ℹ𐐕𐐬𐑍𐐠𐐆ℛ∀༏𐐥

000; Plugging around~

2011-07-04T05:33:48Z

K, so I've been meaning to post icons for forever (JEEZUS, IT'S BEEN A YEAR??) but I just haven't found the time because I suck. orz Have a quick preview??

ANYWAY, true point of this post ~~(not even gonna bother lying)~~ was to get some more votes for icon_tournament! You don't need to be a member to vote (though I'd love if you joined; Astro and I run it and we make it hella fuuuuun~~~) and the final has a tie that I'd like to see broken. So if you can, PLEASE GO VOTE HERE!!

Aight, here's to hoping you'll actually see icons from me soon!

♥ Cheers!

011; shounenbattle commentary

2010-11-26T21:50:44Z

One last commentary post to come with more walls and walls of text as well. ♥! Commentary idea from whiteplums @ loveburnt.

I was excited for this battle because, like I said before, I tend to gravitate towards shounen & seinen series. I hoped I would do a hell of a lot better here than I did at shoujo_battle. XD shounenbattle's overall theme was 80 Days Around the World.

Challenge 01: Meet & Greet

Total Points: 14
3rd Overall

The first challenge was a lot harder than I was expecting a first challenge to be! Not that I minded, that can only mean good things when it comes to future challenges! I felt sorry for whoever got my character though, Askeladd from Vinland Saga, because there aren't any color images of him out there and most people don't read it (THOUGH I DON'T KNOW WHY B/C IT IS AMAZING) so finding images must have been difficult. The idea was to make an icon featuring another participant's character, then choose a cardinal direction that had certain criteria you had to fit onto your icon. I was a pussy and picked the easiest one, South: Bottom crop (I do this all the time), red, (I love my colors!), and fire theme (oh so many trite captions I can use!). In hindsight, I regret choosing the easiest option because me and 75% of the other participants picked it, meaning my icon didn't really stand out that much.

I had initially wanted the text to say "fire in her eyes" but I realized my bottom crop made her eyes too small to see and I don't like captions that don't match the image in the icon. I was okay with everything else though; I like the diagonal cut of the red and my random light blobs adding areas of brightness. One of my comments wished the picture was a little more clear, which I don't quite understand??, but I included a variation where I increased the contrast of Matsumoto. Another didn't like the red at top so I changed it to orange, since no other color looked good, buuuut I still think it looks fug. (I found the comment funny because the entire thing sounded like a critique and I was wondering if the person knew they were supposed to vote for their favorites, not their least favorite.)

Challenge 02: World Cup

Total Points: 27
4th Overall

So I was VERY EXCITED for this challenge because it's based on The World Cup!! ~~And La Furia Roja was doing well too!~~ All I had to do was show the theme "sports", which initially had me going for Eyeshield 21 and TeniPuri, but I figured it's a World Cup theme, best to go with soccer. I went with Whistle! because it's one of my favorite under-appreciated sports manga and I don't know any other soccer manga with nice art.

This icon was made at the very last second. Whistle! is so unloved that there were very few HQ images out there and I had to settle for a so-so quality image. I extracted Shou and Tsubasa, rotated them, put a dark duplicate under them to help them pop and then used the pen tool to create the red & blue slanted background and further emphasize that versus feeling. After piling on a million adjustment layers, I noticed the image was pixelated and wondered wtf was wrong before I sadfaced like D8. I completely forgot PS degrades images if they're not rotated at 90/180/270° and I definitely didn't rotate it to any of those. I didn't have the original size saved nor the time to extract the image again, so I threw on some text and light blobs and prayed that no one would notice. Miraculously, only one person did. 8D I remade the icon and, hopefully, this new alternate looks less pixelated. I had one comment liking the light blobs and another finding it distracting, lol conflicting crits, so I made one alternate without the light blobs.

Challenge 03: The Land Down Under

Total Points: 53
2nd Overall

This week we had to take inspiration from one of the 4 provided photos and I chose this one because it has a circle in it and I tend to use circles in my icons anyways. Taking what I learned from shoujo_battle, I knew I had to enter a bonus icon to get those points. The bonus icon required us to use at least 3 consecutive lyrics from any song by an Australian band or musician. I coppedout and picked AC/DC's Highway to Hell. orz

I don't really like the first icon even though it has a circle and a part of the original image "popping out" of the circle. Idk, it's weird looking; I think it's the crop. And the text bugs me but without it, the icon looked too empty. I love the second icon though; it's insanely bright and I had been blessed by the Text God or something because I'm not normally very original with typography. I had a FFFFound texture that was all action-like because of the slanted, every which way tiny text, that I figured would go well with her angry expression and fly away hair. So I masked out parts of it and put in the required lyrics. I knew it was still a little hard to read but I figured it was okay since the human mind only needs the first and last letters to be in place for things to be legible. I did still get critiques about the text so I included a tiny text only alternate. I got another one about how the red was too strong and another saying the icon was over-sharpened (but I never sharpened it in the first place ;~;) and washed out, which surprised me since I thought it was too saturated lol. I tried bringing out her skin color & the white of her shirt while reducing the reds & oranges but I feel like it's lost some of its intensity now.

