ode to the nightingails

and that's all for me

hauntes — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 02:17:40 GMT

Okay lovelies. I wanna say thanks first of all for ever joining this community in the first place. It's insane how much this place has grown. I loved posting here. But I decided to move on to a new community on my own. My style and taste has changed in the last while and I just kind of needed a fresh start. So I've moved to nichecorner. If you enjoy my icons I'd love if you joined me there. And this community will be staying open and all the other makers will still post here. All the posts will remain untouched so all the older icons will be here if you ever want to use them. Anyways, click the banner above to see the first post at my new comm and to the other makers here I seriously love you. Thanks for being so understanding.

- xo hauntes

#289

hauntes — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 20:29:15 GMT

14 - theiconquest Chapter Two: Sidequest #1
+
09 - Actors/Actresses (Holliday Grainger, Francois Arnaud, Robert Pattinson)
04 - The Borgias
01 - Birdsong
02 - Downton Abbey
10 - Game of Thrones
07 - The Hour
01 - Luther
02 - Mad Men
01 - Misfits
02 - Pushing Daisies
11 - Secret Diary of a Call Girl

Alts

--------------

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ask the maker 3.0

hauntes — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 01:36:04 GMT

Ask the Maker 3.0

**I've never done a guide before so bear with with me because I am super horrible at explaining this stuff.**

Okay so scoobyatemysnax asked:

"may i ask for a guide for your lighting and/or your darker colouring? because i love the effect like in these icons"

This is actually pretty simple but I've been using it a lot lately. It is something that I started doing by accident after trying a similar effect but JUST TO BE CLEAR this is not my idea, many have done it before I tweaked it here and there for my style. Also, I imagine it would work with most coloring.

Step One: (Let's call them steps)
Prepare your image. I'm using a screencap that will go on my tumblr for this but I usually make my icons on a 100 x 100 canvas or they are cropped down versions of larger graphics. Crop it, do your usual steps and some basic coloring(I have a curves layer for brightness, selective color, photo filter and vibrance on this one). It doesn't need to be perfect or fancy, in fact you could probably just brighten up the cap and do the rest and still get good results. Anyways, here's what I had...

Step 2: (this is more like half a step)
Now you want to add anew gradient layer on top of all the other layers. This layer ends up being more of a guide in the end but I've skipped it before and it just doesn't come out as well. I chose the black and white gradient then go in change the black from true black to a dark grey. Any dark grey works. You should now have something like this...

Step 3:
Now you decide what you want to pop out. In this cap I want her hair and her lips to stand out so make a new fill layer, a yellow in this case for her hair. Now depending on what I think works best I'll set it to either soft light, darken or overlay. In this case it was darken so we have this...

Looks dumb but now we use LAYER MASKS! This is why the gradient layers is important(imo) because you can really see specifically where the color needs to be and where it doesn't. So now you simply mask everything you don't want to be yellow. I also lowered the opacity a bit so now I have this...

Now I do the same thing for her lips...

and finally the background which I always set to darken because you kind of want the opposite effect as you do with the hair and lips. The pops of color on the subject stand out in the end but making the entire "background" one color dulls it and makes the subject really stand out. Anyways, here is the background...

Before I continue I should add that you don't have to be PERFECT when you mask these bits because they are just enhancements. Plus if you missed a bit you can just go in and fix it quick so don't worry.

Step 4:
So now you just do a lot of adjusting. Go to your gradient layer and lower the opacity. I personally like to have it around 20 - 30% but you can delete it entirely or keep it higher. It's all up to you. Then go your layer mask layers and adjust the opacity until you like the effect. When I was all done with the opacity I had this...

Step 5:
This is where you can go in and add your own tweaks. I added a soft light layer in a lighter teal(I also changed the background layer mask color to a reddish brown and lowered the opacity a bit more because I wasn't thrilled with how it was looking). The soft light layer sort of unifies the whole thing. It can look very disjointed without one color sort of over everything. Obviously this is a personal preference though. I have this...

