: Subjects from varying distances
EXTRA HARD - Textures #4: Stock (the clouds)

7. MAIN - Contrast/lighting #9: Blob(s) of light
HARD - Cropping #9: Low/bottom crop
EXTRA HARD - Textures #5: Decorative accent (I hesitate to mark it but there is a super faint one)

8. MAIN - Coloring #5: Color explosion (the way I've struggled with this theme...)
HARD - Cropping #3: Close crop
EXTRA HARD - Textures #8: Grunge (again with such vibrant colors it's hard to see but it's there!!)

9. MAIN - Contrast/lighting #3: Low contrast
HARD - Textures #10: Text, tiny text or numbers
EXTRA HARD - Cropping #2: Full body

10. MAIN - Textures #10: Text, tiny text or numbers
HARD - Cropping #9: Low/bottom crop
EXTRA HARD - Coloring #10: Unnatural (the night sky is bright turquoise!)

11. MAIN - Composition #8: Blending (**)
HARD - Cropping #10: Focus on top
EXTRA HARD - Coloring #2: Vibrant

12. MAIN - Textures #7: Frame
HARD - Coloring #4: Duochrome
EXTRA HARD - Composition #7: Text

13. MAIN - Composition #3: Original background
HARD - Coloring #4: Duochrome
EXTRA HARD - Textures #9: Patterned

14. MAIN - Cropping #10: Focus on top
HARD - Coloring #7: Black and white + color
EXTRA HARD - Textures #3: Light

15. MAIN - Composition #1: Negative space
HARD - Cropping #7: Side crop
EXTRA HARD - Contrast/lighting #5: Matte
16. AC
17. AC
18. AC
19. AC
20. AC

Alts/Rejects
An exercise in a thousand variations. Half of these don't even fit any specific prompt but I tried to play around with them. Fun facts: Holt was the color explosion icon for a very long time and took me awhile to get "right" (though I feel I could make it better). I probably like this second Jason better than the other one but closer crop, it kinda was not.
[11-15]
Phoebe Bridgers · This is Us · Hamilton · The West Wing
[16-20]
The West Wing
[21-25]
Allison Janney · The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
[26-30]
The Good Place
[31-35]
Cardcaptor Sakura · Stumptown · Bones
[36-40]
Bones · Brooklyn Nine Nine · Sex Education

movieslims Round 31: The Mandalorian
Gotta love how I predicted I'd be first out. I had an epic track record (ELIM - - WIN/RTN WIN ELIM -) and tbh, it was the most nervewracking experience. Everyone was just so good and I couldn't make anything work and IDK. I think this will prove I still suck at picking what icons I should enter or how I shouldn't have touched them a million timess once they were done. (To be fair... I hadn't made an icon in a long while when I was working on the first round.)

Official Entries (Ch. 1, 4, 5 and 6)

Alts
[45-49]
[50-54]

Bonus: Round 32
Debated long and hard whether I should enter, even going as far as making two icons for it (I truly love Knives Out and was just so happy it was picked!). In the end, I wasn't sure if I would have the time or inspiration. I just didn't want to forget to post them.

tvshowsic: Shows that start with D
[57-60]
Dead to Me x4

*******

Comments are ♥♥♥

Credit if you use them is also very much appreciated (luppiters, holyinterruptus or claudiajcregg @ tumblr).

Do not use these icons as bases or repost anywhere without permission.

Watch or join the comm for updates!

*******
2020's icons thus far

July/Aug	May	March	February	January

23. [promo] somein30!

luppiters — Sun, 30 Aug 2020 15:30:01 GMT

JOIN | WATCH

Exciting new community! :) I'll definitely participate in as many rounds as I can... if my muse visits me again.
~~Imo my best icons this year were part of sets I made for cool themes, so this comm is right up my alley.~~

22. [multi] icon remakes for fandom10in30

luppiters — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 09:32:17 GMT

These posts are getting more and more sporadic, are they? Not to blame my lack of inspiration for that but it's true. In this case, a huge factor was the broken charger for the old laptop I use to make icons. I can't simply control sharpening in my normal laptop (on top of having no resources and not being used to it) so I won't really try it. (But also work continues to kill my muse.)

Anyhoo, for the last few weeks, I've been working on the remake challenge over at fandom10in30 – it was such a great idea because who hasn't wanted to remake their own older icons? It's definitely one of my favorite activities during bestof_icons. I quickly found more than 30 icons I would gladly remake.

Did I remake them for the better? That's for you to decide :P I quite like how the set came out, which is weird because once I work on something for a while.

TV: TWW (11), The Good Place (3), AWAE (3), Pose (2), Jane the Virgin (2), Star Trek: Discovery (2), Babylon Berlin (2), thirtysomething, Bones, B99, You're the Worst, Superstore, OUAT, Nailed It, For Life, Catastrophe, RuPaul's Drag Race,
Movies: The Notebook, Stardust

click on the icon to see the original and on the fandom to see the original post. More info in the wall of text under the spoiler cut.
[01-05]
The Good Place · thirtysomething · TGP · Anne with an E · Bones
[06-10]
The West Wing · Brooklyn Nine-Nine · TWW · Jane the Virgin · TWW
~~I was too productive during the summer of 2018, whew.~~

I wouldn't classify all of the original ones as awful because I have much worse icons. Some of these are about what tickled me in that moment.

(There were literally days I'd sit with Photoshop open, going through the different posts trying to find something to make. It was wonderful.)

lbr, I've remade a bunch of these many times. I just picked the worst icon of them all because some were okay! Or the first one I just found.

I didn't use any icons I made in my past LJ life; only the stuff I've made in the last three years or so. (Mostly because it'd be hard to find the original caps of those. The most recent posts from those are probably ten years old now.)

If the icons were made for a specific prompt/challenge, I tried my best to respect it if I realized it in time. Only two cases kind of don't but would've fit somewhere else in the set.

I ended up not remaking any (or very few) icons from challenge communities where you have to use specific caps. Mostly because I wasn't completely inspired and I'd rather go for stuff I was more likely to "know". Some of those icons were the worst offenders.

The color palette was unintentional. Once I had like 7-8 icons I was sure of, I tried to mold the others to "fit" that. Kind of. (See the background of 8.) They all look very summery and I kind of dig it.

Fun fact: the first five icons I made all made it in! (I tried to rig this so they would, ha.) Their apparent order was 10, 7, 5, 2, 1. They already had that ~vibe. ~~(The rest would go alt!2, alt!1, alt!3, 6 and all its alts, 9, 4, 3, alts 4 and 5, and finally 8.)~~

Info on the original icons!

Originally made for itsabattlefield in Feb 2019 (x) - Quick Battle for Romance. I wanted to clean it up, especially that texture. What was I thinking back then?

Originally made for itsabattlefield - the first big battle (Nostalgia) in Summer 2018 (x) -- around August, I'm sure. Can't remember what it was an alt for (close crop? not too vibrant, I guess). The texture fits the California-ish vibe I wanted to go for. I'd have added text if I remembered what they said to each other.