Challenge 04: A Touch of Color
Points Total: 55
5th Overall

I ⓵ couldn't figure out if Escaflowne was shounen or not and ⓶ didn't read the rules so I didn't know the single color must make up less than 33% of the icon. I ended up being too late anyways and flashily counted me as skipping. XD;

Challenge 05: Welcome to the Jungle

Won People's Choice
Points Total: 74
2nd Overall

I knew I had to try harder this week to earn more points to make up for the ones I missed from last challenge. The theme was to expresses either a jungle or animal theme, which seemed simple enough. At first, I thought I'd try using an animal print as a texture but I couldn't find the right image do go with zebra print. Then I somehow thought of Max and Where the Wild Things Are and knew I had to have that as my caption. I just needed that perfect image of someone going RAWR and looking like this. Dunno how but I luckily thought of Guu and pulled my old DVDs and got a screen shot of her dancing. The icon didn't turn out anything like I imagined it would, it's no where near as cute as I wanted it to be, but every time I remake it, I fail to come up with anything better. The alternate has the orange of the palm tree slightly reduced and the trunk slightly blurred as one of my comments said it looked too sharp.

Challenge 06: I Pledge Allegiance

The first icon tied for Mod's Choice
Points Total: 74
2nd Overall

Another lyrical theme but this time as the main theme not a bonus theme. I figured everyone was going to use "Fuck 'em all" (but I was wrong, only two people did!) so I tried to find something I felt no one would use so as to make my icon stand out more. The part I noticed first was "welcome to a new kind of tension" which is REALLY LONG for a caption and I was worried if I could fit in all in but it was the line that grabbed my attention most. I didn't know what image I wanted but I had recently started watching Durarara!! so I browsed their Minitoyo gallery until that Shizuo & Izaya image popped up. Figured it was perfect since the two of them have that hilarious hate/hate tension, which went well with the lyrics and I could easily make it a center bottom crop, leaving me plenty of room for the caption. I liked the tri-color color scheme but there wasn't enough blue imo so I changed Izaya's coat & hair to blue. Then, weirdly enough, I was inspired by the calendar layout in Better Homes and Gardens of all things (it was in the break room of my work place, don't look at me like that!) because its mix of sans serif & serif fonts reminded me of the differences of Shizuo and Izaya. The Yakitate!! icon was made very last second, so I don't really like it? It's got too many textures. BUT I do like that I managed to include the gingham pattern in the circle, because that pattern always makes me think picnic cloth, which worked perfectly for the bonus theme "food".

Challenge 07: When In Rome

Tied for People's Choice
Points Total: 108
1st Overall

This week I had to make an "aged" looking icon, and I really had no idea what to do. I knew I wanted to use an older animanga series as well as a faded kind of color scheme but beyond that I was lost. XD Threw this together in a 45 minutes? Again with the circles and the drop shadows, but I kind of like the sepia coloring. It was also my luck that the voters felt the Chinese calligraphy I added made the icon looked like a Japanese scroll (or something, I don't 100% remember what the comment said), I didn't even think of that lol.

Challenge 08: In Soviet Russia

Points Total: 118
1st Overall

Oh man, a humor theme! Don't get me wrong, I love making funny icons. But they only happen when inspirations strikes and when I'm required to make them, for icontests and the like, it just doesn't work. ;~; I...don't know how this icon came to be. I knew it had to be a Soviet Russia joke, to earn extra points, but other than that I don't know why I picked The Enimga of Amigara Fault. Particularly since that manga usually terrifies the shit out of people. IDK. Looking at this icon again, I must have been really tired and almost late to enter it because why didn't I color the whole thing?? The alternate is fully ~~but terribly~~ colored ~~as I have no idea how a camp fire light source works~~ and the timing of the frames is shorter so that the whole thing runs faster, since one of my comments said it was a little too slow.

Challenge 09: So Saree

Won Mod's Choice
Points Total: 131
1st Overall

This week's theme was provided textures. I have a love/hate relationship with provided texture themes. These weren't too fug, but they still looked kinda dated and I had no clue what to do with any of them. Initially I wanted to do a modern looking icon with the stripes of the fourth texture buuut I couldn't find the right image so I gave up. I switched to the first texture and masked everything out except for those bars and used those. I wanted the icon to have a sense of depth, so I layered the other textures in front and behind her so she would look like she was looking over her shoulder from behind a room partition. I rather like the resulting icon and I got my idea across since one commenter said it looked like she was "hiding behind a wall". The only thing I didn't really like was that the monochrome color scheme was so warm but her skin tone so cold looking. But I when I add a photo filter, it looks too orangey, idk wat to do. ;~; Still included it anyways.

