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

[clockwork-hart1.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the win! I LOVED that icon and was so happy when I saw that it won something. (most creative is an AWESOME one to win as well - that's a kickass category)

Those kisses are important not just out-of-universe for all the LGBT kids (and adults) who NEEDED it to happen, but to the show for the parallels in the kisses themselves (the way Tara cups Willow's face is beyond adorable and desperate and comforting at the same time).

(also, about eyesight: mine actually improved the older I got because I have a pretty serious stigmatism and when I was diagnosed - aged five, doncha know? - I was having trouble differentiating between my double vision-projection and the actual thing I was looking at. It wasn't until I was in my late teens that I could walk around without my glasses on and actually see where I was going and what I was doing clearly without my glasses on, which just means when my eyes do deteriorate like my grandmother's did I'm going to be quite seriously affected. I feels ya. To the future! - not)

Yes the clicking works, and the picture is awesome. I love it.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Pimpage has happened sweetie:
http://red-satin-doll.livejournal.com/48355.html

And OH MY GOODNESS thank you for the compliment! I owe it all to Ryan, I probably would have selected something else left to my own devices (you see how many variations I have. There can never be enough Anne icons. NEVER.)

most creative is an AWESOME one to win as well - that's a kickass category

I don't know why I wanted to win that catagory specifically but I'm so pleased. I guess it's like, Ok I've won best crop - I KNOW I can crop with the best of them, so I guess that was another level to me? Because yeah, like you said, kickass. It seems to mean different things to different people (like degree of technical difficulty) but for me it's about originality and imagination. And, did it make me feel something (laugh, cry, whatever?) Like, kwritten's "Dawn = key" icon got my vote for MC because it took me a minute to figure out what was going on and then I laughed out loud.

(the way Tara cups Willow's face is beyond adorable and desperate and comforting at the same time).

Right? I think if I knew how to achieve better image quality the W/T icons and the Body/Entropy one in particular might have gotten more votes.

Did you notice the Spuffy comparison in some of the icons? I think that's something that I need a bigger canvas for. Because I think the show continually parallels Willow and Tara with Buffy and her lovers in a given season - with Briley in S4 to establish that W/T are just as legitimate and "real" a couple; and then W/T and B/S - their relationships take opposite trajectories (from spiritual handfasting to sensuality and raw carnality for W/T; the opposite for B/S. LOVE the matching FtB shots, the handfasting parallels.) W/T is constantly paralleled to Buffy in ways that Xander and Anya simply aren't (until Entropy and Selfless.)

mine actually improved the older I got

I'd be envious except for this:

which just means when my eyes do deteriorate like my grandmother's did I'm going to be quite seriously affected. I feels ya. To the future! - not)

[clockwork-hart1.livejournal.com]

YOU PIMP ME TOO MUCH. (but thank you Sweetie!)

Big meta-art of Spuffy and W/T juxtapsotion is in order (and would be amazing) - reflections vs shadows.

(if I don't think about my eyesight the problem can't affect me, LALALA)

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

NOT ENOUGH. I've been meaning to pimp the Buffy/River stories for weeks and haven't gotten around to it.

Excellence can never be promoted enough.

Big meta-art of Spuffy and W/T juxtapsotion is in order (and would be amazing) - reflections vs shadows.

It would be amazing - your words, my pictures? ( I know I can write, I don't feel confident in my writing, or my ability to organize. This one post took all day, literally.)

[clockwork-hart1.livejournal.com]

I was clicking through the links - the first one goes to Conclusive Etymology instead of Straight on till Morning so I thought i'd point that out. And... They aren't excellent at all. I'm sure I can do much better for those two with all of my emotions about them, but it may take a while.

It would be amazing - your words, my pictures? ( I know I can write, I don't feel confident in my writing, or my ability to organize. This one post took all day, literally.)

You have notes/ideas on this coming out the wazoo I'm sure, whereas I only have a few simplistic points, but a collaboration, with your messy ideas and my off-the-cuff attempts at structure? It could work?

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

the first one goes to Conclusive Etymology instead of Straight on till Morning so I thought i'd point that out.

Thank you for catching that Lucy! It should be all fixed now.

And... They aren't excellent at all. I'm sure I can do much better for those two with all of my emotions about them, but it may take a while.

YES THEY ARE.

whereas I only have a few simplistic points,

I just read your meta. SImplistic? NO WAY. It's passionate and eloquent and we need that in this fandom, it's been a while it seems to me. I adore it, and in awe of how cogently you express yourself. Messy ideas can be brilliant but not worth a shit if I can't organize them enough to be able to communicate them (or don't even try) y'know?

but a collaboration, with your messy ideas and my off-the-cuff attempts at structure? It could work?</i. It could,

[clockwork-hart1.livejournal.com]

I only have you to attest to my eloquence with things like that - it was a jumble of ideas in a rough structure until I actually wrote it out. Not to mention that it's my first proper meta. But my ideas on B/S vs W/T are a lot less refined than the Gift ones which is my point. You have all kinds of thinky thoughts about that in a way I don't. But bounce ideas around? I could get a whole lot done that way.

It could.