People love to talk about themselves and their work, and I'm really no different. I've been playing around in Photoshop on and off for about a few years now and while I'll never be as good as some of the truly amazing artists I see on a daily basis, I like to think I'm halfway decent on occasion.
Of course, no one starts out amazing, or even halfway decent. You're working with either crappy (MSPaint) or unfamiliar (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro) programs and it seems like everyone around you is soooo much better that it's easy to just give up in frustration.
I started out pretty terrible too. Let me show you.
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Oh, God. *hides* This was one of my earliest attempts at iconning a real person; before that, I'd only made a handful of shitty Gundam Wing icons out of doujinshis. Sadly, I don't have those anymore so I can't show those off (sadly? Or luckily? >_>).
Anyway. The original image choice was decent; I could totally work with that now. As for the icon... for starters, it's too dark -- I clearly had no idea how to lighten images and make the subject come out better. There's two random white lines in the top left; no idea why those are there or what I was thinking.
The text is blah, too large and hard to read because of the font and because it sort of blends into the background by the end of the phrase. Drop shadow would've fixed it.
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The cropping is bad since the subject is centered, which tends to make for more uninteresting icons. The image didn't need lightening, but was in dire need of a good sharpening. I still had no idea how to do coloring. The text is again decidedly meh and blurry. It fails.
If I had to redo it, I'd move the focus to the left or right, and I'd come up with different text. I really suck at text :/
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The cropping is slightly better here, probably because I wanted Jim grabbing and huiding Blair's hand in at the bottom left. No sharpening, no lightening, no nothing to make the base better-looking.
The text is hard to read ("My fandom needs no subtext" in case anyone was wondering), but I had discovered outlines! And using different fonts for different words! Woo! The words are also too far apart and I should've chosen a different color as well, though I did pick it from the icon itself (Jim's shirt).
So those were some of my ancient icons, made waybackwhen I clearly had only recently discovered Photoshop and wanted to make my own icons instead of using other people's. These days, I'm slightly better, though I have a preference for making graphics larger than icons. I still go on the occasional icon-making spree, but I can't churn out hundreds like other people do. For me, bigger really is better :P. Here are some of my more recent icons:
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I like how the coloring came out and now I know that while centering can work, I don't really care for it. The font and color choice work for me and I do love me some colored squares :D. (Shush, I also still like selective coloring and tiny text. I'm a rebel.)
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This was an icon I made for a Captain Jack Sparrow icon challenge which I horribly failed because I lost motivation about twenty icons in. As I mentioned, I love selective coloring (as long as you don't make neon people), and I think this icon works without text.
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For most of my icons, I finish the icon first, then think of text if I feel it could use text. For this one, I knew in advance what text I was going to put on it and where, though it did end up slightly different. I had a different font in mind when I did the color work, but I ended up using Arrière Garde in the end. I again added some tiny text for emphasis and decoration >_>
There is a slightly angled black bar behind "Guy Love" to make the words stand out slightly better against the busy background. You can hardly notice it, but trust, it'd be very noticable if it weren't there.
Some Of My Favorite Things:
» Fonts!
These should all be available from DaFont or FontFreak. If not, you can probably find them through Google, just search for "fontname.ttf". If that fails to, you are free to drop me a line :). I probably way overuse Arrière Garde, Kravitz and Hannibal Lecter. So shiny!
» Icons!
These are some of my recent favorite icons. I have different reasons for liking them, but it's mostly got to do with coloring and text (placement).
» Wallpaper!
It's pretty hard to pick a favorite wallpaper, but I think I'm going to go with "Judas Kiss":
(Links to larger versions here.) This was a lot of work to make, with a lot of erasing, texture and color work. It (sort of) features a pairing I don't even like, Sands/Ajadrez, but the original image (warning: size) was too good to resist.
» Banner!
(Click for bigger.) This one was fun to do because the original image was so small and washed out. I had to do some judicious color editing and me and the clonestamp tool became BFF in the process of creating space above his head. Adding space to an image is a lot of fun and it's a technique I enjoy playing around with.