Challenge 10: Time to say Goodbye
➨ ➨

First icon won People's Choice Icon
Points Total: 154
Somehow, still 1st

OKAY. I had figured out a while ago that astrokittie was one of my opponents and we were pretty much neck and neck points wise, so I was basically pissing myself in fear of what she would bust out for a Triptych theme. (Did you see her shoujo_battle icons?? Fucking gorgeous. To try and inspire myself I went and looked at old Triptych icons at bishounenawards and I saw some of her icons again & cried at the prettiness.) I really didn't have any ideas whatsoever other than it had to have three characters, who were hopefully a trio, from the same series. At first I thought of Naruto, Sakura, and Sasugay, but I wasn't feeling the art. And to make things worse, it was only on the last day that I realized I had misread the instructions completely. We had to make icons using past themes but only the first icon could use the first three themes, the second the next three, and the third the last three. I thought it was any icon could use any theme. @-@;;

At first, I wanted to do something really different coloring-wise, like, yachiru different, and with a lot of text. But I couldn't make it work. Then I went for negative space + circles + simple yet "sophisticated", but I didn't know where to go from there so I dropped it. Finally, being desperate and tired, I fell back on the old "texture to the side with caption on top" technique. /SHAME Yamamoto, being my favorite, got the most effort, so I was happy he won People's Choice. I really like the blue of the squiggly brush and the glow of the text on each icon. I don't know what I think about this set. I'm happy they look relatively nice but I'm not pleased that I used a technique I've used billions of times before. BUT I WAS VERY EXCITED TO PLACE FIRST! There were tears of joy shed that day.

Needless to say, I had fun at shounenbattle and you should join too if you haven't already! The current round's themes are insanely creative and difficult, it's really inspiring yet proving impossible for me. XD Sign-ups are no longer open but they can always use more voters! Hell, every LIMS/Battle type icontest needs more voters. See if you can figure out who I am! ~~I'm sure some of you already know. :P~~

Things I Learned ~~mostly about myself~~
· I use a fuckton of text in my icons! Which is okay, except that I personally don't use icons with text so I feel like I should make & enter more hush icons.
· Found out that I could "build" an icon around a caption, though it still needs that perfect image.
· Seeing my icons next to one another, I realize I use circles, drop shadows, and center bottom crops way too often. I need to work on being more creative because I don't like that I kept using the same techniques and compositions week after week.
· I love trying to figure out who made what when voting comes up and now I'm pretty damn good at recognizing people's styles. ~~I do want to know who made that Akira icon two weeks ago though!~~

[27] TOTAL Misc. shounen icons: Bleach, Whistle!, Aria, High School of the Dead, Jungle wa Itsumo Hare nochi Guu, Durarara!!, Dragon Ball, Yakitate!! Japan, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

01	02	03	04

05	06	07	08

09	10	11	12

13	14	15	16

17	18	19	20

21	22	23	24

25	26	27

Comment & credit please! ✯ Watch? ✯ Don't hotlink or edit ✯ Resources

010; shoujo_battle commentary

2010-11-26T21:48:58Z

Late but what's new? :P Now to finish my animanlims commentary! Don't click the commentary cuts if you don't want to read my word vomit! I haz lots of feerings to share. :B Idea taken from whiteplums @ loveburnt.

Okay, so I was kind of nervous when I signed up because, while I read quite a few shoujo series, when it comes to icons, I almost always icon shounen series. The overall theme of Round 5 was Battle of the Bands.

Round 05 - Challenge 01
➨
Won Mod's Choice
Total Points: 11
7th Overall

The idea was to make an icon that would represent our band (our team basically), it had to have a band name and be majority green, the band color. My first icon was a desperate, last minute thrown together piece of crap that was just to ensure that I wasn't DQed for not entering. When inquisitory extended, I made a much nicer one with all of my team members and a catchy name. Well, I like it.

Round 05 - Challenge 02

Won People's Choice
Total Points: 27
3rd Overall

This week, we were assigned roles and each role had a requirement that needed to be our icon. Extra points would be awarded for each additional requirement we used. I was a guitarist and had to have a duplicate of my image, which freaked me out. I hate putting in duplicates, I feel like they make icons look too busy. But I ~~sobbed all the while I made it~~ sucked it up and also chose to add required lyrics and a bottom crop. I initially wanted to make it B&W as well for more points but the lyrics were all about "blue eyes" so I didn't want to take that away.

I simultaneously like and dislike how the icon turned out. I still don't like duplicates but I kinda like how the hair of the smaller image kind of melts into the hair on the side of the larger image. And I like that I didn't need to find a water texture, I just duplicated the original image and blended & masked it to make the wave/sky like texture on top.

Round 05 - Challenge 03

Total Points: 36
3rd Overall

For this week, you had to represent either the past, present, or future in the icon and as I had no idea how to make a present or futuristic icon, I chose the easy theme, past.