Originally made for your_favourites, in the last days of 2018. Theme: Favorite Curse Word (x). I obviously love the actual curse words but I've always enjoyed the way TGP played with them, so that's what I used. For this icon, I didn't get to what I wanted (a million flashing arrows and flashing text) but I like it's cleaner now, with a subtle notebook page texture in the background. (Is there a theme in my remakes?!?!)

Originally made 'cause I wanted to in Feb 2020 (x). I don't hate the original, mostly the text (too wordy) and the fact it comes off a bit dark on my screen. I wanted to do a closer crop. I also used a different quote I found that also fit the vibe: “Listen to the trees talking in their sleep,’ she whispered, as he lifted her to the ground. ‘What nice dreams they must have!”

Originally made for the same Nostalgia battle as n.2 at itsabattlefield! (x) (Its theme was close crop.) The original was a "recolor" so the skin tone is off, probably because of the brightness/contrast balance and because that's what I struggle with when doing that. This one looks more natural and has a fun crop. I even respected the faux makeup!

Originally made for your_favourites' favorite kiss challenge in Nov 2018 (x); also applies to an alt from historamedy365 (x). TWW can be hard to color because it's dark. This was an office scene at night and I don't even know how I pulled this one off. (I struggle removing the background in these caps.) The text is from Taylor Swift's 'invisible string' because it is stuck on my head and also I just associate this couple with the red thread of fate myth the most. (The actual text is bent in a way it kind of attempts to look like they're wrapped in the string. It says "one single thread of gold tied me to you.")

Originally made 'cause I wanted to sometime in 2017 (x), back when I was just making icons again. I really liked that light texture, which can be seen in a bunch of icons in that post. It's possibly not the same exact cap but it's the same expression. My problem with the original was the brightness/contrast. I think Amy looks better overall now so I don't care if it's slightly dark.

Originally made for the C/D-named characters challenge at tvshowsic (x) but tbh, I could probably find some other alt. This icon wasn't even supposed to be in this set because I just couldn't figure out how to execute my vision. I still haven't (it was meant to reflect a conversation with a different character about 'picking something', which would've meant adding him in and other stuff) but I couldn't find good caps of him from that scene (don't ask me why I didn't go for any other). I think this does also make sense within the narrative of the show even if it's missing the Hollis option??? I don't know. I like how it worked out; can't wait to hate it in a few months :D ~~I might've forgotten to keep to the "original" challenge... but it still has characters whose names start with C and D!~~

Originally made for a quick battle at itsabattlefield from ~~last summer, July???~~ May 2019 (x). It's not that I hate the icon but it felt overstuffed, somehow - like trying to hide the texture I had to use. So I tried to simplify it a but more. I respected the original texture with some manipulation (colors, placement) and went with a soft purple/lavender. My obsession with floating subjects continues.

Originally made for the historamedy365 claim I completed in 2018 (this icon is from June, I think?) for the "Animal" theme (x). The alt (x) is a worse offender, tbh, but I just remember struggling with the original. I wanted to fix the fact Gail the Goldfish (the best character to ever exist) was not the main focus. (She still... isn't. Go, me!) This is the first icon I made for this challenge and I don't know what came over me while making it but I like it. Then I realized way too late I had chosen the wrong screencap (look at Gail in the bowl + the expression on his face) but whatever. I played with text and probably failed at it, as I did in the other four icons that use text. I also added a goldfish silhouette I found as the background. At the very least, it fits the theme better and it's more fun??? P.S. This scene 5ever.

Alts

[11-15]
[16-20]
[21-25]

I don't think the idea in the original (from April 2019 for a itsabattlefield set) is bad. I just don't like the background color. Obviously the inspo is the confused Math lady meme and I've tried to fit that here with sunnier colors. There is a loading bar png I found + some math formulae. All faint. Still a mess. Hopefully a better looking mess.

The original is a character20n20 (May 2018) alt - the one I submitted is worse but I didn't want to think about that. T~~his one spoke to me and still does.~~ Theme was warped text and that one just simply has too much of it to work. This original just needed a better background (can you tell that's something I've always struggled with?) and perhaps this one's text isn't really warped - just the 'I Quit' part - but I like it better overall???

Originally made for a capicontest challenge this spring. I don't completely hate the original. It might be the only one from that comm (aka one with given caps) in this post but I love Superstore and I otherwise don't make that many icons. It's not bad but I wanted to make it simpler.

Original was for historamedy365 but it's farther down the table - so October 2018? I actually like the alt for this original icon (...which I'm now realizing... there are a lot of alternates from that time I didn't post, for a bunch of challenges, again: go, me!) but I probably felt I was overusing that flowery texture that I love. This one is simpler, a closer crop, and more pastel-like but respects the 'right corner' prompt. Sort of.

I like that original made for a itsabattlefield small battle (number 8, iirc) of the technical kind in November 2018 (x) and this icon's theme was "center." I liked that one a lot but I just felt like remaking something Disco so. Instead of monochromatic/grayscale, it's a sand-like coloring.

</span>

And now, I'm adding the ten* icons I've made since the last update.
The aforementioned charger incident means they're off and not great. I also was so uninspired.
(* Not including the LIMS icons because we're still a week or so away from me being out again. The talent all around <3)
26-28 were entries for elitesimplicity's Pride challenge. 29-32 were for capicontest's Zoom and 34-37 were for tvshowsic's Never Iconed Before.
[26-29]
Pose x 2 · RuPaul's Drag Race S9 · Stardust
[30-33]
Star Trek: Discovery/Short Treks · The Notebook · Once Upon a Time · Nailed It
[34-37]
Catastrophe · For Life · Babylon Berlin x2
** Pose was my June binge and I absolutely loved it. I've been watching RPDR on-and-off for the past few months and I actually watched S3 and S9 in June, too. (Don't ask - my watching order has been slightly wild.) Both represent Pride well.
** The Zoom challenge was fun but the best part is how the tvshowsic entries ended up unintentionally having the same progression :D (And with a surprisingly cohesive coloring???) I kinda love the Notebook's coloring and its noir vibe and the bright colors in Disco's.
** Again, the cohesive coloring and the zoom-like effect was hilariously unintentional. We're just a couple (three, as of the writing of this paragraph) away from finishing the latest season of Babylon Berlin. What. a. show.

*******

Comments are ♥♥♥

Credit if you use them is also very much appreciated (luppiters, holyinterruptus or claudiajcregg @ tumblr).

Do not use these icons as bases or repost anywhere without permission.

Watch or join the comm for updates!

*******
2020's icons thus far

May	March	February	January

21. [promo] movielims

luppiters — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 21:37:29 GMT

movieslims movieslims movieslims
Sign up for the new round - The Mandalorian

this is gonna be my first time at a lims competition! Exciting. And terrifying.
This is potentially a terrible idea because: 1) I haven't opened Photoshop in a month. 2) I also haven't really made any Mandalorian icons despite loving the show (just the 2-3 from the previous post). ~~Someone has to go first, am I right? I'm just here to see the pretty icons, lbr.~~
I'd say come join in the fun but I'm pretty sure I'm the last one to sign up, lol

20. [multi] 70 april and may icons

luppiters — Sun, 07 Jun 2020 10:09:14 GMT

How is everyone doing? These are crazy times we're living in, aren't they? Every week seems somehow worse than the previous one. Hope you and your loved ones are doing okay, wherever you are <3
I've dragged my feet but here are the icons I've made over the last couple of months. My annoying format means I'll try to separate them into the different sets instead of putting them all together but I think there are two sets and just random entries.

