The Monday Edition of "I HAVE BEEN SORELY, TERRIBLY REMISS FOR NOT..."

[red_satin_doll]

1) Pimping: btvsats20in20 Round 2 wonderful icon sets by federica74 , "Willow Rosenberg" and debris4spike's Season 1 icons. (She made a Joyce & Jenny icon! *flings confetti*) The deadline for all Round 2 entries is July 9th.(Not nervous, not nervous, nope, not me not nervous *gulp*)

2) Rocking the vote: Vote NOW in slayerstillness Challenge # 27 "Hair porn". Only 23 entries this round, still hard as heck to decide. Deadline is tomorrow, Tuesday the 8th, midinight in your time zone.   BTW, challenge #28 "Angel Investigations" is now up.

3) Thanking everyone who voted my Anne icon "Most Creative" in slayerstillness Challenge #26 "The Same But Different", and indeed thank you to everyone who voted for any of my Anne or Willow/Tara icons. I love seeing the unlocked voting threads; even if I don't win, seeing that at least one person voted for one of my icons is always a little morale-booster.


01) Yep, it's this cap from from "Anne".  I've used it before but I wanted to see if I could get better results in ipiccy than in Photobucket alone. And I was still upset at losing my job unexpectedly and something about playing with this image was balm to my soul. Glorious Buffy. Is it awful to admit that I went into this wanting to win Most Creative specifically? I think the whole "life sucks right now I need something to smile about" probably had a lot to do with it. I know there are folks who haven't won anything, ever. I should be ashamed - or should I?

4) Thanking comlodge and chasingdemons for their tips, advice and hand-holding. While comlodge works on the official banners for Slayerstillness challenge 26, which are such a treat to receive and make my icons look better than they actually are, I decided to put into practice some of the tips and advice she and chasingdemons generously offered me on techniques/tools such as blending and layers, which is a whole new country for me, to make my first "practice awards banners."  NOT the official deal, just playtime and practice:

  01-02)


I think #1 came out better than most of the Dark Willow icons I've put together for btvsats20in20 *pout* And it was the hardest of these four to make because I'm so new with layers and it seems simple but it's a lot of work planning each layer. Holy moly.  I have a LOT more understanding and respect for what goes into these awards buttons and for working with layers in general. Miles to go, miles to go....


    03-04)

These two are a bit overly-fancy for real awards buttons; the idea IMO is to create something that the recipient will enjoy receiving, that makes the icon look great but doesn't overwhelm it and these are definitely "overwhelming". But so much fun - I couldn't resist going overboard with reflections and frames to play with the "mirror imagery" of the icon itself.

     MORE artwork to come. Here be teasers.

Thanks of course to my beta-muse-god wickedbish for selecting my Anne icons to enter. Without him I'm nothing.  Congratulations to tempertemper, teragramm, rua1412, iconsoleander and kwritten for their winning entries. (Half the fun of that round was guessing who made what, and I guessed rua1412, teragramm, and kwritten's correctly based on my familiarity with their style and subject matter.) Such an amazing round, so many beautiful choices. I feel very fortunate to have won (earned?) Most Creative - to have won anything this round, with so many stunning choices.


My other four Anne entries (2-5) plus extras

02-08)

09-15)

16-20)

# 16 was actually my entry in otherworldlyric challenge 176. Didn't win, didn't deserve to, but I had fun making it.  I prefer the "vintage" coloring of 17 & 19.

***

I wish I had done better on the Willow/Tara (with a little Spuffy on the side) set. I nearly cried looking at that cap from Entropy. My icons are not as good as I wanted them to be and I'd wanted to do right by Willow & Tara because I've so rarely attempted W/T icons, In fact, I've rarely attempted lesbian "imagery" in words or pictures. Making this set I was reminded again that I grew up without a "vocabulary" for expressing love between two women and despite nearly two decades of real life lesbian life, it doesn't come naturally to me.

21)  This one is my favorite of that set - The Body + Entropy. Those kisses were broadcast over a decade ago but two years ago they still brought me to my knees. I wonder if it would have made a difference to me growing up if I'd seen kisses like these on tv in the '80's and had a context, an image for two women in love. Here's the rest of that set plus some extras, of course:

  22-29)


30-37)

#37 was potential entry to OWL that I decided against. The Tabula Rasa + Entropy icons 25, & 32-36, were better in theory than in practice.

I'm enjoying making larger works lately, in part because my skills are improving; in part because my eyesight has deteriorated to the point that I had to order bifocals last week and can barely see what I'm doing when I make icons lately. (And ye gods I hated typing that sentence, but 'tis true. Better ugly glasses than living in near-blindness.) But also because I like making things that are meant for someone else and for a very specific purpose.

Which won't stop me from making icons, or making bigger works for no other reason than I'm having too much fun. (And I swear I'll return to Willow and Tara another time. I'm determined to come up with something wonderful for them.)

Click on the image below for the full-sized version - and please tell me if that actually works or not.

Comments

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

There is much I could say but all I can do is squee with joy that you won!!! Yay!!!! You are so truly deserving!!!! Bravissima!!!!


Gabrielle

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

And I saw that you voted one of mine Best Color! and I was so tickled because I LOVE that icon, I loved the "far out" coloring.

Thank you so much Gabrielle. I was really stunned and pleased to see who cast votes for my work. I made these right after losing my job so I was NOT in such a joyous mood. Earning that award meant more than usual this time.

[velvetwhip.livejournal.com]

Yay! I am so pleased I voted for an icon you love. I am even more pleased that you received this validation right when you needed it most!


Gabrielle... who got a bunch of writing done today. Whee!

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

The timing was very nice - I felt so stuck and uncreative and throw-in-the-towel for a few days. I'm so glad I pushed through it.

who got a bunch of writing done today.

ALL RIGHT! (Not that I doubted for a moment.)