I picked a classic series, Princess Knight, and put her in a frame because it reminded me of a portrait of royalty. I also used lots of old trends: the red & blue selective coloring, the yellow-y coloring from dark blue exclusion layers, just stuff to make it look dated. I used the small light textures to try and create a swirly line up to the sword but I don't think it was very well executed.

Round 05 - Challenge 04

Total Points: 48
5th Overall

This week we had to re-use an element of one of the icons we'd already made during the competition. (I chose to use the same character, since that was the easiest thing to do. |D;) We could also make a second icon that had to show the theme "natural" for extra points.

I knew I wanted them to look somewhat similar, even though not many artists had similar looking covers to their b-side tracks, so idk why I wanted to do that. I quickly picked a sad sounding song title for a caption and a melancholy image to go with it. For natural, I interpreted that as naked lol. These were pretty last minute so I'm not all to happy with them but I do kinda like the coloring of the first one.

Round 05 - Challenge 05

Was voted as team icon
Total Points: 59
4th Overall

So we were reassigned colors and had to make another team icon, this time using purple. This was the week I started really feeling drained of ideas. Since I don't frequently icon shoujo, I was tired of using Sailor Moon but lost as to what else I could use. XD I just wandered around wiki until I found a series I liked that had pretty images and then picked a cute looking one. XD; I added borders to make it look more CD cover-ish? Idk what I was thinking. To be honest, I was surprised deria_hime's NANA icon didn't win. It was loads prettier than mine and actually had a true purple whereas mine only had a vaguely magenta looking color.

Round 05 - Challenge 06

Total Points: 70
4th Overall

This week the bands were "going on tour" and we had to visually represent one country in our icon. We also got bonus points (up to 3 total) for each additional visual element we used. To be honest, I was again at a loss. I pretty much procrastinated until the very last second when I remembered Peach Girl was a shoujo series and I love PG.

When I finally found an image I liked, I then couldn't decide whether or not to make her represent the UK or the USA since I wasn't too sure where rock&roll originated. (I've always thought The Beatles were the first rock&roll band? Someone please let me know, my google-fu is weak.) I finally just went with the USA because the version of "I Love Rock & Roll" that I was listening to was by Joan Jett and she's an American. I photoshopped a flag into her shirt and changed the shape of her shirt since Momo's tan lines looked odd so I wanted them covered up. Then, and here I got lucky, since I completely forgot that I could earn extra points with the extra visual elements, I added stars to match the stars on her shirt, and a caption in the red, white & blue that I used the eye dropper to pick out from her shirt. Threw in the light texture because I love them and because it mimicked and brought attention to her head banging hair & the caption.

I'm rather happy with it since it's very me: a small image with lots of negative space and a tilted caption. The only thing that bugs me with this icon now is that after this round was over, I found a higher quality version of the original image WITHOUT all that purple crap around her hair, which would have make extracting her a hell of a lot easier. XP

I didn't earn enough points over the weeks so I was eliminated this challenge, placing Fourth

Like an idiot, I signed up for the next round, even with less and less time available and no ideas left. I really liked how it sounded! It was going to be short as well as centered on FASHION, and who doesn't love fashion??

Round 06 - Challenge 01

Won People's Choice
Total Points: 18
8th Overall

This week's theme was to take inspiration from various Project Runway clothes, then a photo, and lastly a beautiful Janelle Monáe song. The last two were for extra points. I didn't have any time for the last two things so only one icon from me.

No time or ideas = picking the patterned dress so that I could incorporated elements from it into my icon. I photoshopped polka dots into Momo's dress, then added a ribbon texture to the side that imitated the large bow on the woman's dress. This icon winning surprised the crap out of me considering it was a very last minute icon and has that terribly trite caption.

Round 06 - Challenge 02

Total Points: 35
9th Overall

Again with the out of ideas + last minute icons. The first one was probably made in 20 minutes or less; extract an image, slap some Curves and Selective Color layers, add Hue & Saturation + Brightness & Contrast layers, a couple of light textures and call it a day. It's fug, idk what I was thinking. I got lucky and was able to slip a second icon in because I knew I really needed the points if I wanted to get anywhere. The second icon I like marginally better than the first. I extracted the flower texture and put it in front to try and create a sense of depth. Flower in the foreground, couple in the middle, red texture in the background. You got an additional point for each texture you used so I tried using as many as I could without it looking too busy. It's still meh but at least I got points!

Round 06 - Challenge 03
➨
Won Mod's Choice
Total Points: 52
8th Overall

I was excited for this week because just last week I had asked if there would be any Alexander McQueen (RIP ;~;♥) pieces and this week there were two! I was kinda sad it wasn't the vagina dentata dress though. XD

My first set was, as always, made with minimal effort and entered at the very last second. Which is why when there was an extension, I tossed that crappy trio and made something still iffy but at least a little more cohesive. Again, I wasn't inspired by the provided images so much as I used similar elements. The lace from McQueen's peacock dress found its way into my first and second icons as borders, the taupe/nude coloring of the Galliano dress popped up in my middle icon, etc. I still don't really like how they look, so I was very flattered to have won M.C., but it was the best I could come up with at the time.