Step 6:
Now you add your textures, text or whatever else. I used a black and white gradient layer on soft light and a grainy texture on screen. Nothing really fancy.

-----

It's pretty basic really, most of the lighting comes from the layer masks you add. What I love about this style though is that you can add color to as many different parts as you like. Obviously on this I only added color to her hair and lips but on this I have 7 or 8 or this where I keep the gradient layer at 100%. It's kind of like a coloring book.

Okay, I'm so sorry if this is awful but I tend to just play around so going step by step is sort of opposite of how I do things. If you have any questions or something didn't make sense just ask and I'll do my best to answer :)

#288

hauntes — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 23:24:23 GMT

22 The Borgias icons + S3 poster here @ bright_powder

I did an icon battle with spg_spn_girls so check out it at her comm for both sets as well as each of our attempts at a Season 3 poster.

alts

hauntes — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 03:11:10 GMT

Ask The Maker || My Thread

I wasn't going to join in but I've been getting more questions lately so I figured this is a good chance. Just be patient with me. It will take me a good week to find time. i will get it done. (And hopefully requests in august.)

#287

hauntes — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 04:52:15 GMT

21 - theiconquest Chapter Two: Teen Wolf, Breaking Bad, Sirens, Karen Gillan, Misfits

Inspired by oviedo's beautiful icons. I always had so much love for her style but even more so after this. It was so much harder to get decent results than I expected.

alts

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#286

hauntes — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 03:52:26 GMT

20 - multi-fandom icons for challenge #1: side quest 1 & 2 @ theiconquest
(breaking bad, mad men, game of thrones, misfits, once upon a time, sirens, doctor who)

side-quest #1 - Hero

Rogue

side-quest #2

dragon | wolves | wolves | knights | unicorn

knights | royals | wolves | knights(with a dash of fairies imo) | knights

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#285

hauntes — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:45:46 GMT

25 - multi-fandom icons for challenge #1 @ theiconquest
(the borgais, breaking bad, secret diary of a call girl, fish tank, doctor who, mad men, glorious 39, the hour, luther, game of thrones, misfits, crimson petal & the white, once upon a time, parks and rec, atonement)

+

01 - glorious 39, the hour, jessica stam, beyonce, misfits
02 - don't trust the b
03 - new girl
04 - happy endings
04 - game of thrones
04 - mad men
15 - the borgias

hero | hero | rogue | hero | rogue

rogue | rogue | hero | rogue | hero

hero | rogue | hero | rogue | rogue

rogue | hero | rogue | hero | hero

rogue | hero | hero | hero | rogue

alts/rejects

--------------------

Some of these are pretty old and experiments and I'm not super fond of them but I never toss anything so posting them anyways.

glorious 39, the hour, jessica stam, jay-z & beyonce, misfits

don't trust the b in apartment 23

new girl

happy endings

game of thrones

mad men

the borgias

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join in!

hauntes — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 16:16:01 GMT

theiconquest

#284

hauntes — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 04:52:30 GMT

This is kind of an odd time for me icon wise since I've been actively trying new styles but I guess that we're always changing stuff up.

Shows I love

the borgias / the hour / misfits / mad men / don't trust the b

parks and rec / breaking bad / game of thrones / luther / shameless

Styles/Looks I love

bright colors / negative space / people looking down / close crop / movement

Personal

Basically, I'm an emotional person(for better or worse) and I think that comes out in my icons to some degree since I tend to gravitate towards caps that have a lot of emotion showing almost as often as caps I find "pretty". And I try (even if I don't always succeed) to show that mood/feeling in the icon.

rejects/alts

yay that time again!

hauntes — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 02:48:24 GMT

There are so many awesome makers out there so nominate and vote for all the makers you love <3

(005) icons.

famouslyso — Fri, 25 May 2012 02:26:21 GMT

26 - Kate Middleton
18 - Jennifer Lawrence
10 - Hart of Dixie (1x22 SPOILERS)

→ Credit is a part of life. My username is not long or hard to spell. There are no excuses.
→ Textless are not bases.
→ Feel free to join the community for updates.