Of course, no one starts out amazing, or even halfway decent. You're working with either crappy (MSPaint) or unfamiliar (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro) programs and it seems like everyone around you is soooo much better that it's easy to just give up in frustration.
I started out pretty terrible too. Let me show you.
»
Oh, God. *hides* This was one of my earliest attempts at iconning a real person; before that, I'd only made a handful of shitty Gundam Wing icons out of doujinshis. Sadly, I don't have those anymore so I can't show those off (sadly? Or luckily? >_>).
Anyway. The original image choice was decent; I could totally work with that now. As for the icon... for starters, it's too dark -- I clearly had no idea how to lighten images and make the subject come out better. There's two random white lines in the top left; no idea why those are there or what I was thinking.
The text is blah, too large and hard to read because of the font and because it sort of blends into the background by the end of the phrase. Drop shadow would've fixed it.
»
The cropping is bad since the subject is centered, which tends to make for more uninteresting icons. The image didn't need lightening, but was in dire need of a good sharpening. I still had no idea how to do coloring. The text is again decidedly meh and blurry. It fails.
If I had to redo it, I'd move the focus to the left or right, and I'd come up with different text. I really suck at text :/
»
The cropping is slightly better here, probably because I wanted Jim grabbing and huiding Blair's hand in at the bottom left. No sharpening, no lightening, no nothing to make the base better-looking.
The text is hard to read ("My fandom needs no subtext" in case anyone was wondering), but I had discovered outlines! And using different fonts for different words! Woo! The words are also too far apart and I should've chosen a different color as well, though I did pick it from the icon itself (Jim's shirt).
So those were some of my ancient icons, made waybackwhen I clearly had only recently discovered Photoshop and wanted to make my own icons instead of using other people's. These days, I'm slightly better, though I have a preference for making graphics larger than icons. I still go on the occasional icon-making spree, but I can't churn out hundreds like other people do. For me, bigger really is better :P. Here are some of my more recent icons:
»
I like how the coloring came out and now I know that while centering can work, I don't really care for it. The font and color choice work for me and I do love me some colored squares :D. (Shush, I also still like selective coloring and tiny text. I'm a rebel.)
»
This was an icon I made for a Captain Jack Sparrow icon challenge which I horribly failed because I lost motivation about twenty icons in. As I mentioned, I love selective coloring (as long as you don't make neon people), and I think this icon works without text.
»
For most of my icons, I finish the icon first, then think of text if I feel it could use text. For this one, I knew in advance what text I was going to put on it and where, though it did end up slightly different. I had a different font in mind when I did the color work, but I ended up using Arrière Garde in the end. I again added some tiny text for emphasis and decoration >_>
There is a slightly angled black bar behind "Guy Love" to make the words stand out slightly better against the busy background. You can hardly notice it, but trust, it'd be very noticable if it weren't there.
Some Of My Favorite Things:
» Fonts!
These should all be available from DaFont or FontFreak. If not, you can probably find them through Google, just search for "fontname.ttf". If that fails to, you are free to drop me a line :). I probably way overuse Arrière Garde, Kravitz and Hannibal Lecter. So shiny!
» Icons!
These are some of my recent favorite icons. I have different reasons for liking them, but it's mostly got to do with coloring and text (placement).
» Wallpaper!
It's pretty hard to pick a favorite wallpaper, but I think I'm going to go with "Judas Kiss":
(Links to larger versions here.) This was a lot of work to make, with a lot of erasing, texture and color work. It (sort of) features a pairing I don't even like, Sands/Ajadrez, but the original image (warning: size) was too good to resist.
» Banner!
(Click for bigger.) This one was fun to do because the original image was so small and washed out. I had to do some judicious color editing and me and the clonestamp tool became BFF in the process of creating space above his head. Adding space to an image is a lot of fun and it's a technique I enjoy playing around with.