I didn't do terribly well in either round but I LOVE THIS BATTLE. It's so creative and fun and has such refreshing themes. Whenever inquisitory opens sign-ups again, I highly recommend joining because it's bound to be amazing.

Things I Learned ~~mostly about myself~~
· I'm an extremely slow iconmaker. I need to learn to speed up my icon maker process or something because, when coupled with me being a procrastinator, the only thing that I end up with is shitty last minute icons for the LIMS & battles I'm in. ;;
· What inspires me most is a good image. I spend most of my time just trying to find that "perfect" image.
· I suck at making shoujo icons, exceptions being CLAMP and Sailor Moon apparently, and need to practice more with using other fandoms.
· If it's a Battle type LIMS, do everything you can to earn points. Enter that extra icon no matter what, always vote, include those extra requirements for more points, etc. because you need as many points as you can earn.
· I do not have the creative imagination for long LIMS & battles. Omfg, I am so envious of all the iconmakers who can keep churning out amazing icons week after week. XD
· That making icons competitively did help me improve! (Not seen here but when you compare these to my shounenbattle and animalims icons, wow, what a difference. Or that could just be because I'm more comfortable icon-ing shounen? I'm not sure.)

[19] TOTAL Misc. shoujo icons: Sailor Moon, Peach Girl, Utena, Princess Knight, D.N. Angel, etc.

01	02	03	04

05	06	07	08

09	10	11	12

13	14	15	16

17	18	19

Comment & credit please ✯ Watch? ✯ Don't hotlink or edit ✯ Resources

009; MASSIVE Multi-fandom post ➢ PART 2

2010-11-12T22:47:20Z

And the second half is all animanga fandoms! Plus ATLA. :P Again, I tried to arrange each section in chronological order, from Oldest to Newest. Omg, I love how you can clearly see all the trends I used and then passed over later for other trends. Oh man, it's hilarious.

[119] TOTAL
{10} ATLA
{20} CLAMP (Cardcaptor Sakura, X, RG Veda, Code Geass, etc.)
{9} KHR!
{5} Bleach
{8} Naruto
{5} Utena
{17} Sailor Moon
{45} Misc. animanga (Ouran, SZS, Air Gear, NANA, Escaflowne, Glass Mask, Peach Girl, etc.)

Avatar: The Last Airbender
1	2	3	4	5

6	7	8	9	10

CLAMP
11	12	13	14	15

16	17	18	19	20

21	22	23	24	25

26	27	28	29	30

Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
31	32	33	34	35

36	37	38	39

Bleach
40	41	42	43	44

Naruto
45	46	47	48	49

50	51	52

Utena
53	54	55	56	57

Sailor Moon
58	59	60	61	62

63	64	65	66	67

68	69	70	71	72

73	74

Misc. Animanga
75	76	77	78	79

80	81	82	83	84

85	86	87	88	89

90	91	92	93	94

95	96	97	98	99

100	101	102	103	104

105	106	107	108	109

110	111	112	113	114

115	116	117	118	119

Generated by Malionette's Icon Table Generator

➣ TO PART 1

Please Comment & Credit!

Watch? ✯ Don't Hotlink or Edit ✯ Resources ✯ ~~Awards: I & II~~

008; MASSIVE Multi-fandom Post ➣ PART 1

2010-11-12T21:30:00Z

SO. Three years later and I finally get around to posting something. D: I'm extremely sorry for the very long wait. m(_ _)m ~~lol If any of my watchers are still alive or care. ...orz~~ First, here are some old icons that have been sitting around for, well, three years. I wanted to post them regardless of how dated they look since I like seeing how far I've progressed when I compare them to my new icons. Plus, I still like how some of them look. XD I'm definitely missing quite a few icons, since I idiotically chose to host them on tinypic, where files get deleted after a while, but there's still a fuckton here. These are probably from 2007-2009 and all from icontests so you may have seen them before, years ago lol. I took a big break sometime in 2009 I think... I tried ordering them, the best I could remember, each section, from Oldest to Newest. OKAY, to the icons!

[205] TOTAL
{145} Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13
{60} Various Videogames, mostly Sqenix (Valkyrie Profile Lenneth, YS series, LoZ, Unlimited Saga, Musashiden II, Romancing Saga, etc.)

