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red_satin_dollSuch as, posted your Spike icons for Round 3 of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
btvsats20in20 like ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rua1412 did and made the rest of us (read: me) look like slackers, put together your entries for slayerstillness, otherworldlyric and/or btvs_hush; posted the lasted chaper of your newest masterpiece in fanfiction (such as velvetwhip's Blindfold; completed various and sundry errands while making it all look easy or just been generally useful and constructive in your use of time.....instead of putzing around making Buffy Summers fanart out of cloudscapes you shot out of the car window in Vermont....
# 1
# 1.5 - the icon version
...then clearly you are not me. Congratulations for your wise and sensible choices!
Yes of course I have variations; I can't decide what I like best. Are you mad? I can't even decide what I want to do for Round 3 ofbtvsats20in20 and am this close to putting it up a poll.(I could have used the icon above as my starting point - and then decided that I really wanted it for me, right NOW.)
I've been wanting to put together this image of Buffy from the Gift with a cloudscape ever since I worked on "Scroll Fragment 1" a couple of weeks ago, and started really playing with layers, textures and filtes. I did the layers and major grunge or bloom textures in ipiccy, then finished off with my signature, text, San Carmen filter (see #2), frames and minor adjustments etc in Photobucket.
# 2
# 3
I love the way the clouds look like a classical wreath or tiara around her head. Willow gets the title "goddess" in canon but Buffy's my queen (kikimay will understand) and I loved the feeling in these images of Buffy as a benvolent sky goddess - perhaps a more upbeat interpretation of the events of "The Gift". (The irony of my use of the word "glory" in the title did not escape my notice.) Granted, a goddess who will come down and get medieval on your ass if you cross Mama.
# 4
# 5
# 6
# 7-9
Click image for full-size (it's reallly pretty! If I do say so myself. This reminds me of a cloud study by Constable or Corot, which only prooves what great artists they were.) Cropped and sharpened ever-so-slightly in Photobucket or ipiccy. I can't remember which.
On the upside, I completed a job application to a big box retailer today. Cheese on a cracker but those online personality tests are insane.
Now to figure out what to do for the 20in20. (Amends? Sleeper? Tara? Willow/Tara? Joyce? The Summers women? *ponders*)
btvsats20in20 like rua1412 did and made the rest of us (read: me) look like slackers, put together your entries for slayerstillness, otherworldlyric and/or btvs_hush; posted the lasted chaper of your newest masterpiece in fanfiction (such as velvetwhip's Blindfold; completed various and sundry errands while making it all look easy or just been generally useful and constructive in your use of time.....instead of putzing around making Buffy Summers fanart out of cloudscapes you shot out of the car window in Vermont.... Trailing Clouds of Glory Series 1-9 - Click on all images for fuill-size versions
# 1
# 1.5 - the icon version...then clearly you are not me. Congratulations for your wise and sensible choices!
Yes of course I have variations; I can't decide what I like best. Are you mad? I can't even decide what I want to do for Round 3 of
btvsats20in20 and am this close to putting it up a poll.(I could have used the icon above as my starting point - and then decided that I really wanted it for me, right NOW.)I've been wanting to put together this image of Buffy from the Gift with a cloudscape ever since I worked on "Scroll Fragment 1" a couple of weeks ago, and started really playing with layers, textures and filtes. I did the layers and major grunge or bloom textures in ipiccy, then finished off with my signature, text, San Carmen filter (see #2), frames and minor adjustments etc in Photobucket.
Trailing Clouds of Glory Series - Click on all images for full-size versions.
# 2
# 3I love the way the clouds look like a classical wreath or tiara around her head. Willow gets the title "goddess" in canon but Buffy's my queen (
kikimay will understand) and I loved the feeling in these images of Buffy as a benvolent sky goddess - perhaps a more upbeat interpretation of the events of "The Gift". (The irony of my use of the word "glory" in the title did not escape my notice.) Granted, a goddess who will come down and get medieval on your ass if you cross Mama.
# 4
# 5Her expression is the epitome of what we call a "Mona Lisa smile" - caught halfway between a smile and a frown (it could go either way when I played with the image, depending on the level of contrast), tinged with irony, poignancy and a certain resignation.