#283

hauntes — Thu, 24 May 2012 03:39:53 GMT

20 - Game of Thrones S2 for the Art challenge @ 20inspirations
+ 16 alts/extras

12 - The Borgias
04 - Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23
06 - Happy Endings
04 - Mad Men
01 - Luther
01 - Parks and Rec
01 - Shameless
02 - Fish Tank

I guess I tried to do try to use a few different art styles for this. I was surprised to be able to make anything pop art inspired from Game of Thrones caps but I think one or two work. Believe it or not, I did not intend for Margaery and Loras to have similar styles. 'Twas an accident.

{1-5}
{6-10}
{11-15}
{16-20}

alts/extras/others(some from S1)
{21-25}
{26-30}
{31-35}
{36}

-------------------------------------

And some other stuff since I have no clue when I'll get around to a normal batch.

The Borgias

Don't Trust The B

Happy Endings

Mad Men

Luther

Shameless

Parks and Rec

Fish Tank

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(004) icons/gifs.

famouslyso — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:45:17 GMT

7 - Kate Middleton
8 - Billie Piper
14 - Jennifer Lawrence
4 - Hart of Dixie gifs (1x22 SPOILERS)

→ Credit is a part of life. My username is not long or hard to spell. There are no excuses.
→ Textless are not bases.
→ Feel free to join the community for updates.

#282

hauntes — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 15:56:38 GMT

41(21 alts/extras) - Game of Thrones S1 for the Black & White challenge 20inspirations
+
10 - Celebrities (Adam Scott, Amy Poehler, Aubrey Plaza, Beyonce, Christina Hendricks, Jennifer Lawrence, Lizzy Caplan)
03 - Fashion
17 - Television(Parks and Rec, Happy Endings, Shameless, Party Down, Don't Trust The B in Apartment 23)

I've never iconed Game of Thrones before and rarely go b&w so apologies if these are a bit lackluster.

alts/extras

-----------------------------

Some icons I've had sitting around forever (a.k.a the last month)

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why not

hauntes — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 14:15:44 GMT

MY THREAD | JOIN THE FUN

#281

hauntes — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 21:50:39 GMT

20 - Being Human S4 for the Down the Rabbit Hole challenge 20inspirations
+ 13 extras/alts

These are either pretty good or terrible. I genuinely do not know.

alts/extras

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#280

hauntes — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 03:04:24 GMT

17 - Happy Endings
04 - Misfits
14 - Music (M.I.A, FJM ft. Aubrey Plaza, Sleigh Bells)
33 - Parks and Rec
25 - Shameless
18 - Random/Challenges(New Girl, Glorious 39, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Lost, Doctor Who, Hart of Dixie, Shameless)

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#279

hauntes — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:36:58 GMT

20 - Shameless S1 for 20inspirations
10 - Various for marcasite's Icon Battle

Never realized how not pale my icons were until now. It was way harder than I expected since I usually go for vibrance when I make icons.

Oh and I'm working on a decent sized batch of icons so expect that in a week or so. Sorry, for spamming you guys with some many challenges these days.

Pale

Vibrant

I also took part in marcasite's Sci-fi/Fantasy icon battle. Here are my icons but click the banner to see the whole thing with 13 awesome makers. All the icons entered are beautiful so you should check it out.

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#278

hauntes — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 05:05:14 GMT

20 - TV Tropes for 20inspirations
(Luther, Parks and Rec, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Breaking Bad, The Hour, Misfits, Mad Men, Shameless, Doctor Who + more)

Lady in Red: Alice's red hair just makes her seem so much more devious, right?
Heterosexual Life Partners: Even though he blackmailed Jesse, Walt and Jesse are in it until the end. Or until they kill each other.
Hair of Gold: Yellow haired female likes Waffles and news.
Everybody Smokes: Have you seen this show? EVERYBODY SMOKES. It's like Mad Men level smoking except British.
Emotionless Girl: "My mom's Puerto Rican. That's why I'm so lively and colorful."

