I can see it all tonight underneath the perfect sky.

Is anybody here?

2013-06-08T12:06:43Z

I didn't think it would ever happen again, but after 3 years without ever touching Photoshop I just made a wallpaper. I thought I'll check if anyone is still present here and try sharing it with you.

Do you know the british show Utopia? It's brilliant. It's so well made that I just felt I had to create something new.

EDIT : Actually, it seems like I'm back in business. Made some new stuff. Since it's kind of a fresh start I'll be using a different platform. How about some tumblring? Come to my brand new tumblr - http://symulakrum.tumblr.com/ where I'll be posting all my stuff from now on.

I haven't been here for ages.

2010-05-07T22:18:39Z

Surprise, surprise I'm not dead. I just happened to temporaly lose interest in graphics. Anyway after quite some time I got back to editing my photos. If you're by any chance interested click the photo below to go to the entry on city_aquarium where I posted my newest creations.

Fade to gray.

2009-09-24T21:28:51Z

3 wallpapers featuring Liv Tyler. Sized 1280x1024.

All roads lead you home.

2009-09-16T18:45:21Z

70 icons
[1-20]- Glee
[21-40]- Gossip Girl
[41-50]- Lost in Translation
[51-70]- Torchwood

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Gossip Girl 3x01 bases.

2009-09-15T15:07:53Z

203 Gossip Girl 3x01 bases.

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DOWNLOAD.

Glee 1x02 bases.

2009-09-14T15:41:16Z

154 Glee 1x02 bases.

PREVIEW:

DOWNLOAD.

music post.

2009-09-13T11:35:48Z

I've made 2 music mixes for the great music community lieinthe_sound. I reposted them at my personal journal city_aquarium.

Click the picture.

City Aquarium.

2009-09-12T14:48:39Z

I created a personal journal (a community actually). I'm going to post random stuff- some of my thoughts, photos I took, things I found on the internet, basically everything I feel like posting.
Check it out if you're interested.

city_aquarium city_aquarium city_aquarium

A thousand seconds.

2009-09-05T12:41:34Z

68 icons
[1-8]- Brick
[9-13]- Californication
[14-28]- Legend of the Seeker
[29-48]- Merlin
[49-68]- Stock

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Guess what ... I'M NOT DEAD!

2009-08-29T19:00:03Z

Hi there! Surprise! Didn't think you'll see me around here ever again, huh? Well, I decided to come back, even though I haven't been using LJ for almost a year now. I don't know for how long you can expect me to stay around, in October I go back to the University, I'm moving out of my old apartment and into a new one, I'm starting a second faculty(not sure about this word:)) and I'm pretty sure I'll be busy with life. But for now I'm here. Posting again. So I hope someone remembers about me:P
Here's what I've done today. Enjoy.

124 icons
[1-21]- Alice in Wonderland[trailer]
[22-29]- Alfie
[30,124]- Doctor Who (I forgot about one so it's at the end)
[31-36]- Factory Girl
[37-38]- Imogen Heap
[39-61] Leverage
[62-81]- Pictures taken by me
[82-89]- Queer as folk[US]
[90-109]- Skins
[110-123]- Stock

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Welcome back.

2008-11-11T19:33:22Z

After a long break I finally present you the icons I've made few weeks ago(it was still september when I meant to post those actually). Due to my changed living situation(I moved to Warsaw, as you might know) and many new things to keep me busy(ah the academic life!) i might, well i WILL not post as often as i used to, but I do hope to keep this journal alive somehow. I promise to post new stuff as soon as I have some time to actually sit and do sth in photoshop. But for now there are the new icons.

Icons. 88.

[1-29] Collaboration variations - the actual collaboration is HERE (you have to join the community to see the entry)
[30-44] Torchwood
[45-69] Secret Garden
[70-88] Docotr Who

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The last post. At least for a while.

2008-09-28T17:50:54Z

Hey guys, just letting you know that I moved to another city- Warsaw, the capital city of Poland to study on the University here. Anyway it leaves me with not much access to the internet for a week or two (right now i'm using friend's computer). I have some icons ready but I'll post them in two weeks when I go home to visit. I made a collaboration not long ago with noisettee and teelke at onlydreamers, unfortunatelly i'm to lazy to repost them here so if you want them go to onlydreamers(it's a friends only community, but we're adding everyone so you just need to join to see the post). My dear f-list, if you post sth interesting, graphics or personal info please leave me a link here so that i can go check it when i get my internet life back. I'll get back to you soon. Hopefully. Much love you guys.