# 6
# 7-9Click on images for full-sized versions.
ETA: A couple more variations at my Scrapbook here (f'riends only) .
ETA: A couple more variations at my Scrapbook here (f'riends only) .
And yes I really did take the cloudscape out the car window - whilst my sweetie was driving - on macro/food setting. Proof-positive that my Nikon digital camera is absolutely idiot-proof.
Click image for full-size (it's reallly pretty! If I do say so myself. This reminds me of a cloud study by Constable or Corot, which only prooves what great artists they were.) Cropped and sharpened ever-so-slightly in Photobucket or ipiccy. I can't remember which.
On the upside, I completed a job application to a big box retailer today. Cheese on a cracker but those online personality tests are insane.
Now to figure out what to do for the 20in20. (Amends? Sleeper? Tara? Willow/Tara? Joyce? The Summers women? *ponders*)
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Date: 2014-07-25 05:03 am (UTC)ETA: Kudos to you for putting in that job application!
Gabrielle
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Date: 2014-07-25 05:12 am (UTC)I just interchanged #1 & 3 with one another but the ones you named are all my favorites as well! Love the jewel tones of #6, such an ironic contrast to the grunge effects; and the vintage postcard look of #2.
But I'm also partial to the warm rose tones of #4 as well.
Tomorrow I'm off to a friends house for instructions on housesitting for their cats while they're on vacation - they are paying me WAY too much for the gig, but they offered and who am I to turn it down?
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Date: 2014-07-25 05:14 am (UTC)Gabrielle
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Date: 2014-07-25 05:20 am (UTC)They know I'm out of work so there's a certain sympathy factor. Hey, I'll take it, I'm not proud. (Pride don't pay the bills, knowwhatimean?)
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Date: 2014-07-25 06:12 am (UTC)I love your use of the effects for the Buffy banner. My favourite one?
http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/red_satin_doll/51574655/52798/52798_600.png
While I like the other versions too, to IMO I think the grey coloring fix Buffy's mood better than the pastels or light coloring.
I love variations too. How I do use them?
If the icons I'm creating is too much red for example I use the opposite color, in this case cyan. Otherwise I follow my tastes for colors and I play until the subject face don't look like an alien LOL
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Date: 2014-07-29 07:40 pm (UTC)*dusts off hands* then my work here is done :)
And your favorite banner is mine as well.
I've been working on some more subdued or grungy variations btw, partly inspired by your thoughts and comments. Thank you so much for the compliments to my work!
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Date: 2014-07-25 08:58 am (UTC)I love what you have done - totally super-dooper!
My favourites are 2 & 4
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Date: 2014-07-25 01:58 pm (UTC)I love 2 as well. And it was one of the easiest - basically it's #3 (layers done in ipiccy) taken back to Photobucket, sharpened a bit and saturation bumped up, applied San Carmen filter and made minor adjustments after that, then signed.
#4 has San Carmen filter atop #1 - lots of sharpening first, fiddling with adjustments of color, temperature etc before and after applying the filter.
I wish San Carmen filter were in piccy so going back and forth wasn't necessary, it , splash effect and the font I use for my signature are my favorite things about PB's editing suite.
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Date: 2014-07-25 10:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-25 10:14 am (UTC)I'm keeping my fingers crossed, hope you get the job!
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Date: 2014-07-25 10:52 am (UTC)And good luck with the job application :)
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Date: 2014-07-25 04:13 pm (UTC)#4 is #1 but with San Carmen filter added in PB and other adjustments. (I sharpened #4 quite a bit to get more of the "canvas" texture all across the image after I'd added the layers and filters.)
Thanks for the good wishes on the job!
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Date: 2014-07-26 05:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-26 05:36 am (UTC)I love the ironic contrasts of beauty and "ugliness", softness and roughness in a single image. I tend to appreciate that in other people's work including icons - I think it's true to the spirit of the show in a lot of ways, light and dark, hard and soft intertwined.
Thanks again for your feedback!
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Date: 2014-07-25 12:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-25 04:09 pm (UTC)I usually just go with what I'm feeling right at that moment and choose a claim..but that can be still difficult :)
A month ago I was feeling ALL sorts of things - right now I'm feeling completely meh (except about this Buffy image apparently) I can't do the Gift because you and at least one other person are doing Buffy already and it's not that I couldn't, but I think something different to would be a good idea, y'know?