Includes...
TV: The Americans, This is Us, Gilmore Girls, Parks and Rec, Anne with an E, Chernobyl, 12 Monkeys, Star Trek: Picard, Fringe, B99, TWW, Schitt's Creek, Good Omens, La Casa de Papel, The Good Place, thirtysomething, Studio 60, Bones, The Mandalorian, Agent Carter
Movies: When Harry Met Sally, Knives Out, The Little Mermaid, Star Wars, The Hunger Games, Avengers: Endgame, Harry Potter, Mamma Mia

April · 42 icons

elitesimplicity · Close Contact
(first three are the actual entries)

I love iconing touch even if I'm not that proud of these icons but I often feel weird about working with caps I might've worked recently. The Americans (a show we've only watched two seasons thus far) is the best but coloring it is the worst.

iconthat · 1980s Flashback

I looooove the 1980s (despite having been born in the 90s) so I had to participate in this. It has a good mix of shows set in the 1980s and movies from the 1980s. And while I know the SW icon is the one that won things, I love the Chernobyl and This is Us ones the most. And I'll admit that that love for the This is Us one was because of how much work I put into decoloring Jack, lol, but there is something really cool about it despite how uneven it might look in places.

the7days · Bingo

red background · joy · lips

antihero · weapon · three subjects · lyrics
I think I've said it but I don't love this set either. I like them individually, I guess, and I put a lot of effort into them and getting them to a place I didn't hate them... but as a set, it didn't really work for me. It's one of those cases where I was somewhat inspired but couldn't deliver what I wanted. I do love that three people icon if only because I love the combination of color (the cap is dark blue originally) and grunge-y effects.

itsabattlefield · Techniques

Muted Colors · No Eyes · Center Crop · Monochromatic · Maker's Choice
I like these icons quite a bit! Again, not a cohesive set and it's a mixture of icons I made for this and alts for the other set I was working on (see the previous set). I can appreciate the Steggy icon a lot more now (that icon was thisclose to being on the bingo set as lips) with its muted colors. The three far crops look nice and distinct in their colors. And the S60 icon? I feel like I finally got the icon I wanted to make with that cap after many failed attempts. I love its simplicity and I like the way I used the text (still my Achilles' heel) and it just works for me. So it makes me like the icon much more.

Various alts for the7days/itsabattlefield/the rest of the month

I like the GO icon much more without text, if I'm being honest. The weird Schitt's Creek (and its red background) - also love it quite a bit. I hate the background in the animation icon (it's a tree) but I like that I wish I had used a different cap for Andy's part. That Brennan icon was fun to make (the initial version had a weirder background and the texture didn't work... so it's not here, lol) and I think the colors look cool.

May - 28 icons (or so... I probably left out the smaller variations out)

itsabattlefield · Partner Battle
Alas, the results were never posted (which I've just realized... :/) but the themes novindalf and I agreed on where close crop + Harry Potter and negative space + AWAE :)

I rushed them a bit -- I love this kind of battle (I should get in on more of those but I feel inadequate or like I won't have time) but it's always against time. The baby HP icon from the Mystery Box alts was almost my submission for the first one and I love its colors. Butt I also love Hermione's expression on this cap, which is a big mood. I worked hard to get the sharpening to be fine but smooth, the colors in her tie and uniform vibrant. I dig it. For the AWAE, I wanted to use a different screencap, IIRC, but I liked this one. I love this side of the character. I worked hard in two laptops to get the contrast just right and the texture work to be subtle (it's a dark, flowery texture and I wanted to have some earthy colors).

elitesimplicity · Unknown

Like I probably said on the submission, most of the stuff I watch and/or icon could qualify as unknown. (Especially unknown around here.) I used the RD cap in the challenge post because I loved it and, well, I loved Russian Doll (it was so unlike what I thought it would be and so well-done/addictive). The other two are shows I started in early May, and both I really liked. I just finished watching Normal People but its cinematography is simply stunning but alas, I have to make the caps myself and the icons don't look as good. That Unorthodox cap (and most I've used) I found on Tumblr. The icon is probably dark and lord knows it was hard to color it but I like the dark red I used.

the7days · 7 Genres

This is my favorite set in this post, I'd say, and the one where I could talk about a bunch of icons. I've always said I like and try to be creative with my the7days stuff because the level over there is incredibly high and that inspires me. And... yeah... This set is not that creative. I still love it because I feel like the colors look good and while there is not a variety in the crops (most are centered, far crops), I think there are nice touches and I could talk about their processes for a while, particularly for a couple of them.
It was just a fantastic theme. It inspired me so much that I pretty much had a nice set in a couple of days, having only found out about it when there was like a week left. (I have a list with a few great other genres, like reality tv, I was planning to include. Most shows I watch do fit into various boxes and I'm sad I didn't end up including them. And that was just TV. Everyone had some incredible takes.)

fandom10in30 · Mystery Box

16 icons from a bunch of fandoms are in the previous post, over here :)

Various alts for the various May sets

Probably have some not-great icons I forgot to post from this. I like the colors and most of these were in a set or another at some point.

*******

Comments are ♥♥♥

Credit if you use them is also very much appreciated (luppiters, holyinterruptus or claudiajcregg @ tumblr).

Do not use these icons as bases or repost anywhere without permission.

Watch or join the comm for updates!

*******
2020's icons thus far

May	March	February	January

19. [multi] mystery box for fandom10in30

luppiters — Sun, 31 May 2020 20:55:55 GMT

Hiiiii. So, I half started to put together the April post and then just... forgot about it. Oops. Look for that one combined with the May icons (mostly the other set I recently posted ~~and got done in under a week~~) in the next few days, hopefully.

Today! I participated in the May round at fandom10in30, where I picked box number 1. This particular one had a lot of different cool things to choose from. And even then, it still got me out of my comfort zone. (I do fail at having cohesiveness, yay.) (I did try to make a ~smaller post. If I made this part of an update post, this wouldn't get posted till July.) Some of these try to follow a theme but probably have two or more themes represented (that are likely in the set as well). Wouldn't be me if I wasn't all over the map :P

(hover for fandom :D)

hair porn, given texture, decoration, scifi, three people

based on a book, given screencap, action girl trope, star texture, black

Some alts that almost made it in. (~~I'll probably not add the ones that I made at the same time as the the7days set since those might fit better there.~~)
I should go back to Normal People and finish the last six because I was really liking it. I also really liked some of the icons here but I was worried the colors were off since they looked weird on another laptop.)

sci-fi, given screencap (Hit the Floor), based on a book

based on a book/muted coloring x2, based on a book???

*******

Comments are ♥♥♥

Credit if you use them is also very much appreciated (luppiters, holyinterruptus or claudiajcregg @ tumblr).

Do not use these icons as bases or repost anywhere without permission.

Watch or join the comm for updates!