Daytime. All I want is nighttime. I don't need the daytime.

2008-09-12T18:20:59Z

120 icons
[1-7]- Skins
[8-27]- Stock
[28-35]- Wanted
[36-55]- Fashion
[56-80]- Doctor Who
[81-94] Bones
[95-99]- Ellen Page
[100-120]- 30 seconds to mars ('a beautiful lie' video)

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Music meme.

2008-09-11T07:54:40Z

I just saw it in a music community and decided to post it as well.

Step 1: Put your iPod on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song. (I'm posting some more lines to make it easier)
Step 3: Let everyone guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Bold the songs when someone guesses correctly.
Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!

1. Can't sing it out, can't write it down. You're probably better off under the ground.

2. Strike me down Give me everything you've got

~~3. Now take me dancing at the disco Where you buy your winniebago~~ Goldfrapp- ride a white horse

~~4. I want to buy you flowers, it's such a shame you're a boy~~ Emilie Simon- flowers

~~5. Hey, musicman just play something cool we love the sunshine to dance by the pool~~ Morcheeba- Love, sweet love

~~6. On a cold wet afternoon in a room full of emptiness~~
Audioslave- like a stone

~~7. Hay en mi corazón una inquietud Hoy te veo tan distante~~ Christina Aguilera- el beso del final

8. Under the spruce trees In the silent woods Secret caves Winter bedrooms

~~9. Some people live for the fortune, some people live just or the fame~~ Alicia Keys- I I ain't got you

10. There's no way I'm coming back to you I've just got to say That everything we did is through

11. I ain't got no money, I ain't got no car, I ain't got a future, 'cause I ain't got a job

12. I used to live on cloud 9 now I moved to 8 I do serious business in surreal estate

~~13. Yo lo que quiero es Que no me toquen~~ Orishas- que se bote

14. Here is a song without a name It comes to heal your pain

~~15. You had me You lost me You're wasted You cost me~~ Joss Stone- You had me

~~16. When you try your best but you don't succeed When you get what you want but not what you need~~ Coldplay- Fix you

~~17. Pourquoi t'inquiète mon silence Crois-moi tu n'as plus de recours~~ Feist- L'amour ne dure pas toujours

18. I haven’t thought of you for years you know Your memory seems to come and go

~~19. Drink up baby down mmm are you in or are you out leave your things behind cause it's all going off without you~~ Frou Frou- let go

~~20. Ever dance with the devil baby? Oh no Make my day~~ Stereophonics- devil

~~21. I am on, Switched On A sudden clearness, a clarity~~ Bloc Party- on

~~22. Let's dance little stranger Show me secret sins Love can be like bondage Seduce me once again~~ Nouvelle Vague- dance with me

~~23. I've been a bad, bad girl I've been careless with a delicate man~~ Fiona Apple- criminal

24. I'm being dragged down, down by the hand The hand of a golden giant man

~~25. I want something That's purer than the water Like we were~~ Snow Patrol- it's beginning to get to me

Btw, my ipod hates me there were 13 instrumental songs while doing this meme, and one african that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't find lyrics for:P

You make my day.

2008-08-31T08:05:09Z

I got tagged with this by innocent_lexys and chaoticfae so now it's my turnI guess:P

Pick 10 people and give them the "you make my day" award in no particular order. If you're picked, you are charged with picking 10 of your own (unless you've already done it).

chaoticfae innocent_lexys noisettee seriouslywir pa_0205 mariarita chaoticfae mangoninja kisuncha yunaroti

You're all made of awesome:)

And what's past is done and gone.

2008-08-22T19:14:27Z

And my graphic-making-craze continues. 4 more wallpapers for you. Not only 'Doctor Who' this time, but still I couldn't stop myself from doing 2 of 'DW' as well, there's also 1 with Anna Friel & 1 with Emily Browning.
And since I post like crazy you might want to look at my previous posts from today and yesterday. here & here. Also I've changed my header.