I'm thinking Tara at this point.
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Date: 2014-07-25 04:45 pm (UTC)Well, you *could* to The Gift...I'd love to see icons of that.
But Tara is even better! There aren't many icons of her around..so, my two cents, CHOOSE TARA ;)
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Date: 2014-07-25 07:50 pm (UTC)DONE!
http://btvsats20in20.livejournal.com/10588.html?thread=103004#t103004
I love that phrase btw - "Choose Tara" - I need to make that into a banner or bumper sticker. You're right there are not that many around. (I don't even have a nice one of her by herself. Maybe I can make something I'll be happy with?)
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Date: 2014-07-26 10:22 am (UTC)It's pretty catchy, isn't it? Also cause it's so simple..CHOOSE TARA ;)
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Date: 2014-07-29 02:06 am (UTC)And it's an unironic version of the brilliant beginning monologue from Trainspotting.
Yeah, I need to make a banner to go with this saying. Or fit this text into an icon. :P
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Date: 2014-07-25 12:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-25 01:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-25 01:40 pm (UTC)Aaaww, so beautiful! I especially like 1 (And the icon version) 2, 3, 6, 7 and 9. I love the picture of Buffy you chose and how the colors change the sky and give different impressions (Tempest or clear sky) It's very original. (I think I maybe see Buffy as a earth goddess)
And good luck for the job!
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Date: 2014-07-25 02:25 pm (UTC)*ponders*
Thank you sweetie! I knew you'd like these - #2 seems to be everyone's favorite (mine too! And I also love the icon - I'm surprised more people haven't played with this image, it's lovely.)
And I'm glad you like #7 because I was thinking of you when I applied that color filter in Photobucket. Anytime I do an image in a pink-peach tonality I'm thinking of you. No lie.
ETA - I made the icon my default image for a little while. (And I already want to put
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Date: 2014-07-25 04:59 pm (UTC)I really like warm colors, but blue is also incredibly beautiful and the sky theme is my favorite these days.
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Date: 2014-07-25 07:30 pm (UTC)And I want to take the orangy Becoming one to make my default icon at some point, when I choose to return to orange and colors like that and I feel very kickass, because it's a kickass moment and a kickass icon
Anytime! I'd be honored, especially as I was thinking of you very specifically when I made them: not only the color but the text texture and the feeling of an ancient, time-worn image, something classical Greek/Roman about the contours of her face, as if carved from marble. I just put it and the variant versions in my LJ scrapbook album here just for you:
http://red-satin-doll.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/2280
There's a couple that I think you might like especially. #1 is very close to the one I'm using but with a bit more pink in the center; #2 is my palest version, very soft coloring
blue is also incredibly beautiful and the sky theme is my favorite these days.
I'm surprised I've been doing so many warm-toned icons because I LOVE cool colors - deep jewel tones, ruby, lapis and amethyst; also cool pale colors like lavender and robin's egg. But I think what you said that one time about (Caucasian) skin color is right - my icons tend to focus on faces, and they look best in warm tones. When I try to go cool toned with buffy's skin for example it can look sickly. But even with my Vamp Willow icons - I think it has something to do with my love of history, of antiques, of old and used things, papers, fabric, etc.
And of course old paintings have so often been varnished and covered in soot that it's shocking when they are cleaned, like the Sistine Chapel or Bellini's "Feast of the Gods" for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Bellini#mediaviewer/File:Feastofthegods.jpg
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Date: 2014-07-25 07:41 pm (UTC)The default icon I was referring is the current default icon, Buffy and the sky, which looks very good especially in your gray/blue dominated journal.
Aaawww, the orangy ones are awesome. Predictably I love the first one, but they are both really great. Orange is such a kickass color, it makes me think about energy and the Becoming moment you choose it's simply perfection.
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Date: 2014-07-25 08:12 pm (UTC)The new Gift icon does look very pretty against the blue-grey. It also reminds me of a mural of a sky in a beautiful old cathedral! I just wish she was smiling a little more - it's weird, I so loved that cheerful image of Buffy smiling that I snagged from Spikesredqueen that I feel anxious without it - like the loss of my teddy bear!