*******
2020's icons thus far

March	February	January

18. [tww] tv tropes for fandom10in30

luppiters — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 17:13:12 GMT

Did I join Dreamwidth because I wanted in on this challenge? Yes. Yes, I did. ~~And some others I've seen over the last few months, too.~~

This month's TV Tropes challenge at fandom10in30 is exactly my kind of challenge, -- one that allows my muse to run free within some loose but still somewhat specific themes :) (It's also super fun to work with, not gonna lie.) I choose The West Wing because *gesticulates* well, it's the fandom I have the most caps for and, also, the one I know has an extensive and well-curated trope list on tvtropes. I hope it looks kind of nice, even if the cohesiveness I'd have liked isn't there and the coloring tended to be darker.

***

big damn kiss · combat pragmatist · statuesque stunner · (subverted) dumb blonde · rags to royalty (professionally)

the chessmaster · dating catwoman · married to the job · height angst · the eeyore

Alternates

ms. exposition · dating catwoman · deadpan snarker · break the cutie · like a son to me

vitriolic best buds · statuesque stunner · iconic item · happily married

these could also apply to these icons and/or the characters in them, most likely... and at some point were the tropes I wrote down.
Big Kiss -> Smooch of Victory or Orbital Kiss
Statuesque Stunner -> Ms. Exposition or Deadpan Snarker
Rags to Royalty -> The Stoic
The Chessmaster -> Insufferable Genius
Dating Catwoman -> "Shut Up" Kiss or Test Kiss
The Eeyore -> Jerk with a Heart of Gold.

Some of the icons don't represent the trope all the well – mostly just the person – but some tropes on the show (and in Sorkin's writing in general) are just hard to capture in icon form. The muse came and went as the month progressed so these aren't quite complex or anything. I did try my hand at text work in a few of them, even if they didn't make the cut and they're not entirely good.
Anyhoo! Overall, I don't hate this set and I will probably revisit it at some point because I do feel I could improve them.~~Isn't that what I always say?~~

*****

As I said above, March was more unproductive that I would've expected considering the circumstances. (In an alternate reality, I probably was quite productive the second half since I'd have been home alone. Alas.) Below are some other icons I've made for challenges or for fun in the last month :)

hover for fandom!
elitesimplicity's one decade

1960s · 2020s · 1890s

1980s · 2010s · 1960s · 1980s

itsabattlefield's - quick battles: provided texture (x2), neon coloring

others

*******

Comments are ♥♥♥

Credit if you use them is also very much appreciated (luppiters, holyinterruptus or claudiajcregg @ tumblr).

Do not use these icons as bases or repost anywhere without permission.

Watch or join the comm for updates!

*******
2020's icons thus far

February	January

17. [multi] 60 icons from February

luppiters — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 20:00:56 GMT

I need to find a better title for these posts, heh. These are lame.

Anyhow. February was an okay month, icon-wise. I thought productivity was probably even with last February - maybe even a few more - but I was obviously wrong because there are many icons here! (More than a few are the same icon with slight changes... but that's gotta count, right?). My inspiration comes and goes and it doesn't help I've gotten sick and work is stressing me out. It's a whole thing.

60 icons!
[15] Anne with an E
[13] Sex Education
[10] The West Wing
[06] Good Omens
[03] Jane The Virgin, The Good Place
[02] This Is Us, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, stock
[01] Bones, Avengers: Infinity War, The Americans, Superstore

As always, hover for fandom and/or theme :)

elitesimplicity
Five layers
I've gotta admit, I was super intrigued by the five-layer theme. I quickly realized I use way more than five just to set the caps up or get them to a color I liked or couldn't add all the lighting/textures I'd have added otherwise. In the end, I made a bunch of icons I kinda liked and even went further to where I'd like it on one or two.

Last two alts are obviously more than five layers, :) This was a fantastic challenge and I'll probably try it again at some point. The 5-layer icons look like they're missing something there – light, textures, some more color... IDK.

itsabattlefield
I participated in both small battles this month! I loved both prompts – with the right amount of freedom to play around but with enough specificity that my inspiration didn't think I couldn't do it. (It's a whole thing.)

Quick Battles
hearts

one screencap, two icons

Below I'll talk about how I made different sets for a small battle. Well, these two + others in the other section are different-ish spins on the same screencap. For the set, I'd have likely gone with the frame one but I like how they both came out.

Small Battles
black & white + ... (hover for additional theme + fandom)

This was fun. Black and white might seem like an "easy" technique but it's not when you're trying to make them distinct. This battle had a few things that made me nervous: 1) the decorative accent - that CXG is begging for text but I couldn't find a way to make it work without context 2) I suck at text and struggled a lot with that theme - it'd have been the CXG icon at first and then I couldn't think of anything. Luckily, I happened to watch that GO scene and I thought I could make something fun... so hopefully it is?

one couple, five icons

I tried to go against expectations and seeing as to how I had a lot of feelings about the end of AWAE, I decided to icon Shibert. The funny part is, I kinda made icons for a few more couples (even sort of completed two sets!) and one or two... or more of those icons ended up being used somewhere else.
The beauty of this challenge was how broad it was. It could be anything and I dug that. I tried to do slightly different things in each of them and even attempted the frame thing. (A technique I used again with a texture ~~that might be a bit off-center by design and I didn't notice till it was too late~~ on an icon you might've already seen in this post :D)

tvshowsic
kiss
I almost forgot to enter my icons for the challenge 249 (kiss) at the comm. I had a couple ways it could go but I ultimately had a few caps I wanted to play with. I also knew I couldn't work with the Shibert kiss after having iconed it quite a bit for the other challenge.

Unconsciously, this entry is a lot about contrast - "dark" and "bright" colors; close and far crops. The CJD icon is one of those I kinda made as part of that alt set of five but it ended up being the one that started it all here. I also always forget how hard some Superstore scenes are to get right wrt color. I'm not too convinced by the texture in the background but it looked a tad dark otherwise. I love both vibrant icons a lot.

others: random icons, alts, etc
sex education

Probably my second favorite binge this year, next to The Americans (though they're so different). It's such a fun show and I'm not surprised everyone of my coworkers has ended up binging it in the next couple of months. I can't wait to look over the screencaps and make some more icons. Second row was an alt set for small battle 33. For these, I tried to highlight the vibrant, pastel-y the show has already.

alts to itsabattlefield's small battle 32

anne with an e - alts for itsabattlefield small battle 33

I wanna tackle that text icon again, I have more ideas now. The top row are alts for the actual entries for that battle and I do like them. The idea of the frame icon just came to me one afternoon and it wouldn't let me go -- though the effect is different but this one suits the cap and the show better.

the west wing - the alts to itsabattlefield small battle 33

Five thousand icons made with the same cap because I kept thinking of ways to work with it. Like black and white + colored subjects, or frames, or coloring it halfway between muted, pastel-y and still somewhat vibrant. It's what happens when the subjects are just small enough that you can do fun stuff, I guess. These icons were all alts and I keep wondering what text would work with the blend one... I actually dig the ways the caps and colors worked, too. Hmm.
various + 1 alt for the hearts quick battle

I don't like that Americans icon but it was marginally better than the other one I made (that I wanna remake). Such a good show.

*******

Comments are ♥♥♥

Credit if you use them is also very much appreciated (luppiters, holyinterruptus or claudiajcregg @ tumblr).