Final Fantasy
1	2	3	4	5

6	7	8	9	10

11	12	13	14	15

16	17	18	19	20

21	22	23	24	25

26	27	28	29	30

31	32	33	34	35

36	37	38	39	40

41	42	43	44	45

46	47	48	49	50

51	52	53	54	55

56	57	58	59	60

61	62	63	64	65

66	67	68	69	70

71	72	73	74	75

76	77	78	79	80

81	82	83	84	85

86	87	88	89	90

91	92	93	94	95

96	97	98	99	100

101	102	103	104	105

106	107	108	109	110

111	112	113	114	115

116	117	118	119	120

121	122	123	124	125

126	127	128	129	130

131	132	133	134	135

136	137	138	139	140

141	142	143	144	145

Misc. Videogames
146	147	148	149	150

151	152	153	154	155

156	157	158	159	160

161	162	163	164	165

166	167	168	169	170

171	172	173	174	175

176	177	178	179	180

181	182	183	184	185

186	187	188	189	190

191	192	193	194	195

196	197	198	199	200

201	202	203	204	205

Generated by Malionette's Icon Table Generator

➢ TO PART 2

Please Comment & Credit!

Watch? ✯ Don't Hotlink or Edit ✯ Resources ✯ ~~Awards: I & II~~

007; Requests [Old]

2007-03-31T00:31:45Z

For all those poor souls from this post who may still want an icon, just comment again. ;~; I'm so sorry for taking so long just to get back to you guys.

EDIT July 3, 2010: Shall now ~~eventually~~ make a post dedicated to the interests of rusalkatrix/sarahcross, septimal, skyla_doragono, and margyydoodle. orz Forgive my EXTREEEEEEEME lateness.

006; Icon Tutorials [3]

2007-02-01T07:26:39Z

Basically just copied and pasted my tutorials from twilight_touch; these were made sometime in 2006. <--omgOLD

Seeing as how I'm sick, I figured I'd use my time stuck indoors for something constructive. So, here are some, sadly not all, of the tutorials I was asked to make...weeks ago. *shame* Oh, and if I'm vague or incomprehensible, feel free to ask, I don't bite!

All these tutorials are made for Photoshop 7 but should be translatable to other programs.

- Requested by sidh; won Second & Best Adaption @ mangaicontest

This to

	Crop to and prep your base. Try to crop a more interesting image, I usually keep the rule of thirds in mind but that might be a bit extreme for some. Then I usually Sharpen the base once and then duplicating it three times with those three layers set to Screen, Soft Light, and Multiply (all 100%) Multiply being the top layer and Screen the bottom. Of course, each image varies so you may need more or less layers and every person has their own way of doing this (some like the Auto Contrast/Color/Levels controls, some do nothing) so...have at it and experiment. Flatten when you've finished.
	Create a new layer and fill it with #002157. Set it to Exclusion at 100% (This step is not necessary for all images and in truth, wasn't all that necessary for this one either. I just do it because it's now a habit. :P)
	Duplicate the base layer and drag it above the Exclusion layer. Desaturate it and then set it to Overlay 100%.
	Choose a light texture, I chose this one (by unknown) and set it to Lighten 100%
	I wanted color and sparkle so I took this texture by immoral and set it to Linear Light 100%.
	Take this texture by colorfilter and flip it horizontal. (Edit>Transform>Flip Horizontal) Set it to Hard Light 100%. Duplicate that layer. Pick one to turn brown and click on the eye next to the other layer so that you cannot see it. To turn the texture brown first choose a brown color and have it as your foreground color in the Switch Foreground & Background Color boxes. Then go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation. Check the box that reads Colorize and drag the saturation arrow where you see fit. (My own settings were: Hue-30, Saturation - 48, Lightness – 0). Mask out anything that covers up her face, namely the X on the textures. You can also erase them out but I prefer masks in case I make a mistake. Put the same mask on the unchanged original texture and then hide it again.
	Duplicate the base layer and drag it to the top. Then Guassian Blur it by 1 pixel and set it to Overlay 100%. Not much of a difference yet.
	Take a flower texture (I used one by colorfilter) and set it to Multiply 100%.
	Another Exclusion layer of of #002157, set it to 50% this time though.
	Duplicate the base layer again and Guassian Blur it by about 4 pixels. Set it to Soft Light.
1st document	This is where it gets a little...weird. Go back through all your layers and click on the eye next to the original version of colorfilter's texture so that it is now visible Then hide the brown version. Go to the History Palette and click on the left most button (entitled Create New Document From Current State). Flatten the SECOND document.	2nd document
2nd document	Drag the second document on top of the first and set it to Color 50%.
	And because I love light textures, I took another one (by unknown) and set it to Lighten 100%.
	I added tiny text and a decoration (by unknown) and added text in 18th Century and Old Scrpt. Choose the text color by using the Eyedropper Tool to pick a darker color from your image. That way the text will blend in nicely and not contrast too harshly with the rest of the icon. Done~