Doctor & Rose

2008-08-22T12:23:13Z

I'm in wallpaper-making mood these days so expect more to be posted soon. And I'm all for 'Doctor Who' as you might have noticed so 3 wallies of Doctor and Rose this time. I'll try and make sth else later for those who don't know or like the show, but I don't promise anything, since the pretty 'DW' screencaps are forcing me to use them. Give me some pretty screencaps or a link to a gallery of other things(since I prefer wallies with people) and I just may use them.

Doctor's ladies.

2008-08-21T20:37:25Z

Wallpapers this time. 3 of Donna from 'Doctor Who' and 4 of Billie Piper (who plays Rose on 'DW').
The are many variations of one wallpaper included as always so don't get bored with them:P

3 days with nature.

2008-08-17T22:44:26Z

I'm back & baring gifts. Photos I mean. The whole trip was great, there was a storm one night but our tents weren't 'hurt' by it. The days were lovely we spent them swimming and relaxing. I've managed to read 2,5 books in 2,5 day haha. My personal record I think.

Without further ado, HERE are the photos. They're here only temporary, I'll give you the link to another set later. It turns out I only can have 3 sets on flick without paying for the account so I'll just have to somehow make order with the 3 sets I already have and put those pictures into one of them.

Comments are always lovely. Hope you like the photos:)
I understand that by sharing them I can't stop you from using them, just If you really want to make graphics, ok, I'll manage, just please don't use those with people on them. Thanks.

...

2008-08-15T06:30:59Z

I'm going camping for 3 days. Squeee! Will be back on monday:)

Visual&Audio

2008-08-11T20:32:58Z

I've uploaded some new photos to my Flickr account. If you're interested in seeing those go to this set for some retro elements and also this set for some light experiments.

Also I wanted to share some good music with you, so I uploaded a few songs to my box.net. I just wanted your summer to be more pleasent, and the best way to achieve that is through some good songs.
1. Letko- 'Before' download -it's a polish band that i discovered just recently, they don't have an album but they have 3 amazing songs available on their site(If you like this one let me know&I'll upload the other two for you)
2. Damien Rice- 'Volcano' download
3. Erykah Badu- 'Amerykahn promise' download
4. Herbert- 'Those feelings' download
5. Honeyroot- 'Where I belong' download
6. Lamb- 'Heaven(Funkstorung Mix)' download
7. Shiny Toy Guns- 'Le disko' download
8. RJD2- 'A beautiful mine' download
9. Sophie Ellis Bextor- 'You get yours' download
10. The Ting Tings- 'Shut up and let me go' download

Let me know if you like the music, if so I might upload sth more for you( I guess I'm in good mood:P).

Wanna stay right here until the end of time 'til the earth stops turning.

2008-08-10T21:12:58Z

First a request: if anyone of you happen to have nice&good quality screencaps from 'Doctor Who'(season is not important) would you mind uploading 2 or 3 for me? I just can't go through any more galleries or zip files after searching for 'Torchwood' screencaps.

120 icons & expect more since i keep my Photoshop on&ready.
[1-20]- Fashion
[21-70]- Torchwood
[71-100]- Stock
[101-120]- Danny the Dog

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RAXACORICOFALLAPATORIUS.

2008-08-07T17:38:40Z

Finally the icons I promised you sometime again, sorry for the delay but my laziness stopped me from doing absolutely anything usefull. But before I give you the icons you have to suffer through my ranting. So here are icons from Doctor Who(my new addiction, I've already seen all the seasons, I'm a tv whore), Gossip Girl(don't really like it, but the clothes are fabulous most of the time) and Breakfast at Tiffany's(my plan is to watch all of the movies with Audrey Hepburn by the end of September, I've already seen 8 or so, I strongly recommend you 'How to steal a million' & 'Wait until dark' those are pretty awesome, also those icons exist thanks to noisettee who reads my mind i guess, she posted screencaps just when i needed them :P) Also you can expect some 'Torchwood' icons soon, I've seen all episodes of this show as soon as I've finnished watching Doctor Who, and some from the movie 'Danny the dog'(btw, do you know this amazingly extraordinaly fabulous soundtrack by Massive Attack? It blows my mind every time I listen to it, and now I've finally watched the movie, and oh, it's so worth seeing!). While watching this movie I've been taking notes, haha I know it sounds weird, but I was writing down the time when there were interesting pictures so that I can make screencaps of those particular scenes:P. Also I'm reading 'Breaking Dawn' and it's so weird, I'm like wtf most of the time, but still I love it, well actually I guess I'd love everything as long as there's Edwarfd in it, but still. I kinda wish there was some more action, because it's all so uh, perfect so far. I don't want to give you any spoilers so I won't say anything about it for now, I'll probably finnish it tonight sionce I have only 100pages to go, so I just might rant some more about it than. Okay I guess it's enough, let's cut to the chase.
Btw, sorry for the old table banner, I'm too lazy to make a new one.