Do not use these icons as bases or repost anywhere without permission.

Watch or join the comm for updates!

*******
2020's icons thus far

January

16. [multi + stock] January update

luppiters — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 18:24:44 GMT

Overdue January icon update coming your way! It wasn't the most productive month - not even close - because the stress from work kills my muse. I don't even know how, I ended up making a bunch of stock icons that aren't particularly good but whose pics I liked. I hadn't made stock icons in forever.

[23] stock
[03] Star Wars
[02] The West Wing, This is Us, Chronicles of Narnia, Avengers: Endgame, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
[01] Dunkirk, The Good Guys, Downton Abbey, La La Land, Jackie

three more icon remakes for bestof_icons (thread)

---->
I liked the original a lot because of its grunginess and how it highlighted the explosion. My idea for the remake was to use different textures and make the coloring less natural. I'm not super convinced but I do like the concept.

---->
The original was so elaborate (with a couple extra textures) that I wanted to tone that down a bit. My main thing with the cap is that it's perfect save for C.J.'s eyes. So changing the crop achieved that. It's also a tad more monochrome so that's also interesting. I liked the result.

---->
Yet another one where I liked the original a lot and the cap is already a close-up. So again, I tried to get out from the obvious, more natural coloring. I recall it was a difficult cap but I kinda like how it turned out. A bit.

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capicontest ch. 92: the four seasons

fall · winter · spring · summer

Not a lot to say. I actually really liked them, especially the Dunkirk and La La Land icons.

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itsabattlefield Partner Battle #1 (post here)
The lovely wunderkind_lucy and I settled on making icons from Narnia and Avengers: Endgame. We each chose a cap of each and made icons. (You can check the alts in the post above.) Isn't her second Lucy icon gorgeous? Top row are mine and the bottom row are hers :D

itsabattlefield Quick Battle (x2) (given texture) · random sw icon · alt for capicontest (summer/spring?)

Stock

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Comments are ♥♥♥

Credit if you use them is also very much appreciated (luppiters, holyinterruptus or claudiajcregg @ tumblr).

Do not use these icons as bases or repost anywhere without permission.

Watch or join the comm for updates!

15. bestof_icons '19 · and the winner is...

luppiters — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 14:10:06 GMT

So the results are in and we have a winner...

First of – thank you so much to everyone who took the time to nominate and vote on my icons. I felt the poll pretty much represented most of my favorite icons from this year (plus some I wasn't too fond of but... I'm also my worst critic).

In 2018, an icon I made in January won. In 2019, another icon I made in January won, haha. Will 2020 follow that trend?
In all honesty, I was actually proud of this Elizabeth icon when I finished making it. I liked its colors and its apparent simplicity and how the texture just... fit into the rest. I'm happy with the choice and I think it's a worthy winner.

Rounding up the top 10 we've got...

It's a really good mix of techniques and a good representation of the style I've had this year.

Some of these I'm absolutely surprised by - particularly the Cap icons (where one is the original and the other one is its remake!) because I am not sold on them after so long (the original cap icon is almost a year old, IIRC). I've started to see so much room for improvement that I go '...that?' a lot but I also don't have the talent to make sure I can fulfill that vision. But all in all, this is a worthy top 10, all solid choices.
Which ones I wasn't too surprised by? The Midge icon, which actually won over the Elizabeth icon in that monthlyinspo January round (where a good chunk of nominated icons come from) and I liked the Fargo icon a great deal – I worked hard on that coloring. It's a worthy top 3. (I also really like the other two icons in the top 5. Pleasantly surprised they're both that high.)

For the giggles, the next nine... because I like the number 19 and it was 2019 after all.

There are many icons I like lots in this bunch, too, even if some of my other favorites didn't get this high – or weren't nominated at all. I think the top row is killer (even if that's not my favorite CJ icon I made this year) and the bottom row has some good ones too (the experimental - for me - composition in that Bones icon; the coloring in Beth's, the texture I was so lucky to find for Rosa's).

Overall, I'm happy with the results! I was quite happy with most of the nominations and I think that the right icon won. Next year will be fun since I barely made icons in January and most of them were stock ;) ~~Watch the Dunkirk icon sweep ;D~~
For more on my favorites and commentary, check the icon progression post over here and the last section in last year's scrapbook.

But a taste...
Personal favorites in no particular order (just by color-ish)... I feel like I'm missing so many others but then again, they're likely represented above or in the scrapbook section. If you asked me to do this tomorrow, they'd change a lot.
(Lbr, in some cases I like them as part of a set rather than individually. And for that, I'd say my favorite "big" sets are the January bingo, May's Opposites Attract, the pink/purple-ish September set, the C.J. "20in20", and March's relationships. Smaller entries would be harder.)

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2018

14. [bestof_icons] · voting!

luppiters — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 22:32:44 GMT

BEST OF 2019 - JOIN IN! | MY POLL
Would really appreciate it if you went in and voted for whatever icons you like best ♥♥♥
thank you for all the nominations!

13. 2019 icon progression

luppiters — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 23:03:14 GMT

Slightly late but here it is! A 2019 icon progression post in which I ramble a little too much about things that are icon-adjacent, probably, and fail at talking about my actual progression. Enjoy!

~~(excuse the awful banner I'll be remaking soon.)~~

January

icon post @ holyinterruptus
Most of my time this month was spent on the monthlyinspo bingo round and I kind of love how the set came out? Since I didn't start working until the middle of the month – and even then, I was learning what I had to do. The set has many different styles and even some experimentation that I should've tried out more. I was def feeling a bit more adventurous and I think this is one of my favorite sets this year.

February

icon post @ holyinterruptus
February started the trend where I mostly entered challenges here and there. My biggest sets were the one for your_favourites (my favorite 80s show) and the icons I made for oddlyspecificon (that are actually in here).

Overall, I did try to break out of my "style" (whatever it is) for a bit, for the oddlyspecificon and capicontest challenges. There was also some sunny colorings and attempts. And despite having like 20 usable screencaps (or less - god, I should get my DVDs back), I really like how the thirtysomething set came out. [Note: I wrote this before the revival news came out. Heh.] I also really like the Parks and the Black Panther icons from that oddlyspecificon round.

March

icon post @ holyinterruptus
When I think about March, I honestly think about the "Relationships" Big Battle @ itsabattlefield. I put a lot of work into it because it's a broad theme you can interpret however you feel like. Or maybe I just felt inspired by it? Who knows. I added my own mini-challenge of adding text to half of them and I think they didn't turn out horrible.

I also had to represent the "other" icons of the month and I'd say I probably spent the most time working on that CJ icon. I'm not 100% sure it came out like I wanted (though that one + some of the alternates did come close) but it was an attempt to play around again.

April

icon post @ holyinterruptus
A sign I was busier is that I waited till May to post the April icons. That and that I didn't make that many icons, I guess. I only ~~(think I)~~ know which ones are which based on imgur's order and the challenge dates. From what it seems the two big challenges were the Small Battle at itsabattlefield and the the7days bingo. Both turned out fine and all things considered, I do like them. I see the start of attempts at cohesiveness in the bingo set (some blue/orange colors in there) – a big thing for me this year! – and some experimentation that might've not worked out as I had in mind but still looks nice.