- Requested by baine; won First @ ff_eye_candy *JOIN THEM~*
- Start - - Finish -

	Prep your base. I duplicated it four times. The layers were, from bottom to top: Normal 200%, Screen 100%, Soft Light 100%, Multiply 85%. Flatten.
	Floodfill a new layer with #002157. Set to Exclusion 100%. I masked it so that it would only show on Fujin, since I don't want it to appear on the background that I'm going to add. An easy way to mask this is to select all the areas of white in the background with the Magic Wand tool and then select inverse (either through Select>Inverse or Shift+Ctrl+I)
	Duplicate the base and drag it to the top. Set to Overlay 100%.
	Using the pen tool, trace around Fujin's shirt. Once you've closed that path, right click on it and Make Selection. Create a new layer and make the selection a mask.
	Fill (I have most of my textures set as patterns) the masked layer with a striped texture (mine is by aconite) and set it to Color 100%. Then move it around until you're satisfied. Mine was moved to the lower right corner because I wanted to create a colored block effect on Fujin's shirt.
	Create a new layer. Select the area you masked in the previous layer and fill it with color on the new layer. (I choose the same color as the red in the texture, #790000.) I only wanted one block though, so I used a hard 5 pixel brush to mask everything out but the little area I wanted the red in. (Upper left of her shirt) Rather dark eh?
	Create a new layer, fill it with another striped texture with the same coloring (mine is again by aconite). Mask it to only Fujin's shirt (just select the previous mask) and set it to Overlay 100%. This not only brightens the coloring but also adds another stripe across the shirt.
	Color in her lips with a Soft Round 2-3 pixel brush. I just traced around her lips, where there was already shadow markings. I apparently got lucky because she looks rather like she's pouting. ^^;; I used the same red as Fujin's shirt and set the opacity to 50% while the Layer Mode remained Normal.
	Duplicate the previous layer and set it to Soft Light. Opacity remains the same.
	I had no idea what color to make her eyeshadow so I just randomly picked purple. XD Use a Hard Round 3 pixel brush to carefully go over the eye. The lines there help too, just trace them. Set the layer to Color 100%.
	Duplicate the layer but set it to Soft Light 100%.
	Use the pen tool and carefully select her hair. Not that hard since the BG is white and her hair is clearly defined. Make a new layer (so that the hair color is on its own) and set it to Color 100% then go back and select the path (Right Click on the Path>Make Selection).
	Fill in the selection with a pink colored texture by aconite (How to define textures as patterns for PS can be found here.
	Duplicate the Color layer but change the layer mode to Lighten and the Opacity to 30%.
	I then wanted to make her face a little paler so I colored it in with white and set it to Overlay 30%.
	I added "punk" in #0D004C Only When I Do Fonts.
	Add a decoration brush by asya_17 in #EC008C.
	Go underneath the base layer and create a new layer. Fill it with an interesting looking texture but one that's not too busy. You don't want to draw too much attention away from Fujin. I chose this one by grrliz
	The yellow doesn't match though so I decided to change it to another color. Create a new layer and set it to Color 100%. Select the yellow area with the Rectangular Marquee Tool. Fill with #400000, which is the same red of Fujin's new shirt.
	Duplicate the red layer. Set it to Color Burn 15%. Now you're done~

- Made for ff_eye_candy; won Second @ ff_eye_candy *JOIN THEM~*

This to

</tr>

	Crop & prep your base. I flipped it horizontally and duplicated it twice, setting both layers to Screen 100% since the base was a tad dark.
	New layer of #002157 set to Exclusion 100.
	Use the pen tool to select all areas of the background (basically trace around Rikku). I zoomed up about 300% and when I finished, my Path Palette looked like this.
	Duplicate the base layer and desaturate it. Set to Overlay 45%. It makes only a slight difference but it's there. I masked it (made the mask from the Paths) so that it only showed up on Rikku and not the background.
	Remember, all those paths are there for you to make masks instead of having to color things in by hand. Went underneath the exclusion layer for the next two layers. Mask in this angel image (which I found through google) and rotate it clockwise until the belt falls to about where Rikku's waist is.
	Mask in a new background to give it a "heavenly" feel as well as change the lighting. Used this image which I, again, found via google.
	Duplicate the Robe layer and drag it above the blue exclusion and the B&W Overlay layers. Set it to Hard Light 80%.
	Duplicate the robe again but set it to Soft Light 100%.
	Duplicate the new background and drag it to the top. Set it to Overlay 100%.
Ewwww...	I noticed a little spot of blue underneath Rikku's arm and I covered it up with paint that was the same color as her skin. Feel free to skip this since not everyone is a freak like me. ;P Finished Result:	Yay~
	I then drew in a belt in #CF9F7A and set to 50%. Again, done because I care about the little things too much.
	Select Rikku's armband from your Path Palette. Fill in a new layer with #EAC117 and set to Vivid Light 100%.
	Duplicate that layer but set it to Color 100%.
	Add wings in #FFFFFF with a brush from herbskillz. Masked out anything that covered up Rikku's body.
	Now for the sparklies~ I added this light texture (by unknown but I'm thinking soulspring) and set it to Overlay 100%. Mask out anything that may be covering Rikku's face.
	Put in some text. I wrote "angelic" in #070E2D & English111 Vivace BT. I also duplicated the layer to increase opacity.
	Duplicate the star texture, drag it above the two text layers, and set it to Screen 80%.
	Select the entire canvas and go to Edit> Stroke by 2 pixels.
	Use a dotted border brush (by unknown) for the outer most border.
	Stick some tiny text (by terra_katta) underneath "angelic" and icon finished.