120 icons
[1-20] Breakfast at Tiffany's
[21-70] Doctor Who
[71-120] Gossip Girl

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Holiday package.

2008-07-25T21:17:13Z

4 Aqualung wallpapers & 7 banners/headers(stock&eternalsunshine of the spotless mind) whatever you feel like doing with them. 120 icons is ready to be posted as well but I'm too lazy to do it now. Maybe tomorrow. Or maybe I'll just wait 'till I have more, because I'm in icon-making mood lately.

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Basic icon tutorial

2008-07-24T19:56:55Z

Here it comes. Mostly because I'm bored. Don't expect it to be sth fresh&new :P IMAGE HEAVY! FINALLY FINNISHED.

The basic icon tutorial on:
a/ choosing a picture
b/ cropping
c/ basic information about coloring
d/ use of texture
e/ text

a/ choosing a picture

The rule is simple: always use the best quality photos that you're able to find. You don't want your icons to look pixeleted or too sharpened or otherwise, too blurred. Also if you can use big pictures, you'll than have more possibilities to crop it and make it more interesting. If you choose a small photo you'll only have one or two possibilities of cropping. The theme of icons is of course up to the maker. You iconize what you like. But remember that HQ pictures are your friends.

The example to support the thesis:
small picture->

You can only make about 2-3 croppings and they're not really interesting.

If you'd like for example to crop her face it would be too pixelated.

big picture->

Five possible cropping out of gazillion:

The other important thing when chosing a picture is: Less is more. It means never choose those photos which are overcolored, you won't have much things to do with it. You should opt for pictures with subtle, natural colors rather than vivid ones in order to have easier task when it comes to changing the colors.

There's a difference between what you can do with
this and f.e. this

Last, but not least: don't be afraid of b&w photos. There's a lot of things you can do with them. Sometimes it's just a cropping that makes a b&w icon pretty:
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In other cases you have to adjust contrast of the photo (new adjustment layer->brightness/contrast, or just copy the base and set the copied layer to soft light)
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Some effects like text or texture make the icon unique so don't be afraid to add them:
colorfull texture set to lighten (search for textures that are rather dark with just some lighter elements so that it only covers a part of an icon like in the example)
i've just added some simple text
the texture is set to normal but I've got rid of the upper part of it with the background eraser tool

b/ cropping

Cropping is something rather personal and it depends on makers' preferences but there are few simple rules. First of all play with it. Go wild and creative, don't make what others do, try focusing on parts of the picture rather than on a whole thing. The most important thing to remember while cropping is the visibility, you have to be sure that the viewers will know what the icon shows. I'm not much of a cropping queen but Let me try and show you what I mean.

Cropping a person.
Focus on good features of a person, show what's worth looking at. I for example really like crops with a person turning back so that you can see a neck of a person perfectly. The icons focusing on specific elements like eyes, lips or less ordinary things like ears are far more eye-catching than those showing a person standing straight, pasted in the center of an icon. And remember that you can get tons of different crops from one picture- you like the first crop you made from a photo? great! edit it and than get back to the original picture to crop some more. You can be amazed how many icons better than this first one ,that you thought was perfect, you can make.

Examples of bad cropping, well according to me:

Examples of good cropping, well maybe not good but better:

Cropping a stock photo.
That is a completely different matter. First of all before cropping you need to know what you want to do with the icon. If you want to put some text on it than you need a fragment which is 'empty', where's less elements and the text will be visible.