May

icon post & monthlyinspo set @ holyinterruptus
Possibly my most productive month, all things considered. It might've been due to somehow being inspirede despite joining the worst project at its lowest? (I barely had formation this time around.) I had to have more icons from here because of how much I loved the work. The two main sets: the your_favourites favorite crime show challenge and monthlyinspo (a set I love very much). It's not terribly complex but I think the colors just work? Everything seems to fit.

As for the actual progression... I consolidated a bit of my style, seeking bright compositions through coloring and lighting and some textures. I also dabbled in playing with the backgrounds more to make the subjects stand out.

June

Some actual rl talk: this was honestly the worst work month of the year, probably. Killed my inspiration.

July

Work (a little). Cardcaptor Sakura on Netflix. Sims 4. Vacation.

August

Vacation. Sims 4. Sad family stuff. Not much inspiration.

September

icon post @ holyinterruptus
My triumphant (???) return! I decided I would come back because I missed the community and I missed it.

There weren't many icons here, tbh, and definitely not much progression. I felt so rusty and this month was more about getting back to making icons. I started working with animation screencaps a bit more because I wanted to make a few Sakura icons after having rewatched one of the shows of my childhood. (Fun fact: I kind of lol at how the third one looks like snow because of the coloring – those were lights in the cap, heh.) I also kept on seeking cohesiveness in sets, which isn't always a good thing but it was nonetheless a challenge. That Borgen icon looks great, though, and I'm proud of myself for spending the time with it so it would look close to what I had in mind.

October

icon post @ holyinterruptus
Some of my favorite icons of the year are here, I'd say. This itsabattlefield close vs. far set was impressively cohesive for me (almost unexpectedly!) and I like a lot of those icons. It's a solid set! (Do I sound surprised? I am, now that I'm looking at it.) It's nothing groundbreaking for me but after feeling so rusty, it felt more like a return to form. I also love some of those elitesimplicity entries for the original background challenge. I even won, wtf (and also !!!!). And the blue challenge at tvshowsic looks cool, with all the different shades of blue I went for. Lots of fun stuff!

This was also the return to maybe iconing things because I wanted to, taking a few caps I had worked with before and remaking icons or just not waiting to do something with some screencaps (see: the last few).

November

icon post @ holyinterruptus
The clear example of that? My big "self-imposed challenge." I took a random round of character20n20 that inspired me and made a set... in more than 20 days, more than likely. This challenge allowed me to get these icons to a place where I liked them... for the most part. Even those that might not be too successful look fine. (It's also not a secret that I have a weakness for 'Heartbreak' there.)
I also participated in a few challenges and though they weren't my best, I was proud of a couple of those icons. For example, I like what I did with that Fargo icon in terms of coloring, trying to keep it pastel/muted but highlighting some details (it seemed to fit the vibe of the screencap and that of the show).
Overall, I found that I was more willing to play around with complete re-colorings and lighting to get better icons out of difficult caps, too, instead of just giving up.

December

icon post @ holyinterruptus
The monthlyinspo set took most of my month, to be fair, and I am not as happy with it as I was with the other monthlyinspo sets from this year. I feel like it's nice and it fits the theme; I like a lot of those icons individually... but maybe not so much as a set. I guess there wasn't as much cohesiveness as I'd have liked - though there is some (?) - and that affects me.
As a month, it was a good summary of all I've played with during the year - backgrounds (textured and fake!original ones), recolorings, different compositions (that tended to go for simplicity) with the occasional simple blend. And if you're wondering - hey, that first icon is actually in your November post... I hope I mentioned I made it on Dec 1st or 2nd, while I was working from home.

reflections

looking back... I started adding extra mini-challenges to myself as I made icons for actual challenges. I played around with a few techniques, trying to improve on what I did last year... and I hopefully did (???). I played with gradients as extra layers in my coloring more often. I tried to work on fake!original backgrounds to add some variety to simple icons. I dabbled in text and blending. Started to think of harmony and cohesive sets while making them. And on and on and on.

looking ahead... hopefully some more improvement, particularly my text work and adding more complexity. It's what I probably said last year on my resolutions but it's worth mentioning. I want to keep making icons and stop comparing myself to others. Be more active and not be as shy. Work will probably eat my time. (Work talk: I won't be using any of the languages I've used in the past year and that makes me quite anxious. I love my coworkers and would hate to ask for the change in work project
that I feel might be in my future. But I also promised I would take better care of myself, so...)

Also, you can see some other favorites over here. I'd probably change a few of them and even add a couple missing ones but it contains a few others I might've not included here that I liked.

gorgeous layout by rocketgirl2

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2019's monthly updates

December	November	October	September	April/May	March	February	January

12. [bestof_icons] · icon nominations

luppiters — Wed, 01 Jan 2020 18:22:39 GMT

ICON NOMINATIONS - JOIN IN! | MY THREAD

still have to do the resolutions and I have a couple of makers to choose noms for, so stand by...
This process is fun. It's always interesting to see icons I loved not get nominations while others I was more unsure about do. I love this comm so much, so come join in the fun! :D

11. [misc] monthlyinspo round 29 + December icons

luppiters — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 12:31:02 GMT

Looking at everyone's stunning entries and then mine make me feel so... inadequate. But my muse was on vacation while I wasn't, and it took all the ideas I could've initially had with it. (Have I said how wonderful everyone's sets are? They are, I'm serious. I'll be catching up with comments soon now that I am free from work.)

Working with the mystery bag was... an experience. It's so difficult to have such Christmasy inspiration when I wasn't really feeling the season yet, so that means two icons aren't really festive. Is this set complex? Nope. Did I want it to be? Sure. I do like its simplicity in a way and sticking to a few palettes was difficult, even if some might be a stretch. It's also not the most cohesive set but I like it enough.

I got so caught up in trying to remake them that the deadline almost passed by. It took me a while to write up the post between work and the holidays.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year, everyone! <3

cut 1: 10 + 5 · round 29 @ monthlyinspo
cut 2: 3, 3+2 · quick battles @ itsabattlefield, challenge 257 @ elitesimplicity
cut 3: 5 + 1 · icon remakes @ bestof-icons

fandoms: misc (as usual) incl. bones, tww, marvelverse, the crown, thirtysomething, heartstrings, superstore, marvelous mrs. maisel, schitt's creek, passenger, cardcaptor sakura, elementary, madam secretary

*****

monthlyinspo · Mystery Bag

Top row: Each is a color from the Dear Santa palette + merry and bright (3) + mistletoe (4) + green texture (5).
Bottom row: First snowfall (6, 8, 10) + merry and bright (7, 9) + peppermint mocha(-ish; 7) + blizzard (8, 10) + snowflake and blue textures (8)

Themes

Merry and Bright
Blizzard
Hot Chocolate
Mistletoe
Gumdrop
Ribbon

Palettes
(Click on them to go to their respective colourlovers page and see their licenses, etc.)