Speaking of the color blue I made a pale blue variant of The Chain icon for round 1 of 20in20 and I - apparently deleted it. Idiot me. And I can't recreate that exact shade for the life of me. (Which is was separates the true artist from the dabbler, I think.)
Interesting that you like orange. Orange is my least favorite color but I love peach tones (to look at not to wear) I used to subscribe to bead and button magazine and they did a color poll - orange was their reader's least favorite color! It's a challenging color to get right. I think also it can imply aggression and energy (and youth) so "kick-ass" as you say is appropriate.
the Becoming moment you choose it's simply perfection
I should make a list of what I consider the truly sublime Buffy-centric (and buffyverse) moments:
"Me."
"I'm Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. And you are?"
are the top two, no question. (And that wordless exchange of looks in Showtime, of course.)
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Date: 2014-07-25 08:39 pm (UTC)Of course thinking about your preferences doesn't mean I'll accurately predict them but you're one of my Icon Muses (Fairies?)
Thanks! *violently blushes*
I painted my room in orange XD Which is funny because the only fruits I don't like are oranges and tangerines. But orange is the color of the rising sun and generally it has this energy and creativity meaning without being aggressive and destructive like red. (The color of the blood) And it feels so perfect for your icon because in that particular moment, when Buffy lost everything, she affirmed her life and herself and found the energy to kick Angelus' ass. It's such a "rising" moment for her and your icon perfectly captures it. I'm waiting to be that strong to wear it as avatar. :)
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Date: 2014-07-26 04:37 am (UTC)I LOVE THIS. I love how you've summed it up in words so poetically and got to the heart of the matter - and I really wasn't thinking of any of this consciously at the time i confess. (people think i put a lot of thought into my icons but sometimes the thought is just "ooh, nifty effect!")
I'm waiting to be that strong to wear it as avatar. :)
DON'T WAIT, KIKI. You're stronger than you think, What does "that strong" even mean? It's meaningless. Celebrate the strength you have that gets you through the tough semester, that gets you out of bed despite the crushing anxiety. That IS strong. You're strong.
Claim the icon, claim the moment as your own, because it is.
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Date: 2014-07-26 09:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-27 05:36 pm (UTC)I was having the same conversation on that point just before I read your comment!
And thank you very much for the compliment to my icon - its one of my favorites as well.
I had never thought to make a larger version but now I realize, why not? Of course, being able to "reproduce" the magic is another story, but it made lead to something else entirely.
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Date: 2014-07-26 04:21 pm (UTC)Now to figure out what to do for the 20in20. (Amends? Sleeper? Tara? Willow/Tara? Joyce? The Summers women? *ponders*)
Summers women? Summers women!
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Date: 2014-07-27 03:52 am (UTC)Summers women? Summers women!
I already signed up - it's Tara in S4!
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Date: 2014-07-27 12:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-27 05:07 pm (UTC)And much as Willow is the goddess and Tara's cthonic, I do really love Buffy, warrior of the people, trailing clouds of glory!
And I love this sentence!
Even as it makes me sort of weep that Tara was not part of the spell in Chosen because she SHOULD HAVE BEEN. Have you read
One of the niftiest things about the Chosen spell is that it reverses, for Buffy and Willow, the "separation" of "Manus" and "Spiritus" that the Enjoining spell codified (ironically). Buffy is still the Warrior but it's her and Faith's spirit, their Slayer essence that is poured open; Willow is still spiritus but it's through her body that the spell is channelled.
TARA SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE AS CONNECTIVE LINK. ("It's my first axe-ing" *sobs*)
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Date: 2014-07-29 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-29 05:58 pm (UTC)Summers women another round - but two or three people are already doing Buffy anyway.
And that's ok sweetie, I'll pout quietly over here and you make sure you get your work done - first things first! (I was just now perusing your journal, so excellent timing - how do you DO all of that?)
My sweetie probably has a disk with photoshop elements already on it, I'll ask her about it, thank you for prompting. I just finished some banners for a comm and even without having worked in PS I was very aware of the limits of gimp.