I don't recommend following these tutorials to the letter.
Each image is different so some steps may not be needed or may even make the icon look worse. Also, creativity is key, so experiment with different colors, textures, etc. I hope you enjoyed these tutorials and if you would like to see more, please join the community!

That said, I'd love to see what you all have done or any other comment/questions you may have. (These are my first tutorials after all. XD)

005; Repost II

2007-02-01T07:10:35Z

Another old post of icons. ~~Trying to fix the table but I'm uncertain what's wrong with it...~~ EDITED June 2, 2010: Finally fixed it, 3 years later orz, but the numbering's changed from the previous table.

[174] TOTAL
{12} CLAMP
{63} Final Fantasy
{12} Kingdom Hearts
{21} Assorted Videogames
{10} Hyung Tae Kim
{7} J-artists
{8} X-Men
{15} Teen Titans
{11} NANA
{11} Bleach
{4} Naruto

CLAMP
1	2	3	4

5	6	7	8

9	10	11	12

Final Fantasy
13	14	15	16

17	18	19	20

21	22	23	24

25	26	27	28

29	30	31	32

33	34	35	36

37	38	39	40

41	42	43	44

45	46	47	48

49	50	51	52

53	54	55	56

57	58	59	60

61	62	63	64

65	66	67	68

69	70	71	72

73	74	75

Kingdom Hearts
76	77	78	79

80	81	82	83

84	85	86	87

Hyung Tae Kim
88	89	90	91

92	93	94	95

96	97

Various Videogames
98	99	100	101

102	103	104	105

106	107	108	109

110	111	112	113

114	115	116	117

118

J-Musicians
119	120	121	122

123	124	125

Marvel Comics & Teen Titans
126	127	128	129

130	131	132	133

134	135	136	137

138	139	140	141

142	143	144	145

146	147	148

Nana
149	150	151	152

153	154	155	156

157	158	159

Bleach
160	161	162	163

164	165	166	167

168	169	170

Naruto
171	172	173	174

Generated by Malionette's Icon Table Generator

Please Credit

Watch? ✯ No Hotlinking ✯ Resources ✯ Awards: I & II

004; Re-post I

2007-02-01T07:06:16Z

Reposting old icons from twilight_touch

Teasers:

o1	o2	o3	o4	o5

o6	o7	o8	o9	1o

11	12	13	14	15

16	17	18	19	20

21	22	23	24	25

26	27	28	29	30

31	32	33	34	35

36	37	38	39	40

41	42	43	44	45

46	47	48	49	50

51	52	53	54	55

56	57	58	59	60

61	62	63	64	65

66	67	68	69	70

71	72	73	74	75

76	77	78	79	80

81	82	83	84	85

86	87	88	89	90

91	92	93	94	95

96	97	98	99	100

Please Credit

Watch? ✯ No Hotlinking ✯ Resources ✯ Awards: I & II

003; Awards

2007-02-01T06:52:59Z

I'll move them over here eventually!

002; Affiliates

2007-02-01T06:51:51Z

Comment if you wish to affiliate. Affiliates are listed in alphabetical order.

chateu_aiguille » margyydoodle
easybakeicons » microcake
fairycalibry_21 » etsu_21
iconsmock
mizugazipan
moonwitch
nommings » ruffling
soulspring » techno
visual_blur » ranviers, revoiment_hika, and vai_rin

Place holder~

001; Resources

2007-02-01T06:44:44Z

Brushes
sir
ohfreckle
77words
ewanism
crumblingwalls
inxsomniax
unioncity
teh_indy
meleada
colortone
myrasis
_coquettish
chouchoune
iconobsessed
herbskillz
daisukicons
easybakeicons
http://www.fluffymonster.org
http://simple-dreams.com
http://glamoury.phoenixfyre.net
http://www.candycrack.net/
http://hybrid-genesis.net

Textures
cdg
colorfilter
silverqe
unioncity
_joni
teh_indy
dearest
regen
iroka
arisubox
scarsonchest
adryenne
elrawien
kaien_kun@violated_icon
dustypaper
erniemay
wemightbeicons
cielo_gris
awmpdotnet
grrliz_icons
weapon_icons
discolore
easybakeicons
bambinainnero
piemin
ohfreckle
expose42
distractiions
spooky_window
toybirds
tralala_icons
xswaniconsx
vol4itca
mitsuki_hime
pale_septembre
babliz
chamberten
xaddictionsx
rhcp_csi
dodoki
candiicon
reyesphile @ cooloring
noisettee @ coloured_skies
samuraiblues @ jounins
http://www.candycrack.net/
http://hybrid-genesis.net
http://www.candycrack.net/
http://veredgf.fredfarm.com/textura/index.html
http://www.oxoniensis-art.net/
http://www.sae.chaos-synthesis.com/