· ·
Dear Santa by bianka · First Snowfall by sherrydee846 · Peppermint Mocha by belledecam

Textures (click on them for full size)
· · · · ·
hallyumi @ da · mixsources @ da · breathless @ da · adriftingsea @ lj · icon_dreams @ da · rainbows_stock @ da

Alternates
(hover for fandom and resources used)

/end of monthlyinspo bag (aka this lj cut)

*****
December icons
itsabattlefield

First icon is for favorite band/artist; the other two were for 'far away'; (I entered the latter since it was more ~~festive).
I love, love, love Passenger. I can't choose favorites but he is the one with cool photos from all these places and his music gets to me.
Far Away, I actually loved thinking of caps where everything was far but you could still distinguish the subjects, kinda. Even if the Crown one was hard to color and a prime candidate for a future remake, heh.</span>
elitesimplicity

Fun theme! I kinda made these icons really quickly because it looked like a fun challenge. I dig kinda working with backgrounds, trying to highlight them without losing sight of the subjects :) I tried to make it clear

*****
Icon remaking · my thread
> --->
--->
Quite proud of these two/three. I actually liked the original bones icon a lot (I thought the light textures were nice) but trying to come up with something new was a challenge. Would've gone for a closer crop but it didn't look as good. So I zoomed out even more and gave it some text. The CJ icon had never convinced me and I actually like the new recolored/repainted version a lot.
--->
--->
--->

These three were more difficult because I either liked them a lot (I think that Elizabeth icon is my favorite from that set!) or was just... uninspired as to where to take them. I reserve the right to remake all of them but especially the last one.

*****

Comments are ♥♥♥
Credit if you use them is also very much appreciated (luppiters, holyinterruptus or claudiajcregg @ tumblr).
Do not use these icons as bases or repost anywhere without permission.
Watch or join the comm for updates!

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2019's monthly updates

November	October	September	April/May	March	February	January

10. bestof_icons '19 · icon remake

luppiters — Sun, 15 Dec 2019 12:07:54 GMT

ICON REMAKE - JOIN IN! | MY THREAD

This comm was a lot of fun last year :) It's interesting for me to go back and try to make something completely different – it's not always easy, oops.

Like I said in my comment, I'll try to comment on all the other threads between today and tomorrow but since my family has all come back (yay), I am not going to be home for much of today. I've also not made a lot of icons this year (or so it feels) so it should be interesting, haha.

09. [multi] November

luppiters — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 00:09:59 GMT

posting it to the right comm this time because LJ decided to change them once the update failed. I'm sorry I took too long to post this, LJ. Thank god I realized the mistake right away and could delete the other one quickly. This is like the time I sent a half-written email at work I meant to discard. en fin...
Sul sul! Remember how I said I was trying to enter the biweekly challenges? That... didn't exactly happen, oops. Mostly because after the first week of November, my inspiration left the building. Again. I blame getting the application my team was working ready to go into production and being busy with all that. (It's gone wonderfully, btw. I think no one expected that we'd only get a couple tickets total... thus far. It goes national on Tuesday after a 'trial run' in six of the most populated provinces.)

I'm currently working on making icons for the Mystery Bag challenge that monthlyinspo so perhaps/hopefully I'll get to post some icons for that in the next couple of weeks. And I'll definitely participate in bestof_icons once again :) (Since I'll be working this time around, nominating might take me longer but whatever. I'll try.)

Onward and upwards...
[22] The West Wing
[3] The Good Place
[2] One Day at a Time, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, Tatiana Maslany, Dolly Parton's Heartstrings
[1] Superstore, MIB: International, Victoria, Fargo, Lilo & Stitch, Marie Antoinette, The Help, Red Band Society, A Star is Born, Gilmore Girls: AYITL, Veronica Mars: The Movie, The Avengers, The Crown, Parks and Rec, Miranda

capicontest

I honestly don't remember making these anymore. Where did time go? What I like about capicontest is that I often get to icon things I haven't watched, or wouldn't have thought of iconing otherwise. So in that sense, it's always fun working with different caps and making new things. IIRC, I tried to go with more muted or pastel-y colors this time around, even if vibrancy slipped a bit. I particularly like the Victoria icon :')

elitesimplicity: Revival/Reboot

This was an inspiring theme. Gosh, the more I thought about what to icon, the more shows/movies came to mind. I combined proposed caps/fandoms with the ones I came up with.

I tried to go with a more pastel-y, old-school feel for the Fargo cap (a show I've passively watched whenever my mom was watching after I got home from work). That cap was amazing. I loved the ASIB shot and I tried to make the details work - be it the hair or the tear. I really enjoyed RBS while it was on, despite having never watched the original and for this one, I just wanted to highlight the colors and composition already present.
For the alts... well, most of the work is on the fake-ish backgrounds. (AYITL had its own nature background and I changed it, lol!) ODAAT is probably my favorite anything out of the things I iconed here and I was sad I didn0t go for it. I love Elena and how fun she is.

itsabattlefield: Quick Battles!
Themes (in order): light & dark, superhero, scenery

Alas, I didn't participate in the community as much – and I just need to make one icon per week! (Most of them were made a couple of hours before I went to bed on Sunday. Woohoo.)
I just love how weirdly colorful the Cap one looks, haha. The Help was all about shadows and making sure the sadness of the cap came through. And I just loved The Crown's beach scene -- so for this one, I tried to make sure the water and sand were visible. They not always were :P

tvshowsic Friendship

Full of last-min icons, which have become my preferred method of doing anything, oops. Schurverse shows are the best and have some of the best friendships. In this case, I just took some of my most recently saved caps and made something with them -- though the Eleanor-Michael one I had to take myself because it wasn't the split second I wanted. I also recently finally watched Clear Card and I just loved the composition of that screencap. (The show has some gorgeous animation and lighting!)
Sigh. I love friendships. I feel like some other good friendship icons I made in the March post, which was an example of me taking a simple theme and running with it :')

Random icons :D [Spoilers for Heartstrings, I guess?]

I feel these are a good collection of some of the fiction tv I watched in November-ish.
* I watched CCS: Clear Card and was really into the animation. Because I read the manga in the summer and was reading future numbers while watching it, it was An Experience. Here I tried to give a soft look to a pretty cap.
* I binged all of Miranda in like a weekend (coincidentally and not purposely, the weekend it turned 10!) and loved it. I am not too happy with the icon but Gary and Miranda were adorable. And I had to make the screencap myself ~~from Hulu~~ so it was potato quality.
* I also watched all of Dolly Parton's Heartstrings. I didn't think of making caps until I was done watching the one that ended up being my favorite, Sugar Hill. These two are technically December icons but I just had the idea last week and had to make it. Maybe it didn't turn out exactly the way I hoped it would but I actually really dig it.
* Last min addition because I had somehow missed it: that TGP icon! Inspired by something said on the companion podcast.

BUT... surprise? I did finish that self-imposed challenge I talked about in the October post, where I took a random round of character20n20 and made icons for it! It's usually what I worked on whenever I had a couple of hours to spare.
I wish there was more coherence in the set as a whole and in every section but the truth is, it's all over the place as I attempt to fulfill the themes. I also def took more than 20 days but the aim of this was to finish and that I did... even if I could've kept going. I chose CJ (a familiar face 'round here), so I'm sure that'll surprise everyone.
(At this point, not only do I love her, she's honestly one of the few characters I'm inspired by that I also have enough screencaps of. Damn it, cap sites that took down 9 seasons' worth of stuff 😭 Why did I get back into iconing after that had happened? ~~I lost so many screencaps when my old-non-Mac laptop died.~~)

Anyhow, I give you thee... C.J. Cregg from The West Wing.