Example:
Like here you have some empty space so the text is perfectly visible:
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But here the biggest empty spot is on a person which is bad, because you can't really say what the text says:
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When you feel like posting a texture that will cover half of an icon you have to think of it before cropping as well. So that the texture covers the less significant part of a photo and you can still see what the picture shows

Example:

You can as well try cropping an image into two different sizes (however it works better for pictures of people i think) than blend them both into one icon like here:

Cropping screencaps.
That's hard work because on most of them characters are cut out in some place, for instance they don't have a top of head:P It narrows the number of possible crops but if you're clever enough you'll be able to even make use of it. Personally I'm not clever, i usually don't waste my time on drawing a top of head so that i can have a person in the lower part of my icon and a nice background in the upper part (like here ).
I usually just make an icon featuring a part of a persons' silhuette or head
Examples:

The other problem with screencaps is that they're often blurred. You than have to cropp them so that's the less visible or just cover big parts of them with texture.

I'm not really sure if it works on all the caps but in my opinion if you show a smaller amount of things like just a part of a face so that there's less colors and things visible in the background it looks less blurred. Know what I mean? I'm not sure I know what I mean.

Btw, If you still find cropping too difficult go to dont_be_so_base or other community where people post bases. There are thousands of good pictures already cropped waiting for you to do sth creative with them. This way you can focus more on practicing other things for example texture and text placing or coloring.

c/ basic information about coloring

So first the obvious stuff- coloring is something that depends totally on a picture, no coloring tutorial out thereon the internet is perfect because you can't predict if what looks perfect on one picture will look as good on the other. Basically all you need to remember is not to make your coloring too vivid(it will look pixelated) nor too washed out(wievers won't be able to see what the icon shows) and of course you need to find a balance between too light and too dark.

Lightening the picture.
Especially useful for screencaps, but for other pictures that you think are too dark as well. There are several ways to make your icon lighter, which one you chose depends on your preferences and the picture, sometimes you just need to check which one looks best.

Copy your base and set it to screen(do it more than once if it's necessary)
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New adjustment layer->Curves. Play with the curves. Personally I never make more than 2, 3 points and I usually stay with changing RGB only, but if you wish to have one particular color more visible than the others or lighter or darker or whatever than try and create points on RED, BLUE & GREEN as well. Anyway creating more than 3 points might be confusing and deffinitely more difficult, in most cases creating a zigzag out of the curves line doesn't work out fine as well.
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You might use levels if you prefer. New adjustment layer->Levels. All you need to do is to change the numbers 0, 1.00, 255 . It's mostly changing the last one(255) into a lower one for example if you set this one to 146 your image will be way lighter, you can play with the rest of them as well to set the contrast right. In my example I set numbers to: 20, 1.59, 134.
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The other way to make your icon lighter is to use brightness/contrast. My settings are brightness: +60, contrast: +39
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Making icon more vivid.
If you feel that your base is too washed out, too light or just not vivid enough just copy the base and set it to soft light(opacity depends on a picture of course). I often make double copy and set the first one to soft light around 80% opacity and the upper one I set to multiply at 30% opacity. This way the icon is a little bit darker and than the coloring is more visible. Also you might want to play with saturation(New adjustment layer->Hue/Saturation/Lightness)
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The actual coloring.
You can alter the colors of an image in many ways, I usually end up playing with Selective coloring or Color Balance, but I'm not gonna write here about it. To find actual coloring tutorials by me look here, but I suggest you to do sth smarter and go to the community where more talented people who know more about coloring post their tuts, that's what I often do (icon_tutorial).
Anyway you can change the look of your image by filling it with color as well and here are few examples of it:
--> Dark purple(#2e004f here but any other will work)set to exclusion

--> Dark brown set to exlusion (#300000)

--> Beige set to multiply (#d6d1a7)

--> Dark blue set to exlusion (#00194c)

--> If you want more 'romantic' feeling try setting really light colors like pastel pink, yellow, green to soft light (light green here #cafabb)
--> light pink here (#ffdee3)

--> Really vivid yellow set to darken (#fdff67)

--> Dark red set to lighten (#890000)

--> Light grey set to color burn will make your icon more vivid (#e5e5e5)