Break the Cutie: Breaking Bad is essentially "How much can we destroy Jesse Pinkman?" and the answer is a whole lot.
Femme Fatale: She's a call girl. Unless you're paying it won't end well.
First Kiss: Even though it actually only took a bit more than half a season it felt like this was never going to happen but then it did and it was perfect.
Rapunzel Hair: All the women of The Borgias seem to have Rapunzel hair but like everything else Lucrezia does it the best.
Love Triangle: Freddie and Bel are clearly ~soul mates~ and Hector is just getting in the way.

Platonic Life Partners: Oh Captain, my Captain. Ron Fucking Swanson and Leslie Fucking Knope.
Power Trio: The Tardis is just kind of more fun with three.
Action Mom: Fiona is a far better mother than the woman who gave birth to the Gallagher kids.
Badass: Steve Zissou saved his whole boat from pirates on his own with a handgun in a speedo and flip flops. If that isn't bad ass I have no idea what is.
Breakout Character: I think he was the perfect addition, and quickly became a favorite.

Ditzy Genius: The Doctor, especially Eleven, is kind of the epitome of this don't you think? He will figure it out even if he can't get his sonic screwdriver to work right half the time.
Love to Hate: How can you not hate Walt after what he did to Jesse? JESSE!!!
Gunslinger: Kelly v.s The Nazi's.
Lady in Red: Joan is the ultimate red head and gorgeous in red so...
Bad Ass: She saved everyone from Nazi's. Enough said.

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#277

hauntes — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 01:55:29 GMT

03 - Marion Cotillard
04 - Breaking Bad
03 - Doctor Who
11 - Happy Endings
03 - Luther
27 - Misfits
02 - Nicola Roberts
24 - Parks and Rec
20 - Shameless
18 - Challenges/Exchanges/Requests(The Borgias, Harry Potter, Supernatural, White Collar, Doctor Who, The Avengers)

About damn time, I know.

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#276

hauntes — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 01:55:03 GMT

20 - The Borgias(Lucrezia) for 20inspirations

I honestly hate this whole batch. I was trying to make them look like renaissance paintings but they turned out weird. Anyways, this batch is for Round #14 at 20inspirations. Oh and a regular batch of icons is slowly being worked on.

ICON NOMINATIONS - JOIN IN! | MY THREAD

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#275

hauntes — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 03:04:51 GMT

ICON NOMINATIONS - JOIN IN! | MY THREAD

#274

hauntes — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 01:59:06 GMT

20 - Misfits for 20inspirations
+14 Alts

This round I decided to do simplicity. This is honestly not the best batch but c'est la vie. I'm just happy I had a chance to do a second round this month.

Alts/Rejects

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#273

hauntes — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 19:15:01 GMT

149 - icons (Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Happy Endings, Frank Ocean, Aubrey Plaza, Tom Hiddleston, Jaimie Alexander, Mila Kunis, Natalie Dormer, Billie Piper, Nikki Reed, Jon Hamm, Jamie Bell, Sons of Anarchy, Robert Pattinson, Adam Scott, Our Idiot Brother, Friends With Kids, Parks & Rec ,Fashion, Downton Abbey, Misfits, James MacAvoy, Alexander Skarsgard, Leighton Meester, Passenger Side, Katy Perry)
003 - gifs (Downton Abbey)
005 - wallpapers (Misfits, Doctor Who, Parks and Recreation)

So these are icons/graphics I made for a holiday advent meme on my journal for my lovely friends there. Also I just want to wish everyone Happy Holidays and thank you guys for all the awesome times I've had in the whole icon world of lj this year.

actors/actresses

films

music

fashion

telly

gifs (click for fullsize)

wallpapers (click for fullsize)

extras/icon challenge entries

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