10 THEMES

Citric	Extreme Close-up	Half empty/Half full	Heartbreak	Favorite Outfit


Profile text	Recast	Starry	Stripes	Wander

CATEGORY - Wherever You Are

scotus	office	restaurant	stairs	airport

ARTIST'S CHOICE

artist's choice 1	artist's choice 2	artist's choice 3	artist's choice 4	artist's choice 5

The funniest part about this is that I would keep making icons about it. I mean, a couple of icons here are from this afternoon! (One ended up fitting the monthlyinspo themes so much better, color-wise.) My inspiration comes and goes, really.

For some of these, the idea was to use completely different scenes or screencaps but I simply couldn't work with them. (To start with, some scenes are just excessively dark and the quality leaves to be desired. For some others, I had repeatedly used them for similar themes and there comes a time you need to stop them. I do want to highlight Heartbreak, which is definitely one of my favorite icons I made this month? Idk. It was one of the first icons I made for this and I think the blend and background are nice. I might talk myself out of it.
I also played around with who to feature in Recast and had so many worthy people. I just think Tatiana Maslany would do a great job balancing the comedy and drama. I usually have a go-to heartbreak/pain scene that I had probably used many times. So I obviously went for yet another scene I've probably worked with even more – just not in this context. (~~But it has natural lighting! And it's from the last season! Everything's better!~~)
For the category, I liked playing around with backgrounds, knowing I had to keep them. The WH had many ~~sets~~ rooms so we see her around a lot but really, all the characters do move around. I tried to go with different vibes in these.
Artist's Choice is a mish-mash of so many things. AC1 is an alt for Wander/Category, where I tried to highlight the people and play around with the background (I actually have what the cap looks like with nothing but cropping). AC2 is a recoloring of a cap that I actually really like. (I also have the original after cropping it. Don't ask me why.) AC3 was me trying to do a faceless portrait because gosh, her eyes in this cap look odd but I love the posture. I ultimately think it's clunky but I like everything else. AC4 and 5 are simpler -- pastel/shadows and fake background/texture work respectively.

Comments are ♥♥♥

Credit if you use them is also very much appreciated (luppiters, holyinterruptus or claudiajcregg @ tumblr).

Do not use these icons as bases or repost anywhere without permission.

Watch or join the comm for updates!

*******
check out previous months down here... :)

October	September	April/May	March	February	January

08. [multi] October!

luppiters — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 19:47:29 GMT

October proved to be a busy month at work but I vowed to, at the very least, make icons for some of those biweekly challenges. I'd have liked to make a bigger set but I still feel rusty and inspiration has come and gone. (Thanks, current assignation at work/project that is finally ending but will still give me some headaches for the remainder of the year.)

Here's hoping things become a bit more relaxed and I can participate in something bigger. Soon we'll start with the best icon of the year stuff and that should be fun!

Includes: TWW (9), Bones (5), The Good Place (5), Madam Secretary (4), Sisters (3), Parks and Rec(2), Cardcaptor Sakura (2), House (2), Looking for Alaska (2), various x1 (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, La Casa de Papel, Jane the Virgin, This is Us, Fantastic Beasts, Taylor Swift, Chicago, Chicago Fire, Harry Potter, Borgen, The Help). Hover if you wanna know which one is which! :)

itsabattlefield
Big Battle 10: Close vs. Far
[1-5]
[6-10]

[11-16]

I clearly wanted cohesion in colors, even if it doesn't always work. I was on a soft pink/purple/blues (?) kick. Or when half of them were like this, I just decided to play with the others so they fit in the theme. IDK. I can be super weird like that. The first two alts were in at some point; third one was kind of an alt for the quick battle with the "orange" theme but I also had it as a far icon here. And the last one was another attempt at using that cap, haha.

Quick Battles

Throwback · Provided Screencap (ChiFire)

[17-18]

Alts (for Throwback, x3)
[19-21]

Throwback: I went with that TWW scene because D/J were one of the classic Will they/won't they couples of the early to mid aughts, which is around the timeframe of the theme. I also felt inspired by the cap! It is odd because, as much as I like them, that doesn't happen often. Yet I like how the icons I make of the two of them usually turn out.
The other two choices are obvious: HP has always been big but I feel it was huge when the movies were coming out. House was definitely popular while it was on, as well, at least to most tv viewers.

elitesimplicity
Original Background
[22-24]

[25-28]

Loved this theme! Because you have to play with the original background and not make it disappear so easily, which is something I do from time to time. I straight up kept it in 22 and 24 but I added a bunch of textures and coloring to 23 to make Donna stand out.

I love the last two (27, 28) but I felt like they could be seen as more of fake background (the walls of the Diner are/were really that color!). I'm also just realizing that they were probably made as I was preparing the Big Battle from above, but I decided against using them because I felt they weren't close or far enough. I probably considered repurposing one here, since I was finishing both sets at around the same time, but didn't. ~~I'm too lazy to move them up and don't wanna change the numbers again. So they'll stay here.~~

Symbolic
[29-31]

This was a really fun theme that gave me so many ideas I couldn't realize. Mostly because I started making icons hours? a day? before it ended... but it was great fun.
As for the symbols represented here.
Alaska Young and her blue nail polish (and cigarette).
Jason Mendoza and his beloved Jacksonville Jaguars (and Florida). I was so, so lucky to find that JJ logo with both the Jaguar and Florida.
Temperance Brennan and her Jeffersonian jumpsuit.

[32-34]

CJ Cregg and her lectern/podium, very representative of her Press Sec position. Alaska again, trying out a different coloring so it wasn't as pale.

tvshowsic
Blue
[35-38]

[39-40]

My thing with blue in here was that I wanted every icon to have its own distinctive shade of blue. I mean, the shade of blue I like most probably changes with my mood, which might be odd. I also played around with them until I was happy enough with them. Only thing I knew was -- the Leslie eating a waffle moment had to be one of them. Iirc the TGP moment had happened recently and it was just a fun cap to play with. It was silly, haha.

Incredibly enough, most of my other icons are for a self-issued challenge, wherein I chose an old character20n20 round I didn't participate in and started to make icons for it. I'm somewhat proud of some icons that have come out of it but I'd say half are from November... so I'm gonna hold off on that until it's finished. (Or at least, the 10 themes half is done.)

BUT I do have a couple of random icons that I'll probably end up tweaking or remaking in the future, especially the first two. I mean, most of these will look familiar because are just slight variations on previous icons, especially 43 (where I retouched many things that aren't that noticeable but the bg is pretty similar, so... it looks like it's the same. But I like it more now so there's that.).

[41-45]

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Credit if you use them is also very much appreciated (luppiters, holyinterruptus or claudiajcregg @ tumblr).

Do not use these icons as bases or repost anywhere without permission.

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Previous icon posts from this year :)

September	April/May	March	February	January