There're numerous other examples like that but you'll just have to figure them out on your own 'cause I'm too lazy to help you with it:P

d/ use of texture
The textures you're using depend totally on you. I mostly use the most recently downloaded ones, and a few that I use almost everytime because well, they're perfect:P Anyway if you like textures add them, if don't don't botter, personally I think they make icons more interesting(in most cases) but sometimes if a cropping and coloring is interesting itself the texture might only spoil the result. The kind of texture you'll use is up to you, just be carefull, you don't want your icon to look overloaded with textures, do you?
Adding textures is a rather time-consuming process, but definitely worth the fuss. Here's how my photoshop looks while I'm working, and believe me I really hate opening all of those textures but they change the icon completely.

Light textures.
For a bit of magical feeling you might want to try and put a nice light texture on top of your icon set to screen or lighten.

Stock picture as a texture.
You might want to try and combine your icon with a stock photo, it gives a completely new look. Another way is to use a photo of polaroid or a frame or for example a spider's web looks great set too screen, as well as pictures of a moon.

Grungy textures.
If your icon is just too 'clean' you might put on a grungy texture, in most of the cases I set them to multiply, it will create the effect of dust.

Text textures.
Sometimes you just feel like sth is missing but you don't know what, you try to come up with a text but you can't think of anything, text textures are of great help in such situations.

The other good idea in this situation is to put on an icon some matching shape, or a cute little texture, or just a rectangle with tiny text inside, lately I happen to use a lot a texture with little, cute strawberries, tey fit almost everywhere

Texture as your background.
All you need to do is cut out a person and put onto a nice, simple texture(it looks weird on textures with big ornaments and elements on it), you can also simply put a texture on top of your image and erase it with eraser where you don't want it. Here's a great tutorial on working with texture, it's quite time-consuming but the result is great TUTORIAL

Paper textures.
Post a paper texture set to normal on top of your icon, just move it or erase a bit of it so that it doesn't cover the whole thing.

Scribble textures.
The best way to achieve this look is to set a b&w texture to screen, if the cribles are not white just invert the colours on the texture layer.

Romantic feeling.
For a romantic feeling set colorfull but rather light textures to lighten and erese a part of it, it works best with icons of people

Texture as a mask layer.
Use your texture as a layer mask by using its shape, b&w textures with big elements(preferably geometrical) work best. If the element you want to be your shape is black set the texture to screen, this way the rest of the icon will remain white, if the element is white set the texture to multiply, that way the rest of the icon will be black.

Texture as a divider.
You can divide your icon into many little pices to make it look more original

Can't think of anything more right now, for inspiration you should just wander artound lj where a lot of talented people posts their stuff, you can always use some of their ideas, just adjust it to your picture, and the textures you use, don't use the same as them 'cause that's just stealing, and there's nothing creative about that.

e/ text
I used to have a lot of trouble with this part of graphic making but I've learned to deal with it, so here's my advice: use lyrics, quotes or whatever you've heard. I often just put on some nice music and use on the icons the lyrics, it doesn't matter if it suits or not, it's supposed to look good and not be superinteligent. When I hear sth interesting, a song, a quote from a movie or a tv show I usually just write it down so that I don't forget in the future, it's really useful, and I might reuse it as many times as I want.

Now, about font. When you're making icons you ought to use simple fonts like arial, I use almost only century and arial black, but really any simple font will do. The thing is if you use a fancy decorational font it will be hard to read because the icon is too small for it. Fancy fonts are good for banners, header and really any bigger graphics, just not for icons.

Another thing, personally I think that 3-4 lines of text look way better than just one word, it really depends on an icon, sometimes the simple word is perfect, other times a single letter is just what you need, but most of the times it just looks weird. Try and put on your icon a whole sentence instead of one word, just don't make it too long.

Also, what I think looks best is 3 to 5 lines of text that start, or end in one place, if you know what i mean, they somehow look better, it creates a feeling of a square or a rectangle.

EXAMPLES:
Single letter.

Just one word.

Few lines starting in one place.

Few lines ending in one place.

Few lines starting&ending in one place.(my personal favourite)

Irregular text.

THE END.
If you don't get sth or just want to know more let me know and I'll gladly answer the questions.